AmEx Teams Up with Renaissance on Gift Card Offer, Eliminates Monthly Inactivity Fees October 07, 2009
By William Ng
American Express and Renaissance Hotels & Resorts have teamed up to entice travelers for weekend stays at U.S. and Canadian Renaissance properties by offering them $50 gift cards. In the offer, which runs through Dec. 13, guests who pay for their stays with AmEx cards can select a $50 gift card from AmEx, kitchenware retailer Sur La Table, or west elm, the home goods chain.
Guests must book their stays by Nov. 22, and qualifying stays are those between Thursday and Sunday. They will get a voucher redeemable online within 30 days for a non-expiring $50 gift card, which will be delivered via mail in four to six weeks. Canadian guests will receive a $50 AmEx Travelers Cheque. More details about the offer are given at Renaissance’s gift card site.
In other AmEx gift card news, the company has eliminated its monthly fees with its cards, including prepaid debit cards. It announced it has stopped charging card owners $2 per month for inactive cards, even after the first year. The change applies to existing cards.
The move is seen as a consumer-friendly response to Congress’ and President Barack Obama’s passing of new credit card regulations earlier this year that force gift card suppliers to stop charging dormancy fees before a year of inactivity as well as ban card expiration dates for the first five years.
AmEx reportedly sells more than $1 billion of gift cards each year.
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