Simon Mall gift card ($500-1000) purchase is an important part of Manufactured Spending (MS) to obtain bonuses on multiple credit cards (https://awardcracker.com/new-changes-to-simon-mall-gift-cards/).
With a well executed plan, one can easily purchase $10,000 worth of Simon Mall gift cards every week which is enough to meet massive spending requirements for several business cards (e.g., 30K spending for Venture X Business) within a month. The easiest way to unload these gift cards requires a compatible Western Union Kiosk inside the big grocery store chains (https://awardcracker.com/churning-credit-cards-to-earn-points/).
You would think it is a well known fact by now that Amex credit cards should not be used to buy Simon Mall gift cards. However, I still come across friends and family members who tell me they bought Simon Mall gift cards with their Amex card and wondering why their bonus miles haven’t been posted yet!
Do Amex cards work when purchasing Simon Mall gift cards?
Yes! Amex will happily take their service fee from the purchase of the Simon Mall gift cards. You will have no problem completing the transaction and there won’t be any warning messages.
Can you get Amex Membership Rewards (MR) Points for the purchase of Simon Mall gift cards?
No! Amex changed its policy several years ago to exclude awarding MR points for Simon Mall gift card purchases. These purchases also DO NOT count towards the sign-on bonus spending requirement. I learned about this the hard way several years ago when I noticed that the bonus miles did not post even after spending 10K (SM gift cards) on my Amex Business Gold card.
Can you use Amex cards when you are shopping in Simon Malls?
Of course! You can use Amex credit cards to pay for your shopping purchases at Simon Malls and still get MR points. Just make sure to NOT use Amex cards either in the Simon Mall Office or on their website to buy gift cards.
Conclusion
I wanted to write a brief review about this issue with a clear heading, so people can easily find it when researching.