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.

 

[Jonova]

With referral bonuses, if one has the Explorer linked to Ascent rather than Gateway (e.g. re-linked), will the referral bonus still credit, or will it not work because it needs the Explorer to be linked to Gateway?

My experience has been that the referral bonuses are credited to the Ascent if the cards are linked

 

[hunghuynh]

How long did it take for the bonus points to hit after hitting the minimum spend?

 

[Lemon_Party]

Mine posted within a couple of days.

 

[fairbasa]

I find they post as soon as the qualifying transaction clears.

 

[daft009]

the pending transaction clears and you get charged the annual fee, after which the points show up

 

[alexy23]

Has anyone got points posted if they are holding a Platinum Business Card?

 

[Leroy87]

Got explorer, got bonus points in gateway.
Got Platinum Edge (after Jan 31), got no bonus points. Oh well, it was no annual fee and had $200 credit so still a win. Have used both the travel credits.

Trying to get gateway linked to ascent and points moved across.
Tried late at night (twice) - American CSRs said cards could be linked but would have to clear out gateway first as they can't be moved.
Tried early morning (6am) - again an American sounding CSR said points can't be moved across.

Lots of responses in the thread saying try, try and try again but was there any particular strategy that people found successful while on the line to get some progress?
Contemplating giving up but the voice in my head says 33% more value for that 100k+ points, keep going!

 

[daft009]

keep trying, give it a break for a couple of days.

took me 6 attempts

 

[jetcam]

an aussie CSR did it for me. called mid-morning

 

[Jamesaurus]

I hold a Velocity escape card i havent used since 2014, and cancelled a qantas express card mid last year- anyone know of my chances of receiving the sign up? I'm happy to use a referral link

 

[potm]

Very good since you have only had direct earn amex cards and no amex points programs.

 

[JessicaTam]

I hold a Velocity escape card i havent used since 2014, and cancelled a qantas express card mid last year- anyone know of my chances of receiving the sign up? I'm happy to use a referral link

I had the Velocity card when I signed up and had no trouble.

 

[anat0l]

I had the Velocity card when I signed up and had no trouble.

I think people are just being super cautious now due to the possible belt-tightening at Amex.

 

[fairbasa]

I had the Velocity card when I signed up and had no trouble.

But was that post-Feb?

 

[JessicaTam]

But was that post-Feb?

Late last year.

 

[psi999]

Very unlikely to receive bonus points now. I cant recall reading of a single person to receive bonus points holding a current card applying post 1st Feb. That said happy to be corrected?

As a data point i called AMEX last weekend (25th) and requested my explorer gateway MR account to be rolled into my Accent MR account (Platinum edge). Wasn't going to bother but was on the phone anyway for another reason.

Operator checked my account and the first point she made was i was never eligible for the 110,000 gateway points i had received as i was holding a current amex product (and even worse actually - cancelled a velocity escape card one week prior to explorer application that she didn't see) and that there is current internal talk of removal of ill awarded points but no decision had been made - so my advice to all those considering requesting linking - do so at your own risk if you're carrying a point balance. I didn't even mention bonus points to the operator so tells me they are looking for it now.

So I had another crack at this seeing a few people post success in the past few weeks.

Strategising that I would literally just hang up if an Australian CSR answered my call (so not to have multiple documented 'denial of requests' logged - as Australian CSRs seem to be most onto it) I called the number on the back of the card on Friday night @ 9:30PM - being a public holiday I took a punt that my call would at least be directed outside of Australia and it was (Philippines) - requested gateway MR account to be merged with my edge accent MR account which this time was no problem at all . The call literally totalled sub 5 mins and it was done.

Within 15 mins explorer gateway balance was gone and card pointed towards accent MR online.

I waited 24 hrs for the gateway balance to tip into the accent account - which it didn't so called again lastnight (9:45pm) to which the CSR (Philippines) requested the balance be manually transferred across. As of this morning it was all done (36hrs from initial request).

So this is still well and truly a thing - don't be afraid to give it a go (with or without an existing balance). For me it took 2 attempts plus a follow up call for the manual transfer - additional ~60,000 velocity points @ transferred balance so well worth a bit of effort in my case.

Hope this helps someone

 

[SOPOOR]

So I had another crack at this seeing a few people post success in the past few weeks.

Strategising that I would literally just hang up if an Australian CSR answered my call (so not to have multiple documented 'denial of requests' logged - as Australian CSRs seem to be most onto it) I called the number on the back of the card on Friday night @ 9:30PM - being a public holiday I took a punt that my call would at least be directed outside of Australia and it was (Philippines) - requested gateway MR account to be merged with my edge accent MR account which this time was no problem at all . The call literally totalled sub 5 mins and it was done.

Within 15 mins explorer gateway balance was gone and card pointed towards accent MR online.

I waited 24 hrs for the gateway balance to tip into the accent account - which it didn't so called again lastnight (9:45pm) to which the CSR (Philippines) requested the balance be manually transferred across. As of this morning it was all done (36hrs from initial request).

So this is still well and truly a thing - don't be afraid to give it a go (with or without an existing balance). For me it took 2 attempts plus a follow up call for the manual transfer - additional ~60,000 velocity points @ transferred balance so well worth a bit of effort in my case.

Hope this helps someone

Awesome congrats.

Some might call you a tight cough. But the benefits long term are worth it

They will look at you in envy when you are traveling first or business class wondering how you can afford it!

 

[jkcat]

Finally gave it a crack this morning. Called up the number on the back of the card, got a friendly sounding Aussie CSR who was a little bit hesitant as "cards belong to different programs" but agreed to try. Was all done after a short hold. Seems it really depends on who serves you as no set rules exist in regards to the linking (however do act as early as possible), but since it's been three days from meeting my spending criteria and not seeing the bonus points posted, I'm not holding my breath anymore.

 

[blingy90]

I tried months ago - likely the Philippine based call centre. CSR said it was fine and that they would do it. I kept an eye on it but nothing ever changed (I was hesitant to call again).

About a fortnight ago I rang ago during normal business hours (non-aussie sounding CSR), explained I had put in a request to re-link a while ago, the agent said they would do, would take 5-7 business days and gave me a reference number. 7 days later, accounts linked and sizeable 6-figure gateway balance moved over to ascent. The point gain + having the explorer earning 2MR:$1 was/is a fantastic outcome.

 

[Damien00]

I had an Explorer card from Oct through until late Dec when I cancelled it. I was offered and received a full refund of the Annual Fee even though I recieved the bonus points and used the travel credit.

My partner also had this card from Oct and cancelled it today having also used its full benefits. However she was refused a refund, either partial or full and was instead offered to change to a lesser card - not sure which one as she didn't remember. I'm a little disappointed as I wanted to put the refund towards an QF Ultimate card for her as I did with mine.

Has anyone else been refused refunds on annual fees recently? Is there a change of policy that anyone is aware of?