For years, a good way to earn some occasional bonus miles or points was to refer your friends and family to credit cards that you personally had. Several banks offer refer-a-friend bonuses when your friend or relative (or internet stranger) uses your referral link to get approved for a specific credit card. Typically, you had to personally have the exact card that you wanted to refer others to apply for in order to receive bonus points. This meant that if you had a Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express, you could only refer others to a Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card, and not to a different co-branded Delta credit card product.
However, that has changed with American Express. The co-branded American Express credit cards, including those in the Hilton Honors, Delta SkyMiles and Starwood Preferred Guest families, now allow cardholders to refer friends for different cards within that card family. You can see the new language in the top blue bar.
The official terms now state that you will now get a referral bonus if the person you refer applies for a different card in that card family, which is great news for families who like to help each other earn as many points as possible. Note that you can still only refer for the type of card that you hold, meaning that consumer cardholders can only refer others to consumer card products, and small business cardholders can only refer others to small business card products. You can find your referral links when you log in to your Amex account and scroll down past the initial balance and payment information.
Refer Friends to Increased Hilton Honors Bonus Offers
For example, if have the Hilton Honors American Express Ascend Card and want to refer someone to that card, the person you refer can get a very nice offer of 125,000 bonus Hilton Honors points after they spend $2,000 on the card in the first three months. However, if they don’t want to deal with a $95 annual fee, have already had that card or simply want to get a different Hilton card, they can apply for the $450 per year Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express or the no annual fee Hilton Honors American Express Card — and the referrer still gets the 20,000 Hilton point bonus if they are approved using the refer-a-friend link.
As an amazing added bonus, take note that the Hilton Ascend and Hilton Amex Card welcome bonus offers are both currently higher in the refer-a-friend channel than the publicly available offers. (Note: These offers are subject to change at anytime.)
The Hilton Honors Ascend Card is offering 150,000 Hilton Honors points after $3,000 in purchases in the first three months via the refer-a-friend network. (Compared to 125,000 points after you spend $2,000 in the first three months with the current public offer.) The is Grandma Points’ refer-a-friend link.
The no annual fee Hilton Amex Card is offering 100,000 Hilton Honors points after $1,000 in purchases in the first three months in the refer-a-friend network. (Compared to 75,000 points after $1,000 in the first three months with the current public offer.) Grandma Points’ refer-a-friend link above also works for this card.
Delta Amex Cards Also Offering Increased Refer-a-Friend Bonuses
The Delta co-branded credit card refer-a-friend offers now operate in a similar fashion to the Hilton Honors cards as you can refer to any card within that family (though remember that consumer cardholders can only refer to consumer products and small business cardholders can only refer to small business products). Similar to the Hilton Honors offers, there are currently increased bonus offers available via the Delta Amex referral links when compared to the public offers that just decreased.
In the refer-a-friend network, the Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card is currently offering 60,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new card within your first 4 months (compared to 30,000 miles after you spend $1,000 in the first three months with the standard public offer).
The Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card is offering 70,000 bonus miles and 10,000 Medallion qualifying miles (MQMs) after spending $3,000 in purchases on your card in your first 3 months (compared to 35,000 miles and 5,000 MQMs after you spend $1,000 in the first three months with the standard public offer).
The Delta Reserve Card is offering 40,000 bonus miles and 10,000 Medallion qualifying miles after $3,000 in new purchases in the first 3 months.
Those Delta increased offers are listed as running until 11/7/2018, and those who make Delta referrals can earn 10,000 miles per referral, up to 55,000 miles per year.
The SPG Cards also operate in the same manner with a maximum annual referral bonus at 55,000 Marriott Rewards points, at a rate of 20,000 per successful referral. The SPG offers in the referral network appear to be the same as the ones in the public channel as listed below.
Starwood Preferred Guest® American Express Luxury Card: 100,000 Marriott Rewards points after you spend $5,000 in the first 3 months (offer ends October 31, 2018)
Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express: 75,000 Marriott Rewards points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months
Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express limited-time bonus of 100,000 points after spending $5,000 on the card within the first 3 months (offer ends October 31, 2018).
Bottom Line
In testing the refer-a-friend links for the Amex Membership Rewards products, I do not get the same results as with the co-branded products. Thus far, I could only refer others for the same type of Amex Membership Rewards cards that I held, though some of those offers were also increased over the public offers, so check there before encouraging your family member to apply for a given card.
It is great news that Amex cardholders can refer friends and family members for similar cards to the ones they hold and even better news that some of these refer-a-friend offers are even higher than the public offers! Again, note that these offers are subject to change at any time.
Remember that it is TPG policy that referral links are not allowed in the comments section, but I hope you are able to get some of your friends and family to jump on some of these great offers while earning you some bonus points in the process.
Hat tip to Running With Miles.
Featured image by Tyler Franta via Unsplash.