Happy

There is at least one poster reported he has taken advanced MR, counting on the bump bonus to pay back the borrowed points. Now he has to pay back those points because he has already used them. AMEX would not give a damn on his "open and shut case".

ddfr

I had been alerted to the 15k bonus to 75k bonus a couple of days ago and applied under that premise.

I understand that basically AMEX has cracked down and I won't be getting the 75bonus.

However, I just wanted to confirm that there is no way of me getting any additional points. Is that correct?

I realize this may be a silly question but I am seeing so many codes on this site so I am asking anyone if there are any codes which still work (or might work) as I will probably getting the card next week.

Thanks in advance.

hqly2001

There seems to be a bit of inconsistency here from Amex.
Some members have reported that they were able to get points but most have reportedly been denied. Then there are some reporting that they successfully got the promo notated recently. Should AMEX stop notating if they are instructed to say no to the bump? Why are they notating when they are not supposed to?

It's possible that most people who post are denied. I wonder how many have been successful?

HikerT

Nope, the bump is pretty much dead unless you were targeted. You can either (1) live in denial or (2) call now if you have been promised a bump and elevate it as high as you can until you get what you were promised before corporate closes that door as well or (3) bend over. FWIW, I chose option (2) and was successful (only after calling the executive offices), but that was about a week ago and the door may already be closed.

gv111

I have been shot down both by SM and phone for 6608. My original offer was 50K for spending $25K (or something of that sort) for the business card. I didn't get any offer in direct mail. As I can not spend that much, it almost seems that I will not be getting any points. Will try to call Executive office as the poster above suggested.

x712xdamx

I received 100k for the 6608 bump on Sept 8th in the early evening after being denied 3 times in the 2 days prior...

YMMV

gv111

How did you get it - Secure message, phone call to MR or Executive office?

LtWaldo

Successfully bumped PRG for 75K in July. Been trying for the past week to bump my Biz Gold using 6608. Shot down by SM (several times) and Phone. SM now replies with the exact same response even with the same typo - looks like they are referring anyone to call in. Via phone, I get the standard: "If you were targeted, you will receive the points in 6-8 weeks." and instructions to mail in the offer if I have it. I'm now aiming for the 75K bonus for Biz Gold...I'm hoping they'll give me the lesser offer because it hasn't been abused as much as 6608. Also tried to get the 10K for downloading Insite but got a "you are not eligible" by SM - non-form answer.

x712xdamx

Call 1 - denied
Call 2 - denied
Message 1 - denied/told to call
Message 2 - 100k deposited

That was all within a 36 hour time frame.
There's no formula, but if it matters, I had messages documenting they would give me the bonus.

FlyerChrisK

The MR T&C require binding arbitration at the request of one party if there is a dispute. You'd have to fight to keep in an actual court, so that might end up being painful.

Agreed. I'm also very content with nonchurnable bonuses if they're decent; offer them once, I'm happy (although maybe we'll talk next year if there's an annual fee) and I'll continue to do business with you.

After I closed my account at 1AM yesterday, I sent an SM using one of my other Amex cards essentially copying and pasting my story (posted in the other thread) about what had happened and that Amex had pretty much lost any willingness on my part to use their cards (I still have a small bit of my SPG spend to complete, so I won't stop immediately). I got a reply today from an agent saying if I reinstated my account and replied back with an SM, "the offer" would be honored. At no point in this SM did the agent actually restate the terms and conditions of the offer. When I called to reinstate (fwiw, I froze all of my credit files immediately after closing the account, so that if I reopen, it'd be slightly harder to do a yet another hard pull against me even though the account was closed for <24 hours ), the agents bounced me around for half an hour and finally concluded that they couldn't reinstate because "I have a balance" (even though I made an ACH payment from my bank right after I closed the account , they couldn't give me the benefit of the doubt) and they insisted on looking for the message and noted that this agent's message "could not be found" (even though I was staring right at it on my computer screen... so it has to be in Amex's system somewhere, regardless of whether or not it's worth the electrons it's printed on).

At this point, I have better things to do than wait on hold fruitlessly. If something shows up around here on how to patch this up, I'll jump on it. Otherwise, Amex has lost my lifetime spend. No hard feelings; it's just business.

mooper

I meant "open and shut" in the sense that it would be impossible for Amex to successfully argue (presuming your call was recorded and you were verbally promised the points) that they didn't need to make you whole. They promised points, you relied upon this promise to your financial detriment. Simple.

True, however, Amex is a large company with a *lot* to lose should just one customer opt to deal with the hassle to make a point, and should they proceed, their case would be "open and shut" in that there's not much Amex could do to win. The negative press alone would be extremely costly. More notably, we've seen similar scenarios with other companies resolved in a fair manner when enough pressure was applied. Amex is a company with a superb reputation for customer service. Once the right people become aware that throngs of people have been promised something, relied upon it, and then were told to take a hike, I suspect they will honor their promises. As for what will happen with future promotions... they definitely need to learn a lesson and change procedures so this doesn't happen again. This could be as simple as requiring an RSVP code to apply a promo (no exceptions), or as someone suggested, tying all promotions to activities (e.g., spending thresholds) instead of mere approval. In the end, it could be a good thing for Amex.

I hope that FTers who pursue this will be careful to distinguish between true detrimental reliance (financial suffering because you were counting on Amex's promise, e.g., you advanced points, you purchased nonrefundable hotel nights and were counting on the points for airfare, etc.) and simply wishing that you could have what others got (you didn't suffer financial loss outside of the missed offer itself).

amrom

I have just spent the $1000 on my platinum. Should I call them now to process the notation they promised, or wait 6-8 weeks after the spend and than call, as I was told when they notated it? Im worried than it will definitely be too late...

LtWaldo

Call now - get them to notate your account.

zutmin

I received my 75K bump for the Business Gold Premier Rewards back in August.

My wife applied for the same card in July and called 1-800-AXP-EARN after activating her card and they notated her account with Bonus 6608 and verbally confirmed that she was eligilbe to recieve the 100K points after $2k spend. They asked her to call back after the spend was met and they would post the points to her account.

She recently met the $2K spend and sent SM asking for the points. The reply came more than 24 hours later and Amex is aksing her to call 1-800-AXP-EARN and they wil confirm her "eligibility" for the offer.

I already prepped my wife to fight this tooth and nail should they come up with some excuse to not honor the offer. Not that it matters much, but my wife and I have had several Amex card accounts for several years now and we spend thousands per month on their cards and pay on-time and in full each and every month. We'll see if Amex cares about losing all of our business.

I will report back here later with the results.

FlyerChrisK

Good luck. If your experience is anything like mine, the response you'll get is essentially "don't let the door hit you on the way out." Due to concurrently running PRG and SPG promos, I had shifted all of my spending to Amex and the agents seemed very unconcerned about keeping my business.