Expired: “Official letters are going out” Hilton Aspire supermarket 12x points are delayed, and some are even being clawed back! (Including Delta/Marriott co-branded cards)

【Update 2020.9】Some people have already received an official explanation letter. It appears this is related to buying Visa gift cards or other prepaid cards. If AMEX is pulling level 3 data, then mixing in other items in the same transaction probably will not help much. That said, my guess is that AMEX only triggers a review once spending reaches a certain amount, so small purchases of Amazon gift cards or other third-party gift cards may still be safe. (Image from DOC)

 Eligible purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, balance transfers, cash advances, purchases of traveler’s checks, person-to-person payments, the purchase or reloading of prepaid cards, and purchases of other cash equivalents.

【Added】According to DOC, the pandemic-era grocery bonus points on Delta (4x) and Marriott (6x) cards may also now be subject to clawbacks.

Earlier, we covered the pandemic-related benefits on the AMEX Hilton Aspire card, and two of them were especially attractive.

• 12x at supermarkets: Valid only from May 1 to July 31. We estimate 12x points is worth roughly 5% back, and with no cap, that was pretty sweet (normally it is 6x).
• Points count toward lifetime Diamond: Hilton points earned through spending on this card from May 1 to December 31 can count toward lifetime Diamond. If you are truly loyal to Hilton, just holding this card pretty much gets the job done.

That is because 2,000,000 Hilton Base points plus 10 years of Hilton membership can get you lifetime Hilton Diamond status, the top elite tier. Specifically:

• 10 years as a Hilton Diamond member: These do not need to be consecutive, and the Aspire card makes this easy to achieve.
• 2,000,000 Hilton Base points: During the pandemic period, any Hilton points generated from credit card spending count. In other words, 2,000,000/12 = $166,000 in supermarket spending would get it done.

Of course, you may already have earned some Hilton Base points from hotel stays and other spending. So quite a few people wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and use supermarket MS to meet that 2,000,000-point requirement.

However, according to reports from M2M and its readers, for some people, the 12x points did not show up in their accounts on time after supermarket purchases. More recently, some points that had already posted were even clawed back.

• 300,000+ did not post but it has been less than a week
• 300,000+ points have not posted in over 30 days
• 150,000+ points have not posted in over 3 weeks

Some people found that points from supermarket purchases over $100 did not post, while other purchases appeared normally.

Today, July 4, I had points activity in my Hilton account for the first time since mid April. Although I can’t get the numbers to match exactly, AS OF NOW, it appears they deleted all grocery transactions with a spend above $100. Restaurant and gas posted correctly for my June statement.

This naturally makes people wonder whether AMEX has started reviewing these very large supermarket purchases.

Did you take part in this spend-your-way-to-Diamond opportunity? Did your points post normally? Feel free to share your DP in the comments.