American Express/RSSC Statement Credit Offer Returns

I did not see this posted here yet so wanted to share the information. The American Express statement credit offer for RSSC has returned. Spend $750+ on an RSSC booking via your Amex card with the offer added and receive a $225 statement credit. Here is the full text of the offer:

"OFFER TERMS

Enrollment limited. Offer valid for reservations booked directly via RSSC.COM, phone at 1-844-473-4368 and travel agent only between 3/5/18 and 5/6/18. Excludes onboard purchases, gift orders, Regent Choice shore excursions, transportation to and from the ship when not included in cruise fare, transactions made on third party sites. All transactions must be made in USD. Please note that hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines do not accept prepaid cards for charges authorized in advance, although prepaid cards may be used to settle the final bill. Check to make sure prepaid cards are accepted before attempting to use your prepaid card to take advantage of offers for these merchants. Offer is non-transferable. Must add offer to Card and use same Card to redeem. Limit of 1 statement credit(s) per American Express® online account. Statement credit will appear on your billing statement within 90 days after 5/6/2018, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase. Note that American Express may not receive information about your qualifying purchase from merchant until all items from your qualifying purchase have been provided/shipped by merchant. Statement credit may be reversed if qualifying purchase is returned/cancelled. If American Express does not receive information that identifies your transaction as qualifying for the offer, you will not receive the statement credit. For example, your transaction will not qualify if it is not made directly with the merchant. In addition, in most cases, you may not receive the statement credit if your transaction is made with an electronic wallet or through a third party or if the merchant uses a mobile or wireless card reader to process it. By adding an offer to a Card, you agree that American Express may send you communications about the offer. POID: GAKI:0001"

It is about time Amex did something as they are losing customers to Chase Sapphire (they lost us last year). Unless/until Amex can match Chase Sapphire's travel insurance, we won't return.

If this is for all Amex holders instead of only the "American Express named" Platinum card, it is a a good temporary deal. We received $300 OBC with the platinum card until they decided that they would not give it IF our TA gave us OBC's so it was basically useless. We have had Chase Sapphire for less than a year and have already book three domestic first class flights with points.

Thanks for sharing this information.

P.S. Hmmmm, the "terms" are interesting!

It is about time Amex did something as they are losing customers to Chase Sapphire (they lost us last year). Unless/until Amex can match Chase Sapphire's travel insurance, we won't return.

 

If this is for all Amex holders instead of only the "American Express named" Platinum card, it is a a good temporary deal. We received $300 OBC with the platinum card until they decided that they would not give it IF our TA gave us OBC's so it was basically useless. We have had Chase Sapphire for less than a year and have already book three domestic first class flights with points.

 

Thanks for sharing this information.

 

P.S. Hmmmm, the "terms" are interesting!

I will try to answer your questions based on my experience with this same offer on other cruise lines. The offer is only limited in terms of which Amex cards the offer is made available to. This particular offer is available on both my Platinum card and my legacy Optima card so there is no affinity to any particular Amex card (although I've seen it not be available to co-branded cards, e.g. Delta Amex). The $300 OBC you're referring to is the Amex Cruise Privileges Program and you're right, that was never combineable with other offers. As to the terms, I've found it doesn't matter if you're making a new booking or simply making a payment on an existing booking - as long as it meets the minimum payment requirement and the charge comes to Amex as a cruise line reservation payment via RSSC online or a TA, you will get the statement credit.

Good news. I was about to ditch the Amex Card but will hold onto it for this.

I got rid of mine awhile back, couldn't be happier with my Chase Sapphire card.

It is about time Amex did something as they are losing customers to Chase Sapphire (they lost us last year). Unless/until Amex can match Chase Sapphire's travel insurance, we won't return.

 

If this is for all Amex holders instead of only the "American Express named" Platinum card, it is a a good temporary deal. We received $300 OBC with the platinum card until they decided that they would not give it IF our TA gave us OBC's so it was basically useless. We have had Chase Sapphire for less than a year and have already book three domestic first class flights with points.

