UPDATE: These offers have expired but you can check out our top hotel credit card offers here.
The other day, I wrote about how the offers for the SPG Personal and Business Amex cards have reached an all time high, at 35,000 points for each card. You can read my review of the cards here (Record high 35,000 point bonus for SPG personal and business cards) or apply directly using my affiliate links (I will receive a commission if you apply through my links, which I appreciate if you do!)
But what if you already HAVE the SPG Amex cards?
Because American Express limits you to only receiving the bonus on cards once per lifetime (for the most part), if you’ve already gotten a bonus on one of these cards, you’re likely not going to be able to get the record high 35,000 point bonus.
In our case, Carolyn and I BOTH signed up for the cards back in September when the bonus was 30,000 points.
I read an interesting post over at Doctor of Credit suggesting that if you had recently signed up for the card with a lower bonus, that you could call up American Express and ask for some bonus points. American Express supposedly does not “match” increased offers (the way that Chase and other banks seem to do), but they have been known to give “courtesy” points. There are full instructions on the DoC post as well as plenty of data points suggesting that it is working.
The gist of it is that you call in, explain the situation with the higher bonus, and you will probably need to ask to speak to a manager as the front line reps are not authorized to give the 5,000 or 10,000 point adjustments (depending on when you signed up)
Giving it a try
So this afternoon I gave it a try – I went first and called. The initial person I spoke to said there was nothing she could do, so I asked to speak to a manager. The manager said that she would check on some things, and put me on a brief hold. When she came back, she was pleased to tell me that they had credited 5,000 points to my account.
Then it was Carolyn’s turn. Oh let me tell you how she loves calling credit card companies!!! But she did, and it took a little longer but she was able to also get a 5000 point adjustment as well as she was thanked for 17 years of being an Amex customer!
So if you haven’t had the SPG Amex personal or business cards and want them with the 35,000 point bonus, you can get them here, and if you’ve recently signed up, call in to see if you can get matched. We both succeeded on our first try, but others have reported having to hang up and call back
Let me know if you’re successful in the comments!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Screw your Flash pop-ups. Thanks
Called in late last night and the front line CSR was able to issue me the extra 5k starpoints (previously “matched” to 30k from 25k), which posted instantly. In my experience AMEX tends to be really stingy when it comes to “matching” offers – maybe they’re making an exception for spg as an attempt to attract/retain as many customers as possible before the upcoming merger?
Just called, was going to call a few days ago by amex has always been stingy to me with these offers. The response I got from the first rep was the bloggers are posting about this so we aren’t doing it anymore talked to a supervisor no dice.
Eh – I’d try at least 2 or 3 more times – HUCA is the motto!
I called in for the upgrade on the Hilton AmEx and got 10000 points
They would not do it for my Hilton Amex to match the new 70k instead they gave me 3k in points
Called 2x times yesterday and got managers and nada, zip, nothing. Guess I will try again tonight. Is there a certain phone number that seems to have more generous AMEX folks on the other end.
It seems they’ve loosened up the strings a bit. I called multiple times last week and got nothing, but was able to get 6000pts today.
Don’t give up; this morning I got the 5k courtesy match from my app during the 30k offer last September.
I applied at 25K the day before the 35K came out. Last week when my card arrived, I called AmEx multiple times, talked to supervisors and managers, and they wouldn’t budge- they wouldn’t give me anything.
I called again today- the frontline CSR offered me 3000 pts, so I asked to speak to a supervisor, who offered an additional 3000 pts.
So, I got 6000 points total- doesn’t quite make up the full 10K pt gap, but at least it’s something.
I’ve tried this a few times over the past two weeks and have had no luck at all.
Bummer! It worked for me on the first try.