doradee

Background:
I am a small business owner. Our business involves a lot of travels for myself and my associates. We spend about $10,000 a month on flights alone. When deciding what credit card to apply, I chose American Express Business Gold due to the ability to earn 3X Membership Rewards points on every dollar spent on airfare, and an additional 1X point per dollar for booking on American Express Travel website. This proposition alone is the reason I've elected to pay the annual fee and keep this card since 2013.

The problem:
Several months ago (around August-September), I started having issue using my Gold card on Amex Travel website. Every time I attempted to book a flight on the site, I'd get an error message "Payment error occurred." Even when I called AmexTravel to book flights over the phone, they would be met with the same error message when attempting to charge my Gold card. Meanwhile, Card Services have checked and rechecked every time that my card and account are in good standing. No late payment. No credit overage. No overdraft, etc. Also- the card works fine on all other vendors for charges big or small. It's just on American Express Travel that my card would not work.

My dealings so far with American Express:
Since this started happening, I have been trying to chat, call, write American Express to try to get the problem fixed. I have made several phone calls (some days, I'd make 6-7 calls), and always faced the same outcome. First- I'd speak to an agent at AmexTravel where I'd explain the whole situation. Next, I'd get transferred to another agent at Card Services who'd then confirm that my account was in good standing and shouldn't have problem with the charge. After I explained to this agent again the whole situation, she would say that it's a problem with AmexTravel then transferred me back there again where I'd have to re-explain the whole situation again... and this goes on in an endless loop until a) the call gets dropped or b) some agent finally says she'd have someone look into it and call me back within 48 hours. So far I've been promised that someone would called me back 3 times on the phone. Twice on chats. Nobody has actually called me back ever.

So what should I do in this situation? Since this started happening, I've been having to make my flight booking through channels other than AmexTravel, and foregoing tens of thousands of Membership Rewards points. I am really frustrated and upset over this. I cannot believe how incompetent and unwilling to help Amex is. Any advise on how to deal with this would be much appreciated. Thank you.

bigbuy

Frankly, Amex customer service ain't what it used to be. JD Powers credit card rankings have shown a slip in Amex ratings. I would be inclined to fire Amex and get the Chase Sapphire Reserve before the 100k bonus disappears tonight. True, you will only get 3 points instead of 4 on the Amex travel site, but at least with CSR, you will get your calls answered immediately instead of getting stuck on hold etc.

mia

American Express Travel is outsourced to Orbitz.

1. When you attempt to make a purchase through American Express Travel does American Express have any record of the attempted a transaction? This could be a pending charge in an amount as small as $1.00, but even if you see nothing a frontline CSR can tell you. If not, that pretty much rules out credit related problems with your account, because they are never even seeing the transaction, and the problem is at the merchant.

2. Do you have payment information stored in a "profile" at American Express Travel? Is ALL of the information in the profile accurate? (I find online profiles spontaneously change my City name with some frequency, because both my home and office are in zip codes with multiple municipalities.)

3. Have you tried making a purchase through orbitz.com?

4. How many cards are on your account?

Olga_NYC

I get "payment error occurred" on about 80% of Amex Travel bookings. However, agents over the phone never had a problem charging the card.


In my case, I've seen a $1 pre-authorization alert pop up on my phone every time I attempt to charge via Amex Travel, but it never ends up posting on a statement for the "payment error" transactions.
My Amex is not saved in my travel profile, I re-enter the number every time. It must be registering correctly for the alert to pop up, but then drops off for some reason.

OP, I would guess our issue is with Amex Travel, not Amex card. I have not pushed to fix mine because phone agents are always able to help me on the spot. If I were you, I would be requesting a manager, or that manager's manager, etc. and not getting off the phone with them until its resolved.

doradee

1) Every time I attempted a booking, my card wold receive a $2 charge which shows up in Pending Transactions.

2) I do have payment information stored, but on one of the call sessions I had with Amex, we at least were able to eliminate this as a possible cause of the problem as all the info are accurate.

3) I tried using Orbitz after reading your post and found that my card does not work on Orbitz either. What would that be? Should I try to resolve this issue with Orbitz then?

4) I have two cards. Business Gold and Business Platinum.

Thank you!

mia

I don't know, but it does sound as if the problem is at least related to Orbitz's backend system. This doesn't absolve American Express of responsibility to help, but I would focus my efforts on management and technical support at the Travel business, rather than the Card business.

ALSO: The features of the Business and Personal Platinum cards have recently diverged. Personal Platinum now earns 5 points per dollar when purchasing airfare. If you do not issue supplementary cards for employees to purchase air travel you may want to consider applying for a personal American Express Platinum card to use for these purchases. You would earn 5 points per dollar, plus the bonus point if booking through American Express Travel if you can resolve this problem.

rymetymeuk

is there a reason why you wouldn't want the Chase Sapphire Reserve card? Travel gets 3x points.. just a thought..

rymetymeuk

ok, Mia has a better idea with the Platinum idea, but the CSR is still a good option imho.

doradee

Thank you all for your input. I'm actually not opposed to moving my business to Chase. It's just that before I do, I want to make sure that I've exhausted all my options. I also have a lot of Membership Rewards points. Just need to find a way to use them up before closing the card.

I've been thinking about getting the personal Platinum card too, but if Customer Service for the Platinum card is anything like the Gold card's (which I think it will be), I'd be very upset having to spend $400+ on the annual fee and be treated like this.

mia

It's the same as for the Business Platinum charge card which you already have? Have you tried buying an airline ticket through American Express Travel with the Business Platinum? I understand that's not a solution, it's a diagnostic technique.

TravelerMSY

Anyone figured this out? Any idea what "error TO 1" is? It is displayed after final booking screen. No PNR created. No credit card auth.

soulbox

having the same thing.. spoke with amex 8-10 times all ready, no luck.

the only changes i did prior to this problem was asking for CLI and linking my card to delta.

jasher926

I have the Amex Business Platinum and get the same "payment failure" message online and when the Amextravel agent does it.

I've been able to eventually book (done it 4 times), but the process is tedious:

• I try online and get "payment failure"
• I call Amextravel and the agent takes all the exact same information (probably looking at the same screen as me) and he/she gets "payment failure"
• I tell her it happens all the time and that I just need to talk to Platinum Travel where they will do it. I get put on hold for 5 minutes (agent is relaying travel info)
• I speak to the Platinum Travel agent and make sure the $39 booking fee is waived
• Agent successfully books it and makes a note that a manual adjustment will be necessary to use membership rewards points to pay for it and also get 50% points back
• I lose an hour of my life
• I call Platinum Travel directly in the future 800-443-7672

As background, I converted my Amex Business Gold card to a Platinum card so that's probably why it's all screwed up. I will get them to issue me a new card number and see if that fixes the issue.

Kagehitokiri

some here have reported success with business/open account managers etc, dont recall details

interesting re orbitz, what about plat/cent travel services?

Nita

This is the issue. If you are logging into Amextravel with the log-in created for the Bus Plat. Try creating a new log in, storing the gold, should fix it.

Maybe the fares you are purchasing must be paid by Plat card. The AA special Amex fares must be paid by a Plat or Centurion card.