Question for
@SouthFayetteFan or anyone else savvy about Amex referrals. To get all the miles we might need to upgrade both legs of our Emirates flights from JNB to SFO, I need about 66K more MR than I will have after getting the bonus on my Biz Platinum and getting the points that go with the MSR on that card. So I'm thinking I need to get DH a Platinum card. He has plenty of 5/24 room, so I'd get him the personal to keep the MSR at $5k. All I can seem to pull for him right now is the 60K offer. While I'd much prefer the 100K offer, 60K would get us the MR we need, when coupled with the MR from the MSR and a little other miscellaneous spending. I know I can refer him to the same 60K offer that is available publicly for him right now. I also know that Amex caps referral bonuses at 55K MR a year. I already have 40K in referrals. So my question is: If I refer DH to the Platinum, would I get a referral bonus capped at 15K to put me at my 55K max, or will I not get the bonus at all since the full 20K referral bonus would put me over the max 55K? I have a bit of time to see if I can pull the 100K offer for DH, but I don't want to wait too long. Getting his 60K bonus and 15K for me for the referral would make me feel better about taking the lower welcome bonus offer, especially if it means the difference between coach and business on some really long flights. Thoughts??
I just pulled these two increased offers on the PRG and Platinum using Chrome browser on incognito mode and Private Internet Access VPN set to the US Seattle servers. I tried it again on the same VPN and network settings using Safari private mode and got the same offers.
It took me less than 5 minutes trying different combinations of private/incognito modes on Chrome, Safari, and Opera browsers, and connecting my VPN to different big city servers around the US (I tried, California, Silicon Valley, Chicago, New York, then finally Seattle worked). In the incognito window, I'd type in americanexpress .com, click on the Personal Cards graphic, see the 50k special offer for the PRG (which is good, but not what you want), click Rewards Points Cards in the nav bar, and find the 75k special offer on the personal Platinum.
Now, to your question, if you're at 40k of your 55k referral cap, you'd get only 15k for referring DH. However, one upside is those 15k would go into
your MR account, and the public 60k bonus (and whatever points earned for MSR) would go into DH's MR account. The net is ~75k, but split between your and DH's MR accounts. If DH were to apply for the 75k Platinum incognito offer, the 75k (and whatever points earned for MSR) would go into only his MR account. You can't transfer or pool MRs between spouses like you can with Chase URs in the same household. However, if one of you is an AU on the other's MR cards, you could transfer MRs to the AU spouse's frequent flyer program. Both referral and incognito methods would net your household the same amount of points, but it just depends where you want those points for ease of redemption.
Either my employer lets me telework 100% or I’ll take early retirement.
where are located again? I may have to check and see in my company has a site around your area!
