Last edit by: roberto99
Faq amex: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/campaigns/gold-card/gold-update-faqs.html
For existing and new cardholders
For new cardholders (Oct 4 2018 and after)
For existing cardholders (Oct 3 2018 or before)
For existing and new cardholders
- Changes below are effective immediately
- 4x US grocery (25k/calendar year), 4x US dining* (*pervasive reports that many dining transactions are not coding as 4x, including but not limited to those from Square or Toast-based POS systems. Scroll down in thread for more reports and information.)
- $120 dining credit ($10 monthly in certain restaurants)
- No change
- $100 calendar year airline reimbursement
- Other
- $250 AF (see below for existing cardholders)
- No 2x gas (removed, see below for existing cardholders who have it till Oct 2019)
- Metal card (contactless)
- Rose gold card - limited edition until Jan 9 2019
- Regular gold card
For new cardholders (Oct 4 2018 and after)
- You may be able to find targeted/referal 50k/$2k, but first AF is not waived
- Signup bonus: You get 20% off restaurant up to $500 restaurant spend (3 month)
- You do not get 2x gas (only for existing cardholders, see below)
For existing cardholders (Oct 3 2018 or before)
- AF will change to $250 for anniversary dates after April 1 2019
- 2x gas will be removed after Oct 2019
- You can chat/call for the gold/rosegold metal card. AU card will get whatever primary cardholder is getting, cannot be different
Premier Rewards Gold refresh: 4x USA dining, groceries, $10/mon dining credit. $250.
#1276
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: ORD
Programs: AA PLT
Posts: 2,781
Tried chatting with Amex about a couple of charges from a restaurant located in a department store that were correctly listed as restaurant charges but only got 1x. Rep apparently had no authority to say anything beyond what I'd paraphrase as the system does what it does and that's just how it is. Pretty lame, and reinforces my decision to go back to CSR for restaurants.
#1277
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: ORD
Programs: AA PLT
Posts: 2,781
Anyone else get an MR adjustment posted today? Per a rep, their system did an audit on old transactions and flagged that they shorted me points, but they can't see what transaction(s) were shorted. Wondering if these are recent and related to the Gold coding issues, or unrelated.
#1278
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: HHonors, TrueBlue, Delta SkyMiles, Hyatt Discoverist, Starwood Preferred Guest, American Airlines.
Posts: 2,035
Tried chatting with Amex about a couple of charges from a restaurant located in a department store that were correctly listed as restaurant charges but only got 1x. Rep apparently had no authority to say anything beyond what I'd paraphrase as the system does what it does and that's just how it is. Pretty lame, and reinforces my decision to go back to CSR for restaurants.
#1279
Join Date: May 2012
Location: HNL
Programs: AS MVPG, HA Plat
Posts: 1,268
It's worth a couple of minutes of aggravation to try to recover $10 or so worth of points, but not more than that (to me). And yes, I realize it's silly to waste more time here complaining about it.
#1280
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: LGA, JFK
Programs: OZ Diamond/*G, AMEX Plat (Marriott Gold), AMEX Hilton Aspire (Hilton Diamond)
Posts: 92
I ordered Seamless on Thu Jan 31. Transaction posted later shown as Fri Feb 1, thus missed the Jan $10 credit. I was reimbursed but for Feb credit
#1281
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 1,224
Anyone else get an MR adjustment posted today? Per a rep, their system did an audit on old transactions and flagged that they shorted me points, but they can't see what transaction(s) were shorted. Wondering if these are recent and related to the Gold coding issues, or unrelated.
#1282
Join Date: Apr 2010
Programs: FB Platinum, AA Plat/2MM, SPG Plat/LT Gold
Posts: 379
Worth calling to ask if they will manually adjust it for January and somehow reinstate your Feb credit. Amex is helpful on these types of issues.
#1283
Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 206
Does amex match offers that are better? I am currently working on the MS for my amex gold (as well as platinum) - can you ask to me matched to a higher offer if you have not yet received it?
