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The Amex Platinum changes …. one year on

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16th July 2012 was the day when American Express made big changes to the benefits package attached to the American Express Platinum Card.

One year on, the Platinum card is in a strange position. Many, many, many people have made it clear via Head for Points, Flyertalk and other forums that they have chopped up their cards, with Amex generally making no attempt to keep them.

At the same time, due to hugely generous sign-up offers – such as the current 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – the Platinum card has never been more popular.

How many of these new members keep the card after triggering the sign-up bonus is debatable, of course, especially as Amex refunds your annual fee pro-rata when you cancel.

Let’s remind ourselves what changed a year ago:

The annual fee was raised from £300 to £450

The travel insurance, which used to be fully comprehensive in almost every respect, was been downgraded sharply. Travellers over 70 are no longer covered, which is a blow for people who used to give their parents supplementary cards for the free cover.

Many of the insurance benefits now require you to have paid for your flights and hotel with a qualifying American Express card (a ‘qualifying card’ is basically an Amex-issued Amex), unless the establishment does not accept Amex. This was especially annoying for people who have a ‘no FX fees’ credit card, since using an Amex effectively adds 2.99% to the cost of their travel.

Since July 2012, there have been two other dilutions of the Platinum card:

Hilton HHonors Gold was removed as a benefit, although this was only allowed as a one-year one-off in any event

Jumeirah Sirius announced that it is leaving Membership Rewards at the end of July 2013

Some new benefits were brought in, of course.

The main one, which was actually introduced quietly late in 2011, was one year of free Cathay Pacific Marco Polo Gold membership. This is very, very useful if you do not have British Airways status, since Cathay Pacific is a oneworld alliance member like BA.

Cathay Gold is equivalent to BA Silver, and gets you many of the same benefits when flying BA – most importantly, access to British Airways lounges for you and a guest whatever your class of travel. You also get free seating on BA, use of business class check-in and priority waitlisting. Just about the only benefit of BA Silver that you don’t get with a Cathay Gold is access to fast-track security lanes at Heathrow Terminal 5 and the extra baggage allowance.

This is not a permanent benefit, however. To date, most (not all) have had their Cathay Gold card renewed but you should not expect this to continue. The recent edition of Departures Magazine (the Amex Platinum magazine) said that the card would continue to be offered to new Amex Platinum cardholders until 31st March 2014.

The other improvement were:

1 free guest when using your Priority Pass to enter an airline lounge. This means that a family of 4 can now access Priority Pass lounges for free, assuming that one parent is the Amex Plat main cardholder and the 2nd parent is the supplementary cardholder, as both receive a Priority Pass.

The Platinum supplementary cardholder can also now apply for the hotel and car rental status benefits. These are Starwood Preferred Guest Gold, Club Carlson Gold, Hertz No 1 Club Gold and Avis Preferred

Le Club Accorhotels membership was introduced, at Platinum level. However, this status is easily obtainable via regular promotions run by Accor, with no Amex Platinum card needed.

There have also been a number of other interesting benefits over the last year, including:

A £70 voucher for fashion retailer Matches (no minimum spend required) from which I got an Orlebar Brown t-shirt!

A free night at a luxury Melia hotel (still available if you apply for the card today)

A free wine tasting at Berry Bros in Mayfair

A free ‘champagne and canapes’ party at MontBlanc on Bond Street, scheduled for November 2013

Did I keep my Amex Platinum card?

Yes, I did. However, my position is not the same as most. As a long-term Platinum, I get my British Airways Premium Plus American Express card for free, saving me £150 per year.

The net cost for me of the Platinum card is therefore only £300. I have also been quite impressed with the treatment of the two insurance claims I have submitted – see here for the story behind the last one I put in.

The real deal breaker for me, ironically, would be if MBNA was successful in its bid to take over the British Airways credit card contract! Without the £150 of ‘free’ BA Amex, I’m not sure that I could justify my Amex Plat anymore. My Mum also turned 70 this year, so she is no longer covered by the Amex travel insurance on her supplementary card on my account.

If you want to learn more about the American Express Platinum Card and the 30,000 Avios / 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus, my full Amex Platinum review is here.  The official Amex website page is here.

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Category

American Express Platinum card

Comments (101)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Fidelityutensils says:
    17 Jul17 July 07:32

    I’ve been (through ignorance clearly) breezing through Fast Track at T5 for the last year on the assumption that Cathay Gold entitled me to. Haven’t been turned away yet! They clearly don’t check Fast Track eligibility.

    • Alan says:
      17 Jul17 July 07:36

      Same here….shame it must be one of the worst fast tracks in the world.

    • Alan says:
      17 Jul17 July 08:56

      Ah – I was pretty sure that was the case (I get through as BA G) but hadn’t heard from someone that had done it yet. They never seem to check it properly. By comparison EDI check it very carefully, but they DO offer access to OW Sapphire, so CX G folk can legitimately use it anyway!

    • AusTraveller says:
      17 Jul17 July 10:35

      Actually you can use fast track at LHR T5 with CX Gold because all OW Sapphire and above holders are entitled to use fast track lanes at T5 when you depart (not the same rule for arriving flights though – for that you’ll need a fast track pass from BA).

      • Alan says:
        17 Jul17 July 11:33

        OK that makes sense – this is the same as at EDI. I’m still not at all convinced their system actually checks it though – after all the gates are now mainly automated and if you don’t have your CX Gold card linked to the booking it theoretically shouldn’t let you through! Half the time I find the tensabarriers are down the other side anyway so it makes zero difference!

