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Introduction
I recently received an offer for 60,000 Membership Rewards (MR) points after spending $5,000 by upgrading my Amex Premier Rewards Gold (PRG) to an Amex Platinum. The offer was received via email with the subject line “Congratulations [NAME], Get Exciting Benefits When You Upgrade to the Platinum Card!” Of course I accepted the offer. The best part amount Amex upgrade offers is that you can receive a second (or third, or fourth…) point bonus that is not governed by the once-in-a-lifetime language that plagues all Amex signup bonuses.
Receive Multiple Incidental Credits when Upgrading
I had already used the $100 PRG annual incidental credit for 2018 by the time I upgraded. After the upgrade was processed, I noticed that the annual incidental’s benefit-tracker found under the “Benefits” section of my account page indicated I hadn’t used any of the $200 annual incidental credit that comes with all flavors of the Amex Platinum. While the upgrade/downgrade process with Amex cards is widely publicized, this benefit was unexpected. I assumed that at most I would receive the $100 difference in incidental credits between the PRG ($100) and the Platinum ($200), since I had already used the PRG credit.
I immediately selected Southwest as my airline of choice, waited a day, then proceeded to buy a Southwest giftcard. Sure enough, two days later I received the full $200 incidental credit!
Receive Multiple Incidental Credits when Downgrading
After speaking with someone else, it became evident that the incidental benefit also resets when downgrading from a Platinum to a PRG. This means you could double or triple dip the incidental credit in your first year, then downgrade to a PRG, and receive an additional $100 credit!
