Misleading advertising flyer - 5 points per $ spent with hotels.com

[missafternoondelight]

I received a flyer from ANZ today, along with the statement for my QFF Platinum Amex, with a bunch of offers for bonus points. One of them was for 5 bonus points per $1 spent at hotels.com. It directs the reader to www.hotels.com/deals/amex for more information.
However, on going to this address, the Ts & Cs state that the bonus points aren't applicable to QFF cards, even though the cards shown on the flyer are QFF ANZ Platinum cards. I called ANZ to complain that this is misleading to its customers, but the call centre operator told me they couldn't be held responsible for what hotels.com do on their website.
Be warned.. read all offers carefully.

 

[cove]

Good pick up about that site even though I don't use ANZ cards any more as they stopped being competitive on Visa point earning. ANZ were market leaders about 20 years ago when they teamed up with Telstra and Qantas.
I had to call the Citi call centre....now there is a place where you could easily get a wrong answer as they don't seem to know which way is up....I was trying to get my web account pages working but when they wanted to stop my card for a week while they worked on a fix I hesitated and then said don't bother seeing I am travelling.

 

[Moopere]

Yes, I got mine today presumably as a companion to my ANZ QFF card. Its essentially the same as one I got 6 months ago or so with the same problems. This time both hotelclub.com and hotels.com are the problem and it boils down to this bit of their T&C:

"The Qantas American Express Card, the Qantas American Express Premium Card, the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card, David Jones American Express Cards and Cards not issued by American Express are excluded from this promotion."

I called ANZ about this 6 months ago and they were not aware of an issue and couldn't resolve it. Hotelclub.com didn't even respond to my email enquiry.

Getting the same offer today, expanded to now include hotels.com just reinforces my view on all these FF partner schemes ... none of them ever seem to have a responsible party and no-one cares about the consumer, each side just blaming the other for errors and omissions.

As a result, I rarely book services via third parties now. If I want a hotel I'll go to the hotel website. Same with flights and cars.

 

[leemin]

Refer to it Consumer Affairs Victoria. I assume this is the right jurisdiction, given ANZ's HQ is in Melbourne.

 

[missafternoondelight]

Thanks Guys.
Moopere, I bet we aren't the only ones to have complained directly to ANZ. I'm thinking it's time to go to ACCC, since this is affects customers in all States.

 

[lovestotravel]

The ACCC is the one to ring!

While the Amex page states that the card is excluded, the glossy brochures says otherwise.

Two Options
1. Ring the ACCC and let them chase it up
2. Book all your hotels through the site and then argue to get the points - But as the T&C's on the website state that the ANZ card is excluded this may not result in you getting the points

Option 3 - Get an Amex issued Amex

Problem solved

 

[Stephen65]

This is not at all unusual in my experience. Bank cards that offer multiple points for particular spends often exclude QFF transfers from that higher earn. Citibank's new cards are an example of this - they headline the higher earn rates but bury the fact that QFF transfers are still 1-1 back in the T&C. Basically banks would prefer you spent points on their rewards catalogue than use them on QFF.

Amex are the only ones who always apply any higher earn rates to all uses of the points.

 

[Moopere]

1. Ring the ACCC and let them chase it up
2. Book all your hotels through the site and then argue to get the points - But as the T&C's on the website state that the ANZ card is excluded this may not result in you getting the points

Option 3 - Get an Amex issued Amex

Problem solved

I'll never do option #2. Thats the suck-it-and-see approach hehe. Almost no chance of success there unless willing to take the thing legally as far as it can go and the effort would far outweigh the reward.

Option #3 is the best course for me, its voting with your feet. Having spoken with a bank person face to face, rang the credit card department of the bank and emailed hotelclub.com on this issue I've done all I'm going to do.

My expectation is that the institution with the 'partners' will look after the deals and keep their customers happy. If they are uninterested then that speaks to me of the general enthusiasm of the institution to have me as a customer.