I didn’t expect this to code at a total of 9X American Express Membership Rewards points per dollar shopping at Whole Foods on Amazon. But I did. So let’s walk through how you can do this too, on up to $400 in purchases.
In this article
Step One: You Need An Amex Gold Card
The Amex Gold card always earns 4X per dollar at grocery stores. While Whole Foods is a grocery store, my expectation was that it would not code that way when checking out on Amazon.
To be very clear, I’m talking specifically about the branded Whole Foods section at Amazon.
It turns out this codes under the Amazon PrimeNow umbrella.
Step Two: You need to have the Amex Offer
I wrote last month about an Amex Offer for an additional 5X Membership Rewards points for up to $400 in spend on Amazon.com by July 22nd, 2020.
Long Story Short:
I thought this would code either as Amazon and earn me the bonus 5X points for a total of 6X per dollar if it coded as Amazon or, worst case, I’d get the 4X if it coded as groceries.
But I was awarded both the 4X for grocery spend and the +5X for the Amex Offer, for a total of 9 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent. Based on my current 1.7 cent valuation of an Amex Membership Rewards point, I calculate this as a roughly 15.3% return on the spend.
Just keep in mind that the bonus max on the Amex Offer is for $400 in spend, so you’ll only be able to max this out for $400 in total Whole Foods spend via Amazon.
Would this combine with other Amex cards offering Grocery bonuses?
Amex has bonuses for grocery purchases on a range of cards now. So can you stack those instead of using an Amex Gold? I’d assume so, provided you got the Amex Offer on one of those cards. However, the Amex cards offering grocery bonuses are Delta, Marriott, and Hilton branded and I don’t *think* any of those cards also have the Amex Offer (since I only heard of a Membership Rewards points-based offer being available.
Does this change how you’ll pay for your next Whole Foods @ Amazon order?
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