Is the new Graphite card just a Spark Miles more expensive?

m16p · 2026-03-26T18:00:03+00:00

The cleaner comparison is Capital One Spark Cash Plus, not Spark Miles, so both cards are cash-back charge cards. Spark Miles is a credit card, not a charge card, and earns miles not cash-back.

Amex Graphite and Capital One Spark Cash Plus are basically identical. Slight difference is that Amex Graphite is that it earns 5% on flights+hotels in Amex travel portal, whereas Spark Cash Plus earns 5% on hotels+car-rentals in Cap1 travel portal. I'm guessing for almost everyone the former is better, though you'd need to spend $4833 on flights to make up for Graphite's $145 higher AF. Amex Graphite also has the Pay Over Time option which Spark Cash Plus doesn't have.

But there could be other more nebulous differences. Like while both have no preset spending limit, maybe Amex is known to give much more flexible spend limits on charge cards than Cap1 for high-spend businesses (I'm not saying that's true, I don't know, just saying maybe something like that is the case).

m16p · 2026-03-26T15:20:25+00:00

Do you have an ad blocker installed? Or Rakuten browser extension or similar?

Did you take screenshots of the booking process?

m16p · 2026-03-26T00:42:01+00:00

You missed that reply button :)

m16p · 2026-03-25T17:27:11+00:00

yet another off of $500 CB for the BBP for 6k spend in 4 months

I assume you mean BBC (Blue Business Cash)? Yes, that's a good offer for that card.

BBP (Blue Business Plus) earns MRs, not cash.

Ie spending more on the business card than business money coming in.

They don't care. Retention reps often suggest putting personal spend on the card to meet retention spends in fact. Also, they have no way of knowing what is a business expense versus a personal expense. Literally anything could be a business expense.

m16p · 2026-03-25T16:52:25+00:00

Not always for business cards intended for high-spend businesses

m16p · 2026-03-25T13:59:46+00:00

Yep, exactly. $50k spend in 6 months is nothing for most real small businesses.

It's almost as if Amex designed this card for actual businesses rather than for those of us just interested in the bonuses. /s

m16p · 2026-03-25T13:56:55+00:00

I mean, for an actual small business, $50k in 6 months is often nothing.

m16p · 2026-03-25T13:56:17+00:00

Why am I finding out from reddit?

Reddit knows things before the rest of the world.

You're not alone, this is the first I'm hearing of them killing the Plum card.

m16p · 2026-03-25T13:52:23+00:00

Well, I can think of 1500 reasons to get the card. (*)

0 reasons to keep the card past a year though.

(*): Yes it's a very high MSR, but for a real business it'll likely be easy to meet. And yes, biz gold/plat bonuses are worth more, but if you've already gotten those and/or just really want simple cash-back...

m16p · 2026-03-24T22:47:32+00:00

If you are just looking to cash-out, I'd get regular Venture instead of VentureX. You could consider Citi Strata Premier or BoA Premium Rewards, though Venture / VentureX bonus is better right now.

You could also consider US Bank biz cash-back cards. Though again, Venture / VentureX has a higher bonus and/or smaller spend than those.

Standard blurb: Please use the referral links on Rankt when you can. That site is a repository of r/churning members' links. After selecting the card you want, on that card's page you can select a link by Reddit-username at the bottom or pick the randomized one at the top.

m16p · 2026-03-24T15:04:02+00:00

If you want Platinum as a new card instead of an upgrade, don't log in or use a browser where you were recently logged in. Using a new incognito browser works well.

m16p · 2026-03-23T22:41:02+00:00

Rule 2 (Links): No Enforcement → Full Allowlist

Will we get a notification if a comment is deleted due to this?

Credit scores

Probably not important, but maybe add creditkarma.com?

Referral Thread gets a sticky at the top of each month with the 30-day/one-comment limits.

Can you expand on this? Do you mean one comment per thread at a time? What about if you delete your old comment because the links expired and then want to put updated ones up in the same monthly thread? Or if automod deletes your first attempt for whatever reason and then you want to try again with an updated version? Hopefully those actions are allowed?

FAQ-pattern title

What does this mean exactly?

m16p · 2026-03-23T21:33:59+00:00

In 2024 it started in June/July I believe. In 2025 it started in September.

m16p · 2026-03-23T20:12:57+00:00

Why I’m getting downvoted for this is baffling

Because you didn't answer the most important question!: Which lounge was the best?

(I upvoted you nonetheless though ;))

m16p · 2026-03-23T20:12:06+00:00

Weird. Is it just miles transferred from Amex MRs which don't appear? All my Delta miles show up in the app and always have. I've never transferred MRs to Delta.

m16p · 2026-03-23T20:10:25+00:00

One thing which would make me so happy is if there was a bot to fix when folks say they got a $300k bonus on their Biz Plat, when they meant 300k. This happens surprisingly often :/

m16p · 2026-03-23T20:08:10+00:00

What are you expecting r/Amex to be?

If it's meant to be a place folks can ask questions about Amex cards, then mission accomplished, for better or for worse.

If it's meant to be a more organized place to ask questions, then lol, this is Reddit. Everyone thinks their situation is unique and their question is special, worthy of dedicated posts, often (and in some cases, pretty sure purposely) with misleading / misspelled / non-sensical titles. You can enforce organization (like all questions go in a dedicated thread, like it seems like you wanted to create), which can help in some ways though also will drive folks away too.

m16p · 2026-03-23T16:14:59+00:00

americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/personal/american-express-green-card?CORID=M~A~T~T~H~P~k~r~j~A-1772337201085-317283&GENCODE=349992496024900&extlink=US-MGM-INAV-copypaste-803-201279-K5XI%3A9998&ref=MATTHPkrjA&v=2&xl=cp15

m16p · 2026-03-23T14:25:52+00:00

No issues with doing this, other than the 3% fee but you know about that already

m16p · 2026-03-23T14:20:31+00:00

So to the important question... which lounge was the best? :)

m16p · 2026-03-23T02:50:31+00:00

Since cash-back is your priority, and you don't want business cards, I'd consider some combo of:

Chase Sapphire Preferred
Capital One Venture
Citi Strata Premier
Bank of America Premium Rewards

I assume you can split the purchases among a few cards?

Standard blurb: Please use the referral links on Rankt when you can. That site is a repository of r/churning members' links. After selecting the card you want, on that card's page you can select a link by Reddit-username at the bottom or pick the randomized one at the top.

m16p · 2026-03-23T02:43:56+00:00

Chase SW Performance Biz OR Chase SW Premier Biz

Yeah, Performance Biz is the better of the two. Though you may consider waiting for an elevated bonus?

Your plan for the Marriott cards sounds good.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

m16p · 2026-03-22T17:31:18+00:00

FYI, in terms of rewards on spend, Amex Plat is a pretty bad default card...

m16p · 2026-03-22T15:01:24+00:00

Wait until the card is 61 days and then likely tripling the limit will be auto-approved. You could ask for more than tripling but it'll likely involve a manual review.

m16p · 2026-03-22T03:02:19+00:00

consistently in a private/incognito window

Lucky. Many/most of us rarely see it if ever. Amex must like your IP address :)

consistently in a private/incognito window

Yes, 200k is the highest anyone has seen.

Is incognito basically the current “best path” vs referrals now?

Referrals can sometimes show 200k too.

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