American Express Class Action Says Customers Owed Hotel Loyalty Points

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An Illinois man is suing to get the hotel loyalty points he was promised in conjunction with his application for an American Express credit card.

Plaintiff William Heilmann claims he and many others applied for a credit card offered by defendant American Express Bank FSB in reliance of an offer of loyalty points good for discounts at hotels run by defendants Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide LLC.

Heilmann says he and proposed Class Members have made the requisite amount of purchases on their American Express credit card but have yet to receive their loyalty points, known as SPG Starpoints. His American Express class action lawsuit raises claims against American Express and Starwood for violations of Illinois common law and consumer protection law.

Heilmann also names as a defendant Preferred Guest Inc., a Starwood subsidiary that runs the SPG loyalty program.

Under terms of the American Express Starpoints offer, qualifying applicants receive a Starwood Preferred Guest-branded American Express credit card. These cardholders can then earn 25,000 SPG Starpoints if they make $3,000 in purchases within the first three months after they receive the card. Spending a total of $2,000 within the first six months should earn them an additional 10,000 points, for a total of 35,000 SPG Starpoints.

A photo included with this American Express class action lawsuit shows a snippet of an American Express promotional ad that lays out the basic terms of the SPG Starpoints offer.

Heilmann says he applied for and was issued an SPG American Express card in April 2017, in hopes of earning the offered 35,000 Starpoints. Within a few days, he made $3,000 in purchases that should have qualified him for 25,000 Starpoints. By a few days after that, he had made the total $5,000 in purchases that should have earned him 35,000 Starpoints.

But American Express did not then credit him with the Starpoints he earned, Heilmann claims, and to this day he still has not received them.

The plaintiff is apparently not alone in this experience. He refers to an online article by a travel writer who says he too did not receive his SPG Starpoints when expected, even after several months. The author of that article says that upon contacting American Express, he was told that a number of accounts were affected by a technical glitch.

Heilmann plans to represent a plaintiff Class that would include all holders of an American Express SPG-branded credit card who qualified for SPG Starpoints but did not receive those points within the stated time or did not receive them at all.

He seeks an award of actual damages, punitive damages, court costs and attorney fees, plus injunctive and declaratory relief as appropriate.

Heilmann is represented by attorney William M. Sweetnam of Sweetnam LLC.

The American Express SPG Starpoints Class Action Lawsuit is Heilmann v. American Express Bank FSB, et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-06942, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.