New American Express Credit Card Offers

American Express seems to be on a roll the past few days with new credit card promotions. First off we have the Business Gold Rewards Card, which is offering 75,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $10,000 within the first 4 months. The spend requirement is quite high, so make sure you can actually complete it before applying. Here are the relevant details:

• This offer is only good through August 9, 2012
• Earn 3 points per dollar spent on airfare; 2 points per dollar spent on advertising, gas, and shipping; 1 point per dollar everywhere else
• Annual fee of $175 is waived for the first year
• Per the terms and conditions, the welcome bonus offer is not available to applicants who have had this product or any Business Gold, Green, or Platinum Card account within the last 12 months
• Membership Rewards points will post to your account 6-8 weeks after meeting the spend requirement

In addition, keep in mind that this is a charge card, and all statements must be paid off in full each month. The Membership Rewards program has lost a bit of its luster this past year, as I've written in this post. However, they still maintain some decent airline and hotel transfer partners, and they consistently run transfer bonus promotions throughout the year. 75,000 Membership Rewards points can be valued at more than $1,000 if used wisely, so this is a very good deal you should seriously consider if you can meet the high spend threshold.

If the $10,000 spend is too high, you can also consider the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Card, which is currently running their annual summer promotion. The typical sign-up offer for this card offers a maximum of 25,000 SPG points after meeting the spend requirement. However, from now through September 4, 2012, you can earn 10,000 SPG points after your first purchase, and an additional 20,000 SPG points after spending $5,000 within the first 6 months - for a total of 30,000 SPG points. Here are the relevant details:

• This offer is only good through September 4, 2012
• Earn 2 SPG points per dollar spent at SPG Hotels and Resorts; 1 SPG point everywhere else
• Annual fee of $65 is waived for the first year
• Receive credit for 5 nights and 2 stays towards SPG elite status each calendar year
• Per the terms and conditions, the welcome bonus offer is not available to applicants who have had this product within the last 12 months
• SPG points will post to your account 6-8 weeks after meeting the spend requirement

I've written extensively about the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Card in the past (see here, here, and here). It is simply one of the best rewards cards out there, and I have not hesitated to pay the $65 annual fee for the past 2 years just to keep it in my wallet.

There is also a business version of this card, which is also offering 30,000 SPG points. However, I have not found a public link for that yet. If you are interested in applying for the business card, I would recommend heading over to Boarding Area and you will find many bloggers there with affiliate links. May I recommend View From The Wing and Rapid Travel Chai's links, as I really enjoy both their blogs and think they are incredibly cool people.

Finally, as you all know, I don't post any affiliate links on my blog, nor do I make any money off of advertising. However, once in a while, there is the chance for me to earn some extra miles and points by referring friends and family to certain credit card offers. Right now, the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Card is allowing anyone to refer people to the card, and earn 5,000 SPG points in the process (if their application is approved). If you enjoy this blog and would like to do something extra nice, just send me your name and email address at milesglu@gmail.com, and I will fill out the referral right away (personal card only). You'll receive the same great offer I listed above, and I'll earn an extra 5,000 SPG points. Thanks as always!

50,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points American Express Business Gold Rewards Card

This promotion is valid for today only! Not the best offer ever, but definitely one of the higher ones I've seen in a while for the American Express Business Gold Rewards card. Earn 50,000 bonus Membership Rewards points after spending $5,000 within your first 4 months. You earn 3x points per dollar spent on airfare, 2x points per dollar spent on advertising, gas, and shipping, and 1x points per dollar spent everywhere else. The annual fee of $175 is waived for the first year.

Despite losing some of its luster recently (with the British Airways and Aeroplan devaluations as well as the exit of Continental Airlines and pending exit of Priority Club Rewards on June 30, 2012 as transfer partners), Membership Rewards still retains some great airline and hotel transfer partners. Best of all, they appear to consistently run transfer bonus promotions throughout the year, especially with British Airways and Delta Airlines. In fact, through May 31, 2012, you can earn a 50% bonus on all points transfers to British Airways, although it might be difficult to complete the $5,000 spend requirement and earn the 50,000 bonus points before the deadline hits.

