The Amex Explorer is back on the 100K Member Rewards (Gateway) signup bonus. The last time this ran, referrals earned 110K points, but I don't have a referral code. I'm sure those who do will soon be here to help out.
AmEx Explorer: 100K Signup Bonus (Spend $1500 in 3 Months, $395 AF, $400 Travel Credit)
1830
Referral Links
Business Explorer Card: random (1)
Referrer: 40,000 Reward Points
Centurion Personal Charge Card: random (7)
Referee gets 200,000 MR points. Referrer gets 150,000 MR points.
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@nightelves:
interesting read on the ozb hoarding of un-activated cards lol so my question now is, do they still stock any $100 ones or they all $50 ones now? I've never looked at them before.
@FeZZa21: They are still stocked but you might not want to buy them now - these are particularly good when the deals nightelves linked are on, otherwise the value is somewhat diminished.
When combining 5% off eGift Cards and kinda using that to "offset" the activation fee, it becomes kinda "alright" value though!
Just to give you an idea last promo one person in another forum got 220 of those Visa 1 giftcard.
It was limited to 10 gift cards per EDR
@illumination: i disagree my hubby just threaten to cancel plat edge customer service gave him 8K pts to retain the card.. this was done two days ago and points went in his account straight away after he hangs up the phone..
@nightelves: So my new account was linked to my old Platinum Edge one, got them to delink straight away but since my card also showed 'Member since 2015' I already expected this wasn't going to fly. I've now cleared $1,500 on the card and no bonus points. Should've left the cards linked I suppose as I'll now have to play the phone game with Amex of finding someone who's willing to re-link my cards again for the more favourable airline redemption ratio.
Best time to get it relink is either early in the morning or late at night. Sorry to hear you didn't get the bonus points mate.
what about the extra amex fee at some shops
Decide whether the points are worth more than the fee, and use the card that works best.
I find very few places do that, and of those that do many surcharge MasterCard or Visa too (possibly at a lower rate). Your call but I like to keep an Amex, MasterCard/Visa and a savings card and will use them in that order based on surcharge or acceptance of the card.
can i apply this card for my retired parents using the following condition? my income more than $65K
I have a personal or household gross (pre-tax) annual income of $65,000 or more
Just apply as the primary holder, then get supplementary cards for your parents. You already met the income requirement, so should be a breeze.
Yeap apply under your name and add your parents as supp. sometimes they even give you 5k bonus for adding supps.
Sounds like the annual fee can't be waived. Not sure if it's worth it. Already got a CBA Platinum Awards Amex.
To redeem the Travel Credit, you must have paid the annual fee and minimum payment by the due date. The $400 Travel Credit can be redeemed against any single eligible online travel booking. The Travel Credit can be used for 365 days from the anniversary date and cannot be carried forward to any subsequent year. For bookings less than $400 any unused portion of the Travel Credit will be forfeited,
i thought CBA's CCs are the worest cards! very less points :(
Sorry, I got a Diamond Award CC. Just checked, it is 3 Awards points for every $ on AmEx and 1.25 on MC.
yeah, but if you check on the transfer rate.
2.5 awards point = 1 Qantas point, the rate is too bad
2 awards point = 1 Velocity
Not exactly right., unless you're talking about the Amex Explorer rate… 1 Velocity Point per 2 CBA Platinum or Diamond CC in my case. BTW gonna check the points calc now.
I'm surprised bank aren't giving 1000 points per dollar and requiring 1,000,000,000 points to redeem a toaster. The strategy seems to work into fooling people into thinking they get more.
Don't think the annual fee can/will be waived in the first year by any means.
However, second year might be a different story. AMEX are known to offer point incentives to retain customers - i.e. when you call up to cancel and say "I don't think it's worth keeping this card at $395", they might say "hey what about if we offer you 10k points to stay?
Also - I feel like this is one of the few cards in the market which is probably worth the annual fee.
What about annual FEE $395 p.a.? Is it worth grabbing?
Now, westpac offer 50000 points altitude credit card and waive the first year annual fee.
ANZ offer 75000 points qantas rewards credit card and first year annual fee free as well.
What is the worth of this card?If you travel then you can use the $400 annual credit you'd have spent anyway to offset the card cost each and every year. If you won't make a booking through Amex then it's probably not a good card to choose.