 

Thanks for sharing this information.

 

P.S. Hmmmm, the "terms" are interesting!

I will try to answer your questions based on my experience with this same offer on other cruise lines. The offer is only limited in terms of which Amex cards the offer is made available to. This particular offer is available on both my Platinum card and my legacy Optima card so there is no affinity to any particular Amex card (although I've seen it not be available to co-branded cards, e.g. Delta Amex). The $300 OBC you're referring to is the Amex Cruise Privileges Program and you're right, that was never combineable with other offers. As to the terms, I've found it doesn't matter if you're making a new booking or simply making a payment on an existing booking - as long as it meets the minimum payment requirement and the charge comes to Amex as a cruise line reservation payment via RSSC online or a TA, you will get the statement credit.

Strange I’ve always received the AMEX obc in conjunction with obc from TA.

Rachel; checked our current Schwab AMX-Platinum card offers, alas, no RSSC/AMX offer tho I do have spend $500 on Cunard, Seabourn, Holland America, Carnaval or Princess will earn a $100 SBC. So, this is a targeted offer and you may not receive it.

Like Travelcat we now pay our cruises with the Chase Sapphire Reserve to get three times points per dollar..meaning a final pay of let's say 25K gives us $750 Cash back if we take this vs use points for air travel. This far exceeds the $300 SBC we would get with AMX-P tho we would not get the galley tour. We only keep the AMX-P card because our annual fee works out to $350 with our Schwab statement credit. Plus we get $200 airline fee credit--which we use when having to redeposit miles.

LoonCall, if not mistaken Travelcat's TA is affiliated with a Travel Consortium who provides cients a healthy SBC (along with the TA's) meaning these are not combinable with AMX-P SBC.

“LoonCall, if not mistaken Travelcat's TA is affiliated with a Travel Consortium who provides cients a healthy SBC (along with the TA's) meaning these are not combinable with AMX-P SBC.”

Maybe that’s why, Wes. Perhaps TC misspoke when she referred to her TA and OBC.

I believe you and I use the same TA and my last booking I had OBC applied from them and AMEX as well as the usual %.

Rachel; checked our current Schwab AMX-Platinum card offers, alas, no RSSC/AMX offer tho I do have spend $500 on Cunard, Seabourn, Holland America, Carnaval or Princess will earn a $100 SBC. So, this is a targeted offer and you may not receive it.

 

Like Travelcat we now pay our cruises with the Chase Sapphire Reserve to get three times points per dollar..meaning a final pay of let's say 25K gives us $750 Cash back if we take this vs use points for air travel. This far exceeds the $300 SBC we would get with AMX-P tho we would not get the galley tour. We only keep the AMX-P card because our annual fee works out to $350 with our Schwab statement credit. Plus we get $200 airline fee credit--which we use when having to redeposit miles.

 

LoonCall, if not mistaken Travelcat's TA is affiliated with a Travel Consortium who provides cients a healthy SBC (along with the TA's) meaning these are not combinable with AMX-P SBC.

Wes - you are correct. I was not aware that Amex still allowed combinable OBC's - apparently this is only with this particular consortium!?

Wes - you are correct. I was not aware that Amex still allowed combinable OBC's - apparently this is only with this particular consortium!?

Interesting if they are the only group/TA excluded.

I have a cruise booked with Regent. I paid the deposit on my Am Ex Platinum but planning to pay the balance with my Chase Sapphire Rewards card (got this card recently) to get the free travel insurance. If I make a $750 payment with Am Ex on my cruise now (during the offer period), will I get the statement credit, if I register for this offer? Does anyone know?

I got rid of mine awhile back, couldn't be happier with my Chase Sapphire card.

I just got rid of mine too. The three points per dollar spent on travel and dining on the Chase Sapphire Reserve far outweighs any OBC Amex Platinum was giving me.

