Corporate Card to Platinum Charge Chard MR

[aschmid]

I have a Platinum Charge Card and my employer introduced now a Corporate AMEX Card we have to use for all T&E. Got the Corporate Card today and called them to link it to my Membership Rewards program. Long story short is they won't allow you to link a corporate card to a Platinum Charge Card membership program.

I guess the reason for this is that you can still transfer points to QF FF after 1 April from your Platinum Charge Card program - a good reason from their point of view.

I am just disappointed again that you are Platinum card member and pay them a significant amount of money for the privilege but there is all this little annoying restrictions on everything you want to do.

I am just feeling exhausted trying to get anything done with AMEX ... what a waste of my time!

[AnonymousCoward]

That doesn't sound good :-(

Which charge card is your organisation bringing in? We're bringing in the Gold cards, which give you a choice of Ascent, Spirit or Choices as a rewards program. I was hoping to link that card to my Plat card's MR.

Being able to transfer to QFF shouldn't be an obstacle, as Spirit is still an option isn't it?

EDIT: just talked to Amex MR and they confirm that this can't be done :-( If you have a regular Ascent account, then they can be linked. Otherwise, you have to pick a separate program for the corporate card (and presumably pay a separate fee...)

[aschmid]

Originally Posted by AnonymousCoward

EDIT: just talked to Amex MR and they confirm that this can't be done :-( If you have a regular Ascent account, then they can be linked. Otherwise, you have to pick a separate program for the corporate card (and presumably pay a separate fee...)

That pretty much sums it up. If you have any other card and rewards program with AMEX you can link you corporate card EXCEPT if you have a Platinum Charge Card they will offer you very special service and not allowing you to link it.

Did somebody say again "Our precious and most regarded Platinum customers bend over and grab those ankles" - might be just the wind I hear blowing.

Guess for me that means cut back on this Platinum Charge Card and just stick with the Platinum Credit Card so I can link all my cards to ONE rewards program - what a sad story to tell.

[simongr]

Originally Posted by aschmid

That pretty much sums it up. If you have any other card and rewards program with AMEX you can link you corporate card EXCEPT if you have a Platinum Charge Card they will offer you very special service and not allowing you to link it.

I am not sure this is correct. I had an Amex Gold and Amex Corp Chg and could not link them. In actual fact when I joined the two MR programs I joined the Corp Ascent (for my Corp card) and the Ascent program for my Gold Amex - two separate programs.

I guess reason not to link them is that I was not the account holder for the Corp card - the company was.

So factually this is not an issue with the Plat card this is Corp Ascent vs. Ascent.

aschmid - I am not sure why you still have your Amex card given how much you think their service stinks. If I was as annoyed as you with a service provider I would not be using their services.

[AnonymousCoward]

Originally Posted by simongr

I am not sure this is correct. I had an Amex Gold and Amex Corp Chg and could not link them. In actual fact when I joined the two MR programs I joined the Corp Ascent (for my Corp card) and the Ascent program for my Gold Amex - two separate programs.

Amex sent us a FAQ document for the rollout of our corp cards, and one of the questions addressed was linking MR accounts if you already hold existing Amex cards (including personal ones). It says that this is possible if your existing MR program account is the "same level" as the one you intend to join with your corp card.

Talking to the MR CSR, she said that if you had Ascent (or Choices) this could be done. If you want QFF from your corp card you had to join Spirit - you could not link to Ascent Premium.

[simongr]

That's a change then - positive for Green and Gold members and not very well thought out by Amex. I wonder if this is just an IT issue and the database of where the programs sit that physically separates the Ascent Premium accounts...

[aschmid]

Originally Posted by simongr

I am not sure this is correct. I had an Amex Gold and Amex Corp Chg and could not link them. In actual fact when I joined the two MR programs I joined the Corp Ascent (for my Corp card) and the Ascent program for my Gold Amex - two separate programs.

I guess reason not to link them is that I was not the account holder for the Corp card - the company was.

The must have given you the run around as well. I had a AMEX Gold Charge Card before with Ascent Rewards and was able to link my AMEX Green Charge Card to it. Only now after changing to AMEX Platinum Charge Card I cannot due to "Ascent Premium".

Also I do believe that you ARE the account holder for your corporate card. Mine got issued recently and I have a alert setup on my credit file and it was triggered by the corporate card application. So if they do a credit check on you I would assume you are the account holder.

[AnonymousCoward]

Originally Posted by simongr

That's a change then - positive for Green and Gold members and not very well thought out by Amex. I wonder if this is just an IT issue and the database of where the programs sit that physically separates the Ascent Premium accounts...

According to the second rep that I spoke to (who went to confirm it with a supervisor), it is due to the agreement with QANTAS.

Corp cards that want the ability to transfer to QFF have to be in the Spirit program (which only transfers to QF as a flying partner). There is no agreement with QANTAS (for the Gold Corporate charge card) that allows MR points to be distributed to multiple airline partners (I didn't think to ask whether there were any other business or corporate cards that did allow this)