jophilpo

My wife just got a gold card offer in the mail today and it still listed the shopping portal as a benefit. I've always had good luck with the portal and hope they bring it back soon.

mia

I don't think they meant published reviews, but rather customer feedback. Many of us had stopped using the portal completely because every transaction required a request, and every request elicited a lecture on the correct way to use a shopping portal , followed by a "courtesy" adjustment.

The telling part of the internal memo is American Express' notion that it was the customers' fault when the portal did not work correctly...

...rather than realizing that their implementation was simply substandard.

There's enough money to be made in this that I think it is very likely that American Express will re-enter the market, but it's very poor form to shutdown without any notice.

DC777Fan

just called amex and the MR rep was insistant that they were taking it down to improve it and it is coming back

she then told me I could get a free AU on my Plat card, so she may not be the best source of info... (yes, of course I tried taking her up on that, but in the last step she said ohhhh wait there is a fee...)

emoose1

It sounded like amex doesn't want to give out courtesy points when they don't make any $$$, especially when people are using another points bonus site or buying in store.

IMO, amex's site was valuable, but unreliable in general. I wouldn't complain if they did an overhaul or lumped the bonus points in with twitter/sync. As mia pointed out, it's severely disappointing when a service (still advertised on their website) is suddenly discontinued without notice.

n198ua

Emailed Amex today and this is the response I got:

I'm really sorry for the inconvenience caused to you due to this issue and can understand your dissatisfaction.

I'd like to inform you that currently our earn website is not available. Currently this particular feature is under review. There is no ETA when or if it'll be available in future. As soon as there is any information, all Cardmembers will be notified.

Feel free to contact us if you have any more issues. We will certainly assist you as required.

Sincerely,

xxx
Email Servicing Team
American Express Interactive Services

taliesin

This doesn't sound good. The more I think about it, I think it's probably gone. If they were planning to introduce a new improved version, I'm pretty sure they'd just muddle through with the old one until the new one was ready. I guess they could be planning to get rid of it, but want to see how many people complain about it going away.

mrredskin

just called to ask about it's status. agent told me it would be back, but take it for what it's worth. received no small compensation for it being out of service, either, when I asked and informed them of making purchases on a competitors card.

thefunch

Sent a SM and got the "we're trying to fix the issues before bringing it back online" response. Was told there was no point in them continuing to run the portal if it wasn't crediting points correctly. No mention of "under review" or other language inferring that it won't be coming back, at least from this rep. I pointed out in the SM that I've taken my portal business to one of their competitors and I'm not at all happy about the lack of communication, which is making me question the overall value of MR given their handling of this situation. Wasn't looking for or expecting points or compensation, but some up-front honesty (e.g. "sorry, shareholders, we made a bad trade, right now we're on the hook for at least $2b if things don't improve") and proactive notification (a novel idea, maybe I'm in the minority but I tend to check e-mail before the MR site) would be a welcome change, even for a relatively new customer.

I swear, I'm trying really really hard to like Amex...

goodeats21

I sent a secure message to Amex asking about this as I had some purchases to make. In their reply, they indicated I should try back in a couple of days and it would surely be available.

Not vouching for the accuracy, just relaying what I was told.

Standing by....

DC777Fan

Other than their SPG card (for 1x spend), this move has effectively switched all of my spending to Chase. No point in trying to build points in the MR pot if it's going to take 3 years to get a decent award... Might be forced to (gasp) just top off my DL account and say goodbye to MR. I'll miss my Plat, but one of the reasons I kept it is the 1x point booster in the earn mall. I thought that was a nice perk.

Last year I bought 3 Apple Laptops at 6x for employees (who then worked them off) and that alone was 27k points (and in turn 40k Avios). You're telling me I'd get exactly 4.5k for that same spend now? No thanks--I'll finagle a way to buy it with 5x+ UR.

If they're not going to have transfer bonuses and the best point multiplier we get is 3x on air travel (admittedly a nice perk for those who get reimbursed for travel) and 2x on gas and groceries then it's just not worth it. I spend maybe $1k per year on airfare and another $5k? on g&g (both of which have been 5x this year on the Freedom).

Chase is really sticking it to Amex right now.

mfr2000

Just curious, who said that they won't have transfer bonuses anymore?
If that is true that would be a bigger dealbreaker to me than the bonus points mall termination.

DC777Fan

I should not have made such a sweeping generalization. The bonuses are fewer and farther between these days. The reason I personally valued MR over UR was the fact that eventually you can parlay them into a transfer bonus--the number of partners is nice too, but most of them are useless if cpm is your goal. But with the level of ease of accruing other miles and points right now, it's not worth it to buy into the "MR ecosystem" and wait around for transfer bonuses at this rate. Eventually I actually want to travel...

josephstern

Does anyone happen to have the terms from the old site?

I have several purchases with no points. Amex, via SM, is telling me I can't get my points because I used the wrong card. It was an Amex, just not an MR Amex. But I carefully went through the portal.

Pretty sure I did this before and it was no problem. Now, they say they can't provide me the terms until the site comes back up. From this thread, it sounds like that will be never.

mia

You must pay with a card which is enrolled in Membership Rewards. See post 3 in this thread from 2009:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-question.html

josephstern

Not what I wanted to hear, of course, but thanks for the confirmation.