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.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Hi
With the current offers on meeting the qualifying spend could be a challenge (Westpac + ANZ + Amex all times 2 applications = ~$13k). Does anyone have any tips on meeting these? Do Utility Bills, Body Corporate fees, BPAY payments etc count towards the spend?

What about the purchase of Wish Cards, Gift cards etc?




Cheers in advance

Yes purchase of Gift Cards count.

Yes pay your bills and also pre-pay your bills. Health Insuranace, Rates, Phone etc etc.


However note that with some cards that points on gov spend can be low. So match your spend with the cards to maximise earn.

Link your highest earning card to PayPal (ie your Amexs and not MC/VISAs) as well to pay bills etc to gain the higher earn rate. You can use different Amexes to move on to once you have reached the limit on each card.

Avoid BPAY for even if it meets your spending T&C it will not earn points on the spend.


STAGGER: Stagger when you apply for the cards too as this will lengthen the time that you qualifying spend will be over.

 

[get me outta here]

Good point to load your card onto PayPal. Amex especially useful for when Amex is not accepted, but would be accepted via PP.

Yes purchase of Gift Cards count.

Yes pay your bills and also pre-pay your bills. Health Insuranace, Rates, Phone etc etc.


However note that with some cards that points on gov spend can be low. So match your spend with the cards to maximise earn.

Link your highest earning card to PayPal (ie your Amexs and not MC/VISAs) to PayPal as well to pay bills etc to gain the higher earn rate. You can use different Amexes to move on once you have reached the limit on each card.

Avoid BPAY fot even if it meets your spending T&C it will not earn points on the spend.


STAGGER: Stagger when you apply for the cards too as this will lengthen the time that you qualifying spend will be over.

 

[Ken1]

Has anyone tried using the smartphone screen insurance? After a liquid lunch yesterday I may have dropped it while getting in the uber.

I'm tossing up if I should pay to get it done properly and send the receipt in to make a claim, or just pay some dodgy little shop cash to swap it

If you didn't buy the phone or pay for the contract with the Explorer card I don't think you'll be covered for screen breakage. This is from the Amex Explorer web page:

• Smartphone Screen Insurance for up to $500 for screen repairs to your Smartphone when you pay for your phone or contract with your American Express Explorer[SUP]TM[/SUP] Credit Card[SUP]8[/SUP]

 

[Ken1]

After applying for the Explorer card last Thursday afternoon it has arrived today - very quick - only 6 days - considering Monday was a Public Holiday.

I've just called the Platinum Charge phone number and the Agent I spoke to, who was in Australia, helped me with transferring most of my limit from the Platinum Reserve to the Explorer and that happened while I was still on the phone. I had followed the suggestion to me on this thread last week to only ask for a 3K limit when applying and then ask to have most of the limit from the Reserve transferred.

When I applied for the Explorer card online last week I requested a Supplementary card in my Wife's name and that arrived with mine today. While I was on the phone today I asked for a Supplementary card for our Son and that request has gone through, and I then asked about getting Supplementary cards for myself and my Wife so we can keep business expenses separated. He said that they are not Supplementary cards but additional cards and he has put the request through and said someone would contact me if there are any problems.

When I log in to my Membership Rewards account it only shows Ascent Premium. Should I wait until at least one charge has gone through on the Explorer card and see that it has gone into the Ascent Premium account before asking for a Gateway account for the Explorer?

 

[mmchow]

On your Gateway account page, under point balance, did you see the Gateway Rewards or referring you to your Ascent Premium? If latter, you account has been linked to the higher MR. A call will fix this easily.

 

[Ken1]

On your Gateway account page, under point balance, did you see the Gateway Rewards or referring you to your Ascent Premium? If latter, you account has been linked to the higher MR. A call will fix this easily.

I don't see a Gateway account page. On the login My Account Page it shows the Explorer, Reserve and Platinum Charge cards, where I can check transactions and balances for each card. When I go to Your Statement - Membership Rewards - Points Account - My Points I see my current transactions and the number of points I've received for each. At the top of the screen it shows Ascent Premium and when I click on the arrow that is all that's there. Gateway is not showing as a separate option so it appears that the Explorer has been linked to my Ascent Premium account.

