Several years ago, both my wife and I lost the ability to refer from personal Amex cards that earn Membership Rewards. Business cards that earned Membership Rewards were fine, as well as personal cards that earned some other kind of rewards (e.g. cashback, Hilton points, Marriott points, etc.), but we lost the ability to refer from cards like the personal Gold and Platinum cards.
We weren’t the only ones affected by this. Many readers have reported similar issues in the past, plus other Frequent Miler team members have also been afflicted with this inability to refer.
Well, there’s some good news on that front. It looks like some – or all – of us affected by this have escaped from popup prison referral reformatory.
Nick was one such team member who’d equally been unable to refer from personal Amex Membership Rewards-earning cards in recent years, as was his wife. When checking today though, he noticed that the ability had returned.
When checking our accounts, I noticed the same thing. For some reason the Refer a Friend page on desktop has displayed a blank screen on both my and my wife’s accounts for months on end with no amount of refreshing helping the matter. Despite that, the ability to refer from previously blocked cards is there through another avenue.
When logging in on desktop and scrolling down, there’s now a ‘Refer Friends, Get Rewarded’ section there which hadn’t been available on previously affected cards.
To access your referral links in the Amex app, log in to your account and tap the ‘Membership’ tab at the bottom. On that screen you should see a ‘Refer a Friend’ button under an ‘Earn More’ heading.
Tap on that section and you’ll bring up a page where you’ll (hopefully) see previously vanished cards such as an Amex Platinum (if you have one).
Question
Were you previously in referral reformatory? If so, are you also now seeing the ability to refer again, or has it not been revoked for you? Let us know in the comments below.
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I just sent a referral this morning on the AMEX app for personal Platinum with no issue. I didn’t realize it was an issue so can’t confirm I was previously blocked.
DP: Wife’s personal Platinum still not referable.
I was recently added to the not able to refer list. And still on there. Hope I don’t have to wait a year to get out.
same for me 🙂
It’s back for me as well! Not the best offers out there (but this could change)
It’s back for me! After probably almost 2 years. Thanks for the article 🙂
Yes, back for me as well. Oddly enough, my Gold/Plat cards have referrals, as does my Marriott, but not the Hilton. I would only refer from Gold/Plat anyway, so no big deal. Have always been able to refer from business, but nice to see that I have been released from referral reformatory!
No dice for me. Still can only refer from Hilton and Marriott cards. No dice on my biz cards either. Differentiation seems not based on personal vs. business, but based on which cards I had when they stopped allowing my referrals. the only referrals I can do are cards that I opened after get referral reprimand.
Pretty sure that I got reprimanded way back for self referral.
My wife and I have personal Platinum and Gold cards and could not refer for a long time. We also could not refer the Blue Cash Preferred card. But today we can. A small but good development. I complained several times to chat about the inability to refer the Platinum card explaining that it was harder to justify the annual fee when referrral points cannot be earned.
Yes! I was not able to refer for personal cards for nearly a year. I saw my personal referrals worked again about a month ago, but then they were removed again. I have been able to refer for business cards the whole time. Now my personal referrals are back! Good to know others were affected. I thought I had done something to hurt Amex in some way, lol
I’d say generate a link now and save it – sometimes they’re up for a day and then disappear.
Also no such luck for me on cobranded cards like Surpass and Aspire
I can vouch it did show up for me now, prior only my p2 had it showing
Does anyone even work at FM anymore besides you and timmie?
+1 for personal referrals being restored
Wow. I saw that this morning and glossed right over it. Thanks so much for pointing that out.