SST

Heeding Randy's advice, I called on 7/2 to transfer my AMEX Membership Rewards points to TWA, for eventual transfer to Aadvantage... Their system was down, and I spoke to a live human: BIG MISTAKE! Not only weren't my 6,000 points transferred, when I called to ask AMEX what happened today, they said yes, they could see my request for a "manual transfer", and a subsequent attempt on 7/6 to try it manually again (by them, I guess, during the 10-day extension period) but "that didn't go thru, and of course now it's too late."

I reminded them that I had done everything to keep up my end of the bargain, and I expected them to make the transfer happen. No dice. I lose. "That program has ended".
I had to go to the 2nd line supervisor and to the "Partner Liason Desk" in order to find out how to make this right.

Well: Nothing doing with the "Liason Desk"; they won't talk to mere cardholders, and no level of supervisor can accomplish a transfer. I finally ended up at a supervisors' supervisor, and they said they'd try to make it happen and call me back next week.


TWA tells me that so many people did it those last few days, they've had a number of complaints. Anyone else out there? And if you haven't checked your TWA balance, you'd better do it NOW, before AMEX just slams the door, since I've got to say I haven't had such a tough time with unpleasant Customer Service Reps in years. Well, actually since our family cancelled our last AMEX product, after hours on hold.....


[This message has been edited by SST (edited 07-27-2001).]

afang

I'm sorry to hear about your misfortunes for the valuable points

I for one is not a fan of AMEX at all...i find them arrogant and have very bad customer service.

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Al

Island

My daughter likewise missed out on trying to transfer a boat-load of AMEX points on the last few days, due to not using her account for about 6 months. By the time they got it straightened out, it was too late.

I chalked this up as tough-luck as she was advized months in advance to get it done, but it didnt become important until about June 30.

Bishop1

Greetings,

I screwed up also. I could have joined the Aviators Program before the deadline but I didn't. I missed out on the 1:1 transfer of Membership Reward Points for Aviator Miles.

But, what I did was almost the next best thing. I transfered the Membership Rewards Points into my Starwood Account. Granted the transfer is something like 3:1 (AMEX Points to Starwood Points) but atleast what got transfered got credited and the whole amount I was able to transfer into my AA account. Hopefully everyone else out there will find a better way to convert AMEX points into AA miles.

ILUVCITIBANK

I successfully executed a mid-6-figure mileage dump to TWA from AMEX/MR on the very last day; called AMEX and it happened smoothly with no glitches. Confirmed it is in TWA Aviators now awaiting (I think 11/30) transfer.

Had a royal pain of a time getting TWA to change my name to be exactly the same as my AAvantage which I wanted to do to avoid any glitch when the electronic merge happens..but finally got it worked out.

FWIW, I am a AMEX Platinum cardholder and an AA Plat also. Maybe that helped - dunno.

ron-val-ron

i'd advise everyone to double and triple check that what they think went through actually went through

the name on my various accounts wasn't the same, and amex (or twa, i'm not sure which) just blew off the requested transfer without informing me - i called a few days before the deadline and got it straightened out

bonzaiflyer

You're dealing with AMEX, you're dealing with TWA. Both probably the poster children for the worst customer service on the planet in their respective fields. Why wouldn't you expect problems?

socalterp

TWA- worst customer service on the planet? Please...ok, so maybe not close to the caliber of a CX or SQ, but what domestic carriers are? My overall experience with them over the past few years has been very good. Sure there have been some bad apples, but it happens on any airlines. With a #1 finish in the 1999 JD Power survey and a strong #2 in the 2000 for long-haul domestic flights, TWA couldn't have been that bad.

bonzaiflyer

I guess you're right. I must have always dealt with the bad apples more than the good one. Perhaps I should have said something like "you're dealing with bitter people at TWA who should be thankful for having a job but haven't realized it yet"

SST

Postscript from the original poster:
I went through THREE levels of supervisor, until I got a return call from, apparently, someone with authority. I nicely explained that I'd done everything that could be expected from my end, and asked her if it seemed reasonable for me to bear the burden of AMEX's and TWA's procedural error. She agreed that it didn't, and asked me to check my account again after the weekend, when she'd see if it could be fixed.

IT WAS FIXED.

As with so many of these things, perserverance is critical, but it's so sad that we have to endure this time and again.