Originally Posted by Jlove

So my PRG was up for renewal, talked with the retention person who made a few offers. When I called back to accept one of them, the answering machine cancelled my card when I requested "cancellation retention" before I could ever speak to anyone.
When I later decided to let the card go and send my 55k reward points to an airline, I spent over an hour on the phone talking to every different department but getting nowhere.
I was told the points were swept, the 30 day grace that the retention person mentioned was only good if I had another card, which I don't (but could have easily if I had known).

There must be some way to get these points back - erroneous cancellation? misquote from AMEX agent? temporarily re-activate the card? set up a new one?
I know this must not be the first time this has happened, but I couldn't locate any info on this topic. Any help appreciated!