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(c) Elliott Publishing.

American Exclusive
Cheap Charlie · May 19, 1999

I'm one of those people that search for freebies or semi-freebies. Amazingly, one of the areas where I have found a treasure trove of benefits has been with credit card companies. They seem to give away the store when it comes to free add-ons. I often wonder how they do it.

In future columns I will detail the many freebies credit cards shower on their holders, but today, I'll focus on a glitch in one of the best known.

Some of my favorite programs are the frequent flier programs where one frequent-flier mile is added for every dollar spent. Of course, it seems that many credit cards offer such programs, but American Express is the granddaddy of these mileage programs and still operates one with a high visibility.

Today I discovered that there might be some discriminatory decision-making when it comes to whom the mileage programs go. I just got off the phone on behalf of a friend who recently moved here from Europe. I noticed that he used his American Express card for virtually everything.

One morning over breakfast I mentioned that he must be getting a heap of frequent-flier miles from the American Express Membership Rewards program. He responded, "What program?"

I explained the program to him and he decided to call American Express immediately. After speaking with a representative, he was informed that "he was not selected" for the program.

Not selected?

In this day and age of lawsuits seeking to eliminate an African-American section in a bookstore because it promotes discrimination, credit card companies are permitted to pick and choose whom they allow to belong to benefit programs based on some arbitrary criteria? I couldn't believe it.

Not selected!

I'm still steaming. Membership Rewards has been around for years. American Express advertises it nationally. I write about it regularly. I can't believe it has any selection requirements other than the payment of a membership fee.

Initially, I thought this friend had lost thousands of miles simply out of ignorance. OK, that happens all the time. But, now, directly from the mouths of American Express, I hear that he and his wife were "not selected." I always thought that this "selection" wording was utilized to make the masses feel special.

I, a normal person with a less-than-normal income, am regularly "selected, because I am a special cardholder," for dining cards, life insurance, home equity credit information, etc. But never have I been "non-selected" -- at least to my knowledge.

After several phone calls and discussions with customer service reps as well as their supervisors, my friend was told that they could not figure why my friend had been excluded from the program. They signed him up immediately.

He was also instructed to send a letter to the program for possible back credit to the Membership Miles Program.

We'll be waiting.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at cheapch@aol.com or access his Web site.