None of the ones you mention in my opinion compete with this card. All are inferior. They are all good short-term cards but not long-term (i.e. not worth keeping for a second year)
The beautiful thing about this deal is that this is both a good long-term and short-term card if you apply with this bonus.
Short-term it's good, because like the other cards you've mentioned, you get a nice lot of bonus points upon meeting a certain spend threshold. In addition, I would argue that the 100k points you get here is worth more than the 75k of the ANZ. This is because this 100k converts to 75k in point currencies that offer you (generally speaking) more value than the 75k Qantas points with the ANZ. If you were referring to the ANZ Rewards, this offers half the amount of points when converted to Virgin Velocity (37.5k). The other slight advantage of the ANZ cards is that the first year annual fee is waived, but as I elaborate below, you could kind of consider the Explorer "almost free".
Long-term it's good, because:
- Whilst you have a $395 annual fee, you could consider it to be almost completely offset by the $400 Travel Credit
- The Travel Credit can be used on anyone, and is fairly versatile in that it can be used on Flights, Hotels, Car Hire, "Experiences"
- The rewards points you earn on this are at an extremely high, consistent rate, and are more valuable than points you'd earn with many other loyalty programs in Australia due to its versatility and non-expiringness (yes this is a word now)
- Smartphone Screen insurance - i.e. you pay a small excess to get your screen replaced if you smash it
- According to your location, you are in Sydney. You get access to the Sydney AMEX International Airport lounge twice per calendar year. You can use this before you fly internationally, regardless of what airline or class of travel you fly.
- Travel Insurance
- It's an AMEX card, this means you get access to all those awesome AMEX statement credit offers that get posted here monthly, in addition to "Shop Small" which tends to be an annual thing
- AMEX are really good with supplementary cards - you tend to get 4x for free in addition to the primary card. Each supplementary card has its own unique card number which gives you multiple opportunities to take advantage of the statement credits I refer to above
The only situation I would struggle to convince someone that the Explorer card is worth it for them is someone who does not travel once a year, whether domestically or internationally.
I agree. this is a great card. Almost perfect for me. I travel not often but at least once or twice a year to make use of the travel benefit. Plus the sign up bonus is awesome. I feel so stupid for getting the essential card last year before this card. Now I'm not eligible for the bonus. Dang it.
I got my card last week.. missed out on the extra points.
I have this card from a previous deal where the bonus was also 100,000 points. The ratio on redemptions to the different airline reward programs isn't as good as most of the other Amex cards, but transfer to SPG is the same (2:1).
If you are looking for ways to use the 100,000 Amex points, keep in mind that it is equal to 50,000 SPG points, which can be transferred to Marriott at 1:3 for 150,000 points. A friend who got this card used the points to book 5 nights at JW Marriott in Venice which for that time period was $600 AUD a night. Pretty good value.
If you have any travel plans, check out the Marriott website and click Use Points and see what 150,000 points can get you. 5th night is always free for redemptions so keep that in mind too. For people who would rather fly economy and stay in nicer accommodation, this can be a great way to get awesome value out of points which doesn't involve flying.
That sounds really good. If I get the bonus points tempted to do this rather than my plan of converting to krisflyer miles and getting upgrade to business class from SYD to BKK.
Yeap I have purchase two of these Marriott Flight and Hotel packages. You want to target when the airline gives bonus points for transferring the hotel points to them. In this case I was able to get 156k points with United which give 2 return biz class flights to SEA and British Airways which is good for short haul biz class flights.
Thanks for the tip even if I won't get to use it.
How much is this 100k points worth?
What can be redeemed with these points?In my case, I earned 80K points on top of the 100K sign up for a total of 180K points. I did something similar to pickme's friend, this is how it went:
1) Converted 180K Amex MR points to 90K SPG points
2) Converted 90K SPG points to 270K Marriott points
3) Redeemed a Marriott Flight and Hotel package for 7 nights at a Category 1-5 Hotel and 120K airline points (you can choose from a bunch of different airlines, most give you 120K points)I valued the hotel at $1,300 and saved $2,500 on US domestic economy flights using the 120K airline points.
If you're inclined to travel business class, those 120K Alaska Airline points could get you 2 return business flights to Hong Kong flying Cathay Pacific worth about ~$5,000
If you choose United Miles you get 132,000 instead of 120,000 AA miles is there a reason why you chose AA Miles?
