Not surprising really, until relatively recently, Amex would use your member since date for reporting new cards. In terms of average age of accounts using a member since date on a new application or keeping the old date on a product transfer is pretty similar.

This is now prohibited by the credit bureaus in Canada, Amex all the way high up the food chain would very much still like to do it in order to show a customer has been with them since many years and they know their customer.

It has a good and a bad impact on customer retention. A customer is less likely to cancel a card which they held for a long time, and at the same time, there is incentive to cancel new cards after the signup bonus as quickly as possible since new cards have an average age of account negative impact until they're past 2 years, sort of.

Anyway, back to the point, Amex might end up having to accept product transfers in the future if they want to keep their customer base and not just become a sign up and cancel company. If enough people ask and complain it might happen. Oh wait, we're in Canada, so this won't happen. Just my 2 cents in stratosphere.