I would rank this promotion below some of the more lucrative offers in the big list of credit card sign-ups I posted two weeks ago. However, if you haven't had an American Express Business Gold Rewards card before and can meet the spend requirement easily, then I say go for it. Click on the link below to apply:

50% Transfer Bonus From American Express Membership Rewards To British Airways Executive Club

This is the first great transfer bonus opportunity of the year. A few days ago, I posted about the US Airways 50% transfer bonus from hotel partners. However, the only partner worth transferring from was Starwood Preferred Guest... and even then, it made very little sense to trade in valuable Starpoints for Dividend Miles, despite the significant bonus.

In my opinion, the best value for Membership Rewards points is the airline miles transfer program, and the best time to do a transfer is when they run a promotion such as this one. From now until May 31, 2012, earn a 50% bonus when you transfer points from Membership Rewards to British Airways. There is no need to register, and you can transfer as many times as you like before the promotion ends. The smallest increment you can transfer is 1,000 points.

As you may already know, British Airways massively devalued their award chart last November, and I documented the aftermath in great detail here. However, despite the huge increase in Avios points required for long-haul flights, there is a silver lining to be found in short hops all around the world, especially when they involve partner airlines that don't tack on a fuel surcharge.

The highest yields can be found on popular tourist routes that are typically short in distance but high in cost. For example, the San Francisco to Los Cabos route is quite popular, and Alaska Airlines can charge upwards of $500 or more for this three-hour flight. However, only 20,000 Avios points are needed to book a round-trip award ticket, while using other frequent flyer programs typically will run you 35,000 miles. Likewise, flying Los Angeles to Honolulu on American Airlines costs only 25,000 Avios points. Even shorter flights such as San Francisco to Los Angeles, New York to Toronto, Miami to Cancun, Lima to Cusco, all only cost 9,000 Avios points round-trip! Read my previous post to find out how to price out specific award itineraries on the British Airways website.

If you have a large stash of Membership Rewards points just waiting to be used, I would highly recommend converting at least some into Avios points before May 31, 2012. Although others may disagree, I would do the transfer even if you don't have any award travel planned. Typically, transfer bonuses don't get any better or simpler than this. Membership Rewards did run another promotion last year where you could effectively earn a 67% bonus on Delta Skymiles transfers, but it turned out to be a logistical nightmare, and people had to wait months before they actually received the bonus points in the form of a rebate certificate. Plus, I have not seen any transfer bonuses higher than 50% for Membership Rewards to British Airways.

I don't doubt that another 50% transfer bonus promotion will occur sometime in the future, but I say take advantage of the offer now, and make use of those Avios points for high-value redemptions before another devaluation comes!

50% Bonus For Converting Hotel Points To US Airways Miles

Right now, you can earn a 50% bonus on all hotel points that are converted into US Airways Dividend Miles. US Airways has a number of hotel transfer partners, including Starwood Preferred Guest, Hyatt Gold Passport, Hilton HHonors, Marriott Rewards, IHG Priority Club, and many more. However, since almost all of them involve truly abysmal conversion rates, the only one worth talking about here is Starwood Preferred Guest.

Starwood Preferred Guest offers a 1:1 conversion ratio into US Airways Dividend Miles, and even includes a 5,000 miles bonus for every 20,000 Starpoints that you transfer. Hence, taking into account both offers, every 20,000 Starpoints transferred will net you 37,500 Dividend Miles (a total bonus of 87.5% and a transfer ratio of 1:1.875). Usually, I would jump at such an opportunity... but the fact that we are dealing with Starpoints makes this a much tougher call.

Starpoints are among the most highly valued loyalty program points/miles out there, and with Starwood Preferred Guest's cash and points options, you can often redeem them for more than five cents per point! That is almost unheard of when it comes to hotel award charts. So unless you have a huge stash of Starpoints or you have a Dividend Miles redemption in mind already and don't have enough miles, I would say hold off on any transfers.

Other blogs have also discussed taking advantage of the current American Express Membership Rewards transfer bonus to Starwood Preferred Guest. Typically, the transfer ratio is 3:1. However, through March 31, 2012, you can earn a 50% bonus, so the ratio becomes 2:1. If you were to transfer 40,000 MR points into 20,000 Starpoints, and then convert that into 37,500 Dividend Miles, you would effectively be transferring MR points into Dividend Miles at a ratio of 1:0.9375.