Also can anyone confirm that United Miles or AA Miles always has better availability and rates compared to QFF or Velocity? The Marriott Flight and Hotel package seems to be really good is this a permanent promotion?
Does anyone know if you can pool SPG points between family members? e.g. 3 of us apply this amex card and transfer them to SPG > can we pool these points?
Can you use the Marriott stays anywhere in the world with no blackout dates? Also does it have to consecutive days or can you book say 3 nights in May and 4 nights in December? do you get the most basic room?
United is in Star Alliance and AA is in Oneworld so it depends on where you want to travel and if there's availability.
I assume you're asking about business/first class availability as economy is reasonably easy to find. I have found QFF and Velocity to have ok domestic availability however for long haul international flights it's limited and best bet is to book 330+ days out. In the last couple of months I have seen a fair bit of business seats available on AA and United. AA let's you hold a seat for up to five days so you can always do that while your points transfer in.
My Amex to SPG transfer took 2 business days, SPG to Marriott was instant and Marriott to Southwest Airlines was 2 business days YMMV though.
There's no planned end date for the Flight and Hotel package that I'm aware of.
No blackout dates as long as a standard room is bookable for cash and it's consecutive days unfortunately.
Can you convert any nomination of amex points or is 180k Amex points the best value bcos you need 270k Marriot points? How far in advance do the business flights sell out? If you don't need those hotel nights are you better off just buying miles instead? Been thinking abt converting points but such a noob, don't wanna risk it until I know what I'm doing!
The 270k Marriott point package is the best value in terms of airline points per Amex point. Go for the Hotel 1-5 Category as you can always supplement Marriott points later to upgrade the hotel certificate.
Based on my calculations converting through the Flights and Hotel package gives you a better conversion rate AND you get a 7 night hotel certificate. I heard it's possible to turn the certificate back in for some Marriott points if you don't need it.
I have a Citibank Signature card.
Is this card better for everyday use?I've generally avoided Amex because of many businesses not accepting the card.
It seems very popular!
Yeah I use AMEX for like 99% of my transactions. Just prepaid my annual* BUPA health fund premium with AMEX at no surcharge. Points galore.
*I do this to avoid the premium increase for 1 year.
I save even more by not having private health insurance at all…but that's another discussion/debate ;)
You save, until you don't. (My Tax Bracket requires me to pay additional Medicare tax if I don't take out private health insurance - that's a heavier burden to pay, and a waste of money if you have to go to a public hospital when you could have better used that extra tax in a private health cover and go to a better hospital.)
what is the dollar value of 100k points?
with the $400 travel credit, can you buy 2 tickets for 2 different person? or has to be the primary card holder only?
thanks in adv!
Can be booked under anyone's name, but has to be in one transaction. Also must book via AMEX Travel.
dollar value of 100k points?
About $420 when converting to Velocity Points then to a common retail gift card. See: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/4383266/redir
Ah, I do remember finding it best to pay off my statement with points. I should add this as an option in my ever growing spreadsheet of cards.
Still got your amex edge? My wallet is feeling a little light these days with only the Coles fee free and NAB cards left. Just cancelled the ANZ black after receiving the 75k Q points last week (not a bad way to earn $500). My NAB points aren't accruing as well as expected due to the numerous places not allowing Amex. Thinking I'll jump back onto Coles Rewards when they are giving a $100 voucher again.
I don't mind using AMEX Travel website, the prices are comparable to those on Expedia, Zuji, and even Directly with Airlines. And you don't pay Credit Card Surcharge (for obvious reasons) unlike the other TAs/Airlines - making it somewhat cheaper than booking directly. Plus they have great customer service, unlike the other aggregator/TA sites. and I earn extra AMEX points.
The travel site is not bad. I used it once during an Amex promo to book a hotel room in Singapore and it was about the same price or slightly cheaper for that particular hotel than popular sites like agoda and booking.com
Just spent some time looking into the options for redeeming points. I will definitely be applying for this card.
A quick example:
$400 Travel Credit = 2 flights to Melbourne with Virgin (from Sydney) (equals to ~$390)
50,000 SPG points = 4 nights at The Westin / Sheraton Melbourne (equals to ~ $1200)Keep in mind the Travel credit has to be used in one booking!
