According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), American Express is rolling out significant changes to its Membership Rewards program. Among the changes announced are:

• Elimination of double points for spending on “everyday purchases” at gas stations, grocery stores and drugstores for the Green, Gold and Platinum charge cards
• A new double points program to encourage online spending at certain merchants
• Limiting the Membership Rewards Options program to holders of its credit cards. Cardholders on the Options program will be switched to the basic Membership Rewards program, which may raise their annual fee.

The report indicates that American Express will start notifying customers of these changes, as well as others, in their August bills.

On the whole this is clearly a disappointing development, as there is almost no good news in the announced changes.