Yup. Golden goose gets killed when a number of relatively high traffic travel blogs (seem to be a lot cropping up lately) post the same info. I've been turned down for EVERY bonus I've called or written in for with the excuse that I've not been targeted. But that's life. On to the next deal.

I love Amex and Amex loves me.

My local restaurants hate Amex so I give them capitalone

Rich,
Is it possible to get another SPG card? Can you have more than one at the same time?

I too had problems bumping the bonus on the Am X Gold to 75K, it took several calls and a lot of time on hold. Eventually I was allowed the one "best available" even though I wasn't targeted but declined for the other bonuses (only one per customer).

Hoko a reader emailed me to tell me his codes had been removed

Anon. You can get a second spg card but probably not another sign up bonus

The SPG application requires income and income source. I am not sure how to fill it in for my "stay at home mom" spouse. Can I list our household income here?

Rick,

Wouldn't it be likely to get another bonus on the 2nd SPG card, as long as the original was cancelled over 24 months previous?

I thought we had pretty good intel on this being AmEx's policy for determining "new" accounts.

Rick,

Thanks for your response about the SPG application. I am going to try to copy/paste the relevant SPG application form part here:

Total Annual Income:* $ .00 Income Source:*
Include income from all sources including employment, retirement, investments, rental properties, etc. Alimony, child support, or separate maintenance need not be revealed if you do not wish to rely upon it.

Ok not very pretty but you can see they give you a spot to enter Total Annual Income and the Income Source. Income Source lists Retired, Self-Employed, Unemployed, Employed, Student. I am not sure there is a good match for the source being Spouse.

I feel like you mentioned a regulation change that may be related to this. I am hoping this is not a sign of it being harder to sign up non-working spouses.

Thanks,
Steve

Honestly, as with ALL bump the bonus situations… it really will be YMMV. Some people have received bumps on stuff that nobody else ever has, just for asking. The company has always been generous, and I think as long as you get the right person in the right mood, that most requests will still be honored.

We'll have to wait and see if MASS reports come in for bump the bonuses being removed.. Until then, I won't believe it honestly. I wouldn't attempt a bonus without several reports that it was positive or realistic – like the AMEX 2 year free columbia grad school card… it was not legit.

FWIW, I successfully bumped the bonus twice last night. Applied last week (8/16) thru the PRG link on your blog. You didn't have an Amex Biz Gold link at the time so I couldn't apply for that thru your blog. Got the CCs in the mail yesterday and bumped the bonus on both of them last night.

6608: 100k for $2k spend in 3 months on Biz Gold
6661: 75k for $1k spend in 3 months on PRG

Third time was the charm on PRG, and 2nd time was the charm on Gold Biz. If you fail, keep trying cuz this is a YMMV situation as the above poster stated. Fingers crossed I can try to add 6664 to at least my PRG (10k bonus per month for 15 transactions).