Have you been blocked from making American Express referrals?

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• ben says:

  5 Jan5 January 08:24

  * I want to say to everyone who finds that they can refer, that you should copy your referal link to a safe place and keep it there, because even if you are blocked from refering on the website – that is only to generate your referal link, but once you have the link it works even after they say on the website that you can not refer, so copy your referal link

  • Rim says:

    5 Jan5 January 09:43

    I did it mid December, points posted after a few days – even I cannot generate the link now..

  • Olly says:

    5 Jan5 January 12:28

    Good tip

• C says:

  5 Jan5 January 08:29

  The option to refer on my free BA card disappeared for about a month and I got the above message about being temporarily unable to refer. It came back despite no spending and nothing changing on the card or my credit file. I have since referred someone successfully.

• Alex Sm says:

  5 Jan5 January 08:39

  These “ghost” referrals are similar to hotel mattress runs when naughty customers incur costs to business, pocket the perks but do not bring long-term value or additional revenue

  • Rob says:

    5 Jan5 January 08:44

    Er, no. If I book a limited service (which it would be, due to cost) hotel, check in and then leave, the hotel has got 90% of the cash they would get from the average guest. The lack of a bit of bar spend is offset by no free breakfast and reduced / no sheet and towel cleaning, depending on how much you mess up the room.

    You’re basically saying that if I buy a box of Shreddies to get a 241 voucher for Alton Towers and bin the Shreddies that somehow Nestle would be annoyed.

    A more actual equivalent would be if your local bar offered a free beer so you turned up, had your free beer and then left again – which is uncharitable but you are in your rights to do so.

  • Harry T says:

    5 Jan5 January 08:45

    Mattress runs provide money to the hotel and they often don’t even need to provide housekeeping.

    • DaveJ says:

      5 Jan5 January 09:06

      Agreed. I wouldn’t do it because like most people who have a job I have limited free time so would rather do something else with it. Each to their own though.

      • Rob says:

        5 Jan5 January 09:55

        If you drove past a Holiday Inn Express every day, it was £40 per night occasionally and you were a couple of nights short of a suite upgrade voucher or a status upgrade, you probably would do it though.

        • Alex Sm says:

          5 Jan5 January 10:09

          It is still gaming the system for getting a benefit but not using the service as intended. Anyway – it’s down to individual’s ethical and environmental principles vs financial benefit.

          PS I still have Amex referrals available on both of my cards despite referring people in the past. You just need to pick wisely 🙂

        • DaveJ says:

          5 Jan5 January 14:04

          Probably not. Not as if a suite at a Holiday Inn Express or status are worth getting excited about.

        • Rob says:

          5 Jan5 January 16:05

          You don’t use the suite upgrade voucher at a HIX, you use it a top resort or city hotel (for 5 nights).

      • Harry T says:

        5 Jan5 January 10:53

        I have limited free time and I think it’s quite silly to suggest that it’s a massive time sink to check into a hotel down the road. Check in takes five mins, making the room look used takes another five. If you’re driving 30 mins or more to check in for a mattress run, then maybe that’s a consideration.

        • DaveJ says:

          5 Jan5 January 16:17

          “You don’t use the suite upgrade voucher at a HIX, you use it a top resort or city hotel (for 5 nights).”

          Fair enough. It’s probably not really relevant for me though as I’m not loyal to one brand and stay at the hotel that suits me most in the city I’m visiting.

  • John says:

    5 Jan5 January 09:56

    By this logic 99% of my hotel stays are “naughty mattress runs”.

    The number of hotels which I have stayed at more than once is a single digit, and the number of hotels where I have spent any money beyond the room rate is less that that.

    • Aston100 says:

      5 Jan5 January 11:06

      I thought that was odd at first, but then when I thought about my own hotel stays, I realise this applies to me too.
      In fact, it may be as little as half a dozen in my case.
      Quite surprised actually.

      • meta says:

        5 Jan5 January 11:37

        @AlexSm but you did use the service. You went i to a hotel room and used it for X amount of time. Hotels are not prisons. There is nowhere in the contract with the hotel or law says you have to stay in the room from check-in to check-out time, so you can’t claim that it’s usage against intended purpose.

  • Robm says:

    5 Jan5 January 23:28

    @alexsm – “You just need to pick wisely“ – how do you mean? There isn’t consensus here or any facts which would lead someone to believe this is all about picking wisely? It is actually the opposite where people seem to have picked wisely, or not referred at all, and still been blocked for an unknown reason. There is no consensus or known facts as to why the blocking is happening. Just guess work.

• TGLoyalty says:

  5 Jan5 January 08:51

  I think it’s an IT issue

  Know of 3 people who have NEVER referred who are “blocked” from referring from a platinum or gold card shortly after the increased MR sign up bonuses ended.

  My own experience was Platinum stopped after the bonus ended, then gold then Marriott but my BAPP is fine.

