A couple weeks ago, I posted about an important mistake on the application landing page for the American Express Blue card. The application page stated that Membership Rewards points earned on the Blue card could be transferred to American Express’s airline and hotel partners:
Unfortunately, that’s simply not true: Membership Rewards points held in a Blue card account cannot be transferred to frequent flyer programs or hotel loyalty programs.
I placed a call to customer service and was told that the mistake would be corrected, and I’m happy to report that it has:
I’m glad to see that American Express has corrected its landing page, but even in the absence of incorrect or misleading copy, the practice of creating two classes of “Membership Rewards” points really irks me. Chase does the same thing with its “Ultimate Rewards” points: Ultimate Rewards points in a Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, or Ink Plus account can be transferred to Chase’s transfer partners, but Ultimate Rewards points held in a Sapphire (non-Preferred) account cannot. And since transferring points to an airline and hotel loyalty program is often the most lucrative method of redemption, the lack of transferability makes these second-class points much less valuable.
Creating two classes of points that go by the same name is extremely confusing. Need proof? American Express confused itself on the Blue card’s application landing page (and a credit card application landing page is a really bad place to provide inaccurate information!).
Unfortunately, notwithstanding the great weight of this blog,* I don’t expect that American Express or Chase will put an end to the practice any time soon. So just keep in mind that Membership Rewards points are non-transferable if they are held in a Blue card account, and Ultimate Rewards points are non-transferable if held in a Sapphire (non-Preferred) account!
*Yes I’m kidding.