I would highly suggest not doing this unless, again, you have more MR points than you know what to do with. Membership Rewards often runs promotions for 30-50% bonuses when transferring to Delta Skymiles or British Airways Avios (with transfer ratios at 1:1.3 to 1:1.5), which would be a much better value.

If you do decide to take advantage of this promotion, note that you must complete all points transfers by March 31, 2012. This means that the activity date of the mileage transfer as recorded by the hotel must be by March 31, 2012. Be very careful as some hotels may have a delay in generating the activity date, so it is probably a good idea to give yourself at least a few days cushion just in case. US Airways must receive the hotel partner activity date information by April 10, 2012 in order to be eligible for bonus miles consideration.

Also, the terms and conditions state that only one transfer will receive the 50% bonus during the promotion, so don't expect to do multiple transfers and get the bonus on each one! No registration is needed, and bonus miles will post 6-8 weeks after the eligible activity date.

25,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points With The American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card

Let me preface this post by saying I never post any credit card links on my blog that earn me any referral fees or commission. All of the links that I post here are the best offers currently available, and more importantly, they are public links with no benefits for myself. I've never viewed this blog as a means to make money, and I never will.

However, every once in a while, credit card companies will give existing cardholders the opportunity to refer family and friends to offers that are not publicly available. If these offers are worthwhile, I will post about it on my blog, and I will make clear the amount of referral points I will receive as well.

With that out of the way, a new American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card referral offer has been making its way around the blogosphere lately, so I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring as well. The regular offer for this card is 10,000 bonus Membership Rewards points after spending $1,000 within the first three months. There is also a 15,000 bonus points offer as well. However, with this referral, you will receive 25,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 within the first three months. This is the best current offer for the Premier Rewards Gold Card. The annual fee of $175 is also waived for the first year.

While 25,000 bonus points isn't that much (they can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to several airline and hotel programs), this is still a decent offer if you have an upcoming need for a specific award redemption. Last year, the Premier Rewards Gold Card had targeted offers for 50,000 and even 75,000 bonus points. However, those of us who were not targeted could only get in on the deals by "bumping the bonus" - a practice that has now been completely shut down by American Express. Do I expect to see those mega-offers again this year? It's possible, but more than likely on a targeted basis only. If you are not targeted, then you're out of luck. As far as "public" offers are concerned, I believe this 25,000 bonus points referral is as good as it'll get!

For each approved referral, I will receive 10,000 bonus Membership Rewards points. Referrals must be submitted by February 13, 2012, and referred individuals must apply through the email link by February 28, 2012. This offer is valid for first time Premier Rewards Gold Card members only.

To apply, just email me your first and last name, along with your email address. I will send out your referral right away and you should receive an email from American Express within one day. You may not get the email if you have previously opted out of receiving marketing communications from American Express, so double check your online account settings.

Award "Sale" On Aeroplan

Via View From The Wing and this FlyerTalk thread, Air Canada's Aeroplan appears to be pricing business class awards at the economy level, and first class awards at the business level. It started last Friday December 2, and most people thought it was just an award system glitch, but now there is word that this is in fact a "special promotion" that has been confirmed by people affiliated with Aeroplan. Not sure how accurate this confirmation is, but as of today, it looks like the discount is still on.

I had thought about visiting Toronto next summer, and I am currently still seeing SFO-YYZ business seats going for 25,000 Aeroplan miles roundtrip! Be aware that Aeroplan does tack on fuel surcharges to Air Canada award tickets as well as some partner airlines, which can add up quickly. But if you have been planning an award itinerary for sometime next year, I would take advantage of this massive discount right away. There is no word yet on when this "promotion" will be pulled, but I don't expect it to last more than a few more days, if that.

Remember that American Express Membership Rewards is a transfer partner, and miles are deposited into your Aeroplan account almost immediately. This is a great way to burn some of your MR points, especially since Continental is no longer a partner and British Airways has massively devalued their award chart.

EDIT: Seems like they are gradually fixing the issue. There may still be some business and first class seats at the lower level, but most are back to their normal pricing. Take advantage of this "sale" while you still can!

30% Bonus When Transferring American Express Membership Rewards Points To British Airways

From now through January 31, 2012, receive a 30% bonus when transferring your American Express Membership Rewards points into British Airways Avios points. There is a minimum transfer requirement of 1,000 MR points. So for each increment of 1,000 MR points you transfer, you will receive 1,300 Avios points in your Executive Club account.

