I’m in California now, and staying near the Los Angeles airport. With not too many decent Small Business Saturday vendors nearby, I was scared I was going to loose out on my $10 (x3) credit on each of my American Express Cards. With the cards in my briefcase, that’s over $200 worth of free credit that could be lost. I couldn’t let it slip by.
I’ve been browsing the American Express Small Business Saturday website for hotels where I can earn the $10 credit, in hopes I could purchase 3, $10 gift certificates, and get a $30 credit back to my card.
I tried some nice hotels in New York and Los Angeles. No dice. That’s when I discovered an idea in Miami.
Looking at the Small Business Saturday website, the Standard Hotel in Miami’s South Beach comes up as a registered small business.
I called the hotel hoping I could purchase a gift certificate over the phone, and was surprised that I could purchase the gift certificate online!
Having a representative walk me through the website, I was led to this purchasing page where I could enter an amount of the gift certificate I wanted and then have it paid for with any American Express card.
I tested it out by using one of my American Express cards and purchased a $10 gift certificate, which I had emailed to myself.
Low and behold, it immediately popped up as a pending transaction under the Amex website for the same information listed on the Small Business Saturday website.
This is too good to be true! So, I’m in the process of purchasing many $10 gift cards to use up my Small Business Saturday credit! Plus, this will give me a nice excuse to visit Miami in the future!
Some tips and notes:
- The gift certificates are labeled for the spa, but I confirmed with 2 people at the hotel that they can be used on food, beverage, rooms, etc.
- You must check out after every $10 certificate. Do not add a bunch of $10 certificates and then checkout at once, as this will cause one large large instead of it being split into multiple $10 swipes.
- You can have the gift certificates emailed to yourself, which is great.
Note: While I have NOT received the credit yet back to my account (it will post within 90 days), all the information so far is adding up to make this seem legitimate and to work according to the rules. I had an Amex representative check it, as well as being verified by the hotel and the Amex website. It looks good to go, however your experience may vary, and as always, you should take caution before proceeding.
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
You should receive an email from Amex immediately after every qualifying purchase, with the Subject line “Thanks for participating in the Small Business Saturday offer”. The email begins:
Dear [name],
Thank you for using your registered Card ending in [nnnnn] to Shop Small. American Express will issue a $10 statement credit for qualifying transactions within 90 days.
You can take advantage of the offer up to three times today, for a total of up to $30 in statement credits.
If you do not receive that email, I’m skeptical that you will receive the $10 credit.
Card not present transactions will not trigger the bonus.
I bought 6x$10 transactions at the local grocery store self checkout. Free groceries 🙂 love it