Gold 2x points – easyJet holidays / other package holidays

[chungcyk]

Recently booked a package holiday from easyJet and the charge came as ‘easyJet holidays Limite Luton’. Noticed the double points hasn’t been awarded so went to Amex chat and been told ‘Trust me that merchant is a travel agent’ and that I should check with easyJet whether they are an airline or an agent in a weirdly condescending tone…

I suppose on one hand they are a travel agent because it’s a package holiday but the Amex Gold website does say that ‘directly with airlines over the phone or online via their official website or affiliated mobile apps (only transactions made directly with the airline will be included for bonus Membership Rewards points, including but not limited to flights, car hire, package holidays and insurance.’ So I’d say my transaction should qualify.

Anyone had similar issue and got it resolved? I wonder if the same applies to say BA Holidays?

(Not a huge amount of points so wasn’t going to try too hard, though if I’m right and it helps others that I get them to ‘greenlist’ then I’d go back!)

[baec_newbie]

I imagine Amex are purely applying this on the basis of the MCC for the transaction. If it’s Airlines then you get the 2x points. If it’s anything else, you don’t.

Obviously, quite how the consumer is supposed to pre-empt the MCC (something which is effectively agreed between Amex and the merchant), I don’t know. I’d certainly push back on this one, particularly given the wording referring to package holidays, and raise a complaint if necessary.

Hopefully that might produce a change of attitude for your case – although I’d be surprised to see Amex change their attitude more generally.

[chungcyk]

Just wanted to provide an update – went back on Chat and explained the situation, seems like this time I got more lucky with a more helpful colleague, and bonus points were added manually.

I had asked them to whitelist ‘Easyjet Holidays’, which they said they would pass it back as feedback and added a note on the ticket… Due to pay off the package balance in a couple of months so will see if anything changes!