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

---

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.

 

[psi999]

If you're chasing SPG the earn is the same anyway regardless of Accent or Gateway.

Everyone has a different strategy but I'm not sure i'd risk it if points are earmarked to starwood.... Something to consider anyway.

 

[Pele]

Gday

For anyone wondering i can confirm that ATO payments count towards the $1500 spend requirement.

And i just rang to try and merge the Gateway and Ascent accounts but the operator said it cant be done. He was well informed and said they each had different earn and burn rates so are different programs that cant be joined. As per ANAT0L above i am content to leave them separate. Dont want to be too greedy.

Pele.

 

[Spizz]

Did you try calling late at night and/or did you get a foreign call centre?

Gday

For anyone wondering i can confirm that ATO payments count towards the $1500 spend requirement.

And i just rang to try and merge the Gateway and Ascent accounts but the operator said it cant be done. He was well informed and said they each had different earn and burn rates so are different programs that cant be joined. As per ANAT0L above i am content to leave them separate. Dont want to be too greedy.

Pele.

 

[imipenam]

Gday

For anyone wondering i can confirm that ATO payments count towards the $1500 spend requirement.

And i just rang to try and merge the Gateway and Ascent accounts but the operator said it cant be done. He was well informed and said they each had different earn and burn rates so are different programs that cant be joined. As per ANAT0L above i am content to leave them separate. Dont want to be too greedy.

Pele.

2 ascent ppd is not to be taken lightly. Keep trying after 9pm sat, sun! Took me 3 goes to get mine.

 

[Pele]

Did you try calling late at night and/or did you get a foreign call centre?

Gday

Called twice today. First time got what i think was a Phillipino man. Called again a bit later and got an Aussie. Both said exactly the same thing.

Spizz- my other card is a Platinum Reserve and most of my spend on it is at cafe's or restaurants so i am already getting 3 ascent points per dollar from that which is good(4 if local champion at any merchant). For everyday spend the Platinum Reserve only comes in at 1 ascent point per dollar which is lower than the Explorer Gateway program which effectively gives 2 Gateway points(1.5 airline points) per dollar. I spend bugger all at supermarkets or petrol stations so I think keeping the current two will work fine for now.

Pele.

 

[hachoo]

2 ascent ppd is not to be taken lightly. Keep trying after 9pm sat, sun! Took me 3 goes to get mine.

Exactly. Having 1:1 FF conversion is too good to pass up IMO.

 

[rfc4eva]

Im not having much luck atm,Unlinked the cards spent the $1500 soon after and then when i logged into both accounts seperately they were both showing 0 points even though i had around 7k left over in the ascent.I made a $10 purchase after the $1500 purchase and i have only received the points from the $10 spend.
Called AMEX and they are looking into it,is this usual?
Dont want to keep calling them and bring attention to it because they will know I have 2 cards.Whats the best way to approach it so I make sure of getting the bonus points?

 

[imipenam]

Im not having much luck atm,Unlinked the cards spent the $1500 soon after and then when i logged into both accounts seperately they were both showing 0 points even though i had around 7k left over in the ascent.I made a $10 purchase after the $1500 purchase and i have only received the points from the $10 spend.
Called AMEX and they are looking into it,is this usual?
Dont want to keep calling them and bring attention to it because they will know I have 2 cards.Whats the best way to approach it so I make sure of getting the bonus points?

It shouldn't matter if they know you have two cards. As long as you have a new MR Gateway account created for your Explorer card, their system automatically generates the bonus points once you reach the required spend.

When I first unlinked, all my points disappeared too. For some reason, both accounts were closed (I had 180k plus points on my Edge at that time) Another phone call and 24 hours later, Amex fixed it and restored all the ponts.

 

[Spizz]

When I first unlinked, all my points dissapeared too. For some reason, both accounts were closed (I had 180k plus points on my Edge at that time) Another phone call and 24 hours later, Amex fixed it and restored all the ponts.

Maybe that should be added to the wiki. Seems they are other potential pitfalls to unlinking/linking.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Maybe that should be added to the wiki. Seems they are other potential pitfalls to unlinking/linking.

