Amex once-per-lifetime bonus

What it does

Amex tracks bonus eligibility per card product per person, and the default is for life: if you've earned the welcome bonus on a product, the standard offer won't pay it again - even if you close the account, wait years, and reapply with a fresh credit pull. In 2025 Amex softened the published wording on flagship cards to individualized language ('You may not be eligible for this offer'), which gives Amex per-applicant discretion, but once-per-lifetime per product remains the baseline assumption. The product line, not the account, is what's tracked.

How it works

• Personal Platinum and Business Platinum are distinct products - having earned one does NOT block the other.
• Delta consumer cards are hierarchical downward (since fall 2023): a higher-tier bonus blocks the lower tiers, so Reserve blocks Platinum, Gold, and Blue bonuses, and Platinum blocks Gold and Blue. Apply bottom-up. Delta business cards have no family language - each is independently once-per-lifetime.
• The Membership Rewards flagships work the same way: a Platinum bonus blocks the Gold bonus, and Gold or Platinum block Green (since 2023).
• Hilton has NO family language: each Hilton product (Honors, Surpass, Aspire, Business) is independently once-per-lifetime, so a Hilton Honors bonus does not block a Surpass bonus. (The Surpass terms also name the Ascend - the same card before its 2019 rename.)
• The pre-application 'pop-up jail' fires before any hard pull, and it now also encodes forward-looking screening, not just your bonus history. If it says you don't qualify for the bonus, take it seriously: the card can still be issued, but the bonus will never post.
• The rule is per person (SSN), not per household - and for business cards it's per person, not per EIN. Forming a new LLC does not unlock a bonus. A spouse with no Amex history can still earn each bonus once.
• No-lifetime-language (NLL) targeted offers are the one legitimate exception: some targeted offers omit the lifetime clause entirely. Check your specific offer's terms - if the clause is absent, the bonus can pay even on a product you've had.

What to do

• Always check if you've held the product before. Amex shows it on the application page; community trackers (DoctorOfCredit, Reddit) keep historical lists too.
• If you've taken a bonus, don't close and reopen hoping for a second bite - only a targeted offer without the lifetime language can pay twice.
• Spouse cards / authorized-user signups are the way to put a 'second bonus' on a household, since each Amex profile is independent.