American Express typically holds newly earned Membership Rewards points in pending status until a few days after a statement closes and payment posts. While those points are pending you can’t actually spend or redeem them, so effectively they’re futures. If you want to see the balance of those futures, you can navigate to your rewards dashboard and it’s shown right side. You can get even more granular by clicking ‘Pending Points Details’ if that’s your bag.
What happens if you’re being a good churner though and always cashing out or burning, but then you need a new bucket full of Membership Rewards quickly? Sure, you can go manufacture 100,000 Membership Rewards with gift cards, but they won’t post until after your statement, payment, and a few days. Then what?
Like so much in this hobby, the solution is just to ask. You can either:
- Call the Membership Rewards team
- Chat with a customer service representative from the rewards dashboard
Once you’re talking to a person, something as simple as: “Can you please accelerate the posting of my Membership Rewards for time-sensitive redemption?” is all it takes. Remember, “never call the bank” is good advice when shenanigans ensue, but don’t let that advice trickle out everywhere.
Biker Roy takes a break to demonstrate the “Membership Rewards pending to available” maneuver from a perch, because reasons.