American Express Membership Rewards - Can AMEX retract your transferred membership points after canceling?

Ok...having been frustrated time and time again at the lack of acceptability of american express cards, I am very close to canceling my card. I find myself using my Visa more and more, so what's the point of having a CC that one can't use.

However, I have heard (rather read on flyertalk) stories that after cancellation all the miles accumulated by using AMEX were retracted upon cancellation. Any beef to these stories?!?!?! Has someone experienced this?

PS. I have the Aeroplan Plus and at the end of every billing cycle I get aeroplan points. Can Amex tap into the already transferred points?

In US, once MR points post to your account, they are yours unless you default on your account. FYI, I would transfer your points before cancelling your card.

In US, once MR points post to your account, they are yours unless you default on your account. Our until you cancel your account, I believe. I believe you will also have some grace period to transfer your points out, and think I heard 2 weeks, which is also the time you have to revert your decision to cancel a card.

If an account is closed and there are points still in it there is, indeed, a grace period to get the points out. But the smart thing to do is to empty the account first. No need to risk it screwing up and losing the points.

They cannot revoke the points once they are transferred out to another program, so they cannot go back from somewhere to MR (n.b. there are exceptions to this but they are very, very rare and should be treated as though they do not exist). Once they are out of MR you're pretty much in the clear.

Yes, try to use them as soon a syou could.

In US, once MR points post to your account, they are yours unless you default on your account. FYI, I would transfer your points before cancelling your card.Last fall, I applied for an AMEX card and got the 10K DL promo miles. They mistakenly set up a new DL account, even tho I had provided my DL # on the application. Two months later when I realized they had set up the new account, I faxed a request to combine the two accounts. They combined them, and WITHDREW THE BONUS MILES :( It had been three years or more since I had applied for a card and rec'd promo miles; and I believe that was for my business card and this was a personal card.

Last fall, I applied for an AMEX card and got the 10K DL promo miles. They mistakenly set up a new DL account, even tho I had provided my DL # on the application. Two months later when I realized they had set up the new account, I faxed a request to combine the two accounts. They combined them, and WITHDREW THE BONUS MILES :( It had been three years or more since I had applied for a card and rec'd promo miles; and I believe that was for my business card and this was a personal card.

Who are the "they's"? Delta or AmEx?

Why would DL withdraw miles that AmEx gave you when you faxed DL to combine the accounts? Was it a DL AmEx? If so, that is probably the reason. I believe AmEx doesn't give out more than one enrollment bonus for the DL AmEx card.

Who are the "they's"? Delta or AmEx?In theory, you would think AMEX. But I faxed a letter to DL to combine the accounts and in the combining, I ended up with -10K :( Lots of people get multiple credit card bonuses with Chase, etc. I thought it was worth a try since it was a different type of AMEX and had been at least three years.