AMEX no longer honoring "other" bonus IDs
After reading on this forum about the many different opportunities to "upgrade" to a better bonus ID, I recently applied and was approved for an Amex gold premier rewards card. I received it today and as many of others had done, I called Amex to ask for a better bonus ID: specifically # 6661, which was reported to be available to non-new card holders.
To my disappointment, the CSR told me that there was a decision made over the weekend not to allow any actions like this due to the overwhelming # of people who were calling to try this. The CSR said that the bonus #s were being distributed on FF web sites and were never meant to be shared this way. I also spoke with a supervisor who repeated the same but offered to check with someone from MR to see if they would honor the code since I had been a member since 1982. Alas, no dice. The CSR from MR said that they would only honor a code that currently appears on the Amex web site.
So the good news is I will get 15K points but the bad news is no more sharing.