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American Express (USA) online shopping portal gone? (fka Bonus Points Mall)

American Express (USA) online shopping portal gone? (fka Bonus Points Mall)

Old Apr 18, 2013, 10:19 am
  #226  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Pasadena, CA
Posts: 182
Update on the 3x points on Amex PRG internet (and some other) purchases: It's still happening!

I just received my monthly MR statement, and the news is pretty much as expected. I received 3x again from Hertz, Amazon Marketplace and Costco membership renewal. Both the Amazon and Costco purchases were listed as Internet Purchase, and Hertz as Vehicle Rental.

Checking my current Amex PRG statement, I estimated my pending points to within 0.5% assuming 3x points on Internet Purchases and Vehicle Rental. I still haven't been able to check whether other Travel spend gets the bonus.
karlmitchell is offline  
Old Apr 23, 2013, 8:12 pm
  #227  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 191
FYI I've had 3x applied to bose.com purchases
tommy14 is offline  
Old Apr 24, 2013, 9:21 am
  #228  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Pasadena, CA
Posts: 182
Thanks, Tommy. I just had a look at my purchases before the "mysterious 3x" era, trying to find merchants that classified as "Internet Purchases" in order to predict 3x bonuses. I suspect that these will work in addition to those I have confirmed before:

Amazon Kindle purchases
Amazon Payments*
Amazon Local
Amazon Video On Demand
Amazon Services Jersey (overseas)Apple webstore
apple.com
itunes.com
hulu.com
art.com
ononesoftware.com
onlineshoes.com
proclip USA
Oasis Date Gardens
worldpantry.com
ecohomestore.com
BigSkinnyCorp
shoes.com
Uncommongoods
Handicappedpets.com
invisibleshoe.com

Amazon Payments may be like Paypal, as it could depend on the merchant in question whether it classes as Internet Purchase. YMMV.

I was very pleased to see Hulu, Amazon kindle, iTunes and Apple there, and so will be adjusting my spending accordingly.
karlmitchell is offline  
Old Apr 24, 2013, 9:54 am
  #229  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 129
Originally Posted by karlmitchell
Thanks, Tommy. I just had a look at my purchases before the "mysterious 3x" era, trying to find merchants that classified as "Internet Purchases" in order to predict 3x bonuses. I suspect that these will work in addition to those I have confirmed before:

Amazon Kindle purchases
Amazon Payments*
Amazon Local
Amazon Video On Demand
Amazon Services Jersey (overseas)Apple webstore
apple.com
itunes.com
hulu.com
art.com
ononesoftware.com
onlineshoes.com
proclip USA
Oasis Date Gardens
worldpantry.com
ecohomestore.com
BigSkinnyCorp
shoes.com
Uncommongoods
Handicappedpets.com
invisibleshoe.com

Amazon Payments may be like Paypal, as it could depend on the merchant in question whether it classes as Internet Purchase. YMMV.

I was very pleased to see Hulu, Amazon kindle, iTunes and Apple there, and so will be adjusting my spending accordingly.

I spend a lot of money every month on paypal. I had an experiment and tried putting 10k on the gold prg last month but I didn't get any category bonus. Any way to get paypal to code purchase as internet purchase?
businessmachine is offline  
Old Apr 24, 2013, 10:48 am
  #230  
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: MSP
Posts: 376
Originally Posted by businessmachine
I spend a lot of money every month on paypal. I had an experiment and tried putting 10k on the gold prg last month but I didn't get any category bonus. Any way to get paypal to code purchase as internet purchase?
Not that I am aware of... I did put a lot of paypal purchases back in December and January. Nothing happened.
guoguo914 is offline  
Old Apr 24, 2013, 11:24 am
  #231  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: NYC
Programs: IHG, RC, HH, AA, QF, UA, Aeroplan
Posts: 2,685
Originally Posted by karlmitchell
Update on the 3x points on Amex PRG internet (and some other) purchases: It's still happening!

I just received my monthly MR statement, and the news is pretty much as expected. I received 3x again from Hertz, Amazon Marketplace and Costco membership renewal. Both the Amazon and Costco purchases were listed as Internet Purchase, and Hertz as Vehicle Rental.

Checking my current Amex PRG statement, I estimated my pending points to within 0.5% assuming 3x points on Internet Purchases and Vehicle Rental. I still haven't been able to check whether other Travel spend gets the bonus.
is there consensus on what cards this is working for, i'm not getting any on business plat or business gold, is it just for the personal cards?
Tim O'Brien is offline  
Old Apr 24, 2013, 11:31 am
  #232  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Pasadena, CA
Posts: 182
Amex PRG only. A few people have checked with others, and it does not seem to apply.
karlmitchell is offline  
Old Apr 24, 2013, 11:40 am
  #233  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: NYC
Programs: IHG, RC, HH, AA, QF, UA, Aeroplan
Posts: 2,685
Originally Posted by karlmitchell
Amex PRG only. A few people have checked with others, and it does not seem to apply.
thks, any speculation as to whether they're running a test market with the PRG before making it available across all cards? would be nice for the non PRG cardholders
Tim O'Brien is offline  
Old Apr 24, 2013, 11:51 am
  #234  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Pasadena, CA
Posts: 182
Originally Posted by Tim O'Brien
thks, any speculation as to whether they're running a test market with the PRG before making it available across all cards? would be nice for the non PRG cardholders
Lots of speculation, little concrete, and on the off-change that Amex have just made a mistake, we don't really want to ask them. I proposed my interpretations in post #216. I recommend reading from post #145 onwards in order to catch up with discussions.

