American Express Chat
In my experience, American Express chat agents are remarkably helpful overall. I’m able to conduct a variety of business with reps at all times of day and night. Things don’t work out all the time, but I’ve clearly come out ahead over the years using chat. More recently, though, I’ve often run into the same proverbial wall with Amex chat agents. These reps have stonewalled me on upgrading Hilton cards. But several days ago, a helpful phone agent provided more perspective.
Upgrade Issues with American Express Chat
The Initial Goal of My Call
The reason I recently called in was identical to one in the past. I wanted to upgrade a Hilton Honors Amex Surpass account to an Aspire card.
Shortly before my call, a chat rep refused to product change me to the Aspire. I clarified that I wasn’t looking for any bonus for this upgrade, but I was getting nowhere with the chat agent. The rep unhelpfully provided a link to check for an upgrade, which inevitably took me to pretty much nothing. I thanked the rep and immediately knew my next move.
Within a couple minutes of being connected, a quite-competent phone rep product changed this Surpass to an Aspire. The call had been efficient and productive up to that point. The agent asked if he could help me with anything else. I didn’t have any other immediate needs, but I searched my brain since he was so useful thus far. Then, it hit me.
What’s Going On?
I mentioned that I’d had no issues product changing cards, including upgrades, over chat for years until recently. I cited last year’s issue in addition to my current call. What’s going on? His answer was somewhat unsurprising but definitely informative.
The rep stated that Amex has stopped allowing product changes to higher annual fee cards over chat. I asked why. He mentioned that there where certain situations where the increased annual fee wasn’t appropriately communicated over chat. He said Amex chat agents omitted the annual fee hike in these instances, which led to issues for these cardholders. When I asked when this policy was put in place, he recalled it was some time late last year.
I asked what cards this policy applied to. He advised that he specifically works with the Hilton products, but his understanding is that it applies to all Amex cards. (For what it’s worth, I upgraded multiple Membership Rewards-earning cards in December over chat without issue.) The rep also advised that product changes to lower or no annual fee cards is still possible via chat. He underscored that the only change is cardholders cannot shift to more expensive cards over chat.
I thanked him for this info, joking that he’s saved me a substantial amount of time moving forward, and ended the call.
My Initial Take
First off, I know my situation is anecdotal. This is what just one rep (who I happened to find competent) told me. My questions may have been beyond his knowledge of the situation, too. But I find his explanation valid and plan to adapt accordingly. I’ll probably skip chat when I’m looking to upgrade a card, especially a cobranded one. What makes this decision easier is that making the change over the phone is still efficient enough for me. Again, within minutes of a conversation, I’ve been able to product change without any issues.
Conclusion
I didn’t ask the rep if this was a temporary or permanent move by Amex, but I suspect the latter. That’s how I’m managing my expectations, at least. I just consider this my next step in learning to love Amex phone reps again. The Amex chat honeymoon ended years ago. I’ll still go online for certain Amex needs, but the phone will be the first move more often in the future.
Have you had issues product changing Amex cards via chat? How did you overcome them?
