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American Express Membership Rewards Points Posting Early
One of my readers John wrote to me about a week ago wondering why his Membership Rewards hadn’t yet posted from his American Express Business Gold Rewards card. (He had signed up during the 75k deal.) Unlike many banks, American Express puts your points into pending status when the statement prints. They normally become available the next month.
Now John had purposely met the steep $10k minimum spending requirement as quickly as possible in order to make sure the points posted in time to take advantage of the British Airways transfer bonus. With the points in pending status, he was seemingly going to miss out.
I have read reports of people being able to get American Express to post Membership Rewards points early, so I told John to contact the company and ask nicely. He had already tried that once, but decided to give it another shot. Once again he was denied. A third call yielded the same results as well.
A Different Experience
The day after John wrote to me, I actually finished my own spending on the Business Rewards Gold card. Much to my surprise, two days after the final charges posted, I logged into my account and found 75,000 freshly posted Membership Rewards points.
This was 10 days before my statement was set to print so the 10,000 points from the spending didn’t post, but the entire bonus did. While I don’t know what happened, I suppose they may treat customers differently depending on how long they have been with the bank.
So What Happened to John
So now lets get back to John’s story. He was determined to get these points to post, so he decided to hop on a chat with American Express where he finally found an agent who was willing to help. Within minutes his account had 85,000+ Membership Rewards sitting in it.
Of course the old saying mo’ money mo’ problems comes in. Now John needs to figure out how many of his points he should transfer over to British Airways and how many he should keep flexible. While that is a personal decision, I am transferring about half of my points over.
Takeaways
- It is possible to get American Express to expedite the posting of points.
- You may have to speak to several different agents to get it done.
- Try using different methods like chat and don’t be afraid to politely ask to speak to a supervisor.
Conclusion
In the end I am glad that both John and I have our points in time to transfer them over to British Airways. It sort of stinks that American Express made him jump through so many hoops, however he seems to be happy with the result.
Have you had success getting American Express to post Membership Rewards points early? How many of your Membership Rewards are you transferring over to British Airways? Let me know in the comments!
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I can add a more recent data point to this discussion…. completed the required minimum spend on April 16, 2019. Amex posted my 75K welcome points in the transaction feed, but marked them as Pending. A closer examination on the web site said the points would be released after the next statement date and if the payment was received. Called once to a regular CSRep. He could not release them. Called back next day, transferred to Membership Rewards rep. She said it was impossible to release the points. Called again next day to a regular CSrep. Impossible to release the points. Text-chatted with CSrep. Impossible to release points. Called again to Membership rewards. It is impossible to release the bonus points early. So, I made online payments for all my Amex cards, not just the new Platinum card with the bonus, paying off full balance way earlier than statement closing date. The next morning I logged in…. the bonus points were released. I’m not sure which is the magic combination that made it happen (calling so many times, or paying off statement balances), but whatever I did worked.
I see an easy solution – will complete the qualifying spending activity for Chase & ask it to expedite posting of points.
Is there any way I can request American Express to expedite the posting of sign-up bonus points asap? I was told that it can only happen after the first statement closing date, but I need those points asap to book Delta flights. I’ve already talked to 4 customer care executives who couldn’t help me out.
I was planning to run my attorney fee ($30k annually) using my lowbrow EveryDay card, but I’ll use Chase instead (until I its customer care pisses me off some day).
Nowadays (it’s May 2018), it’s not possible to expedite the posting of bonus points before the very first statement closing date. Or maybe EveryDay card users are considered *low-tier*
My current issue is i fulfilled the spending minimums on Amex Plat 100k points with in a month (thanks and not so thanked to some medical bills). The miles recently popped up in my account …Great!, However I cannot transfer them into the Airline program i want, keeps giving me an error code. When i called i was told that it takes 6-8 weeks to be able to have access to the points for transfer into other programs.
Has anyone else had this issue? I want to book some airfare with the miles so the sooner i can transfer them the better.
Worked perfect for me, took about 30 seconds via chat. Statement was paid in full and both spend points and bonus points went from pending to posted.
