A curious thing happened when I went to check my points accumulation with Cobalt … I hadn’t been awarded my category bonuses on my transit purchases.

I called into American Express and explained the situation to them and we found out that Calgary Transit was being coded to the City of Calgary’s main account and thus not attracting a category bonus.

Based on the fact that most cities own their transit systems, you may see the same thing on your Cobalt transactions.

The rep told me that she would credit me with 6 additional Membership Reward Select points, which is fine but not the reason I had called.

I asked her to rectify the cause of the issue rather than retroactively credit the points.  I was placed on a 5-minute hold and when she came back she advised that she spoke to a supervisor who was making the change in the system to update the merchant code so that it would award the 2x bonus for all future transactions.

So if you’re in Calgary … you’re welcome 🙂  If you are in the rest of Canada, watch your online statement closely to make sure you are correctly being credited.

Jayce is the founder of PointsNerd, and avid traveller and a teacher by nature. He prides himself on flattening the learning curve through step-by-step guides because everyone needs to start somewhere.

8 COMMENTS

      • Hey Atom,

        Yes, that’s correct. I wish that it would show up in the bonus category so you could do a tally at the end of the year to see how much you were able to leverage the bonuses.

        Jayce

  1. Thank you. Fellow Calgarian…. I’m still debating whether to get the Business Platinum or the Cobalt. $5000 in 3 months or $500 every month for 12 months….

    • Hi Robert,

      It’s a tough call and I guess it really depends on your spending patterns. I personally have both cards and use them for specific situations but I obviously had the AMEX Plat Biz first. I mean in terms of annual fee, the Cobalt makes more sense for more people and with the fact that the category bonuses are so much better and insurances are very similar, it’s pretty hard to say no to the Cobalt.

      Hope that helps.
      Cheers
      Jayce

  2. Hi Jayce

    I had the same issue with the RTM (Réseau de Transport Metropolitain) in Montreal. Same situation, I was awarded the 2X manually and the agent said he was going to fix the category. This month I’ll see if the category has been corrected.

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