【Updated 2021.6】Recently, FM found that AMEX has added an "Expanding your Membership" prompt to some links, and for now it only appears on business credit cards. If you can log in successfully and see this welcome offer application page, you'll notice that it does not mention the once-per-lifetime language. However, I don't have a business AMEX card, so I was not targeted. If you do, you can try to see whether you were targeted. You may also see offers with "expending membership" wording pop up after logging in to your AMEX account.

Based on previous experience, as long as the application page does not mention once-per-lifetime, you can usually get the bonus again quietly. That said, the terms still spell it out, so if they claw it back later, there is nothing we can do about it.

If we in our sole discretion determine that you have engaged in abuse, misuse, or gaming in connection with the welcome offer in any way or that you intend to do so (for example, if you applied for one or more cards to obtain a welcome offer (s) that we did not intend for you; if you cancel or downgrade your account within 12 months after acquiring it; or if you cancel or return purchases you made to meet the Threshold Amount), we may not credit Membership Rewards® Points to, we may freeze Membership Rewards® Points credited to, or we may take away Membership Rewards® Points from your account. We may also cancel this Card account and other Card accounts you may have with us.

Most application links mention the once-per-lifetime language

These kinds of links are somewhat similar to the previous AMEX Delta card links. I don't know whether other business cards will have similar offers.

What Is the AMEX Once-Per-Lifetime Welcome Offer Restriction (Lifetime Restriction)

We know that different banks have different rules on whether you can receive a sign-up bonus. These rules are mainly there to stop credit card hobbyists like you and me from collecting welcome offers multiple times. For example, the Chase Sapphire family limits you to one bonus every 48 months, and Citi also has 24-month or 48-month restrictions for AA cards.

Among all banks, AMEX's restriction is the most extreme and ruthless. On the credit card application page, we usually see the following language. We often call this the once-per-lifetime welcome offer, or

  • lifetime restriction: in official terms, this means Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had this Card

A quick breakdown of this sentence:

  • welcome offer: this mainly refers to the sign-up bonus, such as spending xxx within three months after opening the card to get a $100/50,000 MR offer. Of course, it also includes things like 0 APR offers.
  • have this card: simply put, if you currently hold the same card, you cannot get the welcome offer. In fact, if you already have the same card, your application will not even go through. For example, if you have a Blue Cash Everyday and submit another application for Blue Cash Everyday, it will not be approved.
  • had this card: if you have ever had this card, you also cannot get the welcome offer. For example, if you applied for Blue Cash Everyday years ago, received the welcome offer, and then closed the card, submitting a new Blue Cash Everyday application later will not get you another welcome offer, even if the application is approved.
    • There is one exception here: if your card was downgraded from another card, or was passively converted from another card, or if you had opened the card before but did not receive a welcome offer (for example, the discontinued AMEX Platinum for Ameriprise), or if you previously did not complete the spending requirement and therefore did not get the bonus, you may be able to receive the welcome offer again. In practice, however, all sorts of issues can arise, so it is generally not recommended to try.
  • this card: it is best to understand this as this product. In other words, even if the card is simply rebranded, it still counts as the same product. For example, Hilton Surpass was renamed Ascend and still counted as the same product; AMEX Premier Gold was changed to AMEX Gold, with changes to the annual fee and some benefits, but it still counted as the same product. Also, this card here refers to this specific card, but not other cards in the same family. For example, Blue Cash and Blue Cash Preferred are different cards, so their welcome offers do not affect each other; different versions of Platinum also do not affect each other's welcome offers.

So why do we call it once in a lifetime? It is said that some people applied for the same card seven or eight years ago, and later when they applied again, they really could not get the welcome offer. AMEX clearly has a very good memory.

How the Once-Per-Lifetime Restriction Affects Our Applications

Wait for the Best Offer

Since you can only get the bonus once in a lifetime, there is no need to rush. Just wait until a card has its all-time-high offer and then apply. For example, the famous Platinum 100,000 offer, Delta Gold 60,000 offer, and so on: everyone can hold off on applying first and wait until the official offer gets better. Of course, there are tricks to waiting. You can pay more attention to special application links, such as leaked links, referral links, prequalify links, mail-in offers, email offers, incognito-mode offers, and so on. In short, just hold off on applying first and start by applying for other AMEX credit cards with the highest available offers.

Plan Your Application Order

AMEX has one characteristic: it is especially stingy with existing customers. If you already have an AMEX card, it becomes very hard to receive targeted mail offers or prequalify offers. Those offers are the easiest way to get huge welcome bonuses, such as 100,000 Platinum or 35,000 Everyday Preferred. So one school of thought is to avoid applying for any AMEX card first, wait until you receive a 100,000 Platinum offer, apply for that, and then start applying for other AMEX cards.

In addition, because of the have or had this card restriction, you need to think carefully before upgrading or downgrading about whether it will affect your next application. For example, if you currently hold Blue Cash Everyday but received an offer to upgrade to Blue Cash Preferred for $200, you could consider applying for a new Blue Cash Preferred first, getting the welcome offer, and then upgrading your existing Blue Cash Everyday to get the upgrade offer as well.

Another point: if you currently do not have an AMEX card, you can ask a family member to add you as an authorized user. Authorized users have a higher chance of receiving all kinds of all-time-high offers.

Consider the Opportunity Cost

Because of AMEX's once-per-lifetime welcome offers, many people see an offer and do not dare to apply, because they cannot tell whether it is the best one. If you apply early and a better offer appears later, you will probably regret it (AMEX generally does not match offers). This is where opportunity cost comes in: if you skip the current best welcome offer, you gain the points early, enjoy the benefits early, can spend the points before they devalue, and can enter the cooldown period sooner, but you risk missing the highest welcome offer; if you do not apply, you preserve the possibility of getting the best offer, but you also have to bear the risk of endless waiting, and if AMEX discontinues the card one day, you may miss that card's welcome offer forever.

