News Updates: Amex Negative Changes, Amex Gift Cards Back, US Air Buy Miles Extended

Let’s catch up on a few news updates.

American Express Gold Card Removes 15,000 Point Bonus

One of the top perks of the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card was the ability to earn a 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus after spending $30,000 within a calendar year. This benefit is going away Jan 1, 2015 and One Mile at a Time has the details.

Delta SkyMiles Limits Transfers from Partners

Delta SkyMiles has introduced new limits on how many points can be transferred from partners, including American Express Membership Rewards. Starting January 1, 2015: (1) the total number of Membership Rewards points that can be transferred out of any Membership Rewards account into one or more Delta SkyMiles accounts will be limited to 250,000 points per calendar year, and (2) the total number of Membership Rewards points that can be transferred into any individual Delta SkyMiles account will be limited to 250,000 points per calendar year.

So if you do have a big stash of Membership Rewards and are thinking Delta SkyMiles is the way to go, then I suggest you do it sooner rather than later. I personally usually transfer Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios points to use on short haul flights so this isn’t a big deal to me, but I can understand it’s an annoying restriction to many others.

American Express Gift Cards Back

American Express Gift Card came back at TopCashBack yesterday and are now back at multiple portals, including BeFrugal and BigCrumbs. No one is offering above 1.5% cash back yet, but we’ll see if the bonus improves before the holidays. You can always check on CashbackMonitor for the portal bonuses.

US Airways Buy Miles Promotion Extended

The US Airways Buy Miles Promotion (detailed review) ends in has been extended to October 12, 2014. The promotion allows us to buy up to 100,000 miles essentially at 1.88 cents each. Although that’s not incredibly cheap, it could be a good deal for those looking to redeem on oneworld partners for business class tickets. As an example, 110,000 miles will buy you a round-trip business class ticket to North Asia with a free stopover in Europe along the way, allowing you to fly Cathay Pacific. Of course, the easiest way to pick up 40,000 US Airways Dividend miles is by signing up for the US Airways World MasterCard. It’s currently offering 40,000 miles immediately after the first purchase and no minimum spending requirement.