Amex not paying 2 points per dollar on Celebrity Cruises

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I have an Amex Platinum Charge card and am currently having problems dealing with Amex regarding Membership Rewards points and am wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem.

Over the past couple of years when I have had charges on my card for Royal Caribbean or Celebrity Cruises I have only received 1 point per dollar rather than 2 points for travel and I have had to phone Amex to have the additional points posted and the adjustments have always been done quickly. In one of these instances the Amex operator I spoke to said that RCI and Celebrity weren't coded correctly in their system and that was why the manual adjustments have to be made.

In June I had a charge of $6939 in Australian Dollars through the Australian Celebrity Cruises office as final payment for a cruise in Europe that we will be on next week. The charge was shown as Celebrity Cruises Miami (when I have payments for Royal Caribbean they show as Royal Caribbean Miami as well and are always charged in Australian Dollars).

When I looked at my Membership Rewards points info online a couple of days after the charge showed up in my account I saw that only 6939 points had been posted. I phoned Amex and was told that the points would be adjusted. After nothing happened I phoned back 5 days after that and again 6 days after the second call, in late June, when I was told that this would be escalated to the Rewards Team. I phoned again a few days later, before I flew out of Sydney in early July for an extended holiday in Europe. On one of these calls I was told that Celebrity Cruises is not a major cruise line and I told him that they are one of the larger ones operating in Australia, along with Royal Caribbean, and that they both operate out of the same Australian office and with the same phone number and are owned by Royal Caribbean.

When the points had still not been posted by mid August I sent an email to Amex through their website on 15 August, setting out all details as I have described above, including making it clear that it was a charge in Australian Dollars made through the Australian Celebrity office, and that this has happened a few times over the past few years, and I received a reply a day later saying:

"I've immediately escalated this to our Membership Rewards team to advise why the charge of $6,939 made at Celebrity Cruises Miami didn't earn double points (2 points per $1 spent). They'll definitely investigate and resolve it at the earliest.

Rest assured, I'll follow up with the team and email you in 5 to 7 business days as I get an update from them
."

I received a reply today saying:

"I am emailing you regarding the Membership Rewards points issue.

Our Membership Rewards team informed that the charge made at Celebrity Cruises Miami was made in Australian Dollar. As per the point structure, the charges made at major cruise as well as in foreign currency in order to receive 2 points per $1 spent.

For reference, the point earn structure on your account is :

-3 points per $1 spent Restaurants in Australia
-2 points per $1 spent Airlines, accommodation, major cruise and tour operators paid directly or through travel agencies as well as spend in foreign currency, both overseas and online.
-1 point per $1 spent Everywhere else excluding the providers listed below earning 0.5 points per $1
-0.5 points per $1 spent at Utilities (gas, water, electricity providers),Insurance (except insurances offered by American Express), Telecommunications providers (includes goods and services purchased from phone, mobile and internet service providers) and Government bodies including the Australian Taxation Office, Australia Post, federal / state / local government bodies

For assistance in any other way, please feel free to contact us.
"

The additional 6939 points have not been posted. They said "the charge made at Celebrity Cruises Miami was made in Australian Dollar" which I had already pointed out but it still should have posted as 2 points per dollar as it is travel related, with a major cruise line, even though paid in Australia.

I've been researching major cruise lines so I have some information to include when I write back to Amex. "Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd" (RCCL) owns Royal Caribbean International (RCI) and Celebrity Cruises. Royal Caribbean owns 27 ships (including the largest cruise ships in the world) and Celebrity owns 10 ships (4 of which carry between 2138 and 2170 passengers and 5 that carry between 2850 and 3046) so they are major cruise lines and both operate in Australia during the main cruise season in Australia, usually between September or October and April each year, and they operate year round in various parts of the world. The other major cruise lines that operate regularly in Australia are Carnival Cruise Line, Princess and P & O, all owned by "Carnival Corporation & PLC", who also own Cunard Line, Costa Cruises and Holland America Line, and these have occasional visits to Australia.

I will write back to Amex but would appreciate any advice on the best way to approach my reply and whether I should keep writing to the person I am currently dealing with in the "Email Servicing Team, American Express Customer Care" or try to contact someone higher up. I only use my Amex Charge card for travel, overseas and restaurant purchases, and use another bank issued Amex card where I still get 1.5 points per dollar for other purchases. With the $1200 annual fee I would expect to receive the correct points for travel purchases and it seems that they really don't want to give me the additional 6939 points.

Today's email even finishes with "For assistance in any other way, please feel free to contact us" as if they will not assist any further with this matter.

Thanks for any advice you can offer, and sorry for such a long post.
 
I just made an AMEX payment to Celebrity and the payment in AUD went to Monrovia, Liberia. Maybe that confused them!
 
I just made an AMEX payment to Celebrity and the payment in AUD went to Monrovia, Liberia. Maybe that confused them!
janelarm, if your Amex card is one that pays 2 points per dollar for Travel did you get 2 points per dollar for your Celebrity charge?
 
I've written back to Amex asking them to review my complaint about not receiving 2 points per dollar for the Celebrity Cruises charge and have received the following reply so hopefully they will decide to give me the correct points for this transaction:

"Thank you for contacting us through the secure message centre. Your complaint has been escalated to the Executive Customer Relations Office. We are currently reviewing your complaint and one of our analysts will contact you again shortly. Sincerely, ....
Executive Customer Relations American Express Australia Limited"
 
It's a bit late now - but I have found that the surcharge you pay for using Amex in a foreign currency, or indeed if you pay for a cruise in AUD (cruise line does the conversion), then you always pay at least 3% more than actual mid-market spot rate.
Even at double points, the 3% is too expensive.

I therefore use my 28 degree Mastercard for buying Aadvantage points, cruises and airline travel (when I can pay in USD). It works out cheaper.

I always ask the cruise line for a USD amount which they are happy to give.

Might be worth you doing the math, but I've checked all purchases I have made for the last couple of years and using the cheap 28 degree card for FX purchases has been better than paying a 3% surcharge to accrue the points.
 
I've only recently wised up to this 3% business... I wonder how the FX price on something like the ANZ Rewards card with 0% fee works out.. is it the same as those with?
Especially since pretty much everyone now changed it do if anything is foreign - the merchant, the currency or the processing location they charge it (most recently: Citibank)

I'd also only seen Dynamic Currency conversion on ATMs up until a couple of weeks ago in London, EFTPOS in store prompted me for it. I assume the onset of this is why everyone changed the 3% stuff.
 
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