#1284
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 3,381
Blue Bottle coffee uses square, posts as 4x Restaurant - Bar & Cafe.
I can even look up the receipt directly from amex (there's a "view receipt" link next to the 4x icon, shows an overlay with the detailed receipt of what I ordered)
i used contactless to pay
don't usually encounter square - do non-4x square show the "View receipt" link?
I can even look up the receipt directly from amex (there's a "view receipt" link next to the 4x icon, shows an overlay with the detailed receipt of what I ordered)
i used contactless to pay
don't usually encounter square - do non-4x square show the "View receipt" link?
the square one... same thing, there's a "View receipt" link. last visited the same restaurant in Nov, did not get 4x and did not see a "view receipt" link
#1285
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: LGA, JFK
Programs: OZ Diamond/*G, AMEX Plat (Marriott Gold), AMEX Hilton Aspire (Hilton Diamond)
Posts: 92
"if you make an eligible purchase on the last day of the month, but the merchant doesn't process that transaction until the next day, then the statement credit would be applied in the following month. If American Express does not receive information that identifies your transaction as eligible for the benefit, you will not receive the statement credit."
So if the merchant doesn't process the transaction, even if they can see it's made the last day of the month, previous month's credit cannot be applied. This cannot be manually changed by an agent either
I guess i'd share this here so people learn from my mistakes
#1286
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 1,224
FWIW, I'm noticing that a lot of Square/TST transactions on my SPG Biz (now Bonvoy Biz or whatever) are showing up as 4x for restaurants...so, even though its a completely different product, I'm thinking they are figuring out the whole restaurant coding thing
#1287
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: Hilton, Marriott, Club Carlson, AA, UA, AS, SQ, AF
Posts: 124
DP: I just checked my last statement and a restaurant/deli where I was not getting 4x in the fall is now earning 4x automatically. I did request in October to have the points added. I'm just happy I have to request the points to be manually added each time I go there and it now codes properly.
#1288
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 889
Cycle and churn PRG for grocery benefit.
I was wondering if the 25K grocery benefit can be churned by closing the account, and opening a new prg account? For me the equivalent to 100K MR points benefit is the most valuable as I can easily MS 25K in grocery VGC. Are there DP (read a number of pages back but couldn't find anything) about this benefit being churnable? The plan would be to spend 25K at grocery stores, get the additional MR points, close my account (have another MR card open to preserve the points), open up a new PRG, spend 25K at grocery stores, rinse, wash and repeat.
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
#1289
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
Even though you are not seeking a second new account bonus, American Express is sensitized to accounts that are closed after a short period. You are likely to trigger one or both of these algorithms.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...ne-2018-a.html
Amex USA terms now penalize:abuse,misuse,gaming;1st yr downgrade/close;leaked offers.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...ne-2018-a.html
Amex USA terms now penalize:abuse,misuse,gaming;1st yr downgrade/close;leaked offers.
#1290
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
I was wondering if the 25K grocery benefit can be churned by closing the account, and opening a new prg account? For me the equivalent to 100K MR points benefit is the most valuable as I can easily MS 25K in grocery VGC. Are there DP (read a number of pages back but couldn't find anything) about this benefit being churnable? The plan would be to spend 25K at grocery stores, get the additional MR points, close my account (have another MR card open to preserve the points), open up a new PRG, spend 25K at grocery stores, rinse, wash and repeat.
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
Amex doesn't establish such limits because they want you to think of ways around them. Amex establishes these limits because they don't want to give away that many points. Don't you think they've thought of this already? Why else would they have a limit on 4x at grocery stores (where it's easy to do MSing) and no limit on 4x at restaurants (where it's hard to do MSing)?
Keep in mind that Amex's official policy is against giving points for gift cards. The faster you get to the 25k limit, the harder Amex will look to see if you spent that on gift cards, and then possibly take back your points.
So I suggest you spread the 25k over the course of the year, and just find some other card at some other bank for the remainder, if you truly can't hold back from doing much more MSing.