Originally Posted by kebosabi

That used to be the case in the past: if an US AMEX cardholder lost his/her card in say, Japan for example, AMEX USA would overnight a replacement card to the person in Japan.

However, lately AMEX has been doing cost cutting measures that instead of overnighting them via expensive couriers, they would just have AMEX Japan issue the replacement card on the behalf of AMEX USA on a generic AMEX Green Card stock.

Case in point, my mother once lost her Costco AMEX issued in the US while visiting Japan. I called AMEX USA on her behalf and they had a replacement AMEX waiting for her at the nearest AMEX Travel Center in Tokyo. They provided her with a generic AMEX Green Card that was issued by AMEX Japan as a temporary measure, while her replacement Costco AMEX was sent to her permanent address in the US.

Of course maybe this was true because AMEX Japan doesn't issue EMV hybrid cards as well.