Consumer complaint received 2017-07-27
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: UT
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
American Express markets its Delta Reserve card as providing XXXX MQM bonuses at the spend levels of $ XXXX and $ XXXX, annually. On the website americanexpress.com I as a consumer have a function available to me to view statements and activity for the period XX/XX/XXXX through XXXX XXXX, XXXX ( report is attached ). This report agrees with the XX/XX/XXXX Year-End Summary also published by American Express which shows that the net spend on the account for the year is XXXX XXXX. To ensure that I met the $ XXXX spend level for the bonus miles, I managed this through XX/XX/XXXX and ensured that no credits would be issued that would adversely impact the spend. Therefore, I believed that I had met the requirements of the card and would/should be awarded the XXXX MQM bonus miles. American Express has a different way of calculating the spend for this bonus and claims that the eligible spend is {$59000.00}. The difference is not discernable to the consumer from their website which provides this data and therefore is misleading to the consumer. When items that are excluded are included in the summary reports it serves to reinforce a misleading and fraudulent marketing approach by American Express. While the underlying terms and conditions may indicate the exclusion of fees, interest charges etc., the failure of American Express to provide a way for the consumer to track qualifying spend and to fail to note this on any of its spending reports maintains and reinforces its misleading advertising. American Express should be required to report to the consumer the spending amounts that qualify for the bonus if it is different than the amounts being shown on its website or annual summary statement. In the absence, I as a consumer are provided and relied on misleading and potentially fraudulent reporting by American Express. I have contacted American Express to no avail. Attached is their form letter response. While they acknowledge the shortcomings in their website, the answer I was told by a supervisor ( who would not share his name ) was that I as the consumer should have called them directly to have them calculate the qualified spend. In fact, I have done this for XX/XX/XXXX spend levels and was provided incorrect information and was told that they do not have any easy way to calculate the applicable spend. American Express should be required to compensate any consumer with the bonus MQMs at either the $ XXXX or $ XXXX level if their annual summary statement or the website equivalent shows such levels of spending until they can accurately report to the consumer the qualified spend levels they have met. I believe that I should be granted the XXXX MQMs for XXXX for having met the $ XXXX spending threshold and seek your assistance to end this misleading and fraudulent activity on the part of American Express.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief