Consumer complaint received 2024-01-26 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Problem with rewards from credit card
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I made my first hotel reservation through Amex ever on XXXX back in XXXX XXXX XXXX at XXXX. Definitely saw the phrase " The XXXX XXXX '' all over the XXXX reservation page. XXXX also shows up as a result on the XXXX  participants search page. 

After a while, I notice my {$200.00} hotel credit has not arrived. I go ask on chat, and Amex says XXXX is not XXXX. I say yeah it is here 's your URL. They say yes of course it is, and after some more fumbling, pay me. Done right? 

Wrong. I show up at XXXX on XXXX  and XXXX has no idea what I'm talking about. I call Amex and they say they can't find the XXXX  status but will submit a case that will take up to 6 weeks, and say usually people get their stay reimbursed ( I can submit this chat too, but I ran out of attachments ). Annoyed, but that helps. 

The next day, they call me and tell me yes I reserved with a XXXX  participant, yes it was nonrefundable, 2+ days etc., terms met, but I did not choose the XXXX  price option. I chose the " lowest fares '' option. So no refund no nothing. I have no idea what " '' lowest fares '' option '' isI had no options. I ask, do you have evidence? They say the email confirmation, and I say the email doesn't say anything about XXXX  or no, and that's post-purchase anyway, does your website have evidence that I physically turned down the XXXX option. They say their records don't include this, and ask me if I screenshotted the website during the purchase. Like what? Who does that? How about YOUR WEBSITE logs it? 

They then say that actually never mind, the problem is that during my purchase, they were renegotiating XXXX 's XXXX rate, so " lowest fares '' was all that was available, so I must have chosen it. I say I didn't. I say you fumbled my {$200.00} credit AND left XXXX as a result on the XXXX  search AND kept no records, and your credit department agreed it was XXXX, so given how badly you have handled this, your website probably messed it up. And even if it didn't, and I really did choose " lowest fares '' you're telling me you had a website that called XXXX a XXXX  participant ( we verified that it is up year-round ), and a page that said " lowest fares '' and nothing about " not XXXX '' ( we verified this together too ), and from that I was supposed to read the tea leaves that it wasn't a XXXX  purchase? 

" Lowest fares '' does not mean " not XXXX  '' in English, or mean anything about XXXX. It means " lowest fares. '' You can be XXXX  AND lowest fares. The terms do not say anything about " except if lowest fares. '' They don't say anything about " participating properties except if we're secretly renegotiating rates. '' They say " participating properties. '' I asked multiple times which of the XXXX  terms I failed. Posted their own terms in their chat. They declined to answer the question. 

They gave me XXXX that I haven't received yet, admitted it was reasonable to think XXXX was in XXXX based on these websites combined, never admitted they had violated their own terms, and said that next time I should just chat in, instead of using the website. For every purchase. Not great.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief