Stung by the loss of its exclusive credit card deal with Costco (COST) and reports it will lose JetBlue (JBLU), American Express (AXP) is trying something completely different-- a points reward program.

The company is teaming up with seven major U.S. companies, including Macy’s (M), Exxon Mobil (XOM) and AT&T (T), to create a loyalty program where members will generate credits that can be redeemed at any of the participating firms. Called “Plenti,” it won’t require participants to use an AmEx card. The company will instead collect fees from the partner firms. It would be the first such program in the U.S., although American Express runs similar ones in Germany, Italy and Poland.

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Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task thinks this is a chance for American Express to reverse its fortunes.

“In the absence of a negative, it’s a positive story and we’ll see how they execute on this,” he says. “And I think you have to say, OK, they’ve had some setbacks and now they’re trying to come out with something that potentially could be a positive driver of earnings.”

However, Task believes AmEx could run into problems because of limited numbers of partners involved.

“Is it the right mix of stores for me, he asks.” “If I’m an AT&T user, that’s great. But if I have Sprint (S) or T-Mobile (TMUS), I’m not sure this really appeals to me.”

But he’s willing to give it some time.

“It’s a curiosity at this point,” he notes. “It will be interesting to see what initial response they get and if they expand this program to other merchants.”

Task expects other credit card companies to watch American Express before trying their hand at any loyalty points programs.

“American Express’s competition is going to look at this very carefully and if it’s successful, they will definitely follow suit,” he says. “And if American Express falls flat, they’ll say that was a dumb idea, I’m glad we didn’t do that.”

Plenti launches in the spring.