AMEX has been poorly managed for years.
When you charge higher merchant fees and are able to collect data without a middle-man present, your rewards should be higher than issuers that charge lower fees and cannot reasonably collect the same kind of data.
Instead, other issuers have come out with cards that have punched AMEX in the face while AMEX sits there like clowns at a funeral.
Let's see, the Citi Prestige comes out with travel insurance, 4th night free on hotels unlimited times per year, 2x the points on dining and entertainment, 3x on travel, with special perks for using your points towards AA flight redemptions (1.66 cpp), Admiral's Club access for free, and 3 free rounds of golf anywhere in the world. Of course this card is nerfed now, but is still arguably just as good or better than AMEX's premium offering.
Then, the Chase Sapphire Reserve comes out, and the best AMEX can do is add ridiculous drip-fed UBER credits, make the card metal to match the Reserve, add 5x on airline and hotel purchases, but nothing on any other spending category, and raise their Platinum's annual fee to $550 a year, $100 a year higher than the Reserve that was severely threatening AMEX in the first place.
Next - Cobrands: AMEX seems to be having an issue paying out the 70,000 Delta bonus according to people on Flyertalk (including myself). There's no date in sight as to when this simple issue will be fixed, but it's coming... Over four months after reaching the required spend.
Next - Transfer partners: A TAX to transfer points to airline partners? Really? Chase and Citi don't do this.
Finally - Cash back cards: Only able to redeem $25 at a time, and can only redeem after an additional statement posts.
My experience since the beginning of 2018? AMEX doesn't know what it's doing, except with their Hilton cards.
