Amex Business SPG Approved - $5k

[CreditJim]

Just had an instant approval for the Amex business SPG and they gave me $5k. I apped for this a few months ago after I got my personal SPG and was shot down. My renewals are up on my personal Amex PRG and Business Platinum, and as my wife (and business partner) also has a business platinum on my account, and our two employees have gold versions on that account, our AFs for the year are $840 ($450 + $300 + $45 + $45) + $175 for the PRG for a total of $1015 for 2 Amex accounts! After they nerfed the Platinum benefits I just can't justify that amount of money. I love the Centurion lounge in Dallas, which I've used quite a lot, but it still seems too much to justify. By getting rid of the MR cards, I'll be paying just $65/year for my business and all employees, and $65/ year for my personal, both with the first year free. I also have the targeted 50% MR to SPG bonus, so while it's still not great, I might transfer everything to SPG as that's what I'm hitting hard at the moment with a view to a very nice vaca in the future. Unless they give me a good retention offer for either PRG or Plat, and they weren't offering anything a month ago on the PRG when I asked!

[revjamesl]

Congrats!

[IWOL]

Congrats on your approval.  I have a personal and business SPG so I'm big on SPG points.

I transferred a good chunk of my MR from my business platinum to SPG to take advantage of the 50% bonus but it's still a poor conversion rate.

the best card to earn SPG now appears to be the Diners Club Elite MC. DC points transfer at 1.6 to 1 to Starwood. MR transfer at  3 to 1.

With the Diners Club you get  3X on groceries, gas and drugstores , so for category spending you effectively get 1.875 SPG PER $1 spent on Diners, close to double what you get on the SPG cards.

if you value SPG points at around 2.2 cents each than you would only have to spend $7300 in the 3x categories to cover the Diners Fee of $300 and anything over that is bonus. 

[CreditJim]

Don't do that to me! The last thing I need is another card. I'm currently in the process of tweaking everything to cut down my AFs and combine CLs where possible.

Can't decide what to do with my MR. I have about 150k from the past year, most of which I earned the hard way (no big sign up bonuses). As I see it my options are to take the slightly less bad hit and transfer to Starpoints (which is what I want). Second option see if I'm offered any retention bonus to keep either PRG or Plat open and defer the decision for another year or third, apply for the Everyday just to keep the MR where they are for now. Don't really want to open a new card just for this though, and not sure if get it even after opening the SPG biz and personal both within the past 4 months.

[CreditJim]

I'm pretty certain that this is a credit card approval - not sure why this was moved?

[B335is]

Congrats Jim! SPG personal and business are on my radar for 2015.

I think they consider anything Business related to fall under the business thread - including approvals.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations!...Thanks For Sharing.