Consumer complaint received 2024-03-12 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Problem with customer service
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX Amex travel tells me there is no voucher, so I can not rebook flights. Amex Trip Cancel Guard tells me there is a voucher, so I can not get the reimbursement. The two teams are contradicting each other, and I am left with no recourse. Either resolution works, but it is absolutely not alright to make a customer wait for 3 months, and spend over 20 hours on calls with no resolution. 


I booked a XXXX flight on Amex Travel, and purchased Amex XXXX XXXX XXXX along with it. This was on the XXXX of XXXX, XXXX. I canceled the flight on the XXXX of XXXX and I was told I was issued an airline credit in an email. 

I attempted to activate the XXXX XXXX XXXX as soon as I canceled by submitting the claim online. However, three days later, I was notified of the denial of the claim with some unclear information ( including a request for a pending TLS report ). I asked for more information, but never heard back. 

At the same time, I called the Amex travel phone line, and they mentioned XXXX can avail of the credit/voucher for a year. In fact, I was able to see it on my Amex travel portal. I asked if I would continue to see it on my portal even if I canceled my credit card, and received an affirmative response. I canceled my card, and as promised, I was able to see the credit on the portal. 

However, a month later, I lost access to it. After several ( over 30 ) calls each lasting an average of >45 minutes to both Amex travel and Amex XXXX XXXX XXXX, in addition to opening a Global Complaint, the following is what I observed - Multiple agents from Amex travel gave me conflicting information on the existence of a credit or lack thereof - one said I have access to the credit for a whole year, another said XXXX is doing me a favor and enabling it for a week, and yet another said I was supposed to rebook flights on the same day - and then did a U-turn on that claiming that I needed an active Amex card and the base fare of the rebooked flight should exceed the original base fare. Even then, they were unable to actually make the booking, and attempted to pass my account over to XXXX XXXX declined to take direct calls from me as Amex travel is my travel agent, and they also mentioned they do not offer credit any longer ( instead only offering vouchers )- this is a direct contradiction of the claims multiple Amex travel representatives made Amex XXXX XXXX XXXX was unaware of all of this information, and responded after a long delay with another rejection of my claim - because I have an open voucher from XXXX until XXXX, XXXX - another contradiction of the claims by Amex travel Subsequent calls to Amex XXXX XXXX XXXX and Amex travel were either dropped or left unresponded to ( including one fascinating case when I was rerouted to the Rental Cars division, apparently ). Amex travel claimed yet again that I dont have any open vouchers, and the Trip XXXX XXXX XXXX reasserted their claim that I do have an open voucher. 

It has been 3 months, over 30 calls, and 20+ hours of my time wasted on calls with representatives who are often rude, but the amount at stake is high - greater than {$2200.00}.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief