singlemalt

I currently have 4 AMEX cards – Starwood, DL, HH, and the green MR. Through numerous calls to AMEX, I have been able to figure out how they compute and post bonus points – and, for the most part, they do get it right. I have seen many FTers post that they don’t know if they’re getting their bonus points, especially lately with the new rewards on the HH Amex. I thought I’d pass along what I’ve learned with the hope that it might help someone. Some of this may be old news to many of you, so please bear with me.

First of all, take a look at what posts to your account(s) – don’t go by what’s on your statement, and for you MR users, don’t even try to deal with the points shown at the end of your statement (these are calendar month totals, and they’re usually a month behind). For Membership Rewards, the points from your last statement will be listed as “Pending Points”. In your DL account, you may have more than one entry for the month, as they can only transfer 32,767 points at a time (2 to the 15th power minus 1). Usually bonus points have posted with the regular points; however, twice this year I’ve had the bonus points post a couple of weeks after the regular points (AMEX said it was a software glitch).

Hilton points are weird. I’ve only had the card a few months, and I don’t know how points posted before the made the change on 4/15. But here’s how I’ve seen it work (it was also explained to me by an AMEX supervisor that this is how it works):

What posts to your HHonors account will probably not match what shows at the top right-hand corner of your statement. Your HHonors account should give you the 3X points and the 2X bonus every month for those charges that appear on your statement - it should compute the way you would intuitively think it would. But the number on the top right hand corner of your statement is computed as follows:

Suppose you get a new HH AMEX card and put $1,500 on your first statement, all charges in the new 5x categories (non-Hilton). Next month you put $2,000 on it – again the same type of 5x spending. Your first statement (top right-hand corner) will only show 3x points – 4,500. Your second statement will show 3x points of 6,000 plus 3,000 points for the additional 2x bonus spending FOR THE PRIOR MONTH. For some reason there is a one-month lag in posting the additional 2x bonus on your statement. However, the points that post to your HH account for the first month should be 7,500; month two will show 10,000 points. Don’t ask me why they do it this way - if they can post the points to your HHonors account without the one-month lag, why can't they post them on the statement that way? This is why you should use your accounts, not AMEX statements, to reconcile your bonus points.

From there, compute what you think you should have received for regular and bonus points. If it doesn’t match up, figure the difference and see if there are one or two charges that add up to that amount. If you can’t figure out the discrepancy, then call AMEX. Have them break down your points: x amount for gas, y amount for supermarkets, etc. Having sub-totals to work with should make it easy to find any differences, unless you have a 10-page AMEX bill. I can get a breakdown of charges on my MR card over the phone; for HH, they said it takes two weeks to get it in the mail.

That should help you to determine what qualifies for bonus points and what doesn’t. It’s not always apparent unless you do the reconciliation. For instance, I now know that charges to Texaco Express Lube and Texaco Propane Systems count as gas station spending, although neither sells gas. One major supplier we have codes as a “lumber yard” – they don’t sell a lot of lumber, but the charges count for home improvement spending; on the flip side, charges for one supplier that coded as a home improvement store did not (a call to an AMEX supervisor got me the points, but I quit charging that supplier to the DL card because of the hassle factor). I know that buying groceries at Super Target does not count for supermarket spending. After going through it, if you still think you were shorted, call AMEX – if a CSR won’t help you, ask for a supervisor.

After you do this a couple of times, it gets real easy – you shouldn’t have to call for sub-totals – and sometimes you get a nice surprise (like with the “lumber yard” supplier). Hope this helps.

Joe1690

Wow, I am suprised at the new point posting method for the Hilton HHonors card. I have not used my card recently and therefore have not tested it with the changes but what I can say is that previously the 5X points for hotel stays posted with the regular statement.

Sincerely,

JC

singlemalt

Sorry, I was unclear - you're correct. The 3x & 2x methodology is only for the new 5x charges. The old 5x (Hilton charges) is still the same. I'll do a little editing.

Thanks

suzanneaustin

This is a big help. I just received my second HH AMEX statement and wondered why my Hilton stays were only at 3 points.

Thanks!