One Time Use for Signup Rewards
Word on the street is that come May 1, 2014, American Express will limit the bonuses of each of its card to one per lifetime. Previously, you needed to wait 365 days before signing up again for the same card you had cancelled before. According to rumors, in addition to this restriction you will be ineligible to get the bonus points/miles for any Amex past the first time you get a card.
This has a fairly small impact on those who churn credit cards since the one year gap made using the same Amex card multiple times a fairly long game to play. And since there is only one JetBlue by Amex card, this basically was at best a once a year opportunity for 20,000 pounds.
Under the updated terms, however, this means that you can only earn the 20,000 TrueBlue points once per person ever. This will make using some more unorthodox methods, such as using the Chase Marriott card to get 5x TrueBlue points per dollar spent at Marriott hotels, or using the crossover redemption from Hawaiian Airlines, more attractive.
The Future
In light of this, a post will soon be coming on utilizing Hawaiian miles to book JetBlue flights since TrueBlue points will now be more scarce. While this is still a rumor, it certainly would not be surprising as credit card companies have no reason not to protect themselves more thoroughly from churning. As the economy as been improving, they may be able to be more selective and less aggressive with attracting customers and this seems like an easy way for them to recoup some costs on signups from customers they already have in their pool.
- John
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