American Express sometimes sends out complimentary gifts to some Platinum cardholders. For example recently they sent out $250 BLADE gift cards and last year they sent out Amazon Echo’s. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to how cardholders are selected (but I highly doubt it’s random. It’s most likely criteria the the gifters choose similar to AmEx Offers).
Some TPG readers are reporting that they have received a $250 gift card from Tiffany & Co. Unlike the BLADE gift card, this does look like a true gift card and you should be able to resell it (85.5% of facevalue is the best public price) Update: Looks like it’s not a true gift card and is restricted to a single item purchase at a specific store and any funds not used are forfeit. Everybody likes a freebie but I actually think that this does more damage than good as other cardholders end up resenting American Express/Platinum for not receiving any gifts, this is less of an issue when the gifts are relatively small but $250 gift cards are significant. I think American Express would do better by providing some sort of information about why certain cardholders are selected over others. It’s currently possible to get a sign up bonus of 100,000 points on the Platinum card.
