Am more than unusually sure retention department for AMEX knows what is going on with all these calls from customers seeking a deal or they (threaten) to walk. As such much of the banter is same as striking any other sort of deal; that is what does it take to get from "knowing" to "yes".

That being said am also more than unusually sure AMEX's systems are programmed to come up with a range of retention offers (or none at all), based upon whatever algorithms have been programmed. Thus it matters not so much what is said, but perhaps more to the point what the system will allow CSR to offer based upon account history or whatever else AMEX uses to compute such decisions.

If you reach out to normal AMEX CSA often you'll get a response "system does not show any offers on your account at this time... or words to that affect). OTOH you can turn around and contact *Retention* and get a different story and outcome.

How much discretion an AMEX retention department CSA has that I do not know. But in an era were customer service agents are limited to what they can do by their assigned tier (and has been this way for years now), cannot imagine AMEX is allowing agents to pull these offers on the fly.

By nature fact one is contacting retention department means one is considering closing an AMEX account (or downgrading to another card), something this department has been set up to avoid and or mitigate. The extent they will go in that direction obviously is influenced by several factors including what value is assigned to the account.

From a marketing point of view am guessing stated reason or reasons for wanting to close an AMEX account might influence what sort of offers CSA sees and or gives.