I will note for the forum here on FT that last year around this time the same situation appeared to have occurred. Credits for the UA TB were taking longer than usual and people reported this notion of it being "patched" by AMEX. It turned out that the code they use was just backed up and being updated. Credits posted a few weeks later. While longer than normal we have seen this situation year after year . . . . not claiming something with this comment but just providing context that can help clear up information we can't confirm yet.
This is an interesting observation. I, too, will refrain from claiming I know what's going on here, but it's been an interesting opportunity to observe how many people appear to have been relying specifically on UA Travel Bank as justification for holding this card and its high annual fee. (It's certainly been part of my personal valuation, as an "easy" $200 to redeem.). For those who don't often step outside the FT bubble, I recommend doing a quick internet search using terms such as "amex platinum credit united airlines" to see the much broader range of venues where this "loophole" has been marketed: the well-known travel bloggers for sure, but also seemingly every third credit card holder has their own TikTok or YouTube video promising to explain this "VERY SECRET hack!!!!!!". And if you pull up some of the Reddit threads where this is being discussed, you will see an astonishing number of posters who have been chatting with Amex within 12 hours of their purchase to find out where their credits are. It makes me think that we are living through a modern type of Tulipmania ("
Tulpenwoerde", i.e.tulip madness) revolving around so-called premium credit cards and their attributes, airline lounge access and other types of "free" coupon credits.