It seems a bit strange that American Express would be offering a mediocre bonus like this since they have previously run 40% and even 50% bonuses for British Airways points transfers. Even more so when you take into account the huge devaluation that BA just announced on November 16th. I certainly hope that AMEX will up their bonus offers in the near future. They certainly need to after Continental ceased to be a transfer partner as of September 30, 2011, and Air Canada's Aeroplan started adding fuel surcharges to certain partner awards. Membership Rewards points have become severely devalued as of late, so I would say that the only time you should really make any transfer is when they are running large bonus offers.

As for this offer, unless you have an immediate need to book a BA award flight, I would say hold off until a better promotion comes up in the future. Still, a mediocre promotion is better than none at all.

5,000 Membership Rewards Points For Pay Over Time Option

Via View From The Wing, earn a quick and easy 5,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up for their "Pay Over Time" option. This allows certain larger charges on your American Express Green, Premier Rewards Gold, or Platinum card to be paid over an extended period of time instead of paying them in full every month. You don't actually have to use it to get the 5,000 points, you just need to sign up so the option is there. Personally, I would avoid using this feature since you will be charged interest on the "Pay Over Time" amount.

Per the fine print, you must already have a Membership Rewards account at the time of enrollment, and bonus points will be credited to your account within 6-8 weeks after enrollment. The Bonus ID on this offer is 5670, 5671, or 5688 (I believe depending on the card type you have). Enroll by December 31, 2011.

75,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points For The AMEX Business Rewards Gold Card - TODAY ONLY

Jump on this offer if you've been meaning to apply for the American Express Business Rewards Gold card! For one day only (November 3, 2011), you will earn 75,000 bonus Membership Rewards points if you spend $10,000 within the first 5 months of cardmembership. The normal bonus offer on this card is 50,000 points. In addition the $175 annual fee is waived for the first year.

This card is the counterpart to the personal Premier Rewards Gold card, so the earn rates are similar, though on different types of categories. You earn 3x points per dollar spent on airfare, 2x points on advertising, gas, and shipping, and 1x points on everything else. Membership Rewards points, as always, can be transferred at a 1000:1000 ratio to a number of decent airlines, including Delta, British Airways, All Nippon Airways, Air Canada, etc.

If you just recently applied for the normal 50,000 points offer for the same card, you may be able to send a secure message asking for them to "bump the bonus" by citing this offer (Bonus ID 7616). Despite American Express recently cracking down on bumping the bonus using targeted offers, this appears to be a public offer so it's worth a shot.

The spend threshold on this offer is very high, and for that reason alone, I will probably pass. After all, I'm still working on the spend for my Citi Premier ThankYou card!

Delta 40% Rebate On Membership Rewards Transfers Delay

In late July 2011, Delta ran a very lucrative promotion for transferring American Express Membership Rewards points into Delta Skymiles. For every 50,000 MR points transferred, you would receive a 40% rebate on the points spent. The rebate would come in the form of an email certificate for 20,000 MR points that had to be deposited back into your MR account. Essentially, this was equivalent to a 67% bonus, since 30,000 MR points became 50,000 Delta Skymiles... and there appeared to be no limits on how many e-certs you could earn. So transfer a million MR points into Skymiles, and you would receive 20 e-certs back totaling 400,000 MR points.

The terms and conditions stated that you would receive the e-certs in your email within 8 weeks of the transfer, but soon people realized that their 8-week deadline came and went with still no sign of the certificate. I completed my 50,000 MR points transfer on August 4, 2011, so on October 4, 2011 I gave Delta a call to see what was going on. Many people had hoped to see their MR rebate before September 30, 2011 so they could transfer their points to Continental, since the Continental/MR relationship ended that day. Well... no such luck.

The lady I spoke to at Delta said there was a delay in processing the certificates and that I should receive them within another week. A week came and went, then almost another month. I finally called again today and was transferred twice, finally reaching the Delta Promotions desk, where the gentleman I spoke to had to call another department that issued the certificates to see what was going on. After being put on hold for another 10 minutes, he finally came back and said they were manually pushing through the email to me, and that I should receive it within 72 hours. No sign of the certificate in my email yet, but hopefully this time it's finally resolved.

