TommyC80

Except that the trasnferability of points from MR to multiple programs was a definite bonus. I realize that closing of the shopping portal doesn't change that, but it certainly makes the entire program less valuable since I'll have significantly fewer points to transfer.

AMEX has until the end of summer to sort this out or I'm closing all my accounts and shifting the rest of my business to Chase.

After all the continuous devaluation of the program over the last 18 months, there is little differentiation in their value proposition.

My Ritz Carlton rewards card gives me the $200 airline incidental credit, lounge access and ensures I never, ever fall below Gold elite level with Marriott/RC. I think if I add a UR card I'll be good to go.

It might actually be nice to get off the AMEX annual fee treadmill. Between a plat card, business gold and the Mrs.'s cards we pay them way to much each year for the pleasure of using their cards.

goAsia

Did/does Caretera operate Amex's portal as well?

mia

Not to my knowledge. It may have been outsourced when it was initially launched as Bonus Points Mall, but /earn seems to have been run in-house.

reft

Pure speculation / Questions with no answer expected:

Is AMEX just moving things around? I notice the small business credit in Boston & other targeted locales recently, and last month or so they were doing various statement credits up to $100 for certain vendors via twitter.

Is their promo budget being moved from the mall and into direct statement credits or other 'modern' social media venues such as Facebook / Twitter?

mia

No, the shopping portal should be profitable for the operator. The bonus points are purchased by the merchants.

LAX88

AMEX is really loosing my respect. Their customer service was always excellent and their decisions transparent. Now, I'll take Chase almost any day over AMEX.

reft

Someone I can always remember that for airline miles and forget it for general points.

PaulInTheSky

Right, nothing so far today. Will have to double check later. I have had around 200k with the bonus points first half of the year, so it will really be a problem if this doesn't get fixed.

May I ask what the secure message protocol is? An email or...?

Tim O'Brien

that's good enough for me, i will go ahead with purchases and revert to them to have the account adjusted manually

emoose1

Had an interesting chat with an MR rep today. He read me an email sent to employees updating them on the shopping portal. In sum: it is currently being "reviewed" and may be ulimately discontinued, reinstated or replaced/updated.

Rep said that it got very positive or negative reviews based on whether a cardholder was awarded the bonus points (aka they used the portal correctly, didn't attempt to buy an item in store yet expect bonus, and didn't attempt to combine the bonus with another shopping portal).

The same email mentioned this targeted promo:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...threshold.html

Apparently, they're still sending it out, with newer accounts getting invited later.

maccoinnich

This is a shame. I've been doing most of my spending with Chase for the last year, but have to trying to move more spending back to Amex lately to diversify where my points are. It seems like the last purchase I made via the Bonus Points Mall, at Lands' End, posted correctly, so at least there's that. If I'm not going to have the opportunity to earn multiple points for shopping online, it's going to be very very hard for me to build up enough points to be useable for anything worthwhile.

byroshi

FWIW, all of my 6x tigerdirect charges during the promotion in May and June are not posting correctly. They're posted as 4x (3x in bonus). The 6x Apple charges are posting correctly. When I called MR the rep told me that I'll have to wait until the earn site comes back up for them to have access to the records and reconcile any errors in bonuses with me.

artyam

I really loved the Bonus Points Mall and hope they decide to keep it. I've never had a problem receiving my points. I hope they decide to bring it back. If not I will switch my purchases to Chase.

taliesin

Wow, this is terrible news. Amex don't seem to want me to use their charge cards for spending anymore.

PaulInTheSky

Did the rep say what the motives were from AMex? Are they still trying to have people used the shopping portal and earned bonus points, or they care about the reviews that might hurt the image of the cards? If the former, all they have to do is to educate people better to use them. If the latter, then all they need is to come up with a better idea to get bonus points through some protocol.