Interesting story. Over the years, I, too, have had some strange charges denied. Most of the time, Amex later denied that they declined anything. On one occasion, I was transfered to security for the 3rd degree (or else they would cancel my account). Since my credit is perfect, none of these events could be my fault.

I think we have to accept that Amex is a bunch of screw-ups and not let this get us down too much.