Carol, if you got the offer on your AMX card, believe in reading the T&C in post 1 by the TS, that yes you will get the credit by having your/our TA pay $750 towards your final pay (as long as done between 3/5/2018 and 5/6/2018 with your AMX card containing this offer. Then using your new CSR (if u have made any travel expenses by your final payment) you not only will get about $600 cash back (assuming u booked a deluxe veranda for CPT to CPT) from Chase, you would get $300 travel credit, plus $225 from Amx for this offer. Good for Bruce and you!

To be sure tho, would check with AMX-P on your qualification for this offer before

paying $750.

We recently booked a cruise on another line. Our TA was offering 400$ OBC, AMEX P was offering the usual 300$ but they were not combinable. We have had other cruises/ other lines where they were not combinable..may not be everyone's experience.

We have not yet surrendered our AMEX P but just signed on to Chase Sapphire following all of the positive posts here.

Does anyone know what happens if you have deposited w AMEX but will pay the remainder w Chase S ?..our situation

We recently booked a cruise on another line. Our TA was offering 400$ OBC, AMEX P was offering the usual 300$ but they were not combinable. We have had other cruises/ other lines where they were not combinable..may not be everyone's experience.

 

We have not yet surrendered our AMEX P but just signed on to Chase Sapphire following all of the positive posts here.

 

Does anyone know what happens if you have deposited w AMEX but will pay the remainder w Chase S ?..our situation

I can tell you that Chase Sapphire does not require you to pay the entire fare on their credit card. We actually had our TA take as much money out of our booked cruises as possible (from Amex) and transferred it over to the Sapphire card. We had accumulated so many unused points on Amex that I had a great time buying things (computer, laptop - lots of neat stuff).

We recently booked a cruise on another line. Our TA was offering 400$ OBC, AMEX P was offering the usual 300$ but they were not combinable. We have had other cruises/ other lines where they were not combinable..may not be everyone's experience.

 

We have not yet surrendered our AMEX P but just signed on to Chase Sapphire following all of the positive posts here.

 

Does anyone know what happens if you have deposited w AMEX but will pay the remainder w Chase S ?..our situation

We put our cruise deposit on Amex P and will be paying the balance on Chase S. So long as you put "some portion" of the trip on your Chase card you will be covered by the insurance. No preexisting coverage though. I have not surrendered my Amex P yet either. I still have both. The Chase S annual fee ($450) comes down to $150 after you get the $300 annual travel credit, so just think of it as $150 annual fee. I usually use mileage for airline tickets but I recently purchased some and used my Amex P and got 5 x rewards. I also like the monthly Uber credits with Amex P. I like the higher points you get with Chase S for travel and dining (2 x). I like and use the Fine Hotels and Resorts program with Amex P. So for now I'm keeping both.

As far as combining Cruise Privileges OBC with TA's OBC or cruise line OBC, pretty sure the combining is limited by any portion of the TA's OBC coming from Regent or any Regent promotional OBC being combined with the Amex OBC. Pretty sure some of the Amex OBC comes from Regent so OBC from Regent on two different promotions is not combinable.

As far as using the Amex Card to pay a portion of the final payment, last year had the same promotion from Carnival who also owns Seabourn and had the promo on two different Amex cards so used the old multiple tab strategy and got the promo on both cards, made the promo payment on both cards and within a couple of days got the credit on both cards. The promo is again valid for this year and will be using it twice again before it expires for our Seabourn cruise this year. Amazingly the second Amex card with the promo is a no fee card.

Can't guarantee it will work but, the worst that can happen is you pay and get Amex points rather than the triple Chase Reserve points. As far as insurance, Amex requires full payment for the $300 cruise privileges while Chase clearly only requires a portion with the Reserve card to get all of the cancellation benefits. It's a no brainer to check all of your Amex cards for the Regent promo before clicking on the promo in the first card as that is throwing free money away.

It kinda doesn't matter to some of us anymore since posters and the public are bailing on Amex big time. Appreciate the TS showing us the temporary rebate but Amex has a long way to go in order to compete with Chase Sapphire.