When I activated the Explorer card online it then showed straight away in my account, along with the other two cards. I'll go to Woolworths and buy something tonight and see what happens with the points for that transaction when they post. I thought that possibly Gateway may not show up until I have purchased something on the Explorer, but going on previous posts I've read here it's more likely that it is already linked to Ascent Premium.

 

[koconder]

Edge and Plat are in the Ascent/ Ascent Premium MR category so an application of either card will trigger the bonus points. You'll have to weigh out the pro/cons of both cards as they differ significantly. By opening one of the account below and merging your Explorer to the Ascent, you are earning 2points/$1 into the Ascent program. There are referral links where you can pick up additional points.
Edge - $195 annual fees, good earn on supermarket (3/$1), 9 airline transfer partners + various hotel partners, $200 travel credit (post March 2016)
Charge - $1200 annual fees, good earn on restaurant (3/$1), 10 airline transfer partners + various hotel partners, $300 travel credit, comp elite tier hotel, lounge access, access to AMEX Fine Hotel for additional benefit.

Awesome... i think ill use the Edge for a 1 year then switch to Plat Charge later. I got my bonus for the Explorer - How long would you reccomend before applying via referral?

 

[Hammando]

As long as your income/credit score is okay I don't think it will matter. Amex are pretty commercial. I think I had 2 months between my applications. Both instantly approved.

 

[Jaian]

On your Gateway account page, under point balance, did you see the Gateway Rewards or referring you to your Ascent Premium? If latter, you account has been linked to the higher MR. A call will fix this easily.

I'm expecting my Explorer card in the mail this week, I'm a little unclear as to how to activate the bonus. I already have a Platinum Charge card (ie. Ascent Premium)...do I need to ensure the Gateway account is unlinked first before hitting the minimum spend for the bonus, then relink the accounts? Or if it comes pre-linked (ie. only my Premium Ascent account), just leave it as it is, and do my minimum spend to hit the 100k bonus?

 

[Damien00]

I received my Explorer card back in October and qualified for the 100,000 bonus points pretty quickly. I also used my travel credit right away and managed to transfer a bunch or points through to Velocity back when they had their bonus offer for manual transfers so I scored some extra points through that also.

But after some consideration and now having quite a large stash of Velocity points, I decided that I want to focus the next little while on getting some QF points. I hear the virtues from many of you on collecting Membership rewards... but I'm not quite there yet and not looking to transfer to any of the other transfer partners at this stage.

So.... long story short I rang up Amex to talk about cancelling this card and likely moving to a QF earning card and I was super happy with the service I got. No hard sell on trying to keep it open, discussed my spending habits and tried to help find the right QF earning card but in no way was I pressured to open the QF card on the call and best of all, without any prompting from me, the CSA offered to refund the entire Annual Fee which came through a couple of days later.

So certainly got plenty of use out of this card in the short time I had it and now I'll be putting the annual fee refund straight towards another Amex product (which I've now been approved for). All in all I'm very happy with my experience with Amex over the last few months and look more than happy to keep using their products into the future.

 

[bbqwer]

Anyone here with linked explorer and ascent, Have you guys managed to get 20,000 bonus points referral yet ? I done refererr for my family member, he has received 110,000 after spent $1500. But 20k bonus points for me still not showing :shock: I am worry due to linked explorer and ascent are not eligible.

 

[Radio8tiv]

Anyone here with linked explorer and ascent, Have you guys managed to get 20,000 bonus points referral yet ? I done refererr for my family member, he has received 110,000 after spent $1500. But 20k bonus points for me still not showing :shock: I am worry due to linked explorer and ascent are not eligible.

I would like the answer also I have just received my explorer and unlinked from ascent, now to start spending for the bonus, should I refer Mrs.Radio before linking back?

 

[potm]

I have received a referral bonus for my explorer linked to ascent.

