American’s small business ‘double dip program’ has its own credit card. American Airlines actually has a co-brand card issued by American Express.
I use the program and have redeemed points to gift Gold elite status in AAdvantage and Admirals Club memberships, and I usually keep a stash of (paper) upgrade certificates on hand.
I mentioned the program’s credit card several years ago. I don’t recall it ever having a signup bonus. But it does now:
And it has the highest spend requirement I’ve ever seen for a credit card signup bonus.
You have to spend $130,000 within 3 months to earn 20,000 Business ExtrAA points.
You normally earn 1 Business ExtrAA point per $20 charged to the card (American Airlines spend earns at 4x). So $130,000 spend would earn 6500 points, enough for two one-way international upgrades on most fares or a roundtrip business class cross country ticket. 20,000 Business ExtrAA points, on the other hand, is actually quite a lot.
And of course American’s Business ExtrAA American Express is a corporate card so it’s going to be held by companies with several million dollars in annual revenue at least.
Still I don’t think I’ve ever seen a published credit card offer that even comes close to this much required spend.
I don’t care how many points they’re offering as a bonus, AMEX known damned well they won’t have to honor it but — at the most — a handful of times. NO ONE is really going to make that spend!
@Jason Lewis
It’s a business card, and I’ve charged 100k to my AMEX for business expenses in a day before.
Gary, what is your valuation of ExtrAA points? I have accumulated a few now and want to get the best value out of them. Similarly, do you have a preferred use for them?
@Dan — clearly our businesses are VERY different from one another’s . . .