I think Amex's sales pitch to merchants probably revolved around their cardholders being particularly affluent or spendy customers, likely to spend more. In th

I think Amex's sales pitch to merchants probably revolved around their cardholders being particularly affluent or spendy customers, likely to spend more. In the past they owned a big chunk of the corporate credit card space, so a business catering to business travelers pretty much had to accept Amex.