Except there is no way for merchants to prove themselves - they can do phone authorisations, take copies of driver licences, get signatures and more and they are still out at the end of the month. What's more, Amex will either withhold the money, or if a late chargeback debit it straight from other money Amex owes the mechant before even settling the situation. Merchants shouldn't be penalised because Amex doesn't have a sufficient authentication mechanism.
Visa (or your bank) manage to reconcile the situation first.
I've never had a fraudulent charge on my Amex. I'm talking about "disputes", like, "you wouldn't let me get on the next flight out after you canceled my previous flight out, so I bought a full-fare coach ticket to get the fuck out of town and then charged it back to you". That has worked for me with Amex, and so they have me for life.
I've screwed over an airline that didn't keep its promise to fly me somewhere on the date/time agreed on. And yet somehow I sleep just fine at night. Odd, isn't it?
I hate to be this guy but you violated a contract that you agreed to. If you weren't happy with their refund policy you shouldn't have bought their ticket.
Amex (and other CCs) walk a fine line. End customers are what makes things tick. To get more of them, they offer to side with them in any disputes.
If they abuse merchants enough, they won't accept CCs. But refusing Visa or Mastercard means turning away a lot of customers. Refusing Amex means turning away some. If merchants start turning away cards, the card is less useful. Amex is not a stand-alone card because it sometimes gets turned away. You need a real CC too. Merchants can average things out over time, so while the 1 in 100 dispute is unfair, stressful, rant-inducing stuff, it ultimately only costs around 1%. I assume this is less then what you lose from turning the card away. Since they are businesses, they are obliged to make more rational decisions. This makes them a better target for abuse.
Our office runs just fine on Amex. You might need a Visa if you're charging coffee in the morning to your business. Otherwise, this doesn't ring true to me.
Note that I get why you'd carry Visa/MC debit in your personal life. I just don't know why you'd work with the banks for your credit card.
How about restaurants, small retailers? I dunno. I guess it depends on where you are. If Amex is a stand alone card for you, pretend it isn't. I was just illustrating a point.
