Back in March, American Express announced that the semi-annual Saks Fifth Avenue credit that had been offered on the Platinum card would be removed on July 1st. As I noted when sharing that news, this wasn’t a huge loss as the Saks online shopping experience had gotten noticeably worse over the years, making it harder to find worthwhile uses of this credit. Plus, Amex said that they’d be debuting some special Amex Offers on the 1st, meant to make up for the Saks removal. Well, now those offers have arrived… and they’re underwhelming.
Perhaps my expectations were set high because, during the pandemic, Amex unveiled several special offers that either fully covered the cost of the associated product or came close to it. Alas, that’s not what happened here.
By my count, there are five deals labeled as being “Special Amex Offers.” Those are:
- Nordstrom: Spend $200 or more, earn $50 back
- Perplexity: Spend $200 or more, earn $100 back
- TUMI: Spend $250 or more, earn $50 back
- Eight Sleep: Spend $1,000 or more, earn $200 back
- Bose: Spend $300 or more, earn $75 back
Obviously, if you were going to buy something on this list anyway, then the kick-back is certainly nice. However, I’m not sure that any of these present a good enough deal that it would truly entice me. Bose may get the closest — but, even then, you can often get Bose products for a better price from other retailers, which may negate the $75 back.
Meanwhile, the Nordstrom offer seems like the most direct replacement for the Saks credit. But the $200 minimum spend seems a bit steep to me. Honestly, if this were $50 off of $100, I might just consider it.
Off topic, but when I checked my Amex Offers on Wednesday (the day these were added), I also saw a new offer for July luggage. Why is that relevant? Well, it turns out that I did end up purchasing that Capsule Carry-On I wrote about a few weeks ago. So, the $60 back sure would have been nice. Of course, I can’t fault Amex for this one — and I also won’t beat myself up since I did need to buy in time for a trip.
Ultimately, while I’m a bit bummed that these “special Amex Offers” didn’t live up to my expectations, that’s probably just my fault for anticipating too much! In fact, I reckon that American Express could have done nothing at all. So, while I don’t personally plan to take advantage of these make-goods, hopefully they’ll be beneficial to some cardholders.