We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Monkey Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. We appreciate you using our links!!!
American Express has been on an absolute roll with incentivizing new members to join and current members to put more spend on their cards. I just received the following offer. Add an authorized user to your Platinum card and receive 20k Membership Rewards after they spend $2k in 6 months. I know at least 3 people that I’d happily add to my account, and the best part… I can add them any of them as Gold members and pay no additional fee. That’s an easy 20k points for just $2k spend over the next 6 months! Note…you only earn the 20k bonus on the first authorized user. Hattip to reader AS who pointed this out.
Direct link to my authorized user offer:
I was given the option of which kind of card I’d like to add: you can see Gold cards are fee free.
Terms and conditions:
Chase Sapphire Preferred
A Monkey Miles favorite for beginners and point pros alike – a staple of our wallet that earns Premium transferrable Ultimate Rewards. $95 annual fee
♥ Earn 60k Bonus Points after $4k Spend in 3 months
♥Points are transferrable to over dozen partners, or redeemable for 1.25c in Chase travel
♥5x on travel purchased via Chase Travel and 2x everywhere else (beginning 8/16/21)
♥3x on dining, including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out (previously 2x – beginning 8/16/21)
♥3x on select streaming (beginning 8/16/21)
♥ 3x points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs -(beginning 8/16/21)
♥ $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards. *New cardmembers can get this credit immediately – existing cardmembers get it after anniversary (beginning 8/16/21)
♥ 10% Anniversary Point Bonus. Spend $10k in a year, get 1k bonus points. (beginning 8/16/21)
Learn more
Why do you say 60k total for adding 3 people when it says the most you can earn is 20k?
Ah! Amended – it was on oversight
LAX-EWR is a poor example to use for redemption. I just looked between now and the end of November and could not find two non stop tickets in either direction for award redemption. Am I missing something?
Brodie – it’s a tough one to land for sure. I didn’t check it when I put it in this article, but less than a week ago there were quite a few dates avail when I wrote the 787-10 article. It’s also a route that United marries segments on, so checking it to other east coast destinations that route via EWR may open up space as well. With that said…it’s just an example – plenty of other uses
Miles, in point 2 of the T&C it references max $25K spend at grocery for the 4X points. Do you think the AU gets their own limit of $25K or it’s just the basic cardmember limit of $25K and if you and 4 AU’s each spend $5K at grocery, that hits the $25K limit? Figured it’s worth asking if maybe you get $125K of max grocery spend in that example. Thanks!
Hey Kyle – my understanding is it’s capped at $25k
Any idea how this would effect the credit score of the AU? For instance if I add my kids?
Patrick – the account will more than likely appear on their credit report. Regarding your kids, Amex does require they be over 13, but otherwise, having kids as an AU helps build their credit by establishing history and can help down the line once they’re applying on their own. One negative is if the card you’ve used for an AU is a charge card there is no increase in total line of credit available and whatever you spend shows up on their credit report as well which could lead to higher utilization rates. If it’s a credit card, that limit will deepen their total line and potentially help utilization. Also…AUs can affect Chase’s infamous 5/24 number so be aware of that. AUs don’t count towards amex’s once per lifetime rule tho.