[…] Miles to Memories points out that you may be able to get your AMEX sign-up bonus points in your account faster. Find out the steps to getting your points quickly! […]
Chat and call transfer to MR department and got the same answer, can’t expedite bonus points, even supervisor said the same thing. I don’t understand how some of you can do it when they flat out told me it is not possible.
Another data point. My statement closed yesterday. The Live Chat agent was able to expedite the 75k but not the January spending.
Bill, was your balance paid in full when points expedited?
Yes and make sure you’re chatting with someone from Membership Rewards.
So 3 weeks ago I signed up and got approved for the Amex Gold Premier card. 50,000 points with a $1000 requirement within 90 days. Already hit the $1000. Chatted with Amex Membership Points Department twice and they wont transfer the points. I Have to wait until my bill closes. The 1st agent did say that the points should say pending to transfer over, which they are but agent in 2nd call didn’t take that into consideration. Sucks/
[…] See: How to Expedite the Posting of American Express Membership Rewards Points […]
Thanks Shawn for your help and posting this, I’m quite surprised to read that many people also have same experience as me!
Shawn, thank you for posting this. I want to share my experience. I tried two phone calls, two chat sessions, and one post to the Amex forum, and was shut down every time. Finally, today, I was able to get the chat rep to transfer the chat to the membership rewards team. That seems to be the key. If you can get your chat transferred, they should release the points.
Similar experience to Shawn,within 2 days after I finished the minimum spending,the sign up bonus posted. I transfered them to Avios before I pay down the balance and the statement close. Quite a nice surprise. Not sure we are good customers to Amex,since we just start this game 1 year ago,our history with them aren’t long.
I signed up for the same 75k offer. Somewhere in the range of 5-10 days or so after I completed the minimum spend (recently), I noticed 77k (or so) Membership Rewards posted. I’m pretty sure that amount is the 75k plus 2k+ that I spent during my first month (I spent the rest of the minimum spend during the second statement cycle that hasn’t closed yet). So, like Shawn, I’m theorizing that my long-term, good, multiple-business-card relationship with AMEX somehow triggered the points getting posted to my account shortly after completing the minimum spend. So, fortunately, I didn’t have to call to ask for them to be expedited – although I guess I could to try to get the rest of the MR points from my minimum spend in the second month posted (but probably not enough for me to worry about).
Which gets to your second question. I think I’m going to transfer most of my MR points (from this and another card) to Avios. I don’t have any Avios points yet and I’m attracted to starting to take advantage of their distance-based partner rewards. I understand the risk I’m taking of the Avios potentially getting devalued before I use them, but at a 1.4:1 ratio, I think it’s worth the risk.
Thanks, as always, for another great post. I doubt I’ll take advantage of this little maneuver, but it’s good knowledge to file away.
I had a similar experience. I called once and was denied. However, the second time I called I was delivered the points. The agent explained to me that in order to expedite the points, he needs to see that I paid the statement for which the points are pending. Apparently, that is what is causing them to accept or deny. Pay your full balance and you should be fine to get your points soon.
Thanks for the data point!
Update: Just tried again via online chat and was able to get them expedited. Looks like AMEX customer support may now be educated on how to properly expedite the points? Anyway, thanks for the tip!!!
Glad you were able to get them posted!
Same here. Both chat and phone denied my request a few weeks ago. This time, chat had to “transfer my chat” to the MR department to get it done. I wish I had done this before I ended up transferring a ton of Chase UR points to Avios for a recent redemption. Oh well.
Shut down via chat today. Statement posted yesterday. Said they won’t expedite bonuses and I have to wait until the second statement. Will try again Monday.
I’ve been trying to expedite my points as well for the last 3 weeks — my statement closed 12/22, where I have already hit the spend requirement. And several times via chat, mentioning that they cannot expedite “bonus” points, and one time via phone, mentioning the same thing.
Is your statement paid? Someone else commented that they won’t post the points unless the statement has been paid off.
Tried many times. Spend hit two weeks ago, statement hit 5 days ago, zero balance…..Amex is not willing to do anything.