hotturnip

Here's a data point that might help going forward:

I was taking advantage of the 5X points offer on my Platinum Amex at Sams Club. I bought a bunch of gift cards, along with some other merchandise. One of the cards was defective, so they refunded it and had me buy another one separately. So I had one receipt for cards plus merchandise, and another for a gift card alone.

Looking at my statement, I got the five points only on the receipt with the merchandise. The other one just earned the normal 1X points.

I'm wondering if it's because there was no tax on the gift card, and that triggered something with Amex.

I've always bought my gift cards at grocery stores with my Gold card to get the 4X points, and I've always bought them along with other merchandise, and never had a problem.

So I think the better part of caution is to always include other merchandise with your gift card purchases to max out your points.

mia

I assume you did not max out the offer on the first transaction?

LAX

Is it still a bad idea to get GCs to maximize the grocery store bonus?

LAX

mhdena

Just as much as it is to resurrect a 2yr old thread to alert the rats. Might as well ask Amex twitter.

LAX

Are you serious? Should all the airline credit threads be shut down then? I can't imagine Amex wouldn't know about this already, especially if it's not tolerated. It wouldn't take bringing up a 2-year old thread on FT to alert anyone.

LAX