Amex has updated its Membership Rewards terms so new cards get separate rewards accounts that you can link manually. It's minor if you pay attention, but the motive is unclear.
Sneaky, sneaky. They want you to lose what you accumulate on one product, when you forget to transfer before closing a card. (And, if not that, rest assured, the Amex RAT always gets fed... 'HISS!! ...nom-nom-nom-nom.')
There could be some value to some people in keeping rewards earned on business cards separate from personal
Aside from the business owners that may definitely need to keep personal and business MR cards separate (i.e. tax implications), I guess you can convince me that Amex will eventually require someone to have a Platinum/Centurion (or maybe a Gold) to transfer to Delta 1:1 or maybe also Hilton 1:2 and Marriott 1:1 as now. And then you wouldn't be able to do that with legacy Green or BBP or legacy ED/EDP.
Otherwise, I really don't see where Amex can really incentive holding a premium card to unlock better ratios for transfer partners- most people outside these websites/forums probably don't care that much about redeeming through Aeroplan or Flying Blue or Avios (and IMHO they likely aren't). But they do recognize Delta and Hilton and Marriott (not the most valuable by any means, but "familiar" brands that are pretty easy to earn/redeem with).
Hence why Citi makes you hold at least a $95 premium card to get 1:1 AA transfers and Chase likewise with UA and WN- they are the most popular/obvious reason that most cardholders interested in travel rewards would ever apply for Citi or Chase credit cards.
How are there tax implications of pooling personal and business miles/points for a single member LLC (S-Corp or Sole Proprietor/disregarded entity)? I understand that cards are ideally kept completely separate for spending and payments of balances, but credit card rewards are not taxed and valued at zero.
I have speculated before that everyday spending type cards (personal and business) will ultimately be cash-back only. And, travel & dining cards will earn MRs. Only travel & dining cards will transfer to loyalty programs. Cash back points can be deposited into a transferable points bucket but not the other way. Somewhat like Capital One.
We're only halfway through October.
On October 1, we lost the Lufthansa benefit. Yesterday, we heard about the possibility of FHR bookings requiring a two-night minimum stay. And today, we're hearing about yet another way Amex is finding to short changing its customers.
At some point, you have to ask the question : How many more benefits can Amex chip away at before customers start questioning whether the card is worth keeping?
Amex ought to allow household members to transfer points among themselves.
This is definitely the first step to devaluing transfer ratios for some lower AF cards. The question around "will Amex and Bilt pull a Chase and reduce transfer ratios to a valuable partner unless you have a super premium card?" has been a moot point for now given the Amex and Bilt pool points from all sources. Bilt is not a bank, and its program rewards earning come from more sources than Amex, so I doubt we'll see transfer ratios there depend on holding a particular card. But I assume Bilt will require higher level status (like with current Rent Day transfer bonuses) to maintain some existing 1:1 transfers.
So unless I’m missing something as what’s been reported…..who cares and no big deal….just make sure accounts are linked.
Reasonable enough and sounds like how one needs to manually pool the Chase points.