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Amex Sign-up Bonus Strategy: 3 Cards in 18 Months for Belgians

Updated: 6 July 2026 · TravelLux.be

300,000 Membership Rewards points. Let that number sink in for a moment. Converted, depending on how you use them, that's somewhere between €3,000 and €6,000 in travel value. And yes, that's a realistic goal for a Belgian traveller who's willing to follow a plan for 18 months. The core of this Amex sign-up bonus strategy is simple: every American Express card offers a one-time welcome bonus, and if you apply for them in the right order, you stack those bonuses without getting yourself into financial trouble.

Honestly: when I first started doing this myself, I thought it sounded too good to be true. A bit like those "free" lunches where there's always a catch. But after running the numbers, the catch mainly turned out to be: spending money you were already planning to spend, but with the right card. No trick, no hack, just a bit of planning.

Why multiple sign-up bonuses are the smartest Amex strategy in Belgium

The vast majority of Membership Rewards points you'll ever earn don't come from daily use. Even with the Booster option (4 points per €1, for €10/month extra) you need to spend enormously before you reach serious numbers. Do the maths: €2,000 per month in card spending with the Booster yields 8,000 points per month. That's 96,000 per year. Not bad, but not spectacular either when you know that a single business class return to Bangkok easily costs 80,000 to 120,000 points via transfer partners like Turkish Airlines or Brussels Airlines.

A welcome bonus, on the other hand, delivers tens of thousands of points in one go, sometimes more than a hundred thousand. The Amex Platinum welcome bonus via a referral link amounts to up to 150,000 points. That's almost two years' worth of Booster spending, earned in three months. The difference is so large that every serious points collector in Belgium reaches the same conclusion: the sign-up bonuses are the foundation. Everything else is supplementary earnings.

Now there's a limitation you need to understand well. Each welcome bonus is one-time per card type per person. You can't receive the Platinum bonus twice. But you can apply for the Green, then the Gold, and then the Platinum in succession, and collect the welcome bonus each time. Those are three different cards, three separate bonuses, and they all land in the same Membership Rewards points pool. That stacking effect is the core of the strategy I'm laying out here.

The 18-month timeline: which card when, and why in that order

The order in which you apply for cards matters more than most people think. Start straight away with the Platinum, and you're paying €65 per month (€780 per year) from day one, while you might not even know if you'll hit the spending threshold. Start too low, and you miss months during which you could already have been benefiting from better perks. After much deliberation, the order that worked best for me was: Green first, then Gold, then Platinum.

The maths behind 300,000 points: what does it actually get you

Let me be honest about the numbers, because this is where most blogs go wrong by only showing the rosiest scenarios. The value of your points depends entirely on how you redeem them. Transfer to an airline partner for business class? Then you're easily looking at 1.5 to 2 cents per point. Redeem as statement credit or for gift cards? Then you drop to 0.5 to 0.8 cents per point. The difference is enormous.

With 300,000 points, that looks like this:

And now the sobering side. If you redeem 300,000 points entirely as cashback or gift cards, you're left with €1,500 to €2,400. Still not nothing, but considerably less impressive. The lesson: points are only valuable when you deploy them strategically. Otherwise, you're better off getting a cashback card and not looking back.

What costs have you incurred in the meantime? The annual fees for all three cards, plus the Platinum which weighs heaviest at €780 per year. Over 18 months, depending on which cards you keep active and when, you're looking at around €1,200 to €1,600 total in card costs. Subtract that from your points value and you're left with a net benefit that can be quite substantial—but only if you spend the points wisely.

When this strategy does not work for you (and what does)

I'd make myself unbelievable if I weren't honest about this. This strategy isn't for everyone. In fact, for some profiles it's downright a bad idea.

If your monthly expenses are structurally below €1,000, it becomes very tight to hit the spending thresholds without making purchases you wouldn't otherwise make. And that's precisely the point where this strategy tips from smart to foolish. Spending more just to earn points is always a net loss. No exceptions.

Also, if you rarely fly—say once a year for a city trip within Europe—you won't extract enough value from the Platinum. The lounge access at Brussels Airport (Priority Pass, Fast Lane security) is nice for that one time, but you won't earn back the €780 per year with it. For occasional flyers, I estimate the real value of the Platinum at €400 to €700 per year, and that's below the cost price. In that case: stick with the Gold or even the Green, and skip the Platinum.

