Credit Card Offers Amex Explorer: 50,000 bonus Amex points

Earn uncapped Amex Points and enjoy a $400 travel credit every year!​

Learn more and apply for this card:

American Express® Explorer Credit Card

With the American Express Explorer credit card, earn uncapped Amex Membership Rewards points and offset the annual fee with a travel credit.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

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What are the main benefits of this card?

1. Signup bonus: 50,000 bonus Amex Membership Rewards Points, when you spend at least $4,000 on eligible purchases within 3 months of approval
2. Earn 2 Membership Rewards Points per $1 on eligible purchases, uncapped, which you can transfer to 13 different airline & hotel programs
3. $400 annual travel credit fully offsets the $395 annual fee

Why we like the American Express Explorer credit card

This card lets you earn Amex Membership Rewards points at a solid rate of 2 points per dollar, uncapped, without the higher annual fee of the Amex Platinum card.

You can transfer Amex points to 11 airline frequent flyer programs and 2 hotel loyalty programs, generally at a 2:1 rate. For example, this means you’re effectively earning 1 Velocity Point, Qatar Avios or Cathay Asia Mile per $1 spent on the card.

The $395 annual fee is offset by a $400 annual travel credit that you can spend on eligible flights, car rentals or hotels when booking through American Express Travel.

You'll also receive two free annual visits to the Amex Centurion Lounges in Sydney or Melbourne Airport, plus complimentary travel insurance. See our card guide for the full details:

American Express® Explorer Credit Card

With the American Express Explorer credit card, earn uncapped Amex Membership Rewards points and offset the annual fee with a travel credit.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

AFF members are welcome to discuss this card in this thread.

 

[DeKa]

My travel credit showed up correctly but I had to make another call to get the points to show up in Ascent as it still hadn't come over after a few days.

Ok, mine is the opposite. Points started accruing to Ascent immediately but there’s no travel credit. Explorer is brand new though and annual fee not yet paid.

 

[Cynicor]

Ive been one of the lucky ones that managed to get mine merged on my frist call months ago,

It appears that its gettting harder or near impossbile to get the ascent and gatweay link thesed days

I have wondered if one day, down the track amex are simpyl going to say, ok we have fixed our systems and for those that have merged will have to unmerge them, or if you have both cards, they must be unmerged


are we on borrowed time for 2ppd on the ascent program with this card

It's still luck of the draw and no harder. Of 4 people who have called in the last 2 weeks, one is still trying (3 calls so far), 2 got it first call and 1 took 3 calls.

 

[somebodyhere]

Looking to see your thoughts on this one.

I have Platinum Charge, Platinum Reserve and Explorer.

At the moment both the Explorer and Platinum Reserve are linked to the Ascent Premium on my Platinum Charge.

Thinking of closing the Platinum Charge.

My understanding is that the Platinum Reserve will then have a standard Ascent rewards program.

Will the Explorer be linked to the Ascent rewards from the Platinum Reserve?

Or am I taking a huge risk of it going back to Gateway rewards?

 

[somebodyhere]

Looking to see your thoughts on this one.

I have Platinum Charge, Platinum Reserve and Explorer.

At the moment both the Explorer and Platinum Reserve are linked to the Ascent Premium on my Platinum Charge.

Thinking of closing the Platinum Charge.

My understanding is that the Platinum Reserve will then have a standard Ascent rewards program.

Will the Explorer be linked to the Ascent rewards from the Platinum Reserve?

Or am I taking a huge risk of it going back to Gateway rewards?

I answered my own question. Called AmEx and the overseas CSO believes that the Ascent rewards will have a new account number and my existing points will remain in the Ascent Premium account number (which can be moved across to the normal Ascent account upon calling up), and my Explorer will have its own Gateway account number.

 

[SOPOOR]

A long shot but does anyone have a few loophole ideas


Looking to pay ebm insurance online.

They don't have a post bill pay. Don't accept PayPal. Only accept full payment via Visa or Master card.

Anyway I could be able to use Explorer card without paying fees or minimal fees

Ive come up with the same problem with Vic Car registration

went to post office and tried to pay off with some visa1 cards, ssytem wouldnt allow a partial,

tried online, no go with the partial payment,

whats everyone else doing?

seems silly to not be able to partially pay something importantn and expensive as car reg

 

[churnandfly]

It took me 4 calls to get them merged.
Then 2 calls to get my missing Explorer points added back after the merge.
Then 2 more calls to find out what's happened with my Platinum Edge points which disappeared once the Explorer points were added back (the PE points still haven't been added in, but it's a couple more days before she said to call back if they haven't appeared).
Both of my travel credits are gone (unless I'm looking in the wrong spot for them since the redesign? Not sure), which will require another call.
Also made 2 other calls about Shop Small credits not being granted.
It's been a mission, but every call has been pleasant.