As a long time AMEX customer my curiosity got up with all the hype for the CSR card. While the 3x points is great folks should be sure to double check the dollar limitations and maximum per occurrence benefits on the travel insurance portion, as well as reasons for exclusion of claim. The benefit amount would not necessarily cover a longer itinerary and additional backup coverage might be warranted.

As a long time AMEX customer my curiosity got up with all the hype for the CSR card. While the 3x points is great folks should be sure to double check the dollar limitations and maximum per occurrence benefits on the travel insurance portion, as well as reasons for exclusion of claim. The be$10K nefit amount would not necessarily cover a longer itinerary and additional backup coverage might be warranted.

FYI, have done my due diligence with Chase and the coverage is up to $10K per person, $20K per occurrence and $40K per year. The $10K and $20K is the limit for both pre trip and during trip and even better is that if the people have multiple cards such as Reserve and Preferred or one each per person, the amounts are doubled. Have this confirmed in writing from the claims administrator. No limitation on itinerary length. YMMV but, really great coverage for no additional cost. Very low medical coverage so might need an additional policy for that and, as mentioned earlier, don't have to make full payment with the Chase card(s) like Amex. Any amount covers you up to the max.

Well, the offer appears to be targeted, and I didn't get it. I am still thinking about transferring out all my AmEx points and bail on it when it gets closer to renewal time. I do like the uber benefit and the choice hotels, but that seems to be about it these days.

Yes, Dave those are the numbers I saw. For example, that amount would not provide full coverage for my upcoming trip, so my comment was an fyi to anyone who thought they may not need additional coverage beyond what Chase is offering. And your right, med payments and evac are on the low side, so that should be considered.

Although CSR is attracting my interest I'm not a fan of their domestic partner airlines - United is not a first choice for me and you couldn't pay me to fly SW. I know there are ways to make it work with transfers to some of the international partners and then to domestic but for me it's a pain dealing with multiple awards programs for limitations, blackout dates, etc.

I've always had good luck with AMEX FHR program for upgrades and amenities. Recently traveled with a friend who used the CSR and had no room upgrade while I got a suite. Maybe luck of the draw, not sure.

Having said all that I'll be dead before I use up all my AMEX points.

We are longtime Amex Platinum cardmembers and have had our Chase Sapphire Cards for a few years. While we do enjoy the included travel insurance with Sapphire, it is somewhat limited in amount and we still often need to purchase additional insurance. With our Amex we have been enjoying 5X reward points for many hotels and flights, and were able to book a first class hotel in Paris through our Amex and receive a complimentary suite upgrade and breakfast for two. We were also able to wire money quickly and easily to our son's girlfriend who was traveling in Istanbul and had her wallet stolen. While recently traveling in Europe with our Chase Sapphire Card we attempted to use the card for a large in store purchase. Even though we had called Chase and alerted them prior to the trip that we would be traveling to that city, they held up the charge and made it so difficult that in the end we just put it on our Amex so that we could complete the purchase. In my experience that would not have happened with American Express.

We have an American Express/British Airways card. We do not seem to have any of the benefits mentioned on this thread but every time we use it we get Avios, which are the equivalent of miles on BA, and after accumulating a lot of expenditure (like paying for a cruise and depending on the level you have opted for and paid for) get a voucher for a free companion flight. That way we can sometimes fly free (just paying tax which is very high for those of us living in the UK) to a Regent cruise starting and/or ending at a distant port.

We have an American Express/British Airways card. We do not seem to have any of the benefits mentioned on this thread but every time we use it we get Avios, which are the equivalent of miles on BA, and after accumulating a lot of expenditure (like paying for a cruise and depending on the level you have opted for and paid for) get a voucher for a free companion flight. That way we can sometimes fly free (just paying tax which is very high for those of us living in the UK) to a Regent cruise starting and/or ending at a distant port.

Some people have been able to use the following link to manually add the offer to their card if it wasn't just made available by Amex. You might want to try and see if it works:

http://www.americanexpress.com/wlcl