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Stan, if you are doing this for improvement of AAoA, you can always once the account is posted to credit report, you can apply for another card and the close the current account. Once the account posts to your CR it will remain on the CR for 10 years and add to AAoA. Having too many accounts with amex could raise the flag for FR. Again with Amex you never know how they will react to any thing. See what your needs and go for them. I spend close to 20-30k / month for my business and persoanl needs. Since different companies offer different rewards, I like to have option of different rewards and that is the reason I have the cards. The point I am trying to say is the scores are meaning nothing. You get the credit as you need and use it careful and the scores will go back up again if you maintain good spending and payment patterns.
Good to err on the side of caution in these times. Nevertheless, I got a Blue Cash in 3rd qtr 2008 then SPG Amex in late 2009 and just got Gold in Mar 2010. 3 hits on the CR though and but all backdated to 2008. All are open and with decent CLs on the first and last. The SPG just got better at the 6 mth mark via CLI luv button soft pull. To not trigger an FR, I usually pay a big chunk before the statement cuts so my utilization is never more than 7% (a number I arbitrarily picked from reading these forums).
That an interesting strategy on opening and closing the accounts for the AAoA, but I think there is an actual benefit to leaving them open for us -- my wife doesn't have that low of an AAoA -- but two new 9+ year old trade lines would kick her up past another year mark.
The FR situation intrigues me the most. I would think that my card spending would more than likely trigger red flags than her getting a new card. Interestingly, when we were getting married last year and I was paying for everything, both Amex and Chase gave me unrequested CLIs last fall when I was charing an extra $2K to $6K per month on everything from the wedding venue to the honeymoon.
I would hope, because she is an AU on two of both of my Amex cards, that they'd figure out that we are married (and that I've told them that several times). So if one of us triggers an FR, I wondering if they would they lock up both of our individual trade lines, or only the person who triggered an FR. For all intents and purposes, we are financially the same exact people going forward -- just much different credit histories.
Not sure what happens if they FR. I would think they will leave your wifes cards alone since they are not related to you. Again with Amex one can tell how and why they do things the way they do.