The ~$1200 valuation you have on The Westin/Sheraton - realistically if you wouldn't ordinarily pay $1200 you can't say it is actually worth $1200 to you!
He's basing the 4 nights Westin stay on 50k SPG points which is converted from the 100k amex points. So effectively with his chosen method of points conversion, he is extracting $1200 worth of Westin/Sheraton hotel stays from the points.
Ah right - what you mean is he's valuing the 50k SPG points at $1200. I thought he was saying 4x hotel nights at The Westin/Sheraton would cost you $300/night, i.e. $1200 for 4 nights.
In which case I'd say - you can't say that's worth $1200.
It'd be like going to a petrol station that's charging $1/L that they normally charges $2/L and saying you're getting 50% off. This wouldn't be the case because you'd more than likely go elsewhere to pump.
@illumination: While you might be right, it's a little bit hard to comprehend the logic here. I just checked how much it would cost to stay 4 nights at one of those hotels, and the price tag for the stay was around $1200. I'd never afford that, it just not worth it, yeah, but 50k SPG gives a good bang for the buck, moreover the flight is literally free.
@d86: I'm saying that it'd be wrong to base your valuation (as a consumer/customer/buyer) of something based on what their (the company/business') selling price or RRP is. It's really down to how much you would've been willing to pay, or how much you would realistically pay otherwise.
That's why in my petrol example I'm saying you'd just go elsewhere. If everywhere else was $1.20/L and you pumped at the $1/L station which normally sells for $2/L, you have just saved $0.20/L.
If you've got a partner and are both able to apply for this card you will have enough points for a Marriott Flight and Nights package (includes 120k airline miles and 7 night hotel stay certificate). As an example, this could be redeemed for two return business class flights to Japan and 7 nights at the Courtyard Tokyo Station hotel.
2 x 100k MR sign up bonus plus 30k MR referral bonus (one person signs up for card then refers their partner once they've received it) = 230k MR points.
230k MR points = 115k SPG points
Transfer 100k SPG point to 300k Marriott points to redeem for category 6 Flight and Night package including 132k United Mileage Plus miles (10% bonus on top of 120k for United miles).
Transfer remaining 8000 SPG points straight to United Mileage Plus giving you a total of 140k United Mileage Plus Miles.
Redeem United Mileage Plus miles for two business class tickets to Japan at 70k Mileage Plus miles per return ticket and book 7 nights at Courtyard Tokyo Station hotel using certificate. You'll even have enough SPG points left over to book a night at the Westin Nagoya Castle.Lol nice one!!
You Sir are a genius.. I wish I wasn't retired right now.
Mind explosion! New to this transfer loop through to SPG and Marriott rabbit hole. Is there still taxes on the flight? Any extra on the hotel?
I've never personally used United miles but I believe they have the lowest taxes and fees of almost any airline. Taxes on each ticket would be something like $20.
I don't think there's any taxes on the hotel stay unless you stay somewhere that charges a resort fee, which seems to be relatively common in Florida and Las Vegas
Thanks Red and Elves - that is certainly cheap flight taxes! I know Qantas is notorious - taxes might be half the cost of what u could buy the flight for in economy. Virgin is more reasonable, but on United that sounds fantastic! Would taxes be same in Economy?
(I know economy may not be best value use, but if trying to maximise how many people u can fly)
Taxes on United are 35USD pp return if redeeming with points. Hotel fees and taxes are $50 for the 7 nights stay with Marriott. I have redeemed the package using this method.
Thanks.
Do you know if you're able to combine MR points from two different accounts? Eg Me and my partner both have 100k points can we combine to get the 300k Marriot points?
Are there blackout dates for the 7 nights and do they have to be used all at once?
The best thing is to set up two SPG account. Transfer the points to both account. Then do a family transfer across to one account.
There are no blackout periods that I'm aware of.
@No Smoking: And I believe you can do the transfer either via AMEX (i.e. before converting to SPG) or via SPG.
Transferring via AMEX is capped at 50k Membership Rewards points per calendar year. Not sure what the limit is for SPG though.
AUS to JPN on through United means your travelling via star alliance member thats 40K miles per person per sector, not 30K, so you need 160K miles all up excluding tax for two people.
