Most of the time, AMEX Offers are small wins — things like 20% back at Shake Shack (up to $8). It’s a nice little perk, basically free money that helps offset annual fees.
Every so often, though, you’ll find something better, like the $20 back on Walmart.com offer I used earlier this year.
I’ll scroll through them occasionally to see if there’s anything we’d normally buy anyway, but most of the time, they’re minor credits. Then this one popped up on my Platinum Card — and it definitely stood out.
The Unusually Generous Breitling Offer
The fine print reads:
“Spend $2,500 or more, earn 50,000 Membership Rewards® points, up to 3 times.”
Enrollment is limited and is only available to U.S.-issued Consumer Platinum Cardmembers enrolled in Membership Rewards.
That’s a whopping 20 points per dollar — and it can be repeated up to three times, for a potential 150,000 bonus points.
Does It Actually Make Sense?
I’ll be honest: I know nothing about Breitling watches other than there’s a boutique in the “fancy mall” here in Orlando (we have 2 big malls – the “regular” mall, that has Sears and JCPenney as anchor stores, and the “fancy” mall. The latter has stores like Tiffany, Michael Kors, etc.). But this offer made me curious.
The cheapest Breitling I could find on their website was around $3,400 before tax.
That same watch sells for about $2,500 on eBay, meaning you’d be out roughly $1,000 if you tried to flip it.
If you spent $3,400 and earned 50,000 bonus points plus the standard 3,400 base points, that’s 53,400 Membership Rewards points total. You’d effectively be paying about 1.87¢ per point ($1,000 ÷ 53,400).
Putting That in Perspective
Membership Rewards points are typically worth around 1¢ each when used for statement credits, or closer to 1.5–2¢ when transferred to airline partners — sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the redemption.
So even on the high end of that range, you’d only break even by reselling the watch. It’s not a terrible way to “buy” points, but it’s far from ideal.
Now, it’s possible to change the math if you can find a watch with a resale value closer to its retail value. However, those models tend to be considerably more expensive and are riskier to flip unless you really know what you’re doing — which is a very different game than just stacking AMEX offers for everyday spend.
Final Thought
If you were already planning to buy a Breitling, this is a phenomenal return — essentially earning a sign-up bonus haul of points in one swipe. (Breitling even has this AMEX offer bannered on its homepage.)
But for everyone else — and since I’m perfectly content with my Apple Watch — this is one I’ll admire from afar.
Still, I’ll admit: it made me stop scrolling.
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3 comments
Terrible deal. Breitling goes on sale by a lot.
As a watch guy, Brietling is kind of the Cadillac of luxury watches; it’s luxury but resting on its laurels and often overlooked in a crowded field. Their momentum is rising though. Their new Top Time is generating some buzz, and their partnership with Tudor is manufacturing Kenissi movements gives the customer a much better watch than before.
There are times when you can buy that model for half that price, so it is too risky in my book. Breitling is often on sale, heck, even cruise ships often sell these much cheaper than MSRP and without taxes, which would be around $200 on your example. Maybe if you could find some of their watches on clearance, and maybe if you can stack this through a shopping portal, you’d come out OK, but I agree it is interesting.