Another profile I want to mention: if you dislike administration. This strategy requires you to keep track of when you apply for which card, when you need to hit which spending threshold, and when you might want to downgrade a card to save costs. It's not rocket science, but it's not "apply and forget" either. If you can't be bothered with that, fair enough. Then one card with good benefits might be better than three cards with more administration.

Practical tips for execution: what I learned myself

A few things I wish I'd known earlier when I started this strategy myself.

Timing with large expenses. The welcome bonus revolves around the spending threshold in the first three months. Plan your card application around a period when you're already spending large amounts. Booking a trip, an insurance period that's expiring, a purchase you've been putting off for months. For our last trip to Vietnam, I deliberately timed the Platinum application so that the flights, hotels and excursions all fell within those first three months. Without spending anything extra, I was already at three-quarters of the threshold.

Move recurring payments. As soon as you activate a new Amex card, transfer all your subscriptions and recurring payments to it. Those are points you collect for free, every single month. Netflix, Spotify, your mobile phone plan, insurance, parking subscription. Sounds like small change, but €200 to €400 per month in recurring costs is already a significant chunk of your spending threshold.

Always keep at least one card active. Your Membership Rewards points don't expire as long as you have an active card. If after 18 months you want to cancel the Platinum because the benefits no longer justify the costs, at least keep the Green. It costs much less and keeps your points balance alive. I've heard stories of people who cancelled everything and then lost their 200,000 points. You don't want that.

Acceptance in Belgium. Let's be honest: Amex isn't accepted everywhere. At Colruyt, Aldi, Lidl and many small independent businesses, you can't pay with it. But online (Bol, Coolblue, Booking.com, Amazon), at larger chains (Delhaize, Carrefour, IKEA, MediaMarkt) and in most restaurants it works fine. For daily groceries you simply need a Visa or Mastercard alongside your Amex. That's not a dealbreaker, but you need to be aware of it.

The role of a partner in this strategy

If you have a partner who's also open to credit card points, this strategy becomes even more powerful. The Amex Platinum offers up to 4 free Green supplementary cards for family members. Those cards also earn points on spending, and those points land in your points pool. But there's more: your partner can also apply for their own card with their own welcome bonus, because the bonus is tied to the individual, not the household.

In concrete terms: if you both follow the 3-cards-in-18-months strategy, the total yield doubles towards 600,000 points. That sounds absurd, and admittedly, it requires that together you have enough regular expenses to hit all spending thresholds. But for a dual-income household that takes a few trips per year, it's not unrealistic.

Our own approach was slightly more conservative. I went through all three cards, my partner did two. Together we ended up at around 380,000 points over eighteen months. Enough for two business class tickets to Sydney and a week of Fine Hotels + Resorts. Was there administration? Yes. But the kind of administration you do with a smile when you're holding the boarding pass for business class in your hands.

After the 18 months: what then?

The sign-up bonuses are done. What now? You have a few options, and which one you choose depends on how much you use the daily benefits of each card.

Option A: you keep the Platinum because the benefits (lounge access, Fast Lane at Brussels Airport, Fine Hotels + Resorts, Dining for 2, insurance, no foreign exchange fees) are worth the €780 per year for your travel pattern. This is the logical choice if you fly internationally 3+ times per year and regularly book hotels. I've calculated it extensively in our Amex Platinum Belgium review article.

Option B: you downgrade to the Gold or Green, keep your points (because you still have an active card), and cancel the Platinum. You lose the Platinum benefits but save considerably on annual fees. This is honestly the better choice for those who travel less after the bonus period.

Option C: you redeem your points entirely before downgrading, and keep the Green as a safety net. Simple, clean, and you've enjoyed the points without ongoing high costs.

There's no wrong choice here. It simply depends on your personal situation. What I do myself: keep the Platinum because I fly enough to make use of the benefits, and the Green as backup. I dropped the Gold after the bonus period, because the overlap with the Platinum was too great to justify both.

Also read:

• Amex Platinum Card Belgium: honest review after 2 years
• Membership Rewards points: how to use them optimally?
• Best credit card for travel in Belgium: 2026 comparison