I wonder if anyone can help with this. I searched the forum but didn't see anything. In brief, Amex claim my SPG account doesn't exist; SPG online shows no problems with it.

Two months ago I signed up for the SPG Amex (UK) in order to qualify for the 20k points offer then available. Immediately before applying for the card I signed up for SPG, of which I had not been a member before. I was given an SPG number and I used that number when applying for the card. The number works (and worked at the time) for logging into my account.

Everything seemed to go fine. Except that on my first statement, the SPG account number field was blank and my points did not transfer across. I e-mailed Amex to enquire ... they said,
"It appears that our request to create your Starwood number has been rejected by Starwood. ... please contact our Rewards Team"

I did so on the phone and the agent there said "how strange, we have the number here, probably everything will be sorted for your next statement"

Of course the same problem occurred the next month. This time I was more insistent, and got them to delete and re-add the number. Curiously, the existing number on record was missing its final three digits, despite the first Amex phone agent confirming the number was the same as the one I read out to her.

I e-mailed to confirm later in the day that the problem was resolved. Now they say,
"I have checked your account and see that this particular Starwood membership number is showing as 'not found' in our records."

I am certain this is the correct number. All I can imagine is that because I have never credited a stay to the account, it is somehow "inactive". Does anyone have any insight into the problem?

Thanks!