If you are an American Express Card Member, one of the biggest perks is regular offers for bonus points or cashback when you make purchases at participating retailers. If these offers align with something you were planning to buy anyway, then it sweetens the deal.
What are Amex Offers?
Amex Offers gives you discounts and savings with bonus points or a statement credit when eligible purchases are made. Usually, you need to meet a certain threshold, though bonus points offers are generally on a per-dollar basis.
Participating businesses can range from smaller boutique stores to big brands such as Amazon, Sony, Qantas and Harvey Norman. Keep an eye out for any offers that might be relevant to you.
Popular recurring Amex Offers include:
- Platinum Charge: Spend $200+ and get $200 dining credit back in Australia at participating restaurants.
- Platinum Charge: Spend A$200+ and get A$200 dining credit back overseas at participating restaurants.
- Platinum Charge: Get a credit for the cost of your annual Amazon Prime subscription.
- General: Spend $500+ at Qantas Hotels and get a credit of $30-$150.
- General: Spend $400 at various hotel chains and get a credit of $80-$100.
- General: Spend $500 at Qantas and get a credit of $100.
- General: Spend $2,000 at various airlines and get a credit of $200.
- General: Spend $500 at Webjet and get a credit of $100.
These are just a few examples of what you can expect from Amex Offers, so be sure to check your account regularly.
Here are some key points to keep in mind:
- Not every offer is made available to all members. Some are personalised, so you may see something in your account that another person doesn’t. Spend thresholds and cashback amounts may vary as well.
- You must use the card enrolled in the offer to access the benefit. Additional Card members have to enrol in offers separately with their own account (and may not be able to access the same range of offers as Primary members).
- Make sure you read the terms and conditions for each offer.
- Some business, travel, government and prepaid cards are not eligible.
Amex Offers are usually combinable with third-party cashback sites (such as Cashrewards, Shopback, and Topcashback) and coupon codes, as long as the final amount still meets the offer threshold. But consult the T&Cs for any exclusions.
If you’re an existing American Express Card Member, then it’s easy to register for offers:
- Log in to your American Express account or go through the Amex app
- Scroll down the web until you see ‘Offers’. On the app, look for the ‘Offers’ tab.
- You’ll see the offers your card is eligible for. Click ‘Save to Card’ to activate it.
- Complete your qualifying spend by the expiry date. If you meet all the T&Cs, you’ll get your reward shortly.
According to the terms and conditions, statement credits are processed within three working days but can take up to 90 days in rare circumstances. In our experience, statement credits usually appear within 48 hours or less of the purchase being made.
American Express Platinum Card
Summing up
Amex Offers are a handy way to maximise your American Express membership. You can save hundreds of dollars a year on things you might have purchased anyway.
Keeping an eye on the Offers section of the mobile app is an easy way to see where you can score some discounts in the form of statement credits. But the usual rules of discount hunting apply. Don’t go overboard and spend more than you would have done anyway because there’s a deal!
Frequently asked questions
If you have an Amex-issued card, you will find the offers in your account or on the mobile app.
American Express does not typically waive annual fees. You should contact Amex for more information or to put in a request.
Apart from these promotions such as ‘Shop Small’, many American Express cards come with other benefits such as bonus points signups and lounge access passes.
If the AMEX card is spent via online or in-store google pay/wallet, instead of tapping/inserting/entering card details manually, does the cashback offer still trigger?
Does anyone know if the travel credits that Amex Platinum gives will be extended as there is no way to spend those travel credits?
Worse, I had travel credits that was refunded to me due to cancelled flights so I have double the amount of credits to spend.
Hi Benjamin
Information regarding Amex Travel credits can be found at https://www.americanexpress.com/au/customer-service/coronavirus/
I have the Platinum Charge card and received the double points offer. We travel a lot and it’s the travel benefits of this card that justifies the $1,450 fee. I assume the offer is to somehow counteract the fact we can’t use these benefits right now. However, as a result, our spending has reduced significantly, so even with this offer, I will be earning fewer points per month than I did before, because I simply cannot spend on the things I like – airfares, hotels, dining, theatre etc.
Hello,
You may already know but Amex changed its T&Cs since October 2017 (May 2019?) so that you only get complimentary Qantas lounge invitations if you buy directly from Qantas.com.au. This means that if you buy thru Amex Travel (e.g. to claim your $450 flight credit) you will NOT be eligible for a lounge invitation. Perhaps Amex Travel should put a big warning on their site that you may be better off booking with qantas.com.au than with them.
Does buying wine on Qantas epiqure count as a Qantas online spend for AMEX current offer?
I’m just wondering why there are AMEX offers in the US for at least three cruise lines that also operate out of Australia – there are no offers here for the same product. I think it is $100 back for a $500 spend. Thinking that global companies should be a bit fairer with their offers.
Hi All,
Just a little point hack tip for the shop small and offers and why they are awesome! Offers actually apply per card you register not per account so it is applicable to supplementary cards too that have the offer in the offer section. So in our case my wife and I have an AMEX each and are supplementary holders on each others card which meant in the shop small promo, we had 4 cards with 10 places each. So we actually got $400 worth of credits! Must admit we ate out more than we normally do that month but oh it was worth it!
Also for a Harvey Norman offer they had spend $300 get $100 credit, we purchased 2 x $600 ish items, paid $300 deposit on one card and then balance on delivery on the other card = $400 off $1200 worth of stuff that was already discounted and further reduced because we paid cash (not interest free)
WINNING!!!!
I don’t have access to the Amex (spend $200, receive $50 credit) or the Avis (5 points per dollar spent) offer on my American Express issues Velocity Platinum card.
Is this because the number of offers available have already been activated by others and the allocation is exhausted? Or, do different card members receive different offers?
Different cardholders do definitely get different offers – I hope to get a consolidated list out of Amex at some point and update you guys on them more frequently.
Hmmm, seems to work for me and has for ages…..
Jan 29:
“We’re sorry, the Connect Login/Sign up functionality is currently unavailable. We are working to get this fixed as soon as we can. Thank you for your patience, we apologise for any inconvenience. If you have any other Connect enquiries please contact us using the contact us link.”
Seems to be some teething issues…
The Amex Connect site seems to be up and running again. It was able to recognise my Bank Issued (ANZ) Amex today. If you have had problems with the site last week it might be worth a try today. 🙂
worked for me
I had the same problem signing up too, so put in an enquirer with AMEX. They replied very quickly saying they were having issues at the moment and to try again tomorrow (although that was two days ago, and it’s not fixed yet). Hopefully soon!
I just tried signing up with my Westpac Altitude Rewards card and also got the same message and could not follow the link to contact either.
Well, I logged in fine (IOS App) but the offers area is empty ..just comes up with a no offers in this area screen. I’ve searched various AU locations, nothing anywhere.
ANZ FF Black Also failed register on Amex Connect.
Seems to be an issue with bank issued cards?
I tried signing up my CommBank Plat Amex and also got: The Card number you have entered has not been recognised within American Express Connect, please try again.
Sure was, clicked on the link above. Then clicked on the contact us button and it just times out.
Doesn’t work. Tried signing up my nab Qantas platinum card and website comes back saying it doesn’t recognise card number.
This is for Amex Connect?
Hi Anthony, it is a bit confusing. There is one site for Amex issued cards and one for Bank Issued cards. I have both (including a NAB Amex which I’ve registered successfully).