An Amex Story

Last Thursday, Steven and I received three envelopes from Amex with only our address in the windown, no name.  On the front was prominently displayed a note, “A gift especially for you.  Do not discard.”  hmm, so what’s your first reaction?  We usually just tear up third class mail.  But, then I noticed all three were individually franked with first class postage.  So shrugging, I opened one of the letters and found a $100 gift card.  Didn’t say who from or why, just the card “presented to recipient” and a cardholder agreement.  hmm. The two other letters included the same.  

I still didn’t believe this, thinking it was some novel way to get us activated as Amex cardholders which we are not.  But, I did call the number to activate one of the cards.  Then, I called the number to confirm the available balance.  yep, $100.  I started really liking this and thought, wow, is this simply a marketing initiative and did our postman accidently deliver our neighbors cards to us?.  Nope, all three addressed to our home.  This was great since we were leaving for NY on Friday.  

I know most of my friends don’t believe me when I say we’re being more fiscally conservative this year, but we are.  Found airline tickets for less than $200.  Found a very nice hotel room for $260 (gotta love today’s prices), and when a friend offered a room in his apartment, we opted for it instead.  And, wow, free $300.

While we were in route to NY on Friday, I mentioned our manna to Steven.  He smiled and I could tell he knew something.  Finally, he admitted they were replacement cards for some given to him as a gift.  He was such a sweetheart; he told me to keep ’em.  I think they covered all of our expenses except for the Valentine’s dinner and Friday night’s show.

Anyhow, it was nice imagining the windfall while it lasted 🙂