mooper

A) Yes, only, I believe.
B) Not sure.
C) Aug 22, I think.


Two associates requested it around Sept 2nd after meeting $1K spend and paying off in full, told the 75K would post in 6-8 weeks. One of them got it expedited by calling back and simply asking - those 75K show as pending via the online interface but haven't actually posted yet.

exyeh

I know one person got sm/notate code 6661 as late as 9/6.
It is Biz card that can't be notated if not targeted.

mooper

On what date did this person get the card? I thought 6661 expired 8/22 and 6939 is the only live 75K bump?

dguy80

I am just curious why all the big travel bloggers are not chiming in on this issue. I remember almost all of them endorsed the amex 75k bump till last month. Is there something they suggest that we do now to make sure we get the points as we expected ?

HikerT

I am very curious about this too. I emailed ThePointsGuy alerting him to the issue last week. So far nothing on his blog. All I see is that he went back and replaced the blog posts with:

I expected more but I guess he may be worried about biting the hand that feeds him.

Acid

How does one get the credit pulls removed? I received my PRG Sep 6 and was denied the Bump. Activated the card but havent used it.
Is it better to cancel within first 30 days or keep the card and 15K points now that we have taken a hit on the credit report?

TimesTwo

I saw that post (about the amazing deal by getting the card with the 75k signup + 50k/ 15transactions = 125k total for signing up) a day or two after my partner and I each applied for the card, and if I remember correctly there were tons of comments of people saying they applied. I remember worrying that I probably had waited too long, b/c once we met the spend and tried to get the points, they might pull it with the big volume. And it pretty much looks like that's what happened.

In fairness, I haven't called yet. Trying to decide if it makes sense to fight now or let it all die down...

pcharles

Where did 8/22 come from?
I know for a fact, 6661 was valid after 8/22

BTW, if the cards played right, you get more than the 75K bump I'm starting to like this new AMEX thing...

I think you wont hear much from the bloggers now, its transition time and no one has a solid handle on what the definitive answer is yet. Bloggers will remain in neutral territory as not to upset their handlers by suggesting otherwise until the definitive answers come out. That means, the rest of us are guinea pigs to see what that answer is.

FlyerChrisK

I applied for and was approved for an Amex PRG card in August. After getting my card, I activated it and then called in to apply code 6661. On that day, the agent informed me that I was eligible, the code had been applied to my account, a notation had been made, and that I would likely need to call in to see the points post after reaching $1k in spending

My last purchase to reach $1k in spending this morning, so I called Amex MR. The agent told me I was not targeted and consequently ineligible. She then transfered me to a supervisor. The supervisor informed me that while the agent I had spoken to had, in fact, made a notation in my account and given me the T&C of the promotion, American Express would not be honoring the promotion because I hadn't been targeted. While the agent in August was speaking with me, he had contacted their "operations manager" who had notated my account to indicate that I was not eligible for the promotion while I was on hold, yet the agent returned to the phone to tell me I was eligible.

For misrepresenting my eligibility, the supervisor told me that the employee would receive a "verbal warning." The supervisor understood my concern with the bait-and-switch, but could not provide any gesture of goodwill (even a single MR point) because of the operations manager's directive. When I asked what would happen if I retained the card and a future promotion came out to find out what guarantee I would have that Amex would honor that promotion, she informed me that eligibility for promotions is determined at the time of application for the card. She didn't seem to want to acknowledge that future promotions, which were not even conceived by the time I applied for the card, would ever come into existence. Consequently, it appears that Amex could appear to target a cardholder, apply the promotion, and then deny the reward after satisfying those terms and conditions.

As a bit of background to her denial, the supervisor informed me that while historically, Amex has happily honored promotions for nontargeted cardholders who call to apply them, they would no longer due to a "blog post" which attracted "attention."

I called back tonight and the agent I spoke to had the same story (and noted that there was a record of my call earlier today).