Happy to report it's all sorted. Points are linked, missing Explorer points added to Ascent, missing Ascent points added back, travel credits (2x) now visible and the shop small credits were added manually. Despite the challenges, the AMEX CSRs have all been great to deal with.

 

[Cynicor]

I answered my own question. Called AmEx and the overseas CSO believes that the Ascent rewards will have a new account number and my existing points will remain in the Ascent Premium account number (which can be moved across to the normal Ascent account upon calling up), and my Explorer will have its own Gateway account number.

I reckon the rep has it wrong, as usual. The points will devolve to ascent, and be linked to the reserve. The Explorer will remain on the ascent too. I wouldn't bet everything on it, but I'd go pretty hard on it.

 

[wchiri]

Called up on a Monday at midday EST. Asked if I could link explorer with platinum edge, he said no worries. Got the process underway. 5 days later cards were linked, 2 days after that all points are on ascent program. Very easy process for me.

 

[albyd]

I wanted to report back that my Explorer travel credit for this year has automatically shown up. Was previously broken with the link to Ascent Premium MR.

Glad I took the risk a few months back with Amex SYDNEY operative making the relevant changes for it to work automatically and keep me earning to Ascent Premium.

Now to spent my travel credits. I’m finding decent choice but places I want to stay at are not available on the Amex travel service. First world problems I guess

 

[bigray73]

weeks

3rd time lucky for me

 

[SOPOOR]

So... My first year as an Amex card holder is about to come up.

Absolutely loved the card and spent big on it all year.

Mine expires 25th Jan or there abouts. Which means the annhal fee and travel is coming up (I assume)
Other than cancelling which I don't want. Is there anything I can do to waive the fee.
I guess I could pay the fee. Sell the travel credit which won't negate it totally.

Could I threaten to cancel and waive the fee?

 

[albyd]

Looks like there's been little joy reported on AFF lately.

When I last tried a few months ago, they did say no more than one set of bonus points per calendar year so if this is your only Amex, might be worthwhile giving it a shot with Amex closer to your renewal date.

I’ll try again shortly and report back if I have any joy as it’s been almost a year since Amex gave me retention bonus points without even asking to keep my Platinum Reserve open even though I hadn’t threatened to cancel it since it’s free with my Platinum Charge. Assuming that’s the bonus that disqualified me from a retention bonus on my Charge more recently.

 

[NoName]

So... My first year as an Amex card holder is about to come up.

Absolutely loved the card and spent big on it all year.

Mine expires 25th Jan or there abouts. Which means the annhal fee and travel is coming up (I assume)
Other than cancelling which I don't want. Is there anything I can do to waive the fee.
I guess I could pay the fee. Sell the travel credit which won't negate it totally.

Could I threaten to cancel and waive the fee?

Your annual fee won’t be charged until the first statement date after your anniversary date. My experience has been that the travel credit for the 2nd year will show up after the anniversary date (before annual fee is charged). Use the credit prior to cancelling.

 

[SOPOOR]

Your annual fee won’t be charged until the first statement date after your anniversary date. My experience has been that the travel credit for the 2nd year will show up after the anniversary date (before annual fee is charged). Use the credit prior to cancelling.

Thanks for that.
I actually do want to keep the card..

 

[SOPOOR]

took peoples advice and called up and asked nicely if they could waive the fee, due to the fee being too high,

and after 5 mins on hold the guy came back to me and offered me 30 or 35k points to stay,
so I happily accepted it,

apparently it was because I have so many supp cards (5) and im one of their top users.......

even though I only spend about 3-4 k per month

 

[Plutonus]

Well I applied for Explorer as an existing cardholder last month, duly spent my $1,500, no bonus points as of yet (new gateway rewards account, never had gateway before). Just a data point for people.

 

[daft009]

Anyone with a really high spend on this card tried cancelling or fishing for free points? By high spend I mean 50-100k per month every month

 

[Pointy Bird]

Anyone with a really high spend on this card tried cancelling or fishing for free points? By high spend I mean 50-100k per month every month

My spend is 200k - 300k per month but I have not asked the question. I wonder how many "free" points they may offer me...

 

[Dr Ralph]

Well I applied for Explorer as an existing cardholder last month, duly spent my $1,500, no bonus points as of yet (new gateway rewards account, never had gateway before). Just a data point for people.

But you expect to get the bonus points?

 

[daft009]

My spend is 200k - 300k per month but I have not asked the question. I wonder how many "free" points they may offer me...

Woah!
Lol give it a go and report back please