Not sure if you're disagreeing with me or not, but I just wanted to point out that this agrees with what I wrote (though my writing was more convoluted). For merchants which don't have an electronic/phone-connected swipe box, they have to authorize transactions by calling the company and typing in the relevant information. They get an authorization # from the phone system and write it on the imprint slip. Electronic swipe boxes essentially do the same thing, but don't require human intervention. In either case, AmEx's CSRs would be able to see the record of the authorization, but AmEx's online system doesn't display the charge until it clears a few days or more later.