American Express Blue Skies???

[ekatiel]

OK, so I NEVER even read all the credit card offers that I get, but now that we're looking to buy airline tickets to Disney, I decided to actually open the American Express Blue Skies offer that I got today. It claims that after I charge $500 (which will be easy to do, since we still owe on our Disney vacation, and I will pay it off immediately), that I will receive 30,000 bonus miles, good for 2 free airline tickets on any airline, to anywhere, blah, blah, blah.
So, has anyone signed up for this card? Did you actually get to use your miles? Were there a ton of blackout dates, etc?? Anyways, just looking for some BTDT info, before I go and open a new credit card. --Katie

 

[Carriemel]

I believe that if you're doing a balance transfer, it will not count. I think it's only new charges, not transfers.

 

[ekatiel]

It will be a new charge, since we've only paid our $200 reservation money towards the package-- we still owe the rest to Disney (not to the Disney Visa, but to the resort). We aren't big on credit cards around here, so I don't have any balances to transfer. Does anyone have info on the "free flights" that this card offers? It is worth my time to sign up for it, or are there too many blackout dates, etc? --Katie

 

[kristenrice]

I did this in September for the same reason. Our offer was if we put $500 on the card, we'd receive 30,000 "bonus points". When I called for more information, I discovered the way it works.

For every $1 you spend, you accrue 1 point. When you want to redeem your points, you get them in the form of a statement credit towards travel expenses that you put on your AMEX card that month. For every $100 you want credited, it will cost you 7500 points. You are earning at a rate of 1.25%.

For example, you buy a plane ticket for $250 and charge it to your AMEX card. When the statement comes, you apply for a credit for that purchase. You can either redeem 15,000 points ($200) or 22,500 to cover the entire $250 purchase. You must redeem in 7500 increments and you only get credit for the exact amount of the purchase if it is less than your redemption amount.

We received 30,000 bonus points which calculated into $400 in travel expenses. The points never expire and we've accrued another $100 for our upcoming trip. The nice thing is that it is for anything that AMEX categorizes as "travel". This includes hotels (i.e. Disney!), rental cars, airline charges and anything bought via a travel agent (i.e. Disney packages!). I even found out that I can apply the rewards to park passes from undercovertourist.com!

I pay the balance off every month but I believe that this AMEX card allows you to carry a balance. With no annual fee and the "free" $400 right off the bat, it was too good of an offer to resist, especially since we only have one other credit card.

In your situation, the "2 free airline tickets" probably refers to redemption of 30,000 points for 2-$200 tickets. That's just a guess. Also, the bonus points take a few statements to show up. I wouldn't charge anything that you want to redeem points for until a couple months after you have the card. I think it took 3 statements before our bonus points showed up.

 

[ekatiel]

Thanks so much for outlining how it works! It sounds like It's a pretty good deal with all the bonus points you get in the beginning. Even if the points don't show up in time to buy our airline tickets for Disney, we have to fly to Chicago in July, so I think I'll sign up. Thanks, again for the info-- I knew someone on here would know! --Katie

 

[gsnod]

We have this card also, and it works just as writte by kristenrice. It's very easy to redeem the collected "points" for $$ off your statement. We use this card for everything, and pay it off fully. It's amazing how fast the $7500 accumulates for you....which equates to $100 available as a credit for your account.

 

[jjcarey88]

Do any of you happen to have the bonus code for this promotion? I signed up several months ago for this same promotion online (spend $500 on the card, receive "two free tickets" which upon reading the fine print is given in the form of 30,000 miles) and upon contacting AMEX to ask about when I would get my bonus miles was told they had no record of the promotion and they asked me to give them the bonus ID off the mailer. However, since I signed up online, I don't have the mailer to find the bonus ID on.

They said the ID number would be displayed just above the name on the mailing. It is a 8 digit number (4 digits, hyphen, 4 digits, eg. A508-0001).

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[raycatcher]

Received this offer in December with POID (promotional offer ID, I assume) of M384:0001. Good luck.