Online Serve loads did not qualify for minimum spend
 

In past I have got bonus points with Amex SPG and Rewards Gold cards by meeting the minimum spend with Amex Serve online loads.

My wife met 1k requirement on Amex Personal RG back in June and did not get the 50k bonus. I opened a case back in July and after 6 weeks of hold up Amex came back stating that Amex Serve loads do not qualify for membership reward points I told the rep that the serve loads don't qualify for earning points but they do qualify towards meeting minimum spend. She said thats what the rule states that Serve loads dont get membership reward points.

I have already spent 5k to meet spending on my wives Business Rewards gold card. Now I am thinking she may not even get the 50k bonus for that card. The deadline has already passed so its not like I can spend more just to make up for the Serve loads.

What to do ? Is this a new phenomenon ? Has anyone else had this experience ?

Also, right now I am working towards minimum spend for both our Amex platinum's. I do not want to loose 200k MR points by using Serve online loads with these cards. First death of gift cards, then airlince credit reimbursement and then this. Boy... Amex is becoming a pain to deal with now.

This would be a pretty big data point if you don't end up getting the bonuses. I haven't seen any data points of Serve online CC loads no counting towards the minimum spend for sign-up bonuses.

Also, for future reference, AS= Alaska Airlines.

I corrected the title. I hope the unusual corner case here and its not for everyone but I don't know how to proceed.

If I call them and keep pestering them then they will catch on to the fact that we are using Serve to meet minimum spend.

Is there any document which states serve spending qualifies for meeting minimum spend bonus ( I doubt it).

They have closed the case already.

fine prints say prepaid card loading doesn't count towards spending. so technically they are right though i hope this is just a rare case

The T&C are for eligible purchases to earn MR points. But there is no mention of eligible purchase for meeting the spending requirement.There are enough examples around where serve loads did not count for earning MR points but did count for sign up bonus.

https://rewards.americanexpress.com/...&mrk=&stoken=#

Most Card Members will earn one point for every dollar charged for an eligible purchase to their Linked Card Account. To earn points, you must pay the amount due on your Linked Card Account statement on time. If it's necessary for you to enroll your Card in Membership Rewards in order to participate in the program, you won't earn points for eligible purchases that you made before your enrollment date. As long as you pay the minimum amount due, you will get points for the full amount of any charge applied to the following:
Sign & Travel®
Extended Payment Option
Flexible Payment Option
Select & Pay Later
Eligible American Express Credit Card charges
The following transactions aren't eligible purchases and you won't earn points for them:
Cash Advances
Balance Transfers
Privileged Assets
Express Cash
Corporate Express Cash
Purchases of American Express® Travelers Cheques or American Express® Gift Cheques
Purchases paid with points
Purchases and loads of reloadable prepaid cards
Card account fees and charges (such as late payment fees, Card account annual fees, interest charges and delinquency charges)
Membership Rewards program fees and charges (such as program annual fees and charges for unsatisfied Points Advances)
Fees for Card Member services you enroll in

You may be on to something. Me and my wife both picked up SPG cards last month.

I met the $3k requirement on Sept 4th (no Serve loading), and the 30k bonus points have already posted. She did roughly $2k in legit spend and $1k in Serve loading. She met the spend requirement on Sept 2nd. She has not yet received the 30k bonus, even though her statement has closed and she has received Starpoints for the 2k in legit spend (as anticipated, she received no points for the Serve loading).

This is unfortunate for you guys.

But I would suggest for you guys to simply find an alternate way to make the minimum spend for cards going forward -- as opposed to using serve. Let's be honest, for those that took advantage -- it was great while it lasted, Amex never needed to allow it.

Harry, instead of opening a case in July why didn't you just find an alternative way to meet the spend -- you likely had 2 additional months to make a $1k spend -- it's not like you LOST anything loading onto serve. If I were you, I'd assume that any loads you've made on Serve with the platinum cards count as $0 and find another way to spend $6k on your 2 platinums so you don't miss out on 200k of MRs. You are not taking a good risk arguing with your Amex representative in this case -- do you really want them looking closer at your activities in total? GL. Think Risk Reward.

I had to open case as the 90 days deadline to meet minimum spend had already passed. On top of it I have always used serve online loads to meet minimum spend and got the bonuses automatically. Ive done this on three of my cards and 3 of my wife`s cards. So I was never anticipating this to happen.

I will definitely not count on serve any more to meet minimum spend.

One side question, if I cancel Amex Platinum after getting 100k points do I loose the points ? I have an open rewards gold card so I am eligible to hold MR points. Since all the points get combined automatically I don't think I can transfer the 100k earned specifically from Amex Plat to any airline before cancelling the card.

You shouldn't lose the points as long as you transfer the points to a card that is capable of redeeming the points. If you want to be sure, why not just transfer those points to an airline card before cancelling the card.

My wife's 75K just posted (Amex Biz Gold) min spend was 99% using serve loads for me (as authorized use) and wife.. Posted 1 day after I made the whole payment

For me Serve seemed to work as meeting minimum spend, and I believe for MQM on my Delta Amex, but it definitely does not work to meet the $30k/$60k Delta Reserve spend requirements.

I used Serve to meet min spend on my SPG and it posted within days. This was just last month. I also just finished the $3k spend on my DH's SPG card in a little over two weeks (Aug and Sept for him, and Sept for me as an AU). Once the last one clears the pending charge, I'll report back if that worked as well.

It does say it will NOT work to reach certain thresholds, such as $30k on SPG to reach Gold status (or HH?) I have both so I may be confusing the two. That's a lot of spending I could be putting on my Fidelity card that I'm willing to gamble with just for a data point, so I'm not 100% sure on that, but I'll go with what the terms say.

Serve loads (why is this not in the Serve thread?) definitely counted towards minimum spend on both my Delta Gold and my Wells Fargo Propel World.

I got a Starwood Amex last month. I used Serve loads to meet $2,000 of the spend. Points posted as pending yesterday.