Chase and American Express pleasantly surprised us at the start of May by offering all kinds of opportunities to earn bonus points at grocery stores (see this post for more).
Everything seemed to be going fine until some Amex cardholders noticed that their bonus points hadn’t posted to their accounts last month, particularly from spend on Hilton Surpass and Aspire cards.
Based on data points I’d seen, it seemed like the delay mostly affected people who hit grocery stores pretty hard. I’d increased my spend at grocery stores on my Hilton Surpass and Aspire cards, but the bonus points posted to my Hilton account as expected last month.
That doesn’t mean we’re in the clear though. For starters, it’s too early to know if my July points will post, while my wife’s points for the end of June haven’t showed up yet.
We’re some of the lucky ones though, because there have been numerous cases in the last 24 hours of Amex clawing back bonus points. For example, Hilton points from credit card spend are initially posting to accounts…
…only for most of the points to be clawed back in a separate transaction.
It’s not only Hilton accounts that are affected. People have been reporting clawbacks on their Delta statements as well as on their Marriott accounts. Although these clawbacks have been initiated by Amex, Marriott is adding insult to injury by stating that the removal of points is a “goodwill bonus”.
This results in a dilemma for people unaffected by clawbacks so far. While Chase grocery store spending bonuses ended at the end of June (other than on Marriott cards), the bonuses on American Express cards can be earned through the end of July. With Amex clearly on the case, is it worth doing even low-level manufactured spend or other gift card-buying activity at grocery stores?
I’ll likely wait a week to see if the points that I should be earning from my Surpass and Aspire cards show up on my account as expected. If they do, I’ll spend the last 2.5 weeks of July taking advantage of the bonus opportunities. In the meantime, I’ll keep using our Amex Gold cards as they’re seemingly unaffected so far, along with our Chase Marriott cards seeing as Chase doesn’t seem to be quite so sensitive.
Many thanks to the person that gave permission for me to include screenshots of their points being clawed back.
Sir I’m going to need you to order or step out of line.
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