htj

I'm curious about this as well. I just had my first statement close and don't see a credit for it.

ktenorman

Glad the Prestige is going 5x on dining Jan 4 so I don't have to send Amex a SM on the Square/Toast charges especially every month. I also am not seeing 4x on Cafes/Coffee Shops, Toast, Square, and Breweries otherwise categorized as "Restaurant" as others have reported. Lame.

355F1

htj

Thanks for posting that screenshot. That confirms i need to contact them and see what's up. I also haven't seen my corporate advantage credit, so it should be a fun phone call.
Edit: that was actually my issue. Because i went through the corporate offer, i don't get the 20% back on dining. Net zero for the first year, but if i keep the card, the corporate advantage discount is yearly so works out better.

pokeable

The denial of Toast for 4x MR is actually a pretty big deterrent for me using the Gold at restaurants v. the Sapphire Reserve. Especially since a lot of the higher end restaurants we have been in D.C. use Toast.
Why risk it/have to complain for the 4x when Chase reliably gives you 3x back on a $400 charge without any fuss?

PHLondoner

I agree it's pretty absurd. As I've encouraged before, the more people who make a fuss about this the more likely we are to see Amex/Toast/Square figure out a proper resolution for all involved. FWIW, my local restaurant which I frequent several times a week switched to Toast and i stopped receiving my 4x benefit. After a call to complain, they simply recoded the restaurant accordingly and every subsequent transaction has coded correctly. That to say, if you want to keep things in the MR universe, and have a few spots you frequent - just make the call once, they'll make the switch and you'll be fine moving forward.

uppereastsider

I love this card, but I am keeping the CSR (priority pass + 3x on every type of travel) as well and using it in situations where "there may be a risk", such as a restaurant / bar in a hotel (I made a rookie move and charged drinks at the W DC Rooftop to the card and only got 1x), Concessions stands (I only got 1x at MSG, while my CSR reliably does 3x), Uber Eats (codes as travel) and Square (although I find it funny that Caviar, which is owned by Square, codes as 4x)... as well as non US dining.

This is a beautiful sight when done right:





The only head scratcher for me has been this charge... non square environment... maybe because it was in a train station? IDK



Maybe we can make a thread / wiki on restaurants that do NOT get 4x?

acarney

I would be all for that too! I was happy to see that most restaurants (table service and quick service) in the Disneyland Park AND the Disneyland Hotel (when directly charged to the card) coded as 4x.... however, if you use mobile ordering for the same quick service restaurants there it will NOT code as 4x, which is unfortunate since mobile ordering is SO fast and easy now at Disneyland...

mia

You both have the ability to edit Wikiposts, and this thread has one to which the information could be added. Think first about the formatting. Do you want individual restaurants, -or- restaurants that use certain transaction processors (which seems to be the problem), and do you want others to include a DATE when they make an entry, to track the evolution of the problem?

Happy

My Nov statement just closed. And it is not good.

$25 GC purchase at Cheesecake factory is coded 1x despite it is paid at the same take out counter where I bought 2 slices of cheesecake last month that earned 4x and $10 statement credit. This cycle it is NONE.
$50 GC purchase at Carrabba's is coded 1x, but the identical transaction on June 15th was coded 2x.

A few bucks as tips at PF Chang LAX was coded as Concession, so 1x.

The ethnic grocer continues being miscoded as 1x while all Visa cards correctly award grocery shopping bonus.

I will call AMEX especially the Carabba's purchase that was coded correctly in June at 2x now it is 1x. No sense at all.

This card is NOT worth its hype AMEX touted. Mine will be gone once the first year fee waived is up. It fails in its major areas on the 4x earnings while lack the primary rental car and travel insurance the CSR provided, with less acceptance than Visa and useless overseas.

Update
Called and talked to a rep at Salt Lake City. Was offer either a total of $20 statement credit (the $10 from Cheesecake factory and the $10 from missing dining bonus) or 1600 MR pts. Took the credit. I dont want to waste time to keep track on whether the courtesy points would show up in 2 billing cycles.

Statman

I just spent a week in Bali and hit a ton of smaller and non-tourist restaurants and stores and each every one of them accepted my Amex cards.

Happy

Good for you being able to use it in Bali.

