American Express now offers huge welcome bonuses for getting a card. Up until last week the welcome bonus for a regular American Express Platinum Card was 50,000 membership reward points. However, until March 3, 2026, this welcome bonus is 170,000 membership reward points. This is the biggest welcome bonus AmEx offered so far!
Welcome Bonus American Express
When signing up for an American Express Platinum Card, you’ll be rewarded 170,000 bonus points. This is pretty awesome since this is enough for a round trip in business class! However, this is not the only card American Express offers a bigger welcome bonus for. You’ll be rewarded 70,000 bonus points when signing up for an American Express Gold Card.
Membership Rewards Points can easily be converted into Cathay Pacific Asia Miles or Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. Over the past few years, I reviewed quite some airlines that are possible to book using membership rewards points. Think of Qatar Airways Business Class Qsuites on the Airbus A350-1000
Nearly all Oneworld and Star Alliance partners are bookable with membership rewards points since Cathay Pacific Asia Miles and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles are both a membership rewards transfer partner.
Almost no spend requirement anymore
Just signing up for the card is not enough though. Before, you also needed to spend a certain amount before getting the bonus. But from now on, the bonus will not be given in one shot anymore. This is to avoid customers will cancel their card right after getting the bonus. The first half of the bonus points will be rewarded after 6 months. in every month. you need to do at least one transaction with the card. The second half of the bonus points will given after 12 months. In all of these months you need to do just one transaction with the card.
Welcome Bonus Flying Blue AmEx
Not only the regular American Express cards will get you a welcome bonus. The Flying Blue AmEs cards will get you a similar welcome bonus. When signing up for a Flying Blue AmEx Platinum, you’ll be rewarded 120,000 Flying Blue miles. Like with the regular Platinum Card, this is enough for a round trip in business class. The number of bonus miles for getting a Flying Blue Amex Gold Card is 40,000.
The same rule I mentioned above also applies to the Flying Blue AmEx cards. Myself I have both the regular American Express and Flying Blue AmEx. I often get asked why I have both types of cards. The answer is to this is getting more points and bonuses. Flying Blue miles are best for many ways to redeem miles like during the monthly Promo Rewards. A few years back, I had the chance to fly KLM World Business Class on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner from Chicago to Amsterdam.
It has to be said that on top of the miles you redeem, you also pay taxes and fees which are decent in most cases. However, they can be a few hundreds euros in certain cases. That’s still nothing compared to the thousands of euros you’d pay for a revenue ticket in business class.
Other Rules And Conditions
The bonus only is for new members. American Express considers new members as those who didn’t have an American Express card in the last 12 months. You can still get the bonus when having a Flying Blue AmEx when signing up for a regular American Express card and visa versa though. American Express considers them as two different products. So haven’t you one of these cards yet? I wouldn’t think about signing up any longer since this is the highest bonus so far!