You have the ability to edit the Wiki:

'You may edit the Wiki Page once you have been an AFF member for 90 days and have made at least 100 posts.'

 

[rfc4eva]

I hope when they look into the $1500 and credit those points it activates the bonus points.Hopefully

 

[SOPOOR]

are people struggling to get their accounts linked because they had their account manually unlinked first? or is it totally random?

 

[billbro]

Responses like Just wanted to know if there was a consistent theme rather than trawling through many pages, hardly the most efficient means of obtaining an answer are always likely to be given short shrift as you are basically stating that your time is more important than ours...

I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion, it has nothing to do with one's perception of importance on time. As I have already stated, no one was obliged to answer and you clearly think your time is more important.

I don't quite understand why it is so hard to fathom that it would be more efficient for someone who already knew the answer to provide a more efficient and effective response rather than a 'newbie' reading through numerous pages to hopefully find what they need.

In any event, at least the wiki should hopefully make it a bit easier now - thanks Mods/Jess.

 

[billbro]

are people struggling to get their accounts linked because they had their account manually unlinked first? or is it totally random?

It seems pretty random and when I called up, they didn't exactly go you can't link them because they had been de-linked - they shouldn't have been linked in the first instance.

 

[zainman]

sorry to re-post this but wanted to ask again if anyone has experienced a delay in enrollment in Membership rewards Gateway program?

I cancelled all my AMEX cards before applying for the Explorer and it's been a week or two since I activated the card and am yet to see the column on the right that indicates points etc. The same issue happened with my MRs last month when she got the card and we had to call AMEX to enrol into MR and it took a few days at least.

Do I just have to wait? I haven't spent anything on the card as yet as don't want to miss out on the points

 

[psi999]

Activated my new explorer today and was automatically setup with a new MR Gateway account - Existing card member with a current MR Accent account.

Anyone else had this happen? expected to be be making a late night phone call this evening - not complaining

 

[fent6]

I currently have the Explorer card and am thinking about getting my wife to apply for one. She is currently not earning but AMEX has this line in it's eligibility T's & C's:
I have a personal or household gross (pre-tax) annual income of $65,000 or more

Has anyone had experience applying for a non-working spouse based on the household income mentioned above? If so, has it been approved succefuslly by AMEX?

I might call then to check as I don;t want to risk getting a credit hit for my wife if it is declined.

Interestingly if you generate a referral link it only mentions personal income rather than household income as eligibility criteria :idea:

 

[PDog]

I currently have the Explorer card and am thinking about getting my wife to apply for one. She is currently not earning but AMEX has this line in it's eligibility T's & C's:
I have a personal or household gross (pre-tax) annual income of $65,000 or more

Has anyone had experience applying for a non-working spouse based on the household income mentioned above? If so, has it been approved succefuslly by AMEX?

I might call then to check as I don;t want to risk getting a credit hit for my wife if it is declined.

Interestingly if you generate a referral link it only mentions personal income rather than household income as eligibility criteria :idea:

just curious- what's the risk of a credit hit (it's just an enquiry isn't it?) for her? If she's not working, her card churning options are limited.

My husband is working & was successful. We do have rental income (so technically he does earn) in addition to my salary. I think he used the home maker option to describe employment (as we thought retired may require to much info). I'd say go for it!

 

[joejs90]

This has been a great card for me, points came within 5 days of meeting the spending requirement which i thought was great, the ANZ Black took around 2 months.

I used a referral from the thread here and was well worth it to get the extra 10,000 points.

I transferred all points to VFF, my 110,000+ MR points transferred to 85,689 velocity points, you have to round up or down the amount of points so that it works with the 0.75:1 ratio.

Also worth noting the $400 credit was pretty easy to spend with a great selection of hotels, dont expect it to be cheaper than hotels.com or similar though.

Hope this helps someone

 

[Steady]

Hotel prices on the Amex site can occasionally be cheaper - I have used them to claim on Rydges lowest price guarante