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Many readers in our Facebook group have expressed frustration over the way that Amex is displaying bonus points for those who have opened Platinum cards under the incredible new welcome offer that includes 10x at US Supermarkets and 10x at US gas stations on up to $15K in purchases in the first six months. It isn’t immediately clear that those purchases are earning bonus points, but fear not: the bonus categories are indeed working for qualifying purchases.
Transactions show up at 1x under “Statements & Activity”
The confusion here stems from the fact that when you go to “Statements & Activity”, which is where most people usually look for rewards information, a qualifying purchase appears to only earn 1x. Take this grocery purchase that I made as an example.
It says above that I only earn 110 rewards points for the $109.88 charge as this card offers 1x “on other purchases”. However, note the small print below that: “May not reflect any promotional offers”. In this case, that’s exactly the issue.
Where to find the bonus points under Membership Rewards
In order to find the bonus points for your transaction, go to “Explore Rewards” from your account home.
Then click on your points balance.
Then it gets a little confusing. You’ll see a list of your transactions and also bonus points. Here is a look at the same transaction. See the bottom of the screen shot for the initial 110 points) and then the top part for the 989 bonus points.
You can see under the description that there is shorthand there: 135KMR_5KSpd_6Mon. We determined that this means:
- 135K Membership Rewards points
- $5K spend
- 6 months
Why 135K? That’s the total bonus points that can be earned at 10x. If you spend $15K at US supermarkets and US gas stations in the first 6 months, you’ll earn 150K total points. That breaks down as:
-
- 15K points earned at 1x (the ordinary rewards for those purchases)
- 135K bonus points (the other 9x)
Obviously the $5K spend must refer to the welcome offer, but I don’t know why that’s there as the 100K points from the welcome offer aren’t reflected / relevant. The key part i that the bonus points are there.
Bottom line
The extra points on US supermarket and US gas station spend are indeed posting with purchases on those who opened a new Platinum card under the current bonus offer. In fact, unlike the 1x points from the transaction, which aren’t awarded to your account until after you pay for those purchases, the other 9x bonus points post to your Membership Rewards balance right away (a few days after the qualifying transaction). Amex has set this up to display in the most confusing way possible, but the points are indeed there.
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Is there any way to export the membership rewards transactions to excel? I’d like to do a reconciliation but I don’t see an export function on the amex website
Not that I’m aware of
anyone know if Shipt or Instacart code for the 10X points? Also, do the points post right away? I cannot figure out what I am getting the 10X points for and what I am not as we purchase gas at our grocery store as well.
Instacart definitely codes for 10X (at least when ordering from a grocery store). I’d assume the same for Shipt, but I haven’t tried it.
do they post the 9x for every transaction separate our do they bunch them together somehow?
if its the latter, is there some method to the madness, that might help decipher this conundrum?
Could someone confirm or deny if Walmart Grocery (pick up orders from a regular Walmart) code as 10x?
Can confirm Walmart Grocery coded as 10X.
Can also confirm 10x for Walmart Grocery pickup. However… am bummed to discover that a recent Bevmo instacart did not code as grocery (when typically all instacart orders had coded as grocery on my gold card – including instacart from Costco) :/
Can I buy gift cards (store and restaurant GC) and still get the bonus if I purchase them at a qualifying grocery store?
Mine shows that way for only my purchases, my AU’s purchases are not and Amex is telling me I have to check back in 8-12 weeks from date of purchase to see if they have earned the bonus points.
So you live in Stamford, NY 🙂
Thanks Nick. This article also helped me understand why I wasn’t seeing the 3x referral bonus on my gold card. Its much easier to see on a computer vs my phone.
Did anyone receive the 10x grocery/gas purchases in writing in their agreement or welcome package? I can’t find it written down anywhere. I know it was on the offer I chose when I signed up. Also since my charges only posted two days ago all membership reward points are “pending” and not “earned”. Will the bonus not show on pending point transactions?
I was in the same boat. Couldn’t find it it anywhere. Initiated a chat session to confirm.
Was the chat to confirm the 10x earnings?
Yes. I just asked to confirm the terms of the sign up bonus and they looked up my account.
You just need to wait a couple of days. The bonus lags a couple days behind when the charges post. I think the Amex site says to give it 5 business days after charges post to see full rewards info.
I posted a SS of the T&C in the FB group (it was in reference if the AU cards earned the 9X bonus – yes).
I’m waiting for 10x points on tax payments. Can’t a guy dream?
Do visa/mc gift card purchases at grocery stores code as grocery and thus earn 10x during the first 6 months?
I would count on visa/mc gift card purchases to get clawed back. Amex has gotten pretty aggressive on clawing back on those type of purchases when meeting minimum spend / spending bonus requirements. It is possible (and I might even guess likely) that a purchase like that now and then would probably get by without an issue, but any sort of volume is likely to get clawed back.
Phew. I was getting worried. Thank you!
AMEX rep said that ordering groceries through Amazon for Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh aren’t eligible for the 9x bonus because Amazon is considered a third-party vendor (or something to that effect). Was he mistaken? (Given the pandemic, it seems that AMEX would be more amenable to online grocery delivery, especially now….)
I wouldn’t even bother asking a customer service rep that type of question. They are as likely of guessing correctly on that kind of thing as they are to guess what number I’m thinking of right now.
My bet is that they’ll earn the 10x. Someone here will hopefully be able to confirm.
My wife has ordered from Whole Foods via her Amazon Prime account several times in the past and the purchases didn’t code as grocery, just like @JohnCabot says.
This is what I was worried about. If this is the case, then AMEX is either really business savvy (i.e., they know that few people will make the trek to grocery stores) or willfully ignorant (i.e., there’s a pandemic and people have been relying more on online grocery delivery services).
(FWIW, I just went to the “Rewards” section of my AMEX online account and noticed a bonus for my trip to a brick & mortar Whole Foods but not my purchases through Amazon Fresh or Amazon Whole Foods.)
The Amazon/Whole Foods issue was probably a given, as Amex likely doesn’t receive additional level data from Amazon to be able to identify exactly where (and on what) a transaction has occurred. The situation becomes more complicated as third-party vendors like Instacart begin branching out and expand services from merchants, which provide a lot more than just groceries…so far Instacart has always coded “properly”, but will that continue to be the case? 🙁
I purchased from Whole Foods via Amazon last week and got the bonus points a few days later. Made two purchases this week, so will wait a few days to see if those work as well.
It looks like I got the bonus points for a purchase from Instacart. However I don’t think I got the bonus points for a purchase at Speedway when I used Apple Pay.
Bought delivered groceries for thanksgiving, 2 delivery orders, 1 from amazon fresh, 1 from from whole foods. They coded as Amazon Prime Now charges but I have the bonus offer points pending for both orders. The delivery tips were separate charges and don’t earn points.
My Amazon Fresh purchase last week got the 10x bonus. I saw it in my points summary about 5 days after the transaction. I was surprised, since back in early summer my Brilliant card and wife’s Gold card did not get grocery bonuses for Fresh purchases.
An update: I just looked at my AMEX rewards summary and it seems that I did get bonuses for my Amazon Fresh delivery. The unknown for me is whether Whole Foods deliveries (handled as Amazon) gets the bonus.
I found the 9 bonus points post 2 business days after the charge
Perfect for your “what crazy thing” segment. This is nuts!