Actually, you’re referring to the Membership Rewards program, which is Amex’s proprietary program. The original post was referring to airline and hotel points offered via an Amex card, such as the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express.

I carry the Starwood Amex, and I can assure you that my points have always transferred into the SPG account the day after the billing cycle closed, without regard for my actual payment of the bill. It happened again this month. Bill closed on the 18th, and the points hit my account on the 19th. (Incredible, actually.)

So it IS a change to Amex policy for points in external programs like Delta SkyMiles, Hilton HHonors, or SPG.

What I didn’t realize was that Amex’s in-house Membership Rewards already had the no-pay, no-points policy, and that they’re now aligning their cards that link to the external programs with that same schedule. Thanks for pointing that out.

This isn’t a change to AMEX policy at all. Points never hit your account until you’ve paid for the charges, not when the charges occur. If the charges are paid for late — you have to pay the $29 fee to restore them (but, you can usually get *all* late charges restored, just ask nicely).

Also, AMEX will let you “borrow” points to buy something now and “pay” for it later (points you accrue will deduct from the borrowed points). They let you borrow points based on your purchasing history. It can be very handy.

What I’d really like to see is for American Airlines to get off their high horse and join the Membership Rewards partner program so that I can spend my points on AA….

I realize it’d be pretty crowded. But those numbers are impressive.