I personally think you can decide whether to apply based on the historical offer angle. For example, Delta-branded credit cards basically have a few all-time-high offers every year. Although there may be minor differences, I still recommend applying when you need it. The same goes for the Hilton family. For example, with the AMEX Platinum card, the 100,000 offer has not had a public link for a long time. If you already have an AMEX card, the odds of receiving it are actually very low. You might as well apply when it gets to 75,000+ toward the end of the year.

How to break the once-in-a-lifetime restriction

The reason I’m saying all this is that AMEX’s sign-up bonuses are really generous. For example, the Delta family has bonuses as high as 80,000, which is enough for a round-trip China-U.S. ticket; the 100,000 Platinum bonus, if transferred to ANA miles, can even be enough for a round-trip business-class ticket between China and the U.S. So if you can get an AMEX bonus twice, that would definitely be amazing. Below is a roundup of methods that may help get around the once-in-a-lifetime restriction.

One important thing to note is that the first condition for bypassing the restriction is that neither the application page nor the terms says Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had this Card. If that line is there, then there’s definitely no chance. AMEX still follows the rules pretty strictly. Of course, even if that sentence is not present, there is still no guarantee you can break the restriction. The methods listed below are all likely to avoid that sentence, and whether you actually get the bonus usually depends on aggregated application results from others.

When applying, make sure to check the application page first for that sentence, then open the terms and search directly for that sentence. Also, it’s best not to hold the same card when applying.

Special Refer Link

At present, some users can send friends a special Prequalify refer offer, where the interface shows the words refer friends for a pre-approved offer. This refer can only be sent by email, and it is limited to 2 people. This sign-up bonus is targeted by SSN, and it is currently unclear what happens if AE selects SSN.

AMEX first tried this in January 2019. Here is a screenshot from back then:

Here is this round’s screenshot (2019.10):

After a friend receives it and opens the application page, it looks different from the usual one. The application page does not have the have had this card wording, and the terms do not either.

Based on previous applicants’ results, it is possible to get the sign-up bonus again. Be sure to note that if you can generate this link yourself, do not use your own refer link, or the refer bonus may be clawed back. It’s best to give it to family members or tell friends to apply. Details are as follows:

Credit Card Spend Requirement and Bonus Annual Fee Referrer Bonus Times
AMEX Platinum $5,000, 60,000 MR points $550 15,000 MR 2
AMEX Hilton Aspire $4,000, 150,000 Hilton points $450 15,000 Hilton points 2
AMEX Hilton Ascend $3,000, 125,000 Hilton points $95 15,000 Hilton points 2
AMEX Hilton Honors $1,000, 75,000 Hilton points No annual fee 15,000 Hilton points 2
AMEX Marriott Brilliant $3,000, 75,000 Marriott points $450 15,000 Marriott points 2

Prequalify offer

If you haven’t applied for an AMEX card in a long time, you may find a prequalify offer here. In general, this kind of sign-up bonus does not have a lifetime restriction.

  • The Prequalify link found on CardMatch may also appear, but there are very few DPs at the moment.

Targeted offers

Targeted offers are probably the best way to get around the lifetime restriction. The common types are as follows (images referenced from Doc):

Targeted mail-in offer

AMEX’s own cards are mostly concentrated on the AMEX Gold card, while co-branded Delta and Hilton offers are more common. The letter usually mentions whether there is a lifetime restriction, but it can be hard to spot. See the screenshots below:

Paper screenshot with no lifetime restriction:

Terms screenshot from a letter with a restriction:

Still, it’s best to use the RSVP code from the letter, go to the application page and look carefully, then check the terms to confirm there is no restriction before applying.

Targeted email offer

This is similar to a mail offer. One thing to pay special attention to: some email offers are just ads (these ads are usually sent directly by Delta, Hilton, or Marriott). If the application link has no RSVP code or does not match your name, that link may have a lifetime restriction. But some emails, even without a code and without a name (or even addressed simply as Dear Name), may still be no-lifetime sign-up bonuses. In short, it’s all pretty mysterious. Clicking through ads and checking the offer terms is never a bad idea.

In my view, AMEX Gold and AMEX Delta Gold appear most frequently, and they have also shown up on Marriott co-branded cards and vanilla Platinum offers. If you have had the first two cards, closed them for a while, and don’t really use Amex much, Amex will somehow start sending email offers to you. YMMV. People may also notice that once you’re deep in the AMEX rabbit hole, Amex basically stops sending email offers for cards you’ve already had. But once they do send one, it’s usually without a lifetime restriction.

The old AMEX Gold often had this:

Personal Platinum has had them too. Here’s what one screenshot looked like when it appeared before:

Offers after logging into your account

These may appear under AMEX Offers or in the menu bar after logging in to your account. Again, check whether the application link and the terms include a lifetime restriction.

  • Appearing below the menu bar after logging in (Banner):
  • Appearing inside AMEX Offers:

Targeted offers provided on co-branded card official websites

For Delta, which is often a big source of points, you can usually check here: https://www.deltaamexcard.com/

Sometimes Delta also uses special links for people to find. This was a previous link (now expired, appeared in Sep. 2018): https://www.deltaamexcard.com/offer/a01f-em-sept-18-biz

Leaked or cracked links

The most typical examples are the previously cracked Delta co-branded card link from Churnable, as well as the publicly shared Hilton Ascend and no-fee version links