UPDATE: I called the lending department asking to cancel the card and expunge the hard pull from my credit report. I'm young and emphasized the possibility of Amex skimming off its merchant fee off my lifetime spending; the lending agent (as well as the two earlier supervisors) were unwilling to do anything.

jblankoh

As one of the bloggers who has written about the Amex offers (at Online Travel Review) I thought I'd chime in.

First, I don't think there's a conspiracy among blogger types to protect the credit card companies. From comments I've read on FT, on my site, and in other places I know that there is no shortage of people who assume we are in the back pockets of credit card companies and will do anything to screw over our readers to protect the banks. That is nonsense for so many reasons, not least of which: without readers, we have no site. I've been doing this a long time (as have many of my counterparts) and I can tell you that we all do this because we actually like interacting with our readers and sharing advice when we can. I don't know anyone who does it because they love credit card companies and have finally found a way to line those companies' pockets (and their own) while duping a bunch of frequent flyer aficionados.

I feel terrible that people have found themselves in this situation with Amex (especially if they learned about these promos at my site). Unfortunately, this is really no different than what we've known all along: with Amex, your mileage may vary. Every step along the way, that's been the case. Sometimes they would honor an offer that wasn't targeted to you, sometimes they wouldn't; sometimes they would do a bump, sometimes they wouldn't; now it appears sometimes they'll tell you that you weren't eligible, sometimes they will.

I think we can all agree they've been very generous over the years. Perhaps when there were few-to-no blogs writing about this stuff, it all went unnoticed at Amex (though I find that hard to believe), and that now there are more blogs than I can count writing about it Amex has finally come down with the hammer. I don't know.

It pains me to think that I've had a small part in killing a golden goose. But I thought I'd share a story from my real job: I run ecommerce for a large clothing company and yesterday we mistakenly sold a bunch of sweaters for $0. When I found out about it (besides wanting to throw up), I thought I would give the people who purchased a sweater the ability to buy those sweaters at our cost. Then I saw that several people bought more than 100 sweaters each. A few bought 350. For $0. Then I was really, really annoyed and decided that no one would get anything. My point: perhaps the PRG offer was the straw the broke the camel's back.

Or not - seriously, there are a bunch of people still getting the bonuses. I wish there was a better answer than YMMV, but YMMV.

booyaa

Give me my sweaters

FlyerChrisK

I have no problem with the bloggers. Had they not mentioned it, I wouldn't have tried to get in on it.

I'm instead annoyed with Amex's customer service. It's a rather bitter pill to swallow that an employee could actively lie to me and that Amex happily did nothing to contradict that employee until I inquired about my points today. Additionally, I'm surprised that no one is doing some cost-benefit analysis to figure out whether it's worth tossing the slightest of bones to those customers for whom the promotion would not be honored in order to retain loyalty. With the Schwab 2% card winding down, I'm in search of a new top-of-the-wallet. Their income on merchant fees from my annual credit card spending exceeds the cash value of the 75k membership reward points for this promotion.

pcharles

As mentioned previously, the bloggers have cut and run as their handlers have pulled the leashes in.

Honestly, Sorry for your result.

But as reminder to anyone who is foolish to believe that a hard pull is removed from your account because you didnt get you way is misinformed. The only way a hard pull is removed is if you can prove the pull was done without your approval. You signing up for and applying for these credit cards is concent and does not warrant a retraction regardless of the decision of acceptance, nor of getting rejection from trying to add an additional bonus/benefit.

FlyerChrisK

While it certainly could be a myth, it didn't stop tonight's agent from telling me that it'd be expunged from my credit report.

It wouldn't be the first time an Amex CSR has misrepresented things to me...

pcharles

Honestly, sorry you might have faith in that miraculous things will
happen with what a/the CSR 'told you would happen' (it almost makes me giggle, well, actually it does - (not to your offense but their outright display of nonsense and complete bs)) as you don't know the wiser and are not at blame. You seemed only to hope that would be the case. So, if you would like the hard pull removed, please plan ahead to having to do MUCH MORE now forward, and don't expect it to happen if the other side wants to go toe to toe on the facts of the application for credit.