Consumer complaint received 2016-08-12
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card
Issue: Rewards

Complaint:
I applied for American Express XXXX card in XXXX and finished the minimum spending requirement of {$3000.00} in XXXX. The welcome bonus XXXX membership rewards were deposited into my account in XXXX. However, when I tried to transfer membership rewards to my XXXX XXXX account on XXXX XXXX. I was unable to do it. So the following day I called American Express and was told that {$200.00} spending was not counted towards the minimum spend because it was reimbursed as airline credit. The {$200.00} airline credit is part of benefits of the American Express credit card, and I can enjoy it because I have paid annual fee {$450.00}. I also checked terms and conditions of the card, and it says the following. 
Qualifying purchases can be made by the Basic Card Member and any Additional Card Members on a single Card account. The following charges do NOT count towards the Threshold Amount : fees or interest charges ; balance transfers ; cash advances ; purchases of travelers checks ; purchases or reloading of prepaid cards ; or purchases of other cash equivalents. 
From the statements above, it does n't exclude airline credit reimbursement so I do believe that American Express can not use {$200.00} airline credit reimbursement not counting towards minimum spend as a reason for reviewing my account and result in such inconveniences and hassles to me. I am writing to get all my membership rewards points UNFROZEN. 
I view each point of membership rewards around XXXX cents, so a freeze of XXXX membership rewards points is around {$2000.00}. In other words, my loss is around {$2000.00}. 

Updates on American Express 's response American Express researched into my account and gave a quick and short updates. However, the response does n't touch my points. 
1. In my original complaint, I was told by my Amex CSR ( the supervisor of front line CSR ) that reimbursed incidental charge, {$200.00}, was not counted towards minimum spending. I read the terms and conditions again and I do n't see any reference supporting exclusions of the {$200.00} charge as qualifying purchases. Amex needs to directly explain. 
2. The Amex CSR ( same one I mentioned above ) said that reimbursed incidental charge, {$200.00}, is the reason why they put my account under review. She also said promotional offer eligibility was not met due to the reimbursement. Did she tell me the truth, or did she lie to me for getting me off the phone? Amex needs to explain. I do n't want to be lied. If I have been lied, I will file a compliant about that CSR to American Express. I know that American Express has internal review for each CSR, and that lying to your customers will be a big negative point to CSRs which is very likely to lead to dismissals. 
3. I totally understand that per the terms and conditions Amex has the right to put the promotional offer XXXX membership rewards on hold within XXXX8 weeks time frame. However, there are still XXXX XXXX XXXX which I earned from natural spend on my Amex Platinum card. I tried to transfer XXXX XXXX XXXX my XXXX XXXX account but I was unable to do it. How did Amex explain this? Did Amex have questions about natural spend on the card? 
4. I would like to ask Amex to provide the eligibility for XXXX card promotional offer via CFPB platform based on my spending and terms and conditions of the card. Since your CSRs need so much time to dive into 3-month account activities, I would like to ask more experienced and higher level Amex CSRs to determine it.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation