dhuey

And what aggressive advertising programs they are by these companies. Home Depot and Best Buy tend to sell items with thin profit margins, so $50 in free stuff from them is a hard cost for them not too far below $50. I guess they think it's worth it to pull in Amex Plat cardholders.

jamesteroh

Does anyone else that used the Best Buy offer have it showing up in their "added to card" tab?

It's still showing up on that tab but showing under the savings tab I used it twice on 2/22

dhuey

I used it twice and it's gone now.

friedablass

So here's my first experience with a clawback that was pretty much instant. This was for the spend $200 get $40 Delta offer.

3/2 charge posted of $227.40 for a flight booked on Delta on 3/1 for later that week. Email that offer was used instantly received on 3/1

3/2 credit posted for $40

3/2 I was notified that the person I was flying out to meet on business had unfortunately tested positive for COVID and the meeting was of course cancelled. Good thing there are currently flexible cancelation policies so I was able to cancel the flight

3/3 credit of $227.40 posted

3/4 charge of $40 posted for reversal of offer

This is the way it should be for all offers that are used and then refunded so I'm totally okay with this.

However, I'm not okay with the fact that I cannot use this offer again - it's not showing in the Added to Card tab anymore . It was supposed to expire 3/31 and I'm still planning to fly this month with Delta and could have used it, so it's unfair that due to circumstances beyond my control I should lose out on this offer.

I don't remember if I could have selected to get a travel credit (or whatever it is that Delta calls it) instead of a credit card refund, but that's what I probably should have done if it was available. I was just so intent on making sure I could cancel my flight without completely losing my money that I forgot to check if that's even an option. Oh well.

Gig103

I spent $110 at home depot including tax, but $580 at best buy, so the latter was likely a successful offer for them!

MaxVO

In the past the offers that had to be refunded were still available for use up to their expiration date, regardless of their status on the list. Unless AmEx programmers "fixed" more than they were assigned to do, it's probably still the case. Even if you had to ask for a manual credit, and the offer is no longer showing, your transaction history can serve as proof that you had the offer properly sync'ed.

gooselee

Fair, and I didn't think of it that way (I was coming hot off the airline fee credit thread, which is a different model). But if they really want a lot more usage of the offer, then why create the "Add Offer to Card" registration barrier at all? They could easily treat it like the Chase DoorDash credit or the PayPal credit where they just send you tons of emails and postcards about it, and direct the same behavior to spend with a merchant and (hopefully) spend well beyond the necessary amount?

Insiderdude

I have a quick question for you AMEX offer gurus (and have searched for this and read many threads ... dizzying). It appears that the more "quality" AMEX offers (hotel chain spend rebates, etc.) are supposedly reserved or more available for AMEX cards that are on the MR system (esp. Amex Plat, Gold, etc.). But is there a difference between the general quality and availability of AMEX offers for say ... the Hilton Aspire vs. the Blue Cash Preferred cards? I know we're not comparing apples to apples from a card product perspective, and the Aspire is a premium card (so maybe Surpass is a better compare against the BCP), but in your general experience on the non-MR cards, are the offers better or worse between the products? Could it be AF-driven (say, Aspire better than Surpass, BCP better than BC)? Of course, I'm speaking of non-pandemic-related AMEX offers.

Appreciate the insight!

mia

I think registration is one of the engagement tests. American Express and the merchant can measure the transaction volume, over a period of time, from cardholders who registered versus those who did not, to estimate incremental transaction volume from the promotion.

dhuey

Yeah, that's a critical piece of marketing information -- whether the offer triggered the sale. There's no way of knowing if the $50 Saks benefit is what led to a purchase, but there's is with the Home Depot $50 offer, which the cardholder must deliberately add.

notquiteaff

It’s like a coupon that gives you a discount on a product or service. The merchant didn’t just drop their price for everyone who walks into the store/restaurant.

dhuey

Yes, if Home Depot were to start handing this offer out to everyone entering the stores, its stock would take a hit. They're making a play for the affluent Plat cardholders, hoping there aren't too many cheapskates like me in the mix.

pointsengineer

I was able to use the $10/mo Wireless credit on "Wing Alpha" cell service. I was surprised it worked as they are just a reseller of business plans on AT&T/Verizion etc.

gooselee

Indeed, but they could just as easily make a play for affluent Plat cardholders by just creating/advertising the benefit as specific to Plat cardholders (or whatever subset). Is this not how the Paypal, dining, Saks, Uber, etc. credits work?

Having the metrics is a good point, though one could also argue there are a reasonable number of people like me who just add tons of offers to their card and happen to redeem some via natural spend. What I bought at HD/BB I would have bought at those places and at that time even if there weren't an offer. I acknowledge that I may just be a stray datapoint, but with non-registration promotions you'd have stray datapoints in the opposite direction, as well.

FWIW, I don't have a strong opinion here or disagree with anything y'all are saying, really. It's interesting conversation to me to think about the different factors at play.

dhuey

I agree. I love getting great deals, but I think so much about this stuff because I find it so interesting. Back in my youth I considered a career in marketing. Glad I didn't pursue it, as I don't think I would have been that talented in the field.