American Express Membership Rewards - Please Help - Upgrade/Cancellation/Reinstatment

Need some help regarding the following issue:

Bit of background. Amex member since 1981. Had PRG for last few years, average spend ~$30k. Excellent Credit. Upcoming year will be doing more travel, wanted to upgrade to Platinum, but obviously was looking to get some kind of points bonus (and keep credit line open/same number/etc.). Annual fee posted and due July 11, so I started calling amex about a month ago. Called Amex CS ~12-15 times regarding this, after I had seen some success people on here receiving targeted Plat Upgrades +25k-50k bonus points. All unsuccessful. Just had standard "Pre-Approved for an Upgrade" message. Called to cancel 1.5 weeks ago, heard automated message and all. There was some error and it wasn't cancelled. So I called back yesterday and cancelled officially. CS told me they knew of the 25k bonus for upgrading so they put me through to another dept. and they said no way.

Received official cancel message at 2:37 PM today. Logged in online to make sure it ACTUALLY cancelled this time, and saw the upgrade +25k on my account! Tried to click online, said it's not valid for my cards (also have a SPG). Called immediately and am being told now there is NO WAY to reinstate that line of credit and I'll have to reapply. I do not want to do this at this time, I obviously wanted to keep the line open. I just finished a churn including UA Explorer, INK, and SPG so I dont want too many hits (plus current plat offer is poor).

Any ideas on what I can do here? Is it true they can't reinstate the credit line? I got up 3 levels of management and am waiting on a return call.

Please help. I am very annoyed with Amex about this, but really wanted the Plat.

Maybe make one more call asking if you can reopen an account you closed. I think they used to always say you had 60 days to change your mind. If not, why not apply with a 50K offer you can get from someone in the referrals thread at the top of the page here? On the other hand, they have new wording in their offers that say you can't have had a charge card in the last 90 days or something like that. Not sure if they enforce it on the bonuses.

I obviously wanted to keep the line open.

I'm note sure I understand. You said:

Called to cancel 1.5 weeks ago, heard automated message and all. There was some error and it wasn't cancelled. So I called back yesterday and cancelled officially.

It seems that you were quite persistent in making sure that your card was cancelled. Why is it obvious that you want to keep it open?

Sorry maybe I didn't fully explain (was trying to keep it brief for anyone who was reading!)

I kept saying to the CS Reps that I wanted the Platinum (via upgrade) so that I could keep the credit line open. Since I was taking a hike in the annual fee, I was hoping to receive some bonus. I knew they were offering it to some, and they are offering as much as 50k to new customers at the moment. I explained that if they didn't honor my request (or couldn't), I was just going to cancel and reapply for a plat but really did not want to do it that way.

It was more of an I'd like to upgrade and change cards call with the caveat of I'll cancel if you can't provide me a retention bonus.

I am in a similar situation. I closed my AMEX PRG card recently and will like to reinstate it. However AMEX says that there was a policy change on June 14 and they are unable to reopen the closed cards. Anybody knows a workaround? I guess it might be useful to try Twitter team/Executive Office if the regular customer service is unable to help. Any other useful idea will be appreciated. Thanks.

I had called them on this again yesterday still with no luck.. :( It does say in their cardmember agreement that they can reinstate cards, which I have explained is not good practice if they don't actually do it. I honor my promise to them (spending too much :D and paying my bills) why can't they?!

At the end of the day, it is what it is, I'll just reapply later on. Ugh.

I had called them on this again...

Are you dealing with frontline CSR's, a "supervisor", a "manager"? In this type of situation I would start the conversation by asking, "Do you have the authority to reinstate my account?". If the answer is anything other than, "Yes," the conversation is over and I'll hold for your manager.

Mia -

I have gotten two levels above a regular CSR. I guess it would be a manager. They send me straight to their voicemail and I am supposed to wait for a call back. Have done this three times so far since the whole thing happened.

I guess in the end its not THAT big of a deal... more of an annoyance really. I would have preferred to upgrade and acquire MR points rather than having to track another min. spend. I guess just pretty poor policy.

...not THAT big of a deal...

Agreed, but if I were a senior manager at American Express I would want to know that a customer who wanted to upgrade to a more expensive card had been repeatedly told that there was no bonus when, in fact, the account had a bonus attached.

You could call the Executive Offices at 1-800-297-6197

Mia -

Thanks for the help. I actually just called and spoke to an Executive Assistant.

Apparently Amex has disabled card reinstatement "at this time" as of 15 June with no explanation why. The rep was quite surprised that they were not aware of this and had to call the Account Dept. to actually get this info, who was only able to provide that. No Details, No ETA. Odd.

Rep took my number and is looking into another work around for me so that I do not have to re-apply. Will post again when I get some type of response.

So until then... :confused:

Pls do post once u hear back from AMEX. I am very interested as I will like to reopen my own account with an impending bonus. Thanks so much.

Mia -

Thanks for the help. I actually just called and spoke to an Executive Assistant.

Apparently Amex has disabled card reinstatement "at this time" as of 15 June with no explanation why. The rep was quite surprised that they were not aware of this and had to call the Account Dept. to actually get this info, who was only able to provide that. No Details, No ETA. Odd.

Rep took my number and is looking into another work around for me so that I do not have to re-apply. Will post again when I get some type of response.

So until then... :confused:
Any update on this? Pls let us know. Thanks so much.

No update, no...

I spoke to the rep who promised me a reply and a call back. I have received neither. I have tried calling her back using the extension she supplied me, but usually rings 1-2 times then goes straight to voicemail. I am assuming that my calls are being avoided.

Thanks for following up. I never had much luck with their executive office. They listen to the issue and either don't follow up and/or unable to do much anyway. I had much better luck with their regular customer service and Twitter team. After my earlier post, I called regular customer service and asked for an exception. The CSR was very nice and said she will try her best. She took my information and said that she will work with her supervisor to do an override and call me back. After an hour or so, got her call and the good news! Hopefully I can get that 25 K upgrade bonus now :).

Kudos to AMEX! Other than some bonus issues, I am very happy with AMEX and do plan to use their Hilton and Costco cards on a regular basis.

Are you saying that they actually found a way to override the "no more reinstatement" issue? If yes, do you have any idea how? I probably have called near a dozen times now and spoken to both reps that tried vigorously to help, and ones who didn't care... None could find a way to get it done.

Are you saying that they actually found a way to override the "no more reinstatement" issue? If yes, do you have any idea how? I probably have called near a dozen times now and spoken to both reps that tried vigorously to help, and ones who didn't care... None could find a way to get it done.That is right - my account has been reinstated and a replacement card is on the way :). I don't have the 25 K upgrade offer yet, but I am willing to wait on that one.

As per the CSR, the supervisor did the override because I have been a very old customer. This was my spouse account who has been an AMEX member (not this account but other account) for almost a decade, so that might have helped. May be I just got lucky or it was some individual circumstances, my guess is as good as yours. U may want to wait for the Executive offices to get back to u although I wouldn't place much hope on that. Else u can try speaking to a supervisor preferably during business hours. Good luck!

well i am going to give them another call right now after seeing that... i have been a member since 1981!! i also still have the platinum upgrade offer listed on my account, and a letter came this week offering me the upgrade lol (it's like they're rubbing it in now!)