I will expand more on this later, but wanted to quickly post this follow-up to my post (
#625 above).
Knowing my bill was cycling soon, I decided to check my account this morning and make payment for the $200 in WN gift cards that were as-yet not reimbursed. Of course, when I logged into my account, still no credits for the cards. So I went ahead and made payment.
A couple of hours later, I received a very cryptic email from "American Express Executive Member Relations". The email basically said someone from AmEx has been monitoring this thread and noticed that my 'airline fees' hadn't been reimbursed yet. She 'ensured' that the fees would be reimbursed immediately and that my payment would be cancelled. Sure enough, when I logged back into my account online, the two $100 credits were there and my online payment had been cancelled.
This leaves a lot of questions in my mind. Very strange experience!
**To be clear - I NEVER contacted American Express about this and was fully prepared to pay the $200 out of pocket. I didn't even know they had an 'Executive Member Relations' department.**