Not in Hong Kong, not in Brisbane and Sydney for the month long trip we just came back.

Not useful in Sicily this Spring.

Last year it was not useful in Poland and the Batics. Not useful in Hong Kong. Cannot remember the situation in South Africa though I believe we stuck to CSR which good for both dining and lodging and Ink Plus for the gas.

uppereastsider

I look forward to the blog post on this one. I'm a big fan of OMAAT, one of the few blogs I read on award travel. I still believe the card is worth it, if only because in NYC I've had almost (almost, read my post above) no issues and I still love going to Whole Foods and getting amazon and other gift cards on purchases that are normally 1x.

Happy

The key is, other cards offer very similar earnings and at much lower AF or no Fee.

CSR has a net $150 fee after netting the $300 travel credit which is extremely easy to get, unlike the airline GCs one has to use with AMEX cards, and only earn 1% less on dining but it earns 3x on travel, provides Primary domestic rental car coverage, covers countries AMEX does not cover, such as Italy, Australia and New Zealand plus Northern Ireland as far as I care about. It also provides travel insurances that AMEX does not. The PP card if your travel can use it, easily cover the $150 net fee on one trip. We used 4 airport restaurants on the trip we just had, at MIA, JFK, BNE and LAX. We could have used it at SYD and MEL as well (in fact should have, because the PP restaurants at SYD are far better than the crummy QF business class lounge).

While there is $10 x 12 dining credit on the Gold, it is very restrictive. There is no meaningful Grubhub restaurants in our area nor we care for take out delivery. I dont think we would drive 20 miles one way to dine at Ruth Chris just to earn the $10 statement credit while drop $200 there. The only viable option is to use Cheesecake either dine in or buy the cake slices. Yet the credit is not posted reliably (not on my statement this time and saw reports on other sites that people also missing such), Hence there is no offsetting on the $250 AF Gold charges versus CSR we can fully offset the Net $150 fee,

TD Cash Reward card has no annual fee, 0% forex fee, with a slightly better exchange rate than Chase Visa cards. It earns 3x dining 2x grocery stores.

So the current Gold card has only 1% extra earning on dining over either CSR or TD free card, and 2% extra earning on grocery over TD free card. But it lacks many other benefits the CSR offers, and has a $250 fee against the 0 fee of TD cash card.

For the 3rd party gift cards, you can buy them at Office Depot or Staples with a Chase Ink Cash card which is an no AF card and earn 5x at Office Supply stores. You can earn 5x up to $25000 spend a year at Office Supply store on the Ink Cash which currently has a 50K / $3K sign up bonus for anyone who meets the Chase 5/24 requirement.

For our usages, the extra 1% on dining and extra 2% on grocery do not come close to offset the $250 fee - even being generous to use 2% as the differential, even for a $3600 grocery spend a year, the difference is only $72 additional earning, which is LESS than 1/2 of the $250 AF that I have to cover.

As always, this is very much YMMV situation which completely depends on one's locale, how one uses the various cards and such.

uppereastsider

Exactly. I love the CSR and keep it for all the reasons you listed above (plus I get extensive usage of the plaza premium lounges in YYZ and YVR on business trips.. at least 10+x a year, usually more)

For me, the Gold Card is a 30 dollar fee because of NYC. I use Grubhub/Seamless 15-20x a month, mostly for pickup (there's a noodle soup place 2 blocks from me with amazing Pho, but bad english on the phone and easier to order pickup via seamless), so the 10x/month credit is super easy. I'm a Delta flyer for work, so the 100 dollar gift card is used for Delta vacation flights (used for a Cancun flight in January for a stay at the Hyatt Ziva). For 30 dollars, the card is easily paid for with that extra 1x... and I'm currently utilizing a Amex Offer for 5x MR at Seamless/Grubhub, which in November resulted in ~2k more points)

I also have no other exposure to MR cards and love to diversify. My Amex cards are the SPG + Delta Reserve cards, besides the PRG.

The Chase Ink is out of reach for me, because I'm 7/24 and already have big exposure to the UR ecosystem with CSR, CFU and Freedom (and have had 2x Chase UA explorer personal card bonuses and 2x Chase UA Explorer biz card bonuses). Although I'll be 4/24 by July of next year