AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Eligibility is limited for the Amex Offers discussed in this post. Enrollment is required in the Amex Offers section of your account before redeeming.
Editors Note: This post was originally published in May 2020. Many of the specific offers referenced below are no longer available. However, the high-level strategy of “stacking” or combining multiple card benefits and offers to maximize your savings remains as relevant as ever.
With so many new credit card enhancements, it's hard to make sense of it all. I wanted to take a moment to show you how I stacked a temporary card benefit with other current offers to buy a pair of Bose headphones for up to 75% off the retail price—while earning thousands of Membership Rewards points from doing so.
Amex Offers
Amex Offers are a great way of getting cash back or bonus points for making purchases with certain retailers. Back in mid-2020, many cardholders of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express found a slew of new Amex Offers in their accounts — including two Dell Amex Offers:
- Get 10% back, up to $1,500
- 4X additional Membership Rewards points
Dell Credit
While these Amex Offers may be found on several American Express credit cards, there's a reason to activate them using a Business Platinum Card. To help offset some of the pain of COVID-19, American Express added an additional $100 statement credit for both May-June and July-December 2020:
This temporary benefit has since been made permanent. Business Platinum Card now offers up to a $200 statement credit for Dell purchases between January and June and up to another $200 statement credit between July and December.
- Limited Time Travel Offer: Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $20,000 on eligible purchases on your Business Platinum Card® within the first 3 months of Card Membership. Plus, earn a $500 statement credit after you spend $2,500 on qualifying flights booked directly with airlines or through American Express Travel with your Business Platinum Card® within the first 3 months of Card Membership. You can earn one or both of these offers. Offer ends 6/30/25.
- The American Express Global Lounge Collection® can provide an escape at the airport. With complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges across 140 countries and counting, you have more airport lounge options than any other credit card issuer on the market as of 10/2024.
- Unlock over $1,000 in statement credits on select purchases, including tech, recruiting and wireless in the first year of membership with the Business Platinum Card®. Enrollment required.
- Fly like a pro with a $200 Airline Fee Credit. Select one qualifying airline to receive up to $200 back per year on baggage fees and other incidentals.
- NEW! Make the Business Platinum Card® work even harder for you. Hilton For Business members get up to $200 back per calendar year when you make an eligible purchase at Hilton properties across the globe. Benefit enrollment required.
- Earn 5X Membership Rewards® points for flights, prepaid hotels, and short-term rentals and prepaid flight + hotel packages booked at AmexTravel.com. 1X points on other eligible purchases.
- Earn 1.5X points (that's an extra half point per dollar) on each eligible purchase at US construction material, hardware suppliers, electronic goods retailers, and software & cloud system providers, and shipping providers, as well as on purchases of $5,000 or more, on up to $2 million per Card Account per calendar year. Purchases eligible for multiple additional point bonuses will only receive the highest eligible bonus.
- $199 CLEAR® Plus Credit: Use your card and get up to $199 in statement credits per calendar year on your CLEAR® Plus Membership (subject to auto-renewal) when you use the Business Platinum Card®.
- $695 Annual Fee.
- Terms Apply.
- Rates & Fees
- Earn 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com.
- Earn 1.5X Membership Rewards® points on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more.
- Earn 1.5X Membership Rewards® points on each eligible purchase with U.S. construction material and hardware suppliers.
- Earn 1.5X Membership Rewards® points on each eligible purchase with U.S. electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers.
- Earn 1.5X Membership Rewards® points on each eligible purchase with U.S. shipping providers.
- 1.5X earning rates are subject to a cap of $2 million in purchases per calendar year.
Shopping Portals
Also, you can take advantage of shopping portal offers to get even better value. These offers can really add up and was an integral part of how I earned 9,700 points from one day of online shopping.
By using Cashback Monitor, we can see that Rakuten has had many increased payout offers for Dell of between 8-15% Cash Back. As recently as February 2020, Rakuten (formerly Ebates) offered 14% Cash Back
Rakuten cashback can now be earned as American Express Membership Rewards Points. If you elect to earn points, each percent of cashback equates to 1X Membership Rewards. Therefore, 15% = 15X Membership Rewards (MR) points.
Currently, Rakuten is offering a birthday celebration offering 10% Cash Back (or 10X Membership Rewards):
If you haven't signed up for Rakuten yet, you can sign up through a referral link to get $30 Cash Back (3,000 Membership Rewards points) after making just $30 in purchases in the first 90 days. But hurry, this offer ends May 11.
Putting the Offers Together
Now let's walk you through how I stacked these offers to get a great pair of Bose headphones for way less.
The Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones II are a great pair of headphones. At the time I purchased them, they had a $349 price tag to reflect that. You could buy these headphones through Dell at $299 before tax.
By clicking through Rakuten before making your purchase, you can earn 10X Membership Rewards points on this sales price. That's 2,990 Membership Rewards points earned through Rakuten.
Tax (for me) is $21.68 bringing the total to $320.68. The Business Platinum Card earns 1X points on Dell purchases, but the Dell Amex Offer added another 4X points for a total of 5X. That means I earned 1,603 points from the purchase.
However, don't forget about the other Amex Offer for 10% savings. The Amex Offer is based on the amount charged to your card. In my case, I got a 10% statement credit on the $320.68 charge for $32.07 cashback.
After the $200 in Dell credits, this purchase would only set me back $88.61. That's not bad for these great Bose noise-canceling headphones! But, it gets even better. After adding up the points I earned through Rakuten and through the Amex Offer, I earned 4,593 Membership Rewards points.
Based on my average redemption value, these 4,593 Membership Rewards points are worth nearly $140 in value toward future travel. But even if you value Membership Rewards points at 2 cents each, that's equivalent to getting $91.86 in points for spending $88.61 out-of-pocket and getting a great pair of headphones to boot.
Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700
You can also do this same stacking with Bose's latest and greatest noise-canceling headphones. These started at a $399 price tag, but you could buy them through Dell at $349 before tax, or $374.30 after tax in my case.
Clicking through Rakuten at 10X would earn 3,490 Membership Rewards points, and I'd earn another 1,871 points on my Business Platinum Card after the Amex Offer for 4X bonus points from Dell.
The 10% cashback Amex Offer would yield a $37.43 statement credit and the Dell credits would be maxed out at $200. That means the final out-of-pocket would be just $136.87 while earning 5,361 Membership Rewards points.
Final Thoughts
If you happen to find yourself in the market for a new pair of headphones, you can stack offers to pay just a fraction of the retail price, plus earn thousands of Membership Rewards points in the process! After stacking these offers, the net out-of-pocket cost for the headphones is nearly equivalent to the points you'll earn, making this an absolute steal.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