The idea of this being a test market for 3x on all internet purchases and travel is a great one, and it would certainly help make Amex competitive with Chase again. However, I can't see how they can make it cost effective as a business model. Without referral bonuses, the value of the miles from that is almost certainly greater than what Amex bring in on merchant fees. Admittedly that argument applies to Flights as well, and yet 3x on flights is a stated benefit. So my pet theory is that they're introducing this to keep the points/miles community engaged, and to make up for the lack of mall. Perhaps they will introduce something new eventually, but while this is happening I'm going to exploit it. Three months ago I thought there was little chance than I'd hit my $30k spend, and it was only the retention bonus keeping me onboard. Suddenly the Amex PRG is looking lucrative again, though.
karlmitchell is offline  
Old Apr 24, 2013, 12:04 pm
  #235  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: NYC
Programs: IHG, RC, HH, AA, QF, UA, Aeroplan
Posts: 2,685
Originally Posted by karlmitchell
Lots of speculation, little concrete, and on the off-change that Amex have just made a mistake, we don't really want to ask them. I proposed my interpretations in post #216. I recommend reading from post #145 onwards in order to catch up with discussions.

The idea of this being a test market for 3x on all internet purchases and travel is a great one, and it would certainly help make Amex competitive with Chase again. However, I can't see how they can make it cost effective as a business model. Without referral bonuses, the value of the miles from that is almost certainly greater than what Amex bring in on merchant fees. Admittedly that argument applies to Flights as well, and yet 3x on flights is a stated benefit. So my pet theory is that they're introducing this to keep the points/miles community engaged, and to make up for the lack of mall. Perhaps they will introduce something new eventually, but while this is happening I'm going to exploit it. Three months ago I thought there was little chance than I'd hit my $30k spend, and it was only the retention bonus keeping me onboard. Suddenly the Amex PRG is looking lucrative again, though.

you can always go the VR cards at CVS/Amex BB to build spend and pick up points for paying bills that otherwise would not have earned points
Tim O'Brien is offline  
Old Apr 24, 2013, 12:10 pm
  #236  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Pasadena, CA
Posts: 182
Originally Posted by Tim O'Brien
you can always go the VR cards at CVS/Amex BB to build spend and pick up points for paying bills that otherwise would not have earned points
Manufactured spend is a very different topic, and I prefer to keep it separate. We're talking about maximising purchases on regular spend. Besides that, VR cards are sparse around here, and I prefer not to put too many purchases of them on my Amex to avoid the risk of financial review.
karlmitchell is offline  
Old Apr 25, 2013, 9:42 am
  #237  
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 9
My March points just posted this morning, and I can confirm that the following are still showing 3x points...

Amazon.com
Lancome.com
Costco.com

FWIW, my pending points from April are showing a substantial amount more than what I would have anticipated. Made a couple of purchases online at Best Buy, Apple, and Amazon throughout the month. It appears that these 3x purchases are still alive and well.
MaxwellJackson is offline  
Old May 3, 2013, 3:31 pm
  #238  
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: MSP
Posts: 376
I had my april statement points accelarated so there's no way for me to get a breakdown of points earned by transaction. It appears that Hotels.com is 3x and an ebay return is -3x.
guoguo914 is offline  
Old May 3, 2013, 7:23 pm
  #239  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Pasadena, CA
Posts: 182
Hotels.com? That's a nice one. Could you check if the hotels.com purchase processed as Internet Purchase or as something else? Perhaps it's evidence that ALL travel is at 3x?

This really stacks up well for a quadruple dip if you add it to the x3 pts Ultimate Rewards, current 10% discount, and hotels.com's own Welcome Rewards program (which I value at 8% cashback equivalent).
karlmitchell is offline  
Old May 3, 2013, 7:28 pm
  #240  
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Okinawa
Posts: 2,609
Originally Posted by karlmitchell
Hotels.com? That's a nice one. Could you check if the hotels.com purchase processed as Internet Purchase or as something else? Perhaps it's evidence that ALL travel is at 3x?

This really stacks up well for a quadruple dip if you add it to the x3 pts Ultimate Rewards, current 10% discount, and hotels.com's own Welcome Rewards program (which I value at 8% cashback equivalent).
Where do you get the 10% discount code?
The_Wrath_of_Khan is offline  

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