Understood, but the checking done during the linking process may be more rigorous now than it was, because the purpose of linking is to eliminate rejections at the transfer stage. In any event it sounds as if the American Express agent did not verify that there was a name mismatch, they were guessing. I would contact Asia Miles to find out exactly how your name is stored in their system. Is it First Name, Last Name or reversed (as seemed to be the problem in those instances.) -and- ask them how they link with American Express when the Middle Name is not stored. Someone at both companies knows how it is done.