AMEX upgrade connundrum

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Paul TATK New Member

October 9, 2018, 12:52 pm

Sorry if this gets long …

I’ve had an AMEX Classic Gold forever (it was my first rewards card, before I got serious about miles and points) and I don’t want to cancel it due to the age of the account. It has a $160 fee and I rarely use it because the rewards structure is outdated (2x points on purchases through the AMEX travel portal, and I redeem points for most of my flights now!) I don’t have the option to downgrade it to a no-annual-fee card.

I looked into it and I have the opportunity to upgrade it to either the new Gold Card, or the Platinum Card. The strange thing is, apparently I can’t get the 25,000-point bonus if I upgrade to the Gold, but I COULD get the 60,000-point bonus if I upgrade to the Plat! (I think. I’ve cancelled a few AMEX cards, so I may get told I’m disqualified for a bonus).

QUESTION: Does anyone know if upgrading from one AMEX product to another counts toward 5/24 with Chase? I’m guessing no.

QUESTION: Which should I upgrade to? I know it’s a personal question … 4x points on dining and groceries makes the Gold Card appealing to me, but I hate to pass on a sign-up bonus! On the other hand, if I’m not sure I’ll get full value from the Platinum yet, I would be loathe to cancel it because I want to keep the old account for my credit! I had the Business Platinum for a year (100k sign-up bonus!!!) but didn’t keep it because based on my travel patterns the perks didn’t justify it (I can always get it again in the future, just no bonus).

My card portfolio is getting complicated! And I’m becoming sensitive about redundancies. I’m applying for the Chase Ink Preferred soon, and if I’m doing my dining spend on AMEX Gold and travel spend on Ink Preferred, I might even consider downgrading my trusty Sapphire Preferred to a Freedom Unlimited. I could also get a Citi ThankYou Preferred for the bonus and the gas spend … at which point it might be worth trying to downgrade my other most trusty card – the AMEX EveryDay Preferred – because I’ll have 4x points on groceries from the Gold Card, 3x points on Gas from the ThankYou Preferred, and 1.5x points on everything from the Freedom Unlimited. Ack …

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