When we last left off, I was weighing the results of my retention call and subsequent retention offer, trying to decide whether I should keep or cancel my American Express Business Gold card.
Surprise Email: My American Express Business Gold Card Upgrade Offer
As you know from that post, the retention offer I received on the American Express Business Gold card was “lame” to put it politely. I was leaning toward just canceling the card.
Well, no sooner than I hit “publish” on that post did I receive a surprise email from American Express.
The Business Gold Card Upgrade Offer Email:
My “upgrade offer” email arrived about 15 days after the Business Gold’s $175 annual fee due posted to my account.
When I opened the email, I got the following:
Strangely, when I clicked on the “request your upgrade” button [above] I got an error message. “Uh-Oh” I thought.
Viewing The Upgrade Offer Through My American Express Account
Up until this point, I had been checking my American Express account regularly, hoping/looking for an upgrade link, with no such luck.
However, having just received the email, I checked again and this time I got the following:
See the upgrade offer link (second from the bottom in the right “useful links” column)
When I clicked through, I finally got to the landing page to confirm the offer.
My American Express Business Card Strategy
I’ll confess, when I first got the American Express Business Gold card, my “master plan” was to get the 75,000 Membership Rewards card and then hopefully get a decent upgrade offer on the Business Platinum card.
In this way, I figured I could still do better than just signing up for the Business Platinum card outright and getting an offer like the current “75,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $20,000 dollars in 3 months” offer. But there was no guarantee I’d get such an upgrade offer.
My strategy changed when I realized that American Express was giving some people great retention offers on other cards – but that strategy was dashed by my retention offer on the Gold card.
Did I Take The Upgrade Offer On The Business Gold Card?
Well, with this offer I’m back in business! When all is said and done, by successfully executing my “master plan”, I’m set to get a Business Platinum card with [essentially] 125,000 Membership Points after spending $20,000 total over [essentially] 8 months while [essentially] getting my $450 annual fee waived the for first year ($0 annual fee on the Business Gold in the first year)!
Could I do better? Possibly – but not by much.
I decided to take the upgrade offer.
The American Express Business Platinum Email
After signing up for the upgrade offer, I received the following email.
The Bottom Line:Â Surprise Email: My American Express Business Gold Card Upgrade Offer
All-in-all, I was very pleased to take this offer. I’ve been wanting the American Express Business Platinum card for quite sometime, but the right offer never came along – so I ended up “making” my own offer.
I love the American Express Business Platinum card for several reasons including the benefits, the value proposition when compared to the Amex Business Gold card ($250 [after credits] vs. $175 = a difference of only $75) the access, and most importantly the 35% bonus or Membership Rewards benefit which is unique to only the American Express Business Platinum card.
It should be noted that my “upgrade offer” arrived about 15 days after the Business Gold’s $175 annual fee due posted to my account. I confirmed with American Express that I should pay the $175 annual fee and that would be used as a credit against the Business Platinum’s $450 annual fee during the next billing cycle.
Cheers!