If there are still people out there waiting for their 40% MR rebate certificates from Delta, I would suggest calling the Delta Promotions desk at 1-888-750-3284 directly, instead of the normal Skymiles reservations desk. Unlike the limited hours of the Skymiles reservations line, the Promotions desk is open 24 hours a day, and can help you directly with the issue. Good luck!

Say Goodbye To "Bump The Bonus"

American Express has long had a bad (good?) habit of applying targeted promotional offers to non-targeted cardholders' accounts and thereby "bumping the bonus" they receive. For example, I applied for an American Express Premier Rewards Gold card in May of this year and the promotion I signed up for only gave me 10,000 Membership Rewards points. There was another offer floating around, however, on Flyertalk which gave you 75,000 MR points after spending $500 within 3 months. Despite appearing targeted to specific customers only, I was able to call up American Express and have this offer applied to my account. After I completed the spend, I called them back and requested the full 75,000 points, which was promptly added to my account.

Well, it looks like those days of "bumping the bonus" are officially over. Since about a week ago, it looks like American Express has clamped down on this loophole and are now refusing to apply offers to non-targeted customers and also refusing to add bonus points to anyone's account - even those that have been previously notated with an offer code. It's unfortunate because in early August, I had another offer code applied to my Premier Rewards Gold account, giving me 10,000 MR points per additional user I added, after making the first spend on each card. I even blogged about it here. I added 5 additional users, and reconfirmed with another representative that the offer was applied to my account and that I would receive the points.

After hearing the chatter on Flyertalk regarding American Express' recent refusal of bonus points, I called up their Membership Rewards line (1-800-297-3276) to see for myself. Low and behold, I was denied the points since I was not specifically targeted for the promotion. After about half an hour on the line with both the representative and her supervisor, I hung up and dialed the American Express Executive Office line (212-640-2000). Apparently, the people at this office have more ability to "make things happen". I spoke at length with a pleasant lady who, despite continuing to deny me the points, still offered to do some more investigation into whether or not I was actually promised the points. I'm not worried about that since they can pull up phone records that show I indeed spoke to 2 different representatives who both confirmed that my account was notated and that I would receive the points after the first spend had been met. However, I'm not holding out hope that I will actually receive anything at the end of all this.

American Express has obviously realized that honoring these bonus points will cost them dearly, since the promotion code spread like wildfire and their own representatives were adding them onto everyone's accounts. They've clearly decided that cutting their losses far outweighs angering some of their customers and perhaps even some closed accounts. And frankly, I can't blame them.

I'll report back if I hear anything from the investigation, but it's definitely not looking good.

Two Additional Earning Opportunities With Hotel Stays

I'm a little late on the first one, but here are two more ways to earn miles or points with hotel stays:

1) Air Canada Aeroplan bonus miles at any Hyatt hotel worldwide:

• Between July 1, 2011 and September 30, 2011, every eligible stay at any hotel within the Hyatt group will earn 2,500 Aeroplan miles. A maximum of 25,000 miles can be earned through this promotion (10 stays).

• As I stated in the previous post, you must specify that you want to earn Aeroplan miles at every check-in, and provide your Aeroplan membership number. If you get Hyatt Gold Passport points posted instead, you must call in to customer service to get the problem fixed. If you are not a member of Aeroplan yet, you can enroll here.
  

• You will continue to earn the normal 500 Aeroplan miles per stay.

• Make sure you register prior to your first stay during the promotion period.

2) American Express Membership Rewards bonus points at three different Starwood Preferred Guest hotel brands:

• Between August 10, 2011 and November 15, 2011, every eligible stay at Four Points by Sheraton, Aloft, and Element hotels will earn 1,000 bonus MR points when you pay with your American Express card. Eligible American Express cards are those enrolled with the Membership Rewards program (not the hotel or airline co-branded AMEX cards). There does not appear to be a limit to how many bonus MR points you can earn through this promotion.

• This promotion can be stacked with the Southwest Rapid Rewards bonus points offer in the previous post. And you can earn both bonuses in addition to the normal SPG points you earn on stays.

• The bonus MR points will be sent via an email certificate 4-6 weeks after this promotion ends. You can redeem the points online through the Membership Rewards website, and points will post to your account within 24 hours.
  

• You must register for this promotion prior to your first stay during the promotion period.
  