 

[Steady]

I received my Explorer card back in October and qualified for the 100,000 bonus points pretty quickly. I also used my travel credit right away and managed to transfer a bunch or points through to Velocity back when they had their bonus offer for manual transfers so I scored some extra points through that also.

But after some consideration and now having quite a large stash of Velocity points, I decided that I want to focus the next little while on getting some QF points. I hear the virtues from many of you on collecting Membership rewards... but I'm not quite there yet and not looking to transfer to any of the other transfer partners at this stage.

So.... long story short I rang up Amex to talk about cancelling this card and likely moving to a QF earning card and I was super happy with the service I got. No hard sell on trying to keep it open, discussed my spending habits and tried to help find the right QF earning card but in no way was I pressured to open the QF card on the call and best of all, without any prompting from me, the CSA offered to refund the entire Annual Fee which came through a couple of days later.

So certainly got plenty of use out of this card in the short time I had it and now I'll be putting the annual fee refund straight towards another Amex product (which I've now been approved for). All in all I'm very happy with my experience with Amex over the last few months and look more than happy to keep using their products into the future.

Amex seem good to deal with, shame you were not able to get the annual fee reimbursed and use someone's referral to get the extra 10k of QFF points (and help another get 20k).

Obviously getting the fee back after spending the travel credit is an absolute ripper of a deal to be offered, congrats

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Anyone here with linked explorer and ascent, Have you guys managed to get 20,000 bonus points referral yet ? I done refererr for my family member, he has received 110,000 after spent $1500. But 20k bonus points for me still not showing :shock: I am worry due to linked explorer and ascent are not eligible.

Mine came through quickly, as it always has on various Amexes.

You should have gained the 20K well prior to them gaining their 110K. The referral bonus is normally awarded when the application is approved and is not reliant on when the new cardmember reaches their target spend. My referral bonus have always shown up promptly.

I suggest that you call and ask.


By the way I assume that you had not reached your referral points cap?

 

[bbqwer]

Mine came through quickly, as it always has on various Amexes.

You should have gained the 20K well prior to them gaining their 110K. The referral bonus is normally awarded when the application is approved and is not reliant on when the new cardmember reaches their target spend. My referral bonus have always shown up promptly.

I suggest that you call and ask.


By the way I assume that you had not reached your referral points cap?

Are those 20k bonus points show up at ascent account ?

It was my first referral. I will wait till next week, and see what happen. thanks guys

NB: spoke with amex just now, was advised ( also stated under term and conditions )It may take 8 to 10 weeks to be credited bonus points if you are successful.

 

[daft009]

i've had two referrals so far (both this week), bonus points for one came through overnight and the other the same day.
This is my only amex though.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Are those 20k bonus points show up at ascent account ?

YES. My Explorer was initially Ascent, converted to Gateway and then linked back to Ascent. The referral was made after linking back to Ascent.

Points are listed on the same day that my wife applied. Though I think it was abouta day after that they were actually visible.

It was my first referral. I will wait till next week, and see what happen. thanks guys

NB: spoke with amex just now, was advised ( also stated under term and conditions )It may take 8 to 10 weeks to be credited bonus points if you are successful.

Not that I get a huge number of referrals. But over the years mine have always posted within days and certainly for the several I have had over the last 12 months all have been within day or so. An indeed years ago when I made some from my then Play Charge Card it seemed to be instantaneous.

 

[nat000]

I just applied for this card. Put my current plat edge card as existing member. I then received a text saying call amex to discuss application. The lady said i wasn't eligible for the 110k points as I'm not a new amex customer.
Has anyone had this happen ?
I know the T&c's say no existing amex holders, but they never seem to care.

 

[imipenam]

I just applied for this card. Put my current plat edge card as existing member. I then received a text saying call amex to discuss application. The lady said i wasn't eligible for the 110k points as I'm not a new amex customer.
Has anyone had this happen ?
I know the T&c's say no existing amex holders, but they never seem to care.

This is their standard spiel on the phone. As long as you haven't owned a MR Gateway account in the last 12 months, you should be fine. If you have a new MR Gateway account opened as a result of the new card the system should trigger the bonus after the earn.