FYI, this worked for me! Actually, when I was trying to find this post using google, this blog post came up that explains it perfectly:
https://medium.com/optimalist/the-ameriprise-platinum-triple-dip-f3a75c6b145fUnfortunately for me, I didn't have the Ameriprise version of the card so I still had to pay the first year's annual fee.
I wonder if/when they will close this loophole. I got $1000 in signup points, $100 points for switching to "pay over time," plus $600 in travel credit, $100 global entry, and $150 Saks credit, around $250 in uber eats credits. I paid the $550 annual fee once, so that's net cost to AMEX of perhaps $1650, even though I'm sure they have some arrangements for certain benefits and of course those benefits aren't worth a full dollar/$ to me personally.
They offered me a $200 retention bonus if I did another $3k in spend but I declined. The truth is I would have considered keeping the card originally, but after keeping if for a year I decided to hold on to the Chase Sapphire Reserve instead. I don't want more than one high-annual-fee card (a lot of the benefits overlap) and the CSR earns back it's fee much easier for me.
On a final note, I've read grumblings that both Chase and AMEX are considering scaling back their rewards a lot:
https://www.businessinsider.com/american-express-jpmorgan-chase-citi-restructure-rewards-2019-1Three of the largest US card issuers — American Express, JPMorgan Chase, and Citi — reportedly plan to alter the rewards structure on their credit cards amid increasing expenses associated with offering them, according to The Wall Street Journal.
One change Chase is considering is not allowing household members to pool points, which if true will result in me canceling the CSR.