• Kathy M says:

  5 Jan5 January 08:59

  I now do not have referrals, or extra card on my offers at all. Don’t know when it disappeared. Have never used either so its not through misuse. It looks as if AMEX have just withdrawn this option.

  • Bagoly says:

    5 Jan5 January 09:09

    The “never used” may be a reason!
    They could reasonably expect you to refer people who would also never use, and therefore not bring them income!

    • Peter K says:

      5 Jan5 January 11:22

      I assumed she meant she had never used the referrals or extra card options, not that she had never used the card.

• Mark says:

  5 Jan5 January 10:07

  Not checked mine, not overly bothered as not promoted many referrals. I noticed the comments above about advertising, the cost and referrals and how cheap they actually are.

  Royal Caribbean have employed a similar (price error) tactic in the past. Rather than spending hundreds of thousands on social media advertising. When releasing a new seasons cruises they price a certain cabin type at a ridiculous price. I managed to grab 4 cabins for 14 nights around the Mediterranean in the summer holidays 2022 when they were release in late 2020 for £911 pp. As soon as these “pricing errors” are found social media goes absolutely mad! I’d love to see the metrics for the Royal Caribbean website at these times. It must save them a fortune in advertising

  • Aston100 says:

    5 Jan5 January 11:10

    I’ve never really looked at cruise prices due to Mrs Aston having an irrational fear of a Zombie outbreak onboard.

    What would the prices for that cruise typically look like?

    • Mike Hunt says:

      5 Jan5 January 15:51

      Would you be looking for the price for a cabin for one – or would Mrs Aston brave the Zombie risk if the price is right

• Paul says:

  5 Jan5 January 10:13

  I have also been ‘blocked’ from referring

• RussellH says:

  5 Jan5 January 10:43

  I have not referred anyone for years – everyone I know either has an Amex and does not want another, or they have no interest. In practice any referrals have only between myself and my partner, or vv.
  TBH, I have not even thought about referring anyone for some time – so I looked to see if I was blocked.
  Could not see a link anywhere, though I am sure that there used to be one on the home page and there have been links in the offers too.
  Searched the site and found a link, and discovered that my a/c is blocked too.

  I am with the IT cock-up theory, though, by the standards of some on this site, I am not a heavy spender – my idea of a heavy spend, though would be over £600 / mth on a regular basis. I really have no idea of how anyone using their card for just personal expenditure and without around 13 children could spend the huge amounts some say they spend.

  • dst87 says:

    5 Jan5 January 10:49

    It won’t be too long before I’m putting £600 / month just to Octopus Energy!

    That’s a joke…… I hope!

    • Aston100 says:

      5 Jan5 January 11:12

      During that recent cold snap, my smart meter told me I was doing about £15 per day.
      Peak was about £16.37.

      And this is with me adjusting the radiator thermostatic valves a number of times daily.

      Ridiculous.

      • dst87 says:

        5 Jan5 January 11:16

        Yeah, it’s horrific really. It’s no wonder some folks are just sitting under blankets shivering in their homes. Really sad state.

        I just checked by usage and it looks like I was £190 gas in December and about £220 electricity. As you say… ridiculous!!

      • strickers says:

        5 Jan5 January 11:38

        Absolutely ridiculous I agree, it’s easy to follow the moral argument when you can afford the extra cost, heartbreaking at best for those that can’t.

        I put solar panels in just over a year ago with an expected return of investment of 5 years, likely to be 3 now. Batteries just over six months ago which is allowing me to load shift to a cheaper rate overnight. There’s just me and the ‘Boss’ in a 4-bed semi now so I put remote valves on most of the radiators, even heating just the rooms we were using cost £12 at the peak a week or so ago. It’s leading to a tiny bit of condensation mould in the bedrooms we aren’t using, something to tidy up in the spring.

      • Froggee says:

        5 Jan5 January 11:47

        The big users probably won’t have smart meters by definition. We couldn’t get a gas smart meter as our supply size is too big or something like that. So instead they came and fitted an “Automated Meter Reading” device (AMR) which doesn’t even appear to send correct reads as far as I can tell.

        Our gas consumption isn’t even that bad. I had a look at a couple of properties for sale in Edinburgh where the home report was estimating 80,000+ kWh of gas consumption for annual heating. We’ve got ours down to 30,000 or so from 45,000 through a bit of shutting off rooms that we rarely use and putting smart TRVs on these radiators so I can switch them on if needed from my phone/iPad as well as turning down the thermostats a tad.

        And our home is pretty much as well insulated as we could manage – it’s stone built detached Victorian in a dreaded conservation area. Welcome to the city of Edinburgh where you need planning permission to tear out hideous and knackered 1970s upvc double glazing and replace it with double glazed sash and case windows. Solar panels are but a pipe dream here.

    • RussellH says:

      5 Jan5 January 11:43

      Just paid Octopus £256 for December. As the days get longer, we should start to get more input from our solar panels (which did partly go on Amex, but that is not day-to-day expenditure) I hope to see that dropping somewhat.

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