Consumer complaint received 2023-04-18
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

Complaint:
Traveling to XXXX and saw XXXX had offer, book through them and when checking out we were offered American Express Delta Sky Miles card. Sign up and get {$300.00} statement credit. Great! Three of us booked on XX/XX/2023. 

We were all approved for the card. My partner got {$300.00} credit immediately. My sister in law and I did not get the {$300.00} credit. So we both have called and gotten a variety of excuses and they promise to open up an inquiry. 

Her inquiry was closed, no credit. She wasn't even notified. Mine was closed today no credit, and I still don't understand why. 

After multiple phone calls and a live chat by me today they are claiming some people receive the statement credit and some are not eligible. No reasons given when I asked for verbiage stating who is and is not eligible for for the credit. Then they are claiming I was declined for the promotional offer and consented to that. What? I would have never applied for the card if I wasn't going to receive the offer! Isn't applying for the card consent? Never did I see ( or if it happened I didn't see it ) anything that said I wasn't eligible and consented to that! 

The entire process was super glitchy .... we lost our seats ( but were approved for the card! ) and had to go in a rebook... it was a mess! 

Then my statement comes out and no credit. No credit on my sister in law 's statement but my partner had a credit. It doesn't make any kind of sense. We all booked at the same time, same way, same issues. 

I don't understand how this offer can be made, I was approved the card and then not given the statement credit? For some nebulous reason? They couldn't even answer me that question... I asked for verbiage that they have about that and they couldn't provide it to me .... all this mumbo jumbo of " a lot of factors. '' What? It should be cut and dry, Apply for the card, get approved, make the purchase and get the the statement credit after purchasing the flight ( ours was {$1700.00} so you can see why {$300.00} off would be nice ). 

Had I known I would never have opened the card and used another card I had to get points, cash back, etc. 

They are still offering the promotion on the XXXX website. Our offer was for {$300.00} that ended on XX/XX/2023,,, that's why we booked because we wanted to get the discount and in case flights went up. 

I have looked at the terms ( and will attach here ) and I do not see any verbiage stating you may not be eligible for the offer. Nor did I ever receive any kind of letter or email from them after the fact telling me why I didn't receive the offer and why. Nothing. 

The time and effort we've wasted is unbelievable trying to get a straight answer. We did note some other people having same issues on a XXXX site. 

The entire process is deceptive in my mind. You are trying to book a flight get the offer then get re-routed to apply, then it glitches up, then we were approved for the card but not for the offer, at least that I could tell. 

XXXX is at fault too... I am sure they have no idea this is happening. I will probably live chat with them at some point but I believe this is an AmEx issue. 

I hope you can look into this and get some clarity for me and others.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation