In late March, 6.5 weeks ago, American Express started refusing my gift card orders with the rejection letter I quoted in my earlier postings in this thread. After making no orders in the month of April, I tried to order again today using the same credit card, shipping details and rebate arrangement as before (1.6% via bigcrumbs). Within minutes, I received an e-mail saying my order has been "approved."

So, it looks like rehabilitation is eventually possible after AmEx starts refusing gift card orders.

I would be interested to learn other data points on AmEx GC rehabilitation attempts (both successful and unsuccessful) to see if we can discern some patterns. For example, is everyone who waits 30 days OK? Does it take longer if one starts getting denied a second time?

One detail that may be part of the problem is the notion that personal AmEx gift cards have a limit of $5k every 10 days. I have seen mention of a $5k limit on the AmEx web site, but I have yet to find a statement from American Express from which the "10 day" part might originate or a history of this being determined experimentally.