Getting this offer to upgrade my American Express ANA Gold Card (with annual fee 34,100 yen) to the ANA Premium Card (with a eye watering annual fee 165,000 😱), for essentially 53,000 bonus points + the 5,000 points that come from hitting the 500,000 spend. So that difference in fee is 130,900 yen which I assume they will charge right away.
The regular signup bonus is 105,000 + the 35,000 miles from spend miles if you can spend 3,500,000 in 3 months which is kind of a lot of spend… Also I have PR but semi-retired / in between things so not much income, so I'm not sure if I can get approved for a new card whereas switching is easy. Was rejected for the cheaper JCB possibly because I wrote I'm self-employed.
Major benefits (here's a good writeup):
- 4.5x miles on ANA flights instead of 2x from the Gold
- Concierge – I assume this is the same as the normal Amex Concierge, though from the dedicated Japan team
- 4 free family cards with the same benefits
- Free night at a high end hotel (full details), can be used with your normal hotel loyalty program, 5000 yen coupon for hotel services if staying a second night
- Access to KIWAMI50, which promises increased access to high end restaurants, and potentially 20% cashback (review) Not sure if the 20% cashback is still active, can anyone confirm?
- Unlimited Priority Pass for airport lounge access with 1 guest, family cards get this as well. Not useful to me as I get this from US cards already
- Business check in counter and access to ANA domestic lounges (I'm already ANA Platinum so not useful to me, I assume you still have to be flying Star Alliance)
- Free luggage delivery of up to 2 suitcases / golf bags (no boxes) from and to the airport! My old card only included 1 piece, and only from the airport
- Prince Hotels platinum status for free breakfast, late checkout, and a welcome gift
- Smartphone protection (I get this from US cards, not useful to me, also already a benefit of the Gold card)
- Some other random things (Ikyu.com coupons, some lounge in Kyoto, premium golf access)
- There's also some ongoing spend promotion for new and existing card members.
Anyways I'm thinking even though getting 53,000 miles for an additional 130,900 yen (2.46 yen/mile, or 1.68 US cents/mile) may not necessarily be worth it, if I can use the free night well, exploit the hotel status, and actually get into top restaurants with KIWAMI50 (and get the cashback?), it could still have value. I do frequently use ANA miles for business class redemptions, so I value them at least at 3 yen/mile, but I can acquire them in cheaper ways from my US Amex cards. I wonder how long I need to keep the card at the premium level before I can just downgrade it back to the Gold and not have the bonus clawed back. What are other people's thoughts on this offer?
by icyhandofcrap