Could be done if you opted for the CAT 5 package at 270K marriott though, thereby having 25K starwood to play with - assuming you got the referral bonus
I must have been reading the United awards tables wrong..Thought it was 80k United miles one way so 160k per person lol if it's 80k return then it's way more doable!
Yep my mistake, AUS to JPN was listed on United's standard award chart despite the fact you can obviously only book partner awards.
As far as I'm aware there's no cat 1-5 hotels in Japan? An easy way to make up the points would be to sign up for the David Jones Amex.
Another option is to fly economy for 22.5k and business back or vice versa for 40k. You'll waste some points but you'll still get the 7 nights in category 6 without having to buy points
So you need to earn 65k a year for this? I'm currently making around 40, but also living at home and travel a lot. Believe I could easily get a tone of value out of this card that outweighs the annual fee. What are my chances of getting approved? Any tips?
Yes - it's actually an annual household income of 65k.
In addition, if you have any payslips where you have multiple public holidays/penalty rates applied, it may make your equivalent annual salary appear higher than 40k. You could kinda use that as your "proof" of salary - however generally they'll ask for 2 payslips.
If you've ever held an AMEX card in the past they're usually a little bit more lenient too.
Does that mean I have to wait 1 year before I can use the Travel Credit ?
The Travel Credit can be used for 365 days from the Card Member's anniversary date and cannot be carried forward to any subsequent year.
https://web.aexp-static.com/au/content/text/explorer-travel-…Nope you can definitely use it in your first year. I believe you just have to have paid the annual fee.
No you can use it right away. That what I did when I had to book accommodations in Singapore to offset the crazy high cost of Marina Bay Sands hotel.
When you say right away, is that from the time you receive your card in the mail?
Uggh my bad. It's once you're billed your annual fee.
Ugh… just signed up for Westpac Altitude Black. I don't think I can get this (credit rating issue).
Plus Have to spend $4.5k in 3 months for both cards.
You can Amex doesn't take into account credit scores as much as the other banks. Just use a referral link and you should be fine. From experience I have applied and got approved for this card when my credit score was below average.
Thanks! I will definitely apply now!
Let me know how it went as i am in the same situation, just applied thr westpac attitude ladt week and hesitated to apply this card.
Can I still qualify for the bonus points if I already have a Qantas American Express Discovery card?
I believe so. Use these steps to safe guard yourself in case you don't get the points.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/299466?page=1#comment-4562…
great, thanks!
Whats the minimum credit limit?
$3000
Can anyone tell me if can you transfer membership reward points to flight programs that aren't in your name? I have the platinum edge so would have to get the Explorer card in my partners name but would I be able to transfer points to a flight program in my own name and not hers?
From what I'm told when doing the transfer the name has to match to the partner Airlines or Hotel for it to go through.
Best thing to do is transfer the point from Amex to an airline partner then do a family transfer across to you.
Thanks, that makes it sightly tricky as I would like to be able to transfer to Krisflyer who don't allow transfers to family members.
Your only option would probably be to then transfer within Velocity first, before transferring it through to KrisFlyer. You'll just have to accept a reduced transfer rate.
Alternatively.. book for the friend/family member? You can book for other people on KrisFlyer.
Can she redeem the flight for you? That could be a possibility OR gift Amex points however it is limited to 50k
https://www.americanexpress.com/australia/pdfs/customerservi…
Would amex allow any leeway if the FF account you want to transfer to is a supplementary card holder and not the primary card holder? I'd rather not take the hit from the Velocity point reduced rate to KrisFlyer.
It's more the case that I don't have enough points for both of us on the primary account but with these bonus points I would but these points don't come close to being able to book a ticket by themselves so I need to be able to combine the points to book 2 tickets.
Why can't you get the Explorer card under your name as you mentioned you only have the Platinum Edge atm.
As I hold the Platinum Edge I won't be eligible to receive the bonus points if it's in my name.
You can as they're two separate rewards program. One is Ascent(Platinum Edge) and the Gateway (Explorer).
I have both the Explorer card and the Platinum Edge and on both occasions have been credited points on both of them.
Use this guide to help you mitigate the risk of not earning any points.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/299466?page=1#comment-4562…
@FeZZa21:
$22,000 dollars all went to paying bills