American Express limits you to getting the sign up bonus once per ‘lifetime’ on their credit cards (although there is some evidence to suggest lifetime isn’t really lifetime). American Express used to allow you to product change cards between their different brands (e.g a Hilton card could be turned into a Delta card). This is unfortunately no longer possible (you can read the current rules here). What’s interesting is that if you completed one of these product changes then American Express has no history of you having the first card, making it possible to get the bonus on that card again.
For example:
- I opened a Hilton Surpass card
- I product changed it to a Delta gold card
- They have no record of me having the Surpass card, I can get the sign up bonus again. Yay!
As always there is absolutely no guarantee that this will work for you. Thanks to werebros for bringing this to my attention &Â zmicer88Â confirming this works. As always share your own datapoints in the comments below.
Dammit, I was hoping that no one would *ever* post this. I got the Platinum 100k bonus 3 times using this trick. This is already dead now? that sucks.
You mean by downgrading the Platinum to Green or PRG?
I downgraded platinum to green and reapplied as soon as my card would change online. My wife also did it twice.
Miles, I didn’t know it’s been dead for two months now. It was good while it lasted.
this is why amex has a new PC team to go with the RAT team. sigh…
The downgrading of Platinum or any other AMEX card to get the bonus again is dead anyway for about 2 months now. As far as I know, no one publicly posted about this trick, it didn’t die because of that.
Interesting read: https://www.uscreditcardguide.com/earn-100k-amex-hilton-upgrade-multiple-times-no-lifetime-language/
My guess is that the product team was put in place when lot of people starting churning Hilton 100k offer multiple times in a month.
That seems very likely.
No wonder they put up the RAT PaC team now
I upgraded to the business platinum in march from the business gold. I applied by phone and asked them if I would be getting the same sign up bonus, and they confirmed that I would. Never had a business platinum before. Called this week to check on my card and was told that I had a different offer (with a smaller bonus but a longer time to meet min. spend) on my card due to the fact that it was a product change and not a new application! I asked them to fix it and it’s “currently under review” so it will prob. take a week for me to hear from them.) My guess is you’re probably not going to be able to use a product change to get bonuses, or if you do, the bonus will be reduced.
no dude. im just gonna give it to you straight. your confused on how Amex bonus works. try to read more so you wont be pissed about your situation. you upgraded. not a NEW app. there are always upgrade bonuses around for PRG to Plat. or BRG to plat. but they are always smaller. its like 50k pts or whatever. NEW apps get the huge bonus. idk why you bothered asking if you get the same sign up bonus. the answer is always the same. NO you do not. there is no 150k BRG to plat upgrade offer. if you complain enough, maybe they will give it to you. who knows. if they do, keep that to yourself.
It is risky to switch. I changed my delta to blue card long time ago. Last year, I opened the same card to wave luggage charges on my coming flights plus bonus miles.Unfortunately, Amex knows my history and refused to give the sign up bonus.
I wouldn’t do it again unless 100k bonus applied and willing to take a risk. I lost one of my inquires and lost my efforts.
I have been wondering about this for forever! I downgraded from the Delta Gold card to the Hilton card in 2014. I asked customer service chat today and they said they have no record of me having the gold card and that I would be eligible for the bonus. I just applied and got approved for the 60k bonus, will follow up on if I actually get the bonus.
One word of caution. I’ve been told before that on chat they can only see cards that were ever on that PARTICULAR log-in. So if you had a separate log-in for a previous card, they may tell you they don’t show a record, but in reality Amex will know and deny.
I don’t know if it’s true, but I have noticed they couldn’t see a card I asked about once that I only had a few years ago (on another log-in), and I’m pretty certain would not get a new bonus on.
I have only had 1 account so this hopefully shouldn’t be the case!
This used to work, but does not work anymore. You will not get the bonus again.
It does work ONLY if you product changed to a different cobrand before the once a lifetime was established.
Thanks, didn’t know this part. So if I’m not mistaken it’s 2014 for personal and early 2016 for business.
Damn………
Why do I always get to know a really good loophole only whe it’s pulled?
+1
+1
Because too many people use the loophole and it gets closed.
How about if you upgraded a BGR to BizPlat, could you get BGR sign up bonus again? Upgrades different than product change ya think?
this used to work as well, not anymore, you are few months late.
When you PC to another brand like the Delta card you mentioned, are you eligible for the sign up bonus for the Delta card or does PC not give you a sign up bonus?
this is still relevant if you want to downgrade say a hilton surpass to a hhonors card? then you would be eligible for the surpass bonus again? Or say you downgraded a delta plat to a delta gold? right?
yes, that’s how it used to work. you are a few months late. it doesn’t work anymore.
Wait I think I was confused. So the loophole was only conversions between brands (ie. SPG to Delta) instead of within a brand (Delta Plat to Delta Gold)? So the cases I mentioned were never part of the loophole?
This would be my question too. I actually converted from a Delta Gold to a Delta Platinum when I first started out. I wonder if this applies in our case?
They were parts of the loophole, you could downgrade within the same family. But it stopped working about 2m ago
I had this happen on SPG accounts and was posting about it a few months ago in some private slacks. Was nice to get two new SPG bonuses because of it 🙂
I’m a bit confused. Can the SPG cards still be downgraded to an Everyday card or is this no longer possible?