This valuable Amex bonus is disappearing for good…

If you have an Amex Business Card, it’s about to get less rewarding

It feels like, over the last year, it’s got tougher in the points and rewards market. Whilst there have been a handful of positive changes, there has been devaluation, a cost increase for Capital On Tap and Amex, and now American Express has made some significant changes to its business cards.

What’s Amex changing?

If you own an American Express Business credit card then the bonus points you earn each month are changing. And by changing, I mean stopping completely.

At the moment, and up to the 1st April 2026, you get:

• 10,000 additional Membership Reward points when you spend over £10,000 in a month on your Platinum Business card.
• 10,000 additional Membership Reward points when you spend over £20,000 in a quarter on the Gold card.

These points are given on top of any points you would earn from the transactions. So if you spent £10,001 on a Platinum Business card, you would get 20,001 points in that month.

Whilst these bonuses are relatively low on a month-by-month basis, they add up. You could achieve a maximum of 120,000 a year on the Platinum card, and 40,000 a year on the Gold card. If you have both cards, and you put a reasonable spend through them, then you would get hundreds of thousands of Membership Reward points each year.

That will cease on the 1st April 2026. If you apply for a card now, you can still get that bonus upto that date. For the Platinum card that means you could earn for February and March 2026, and the for Gold card you could earn the bonus for the first quarter of 2026.

Its worth reading my article on how to collect Avios as a small business, as it includes card options as well as many other ways to earn points.

Will Amex replace this bonus?

There is talk of a scheme replacing it, but the chatter is that the new scheme will not be based around Membership Reward points. It won’t be anything related to British Airways, as these cards earn Membership Reward points not Avios. It will likely be additional perks. They may be valuable, or perhaps not.

The perks across both cards right now are ok. If you live outside of London, then that wipes out a reasonable number of offers and perks that tend to be focused on the capital. Hotel status, such as Hilton and Marriott, is semi-useful. The Indeed and Dell perks are fine. I end up using the Dell perk fairly regularly, but we don’t do a lot with the Indeed credit.

The real value from having the cards is the points and the bonus points. The reality for almost every user of those cards is that you are going to be worse off if you were hitting the bonus spend levels.

Update: Amex has announced what you will be rewarded with, from the 1st April onwards on the Gold Card.

Amex Business Gold

• £200 of Amex Travel credit if you spend £80,000 in a card membership year, or £100 if you spend £40,000. This is pitiful.
• Up to £240 of Enterprise (the car hire people) credit each year. If you spend over £60 in a monthm, you’ll get £20 back. A niche bonus that is of use to few.
• Get 15% off your first transaction with Superscript (business insurance) each year

£200 of travel credit (which will not cost Amex £200 to issue) for spending £80,000 in a year is frankly terrible. The Enterprise credit is almost insubstantial and niche. The Superscript 15% discount is really reaching. It does feel like Amex ran out of energy when considering the replacement perks for the gold card.

Amex Business Platinum

• Perks still To Be Confirmed by Amex

It’s worth reviewing all of the benefits that you’ll have on each card:

From the 1st April 2026, the perks will be as follows:

Amex Business Gold:

• £100 of Dell credits each year, with £50 in the first half of the year, £50 in the second. This is one of the most universally useful perks, as you can buy all sorts of low value items from Dell and reduce the cost, or get it down to zero. We’ve bought monitors in the past, and keyboards and mice.
• £200 of Indeed credits each year, with £50 in each quarter.
• Travel insurance, but it does not cover pre-existing conditions.
• $100 credit to use on a hotel booking via The Hotel Collection.
• And now: £200 of Amex Travel Credit if you spend over £80,000, £20 of Enterprise credit if you spend £60 or more in a month, and 15% off your first SuperScript payment.

Amex Business Platinum

• £150 of Dell credits each year, with £75 in the first half of the year, £75 in the second.
• £300 of Indeed credits each year, with £75 in each quarter.
• Travel insurance, but it does not cover pre-existing conditions.
• A digital subscription to The Times and the Sunday Times.
• £200 Annual Travel credit.
• $100 of credit at Fine Hotels and Resorts, plus late checkout.
• Access to the Global Lounge Collection (complimentary access to over a thousand airport lounges).
• And still to be announced, the additional perks replacing the bonus points.

What are alternatives to the Amex Platinum and Gold cards?

If you’re a business looking to earn points on a card, there’s really only the Capital On Tap Card. This is a decent option; they even have a free card. You earn Capital On Tap points, which you can then transfer to BA, Qatar, Virgin or Radisson. The latter three have been added in the last year, and they may add more partners.

Amex have a wider selection of airline partners than Capital On Tap do, but some of those partnerships have been through their own devaluations. It is not as good a scheme as Amex, but the cards are cheaper, and the Platinum card comes with perks (Radisson VIP status, The Times subscription, lounge passes).

Amex themselves suggest migrating to the Business Basic card if you want to stop your Gold card. This does not collect Membership Reward points, but it has no annual fee. You may as well move to the Capital On Tap free card, and you’ll be able to collect COT points (and then transfer them to Avios at a 1:1 rate).

It’s also worth remembering the annual retention bonus on Amex cards and how to leverage it. This will not give you 120,000 points per year, but it could go some way to making up the shortfall.