10,000 Membership Rewards Points For Each Additional User

American Express Membership Rewards seems to be on a points free-for-all lately. This Flyertalk thread details information on promotion code 5721, which offers 10,000 MR points for each additional user added to your existing Premier Rewards Gold personal and business cards, or the Platinum card. For the Gold card, you can add up to 5 additional users for free, and any additional users beyond that for $35 per card. Platinum cardholders can add up to 3 additional users for $175 total.

I tried calling the Membership Rewards line at 1-800-AXP-EARN this morning, and was shot down a total of 4 times before I was finally successful. Each of the first 4 customer service representatives I spoke to denied me on the basis that I wasn't targeted for the offer. On the 5th try, I spoke to a gentleman who asked me to confirm the promotion code 5721, which I did. He then transferred me over to the Customer Service Department, which handled the adding of the additional users.

At first, the lady I was transferred to asked for the Social Security number for each user, but I told her I didn't have them with me at the moment, and she said that was fine and proceeded to take down the names and date of births of each person. After about 5 minutes, she said they were approved and I would receive the cards within 5-7 days. I asked her to confirm that the promotion code was actually applied to my account, but she said she wasn't able to do that. I will probably wait a few days for the madness to end before calling MR back to confirm (seems like AMEX is getting flooded with calls regarding this promotion).

YMMV highly on this one, but never hurts to try! Just do so quickly before it gets shut down like the 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points bump on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card!

(EDIT: It looks like this promotion was originally targeted for American Express Platinum members in Argentina only. However, based on anecdotal evidence, it sounds like AMEX might be honoring the offer code for everyone through today 8/10/2011 only. If you get shot down by a CSR, don't bother arguing, just hang up politely and call back again until you get someone who is willing to help you apply the code.)

Big Transfer Bonuses From Membership Rewards

Membership Rewards is the proprietary rewards program for American Express charge cards (green, gold, platinum). While MR offers many ways to redeem for rewards, perhaps the best way to use these points is by transferring them to any number of participating airline frequent flyer programs. Currently, AMEX has agreements with Delta Skymiles, Continental OnePass, British Airways Executive Club, Air Canada Aeroplan, and many more (most at a 1000:1000 ratio). It's usually a good idea to keep your points in the MR program and only transfer when you actually have a need to book an award flight. And if for some reason you have an urgent need to transfer points, I would always recommend Continental Airlines, since OnePass miles are generally more valuable.

However, there are two great promotions going on right now for transferring MR points into Delta Skymiles and British Airways Executive Club:

• From now through 9/30/2011, transfer any amount of MR points into the Delta Skymiles program and receive a 50% bonus. Transfer 100,000 points or more and also receive 25,000 Medallion Qualification Miles (MQM) - enough to qualify for Silver Medallion status. MQMs are NOT redeemable for awards and are only used for status qualification. Silver Medallion status will give you bonus redeemable miles, waived baggage fees, seat upgrades and more when traveling on Delta. Note that this is for first-time transfers only!

• From now through 7/31/2011, transfer any amount of MR points into the British Airways Executive Club program and receive a 50% bonus. Note that the bonus is only applicable once during this period!

I must add a word of warning though... because I normally would not recommend either program as a means to accumulate miles unless there is a large promotion like in this case. Delta Skymiles is notoriously stingy about releasing saver awards, especially on international flights. I've done some searches before for fairly popular international routes that Delta flies, and have seen zero saver award availability for an entire year! Domestic routes through their main hubs tend to be slightly better... but still far behind the competition. So even though it is extremely easy to accumulate, you often will end up spending double or even triple the amount of miles you originally thought. Hence the term "Skypesos".

British Airways, on the other hand, actually has fairly good award seat availability, especially on their own metal. However, they also tack on an obscene amount of fuel surcharge fees to award flights. First class flights going through London can have upwards of $700 in fuel surcharges, in addition to the miles they deduct from your account! They even collect fuel surcharges on partner awards flights such as Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines, whereas American Airlines never does that for award redemptions. Partner award fuel surcharges can run upwards of $400 roundtrip.

If you are interested in Membership Rewards, there is a thread on Flyertalk right now that details a promotion for 75,000 MR points after completing the spend requirements on an American Express Premiere Rewards Gold Card. I won't go into details about this here because this is not a straightforward application, and you may run into several obstacles trying to get the bonus points. Do read through the entire thread before deciding whether or not it's worth the risk!