We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
300k Amex points in 3 months
First things first…this post is geared to give you a guide as to how I’ve earned a ton of points so you can too. It’s not geared around making massive purchases, but rather a combination of referrals, Rakuten, and Amex Offers. Of course, I have an advantage over readers because we generate traffic that helps us with earn referral bonuses, but all of those posts also allow you to participate as well. Let me walk you through how I’ve strategized and, of course, on posts like this you’re welcome to add your referrals in the comment section. The future is very uncertain right now, and many of you won’t be adding cards to your wallet, cutting down on expenses, and
American Express Referrals – 220k Amex Points
I have a total of 6 Amex Cards. 5 of those qualify for referrals, 4 give me points ( 55k max )and one gives me $550 in statement credits. The other is an old Amex Mercedes Platinum and for whatever reason it won’t allow me to refer – I have a plan to swap it out for a different Amex at some point so I’ll earn an additional 55k by year’s end.
How you can earn too
I have multiple posts that are updated regularly with the latest Amex Referrals Offers. Sometimes these are bigger than the public offer. To be clear…I make money when you sign up for a credit card that refers you via CardRatings, our partner, but on referral posts …we get points, but then also include you. I’d assume I’m losing out on potential revenue by doing this, but I also want you to have the opportunity to get the most bang for you buck. The site has turned into a business, but at the same time, I want you to know your options and feel like this is a way to promote multiple offers concurrently.
How it works with our site:
We have dedicated referrals pages for multiple Amex cards. At the beginning of the year those are populated with Monkey Miles links. I then push my family and friends through, and then I put your links in the body of the article. This is either at random, or I will offer the placement as a prize for participation in a promo. I did this in early Feb and one of our readers was able to max out 2 cards worth of referrals in about 2 weeks. Pretty quick. Readers are also encouraged to leave their links in the comments section of those pages and those readers’ links get quite a bit of traffic. Here are links to those pages.
- Amex Gold
- Amex Platinum
- Amex Green
- Amex Business Gold
- Amex Business Platinum
- Amex EveryDay Preferred
- Amex Aspire
Amex Offers: 16k+
So far this year, I’m off to a good start with strategizing how to earn a healthy amount of points via Amex Offers. I regularly post about these and they can be quite lucrative. If this is something you aren’t taking advantage of, I’d highly suggest reading our overview and regularly checking your offers to see if you can take advantage.
Rakuten – 75k+
I suppose I shouldn’t count my chickens, but these points were earned during this quarter; however, they won’t hit my account til Mid May. This is a significant increase over last quarter where I earned roughly 20k, but was due to a combination in heavily using Rakuten, referrals, and also taking advantage of a 90% offer on Lifelock ( That alone earned me over 26k points ). Of those 75k, over 38k of it was on my own spend, and then the rest was via referral here, Youtube, Instagram, etc.
If you’re unfamiliar with how to set your account up for Rakuten – read this article here.
Of course we appreciate you using our referral link – you’ll earn $10 back after spending $25
And all of this is done so we can continue to fly like this:
Feel free to leave links below
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.