    • Simon Bangs says:
      18 Jul18 July 13:26

      Same each time they look totally disinterested and let you straight through.

  • Alan says:
    17 Jul17 July 07:34

    You refer to the use of AMEX issued cards. In my experience a lot of the insurance clauses state that it is the Platinum card that needs to be used in order to claim (examples being on flights).

    This is particularly annoying as it would be more beneficial for me to use my BA AMEX.

    I may be wrong but I’m sure this is the case.

    • Rob says:
      17 Jul17 July 08:09

      No, that’s not actually right. It was stressed in the original covering letter with the new insurance, and if you read the terms it is clear how it works (if you’re a lawyer ….!). It says, for eg under Travel Inconvenience:

      1.6 TRAVEL INCONVENIENCE
      For the benefits under this section to apply travel tickets must have been Purchased in full using:
      i. the Card;
      ii. American Express Membership Rewards® points; or
      iii. Any travel rewards programmes provided the taxes and/or surcharges have been Purchased using the Card.

      Than you go to definitions:

      “Card” means any card or other Account access device issued to a Cardmember (or a Supplementary Cardmember) for the purpose of accessing the Account.
      and then you look up “Account”:
      ““Account” or “Card Account” means your consumer and small business cards issued by American Express in the UK, excluding corporate cards and any American Express Cards issued by bank partners.

      So any Amex-issued personal Amex is OK.

      • Mr Bridge says:
        17 Jul17 July 09:01

        Yep, right again,

        I did check with amex that my BAPP would still get me the insurance cover, which they confirmed.

    • Alan says:
      17 Jul17 July 08:57

      No, that’s not the case – the T&Cs are clear that an Amex-ISSUED card is sufficient. I’ve had successful claims based on that.

      Alan
      (the ‘original’ one :P)

  • Roger says:
    17 Jul17 July 08:06

    Gosh, a whole year since we got the glossy booklet telling us of the ‘enhancements’ without properly spelling out the devaluation of benefits. Oh, yes, and the 50% increase in annual fee.

    My dropdead date was 28 February and I have to say I have not missed the plat benefits. The next crunch time would be car hire rental, something I’ll take care of at the time.

    I have a packaged bank account with better insurance benefits and adequate Priority Pass access. No MR points, but who needs them when we’re getting 2x Avios/£ with our no-fee Diamond Club MC.

    I still have my BA PP AmEx at £0 which it seems I could retain if I take out the Gold card before February 2014. If MBNA are lucky, that won’t be necessary!

  • E14 says:
    17 Jul17 July 08:47

    The car rental status levels are from memory both now free

    • Alan says:
      17 Jul17 July 09:05

      Yes, certainly Avis Preferred seemed free and Hertz #1 Gold has now become Hertz Gold Plus rewards. They seem to have eliminated a tier in the process, with only 5* and President’s Circle – the 1st tier up used to be the one Amex gave you but that doesn’t seem there now (I managed to get 5* for free in a promo from them so still have that). The Amex CDP is good though, I tend to find it gives pretty good prices and with Plat you don’t need to worry about taking any add-on insurance (although of course you can buy standalone car hire insurance for around £35 or so a year).

      • The_Pope says:
        17 Jul17 July 10:42

        As a new / recent Platinum signee, I found this quite misleading. The Benefits page talks about “complimentary upgrade” for both Hertz and Avis but these are only available to Hertz Gold Five Star and Avis Preferred First members. The membership given to AMEX Platinum card holders is the entry level one, which is worth bugger all 🙁

        Hardly the car hire equivalent of SPG Gold, Cathay Gold etc. Very disappointed (though the CDP cover is useful)

        • Alan says:
          17 Jul17 July 11:30

          Yes – it seems that Hertz have changed their programme and Amex haven’t renegotiated things to keep pace. Effectively a devaluation of benefits.

      • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
        17 Jul17 July 10:43

        Avis Preferred has elite tiers now. Not sure what you get with Plat though.

        • The_Pope says:
          17 Jul17 July 11:12

          http://www.avis.co.uk/loyalty

          I registered via AMEX Platinum and got Avis Preferred (Tier 3). Anyone can get that for free, so really, this isn’t a “benefit”

          Given that on the Platinum website, under Partner Programs, it boasts of “free upgrades” I would have expected Avis Preferred First. When I find some time I’m going to call the Brighton call centre and see what they say.

  • Mr Bridge says:
    17 Jul17 July 09:02

    how do you use the cp gold cards to pick the seats on BA?

    • Rob says:
      17 Jul17 July 09:05

      Finnair, oddly, is the way. The Finnair website lets you bring up a BA booking using the booking reference and makes it easy to change the frequent flyer number attached. Wait a few minutes then go back to ba.com and pull up the booking, you will then be able to select seats.

      If it is a cash booking and you want the Avios in BA, you need to swap the number back after you’ve checked in.

      • Mr Bridge says:
        17 Jul17 July 09:12

        thank you

      • Mr Bridge says:
        17 Jul17 July 09:36

        doen’t seem to have worked ( is 5 minutes a few minutes).
        I got an email from finair confirming change in ff no, but cant select seats on BA ..for free..
        went back to finair, the ff number gone back to ba, and now the field is locked.

        is it because of the 241 voucher?

        • Mr Bridge says:
          17 Jul17 July 09:41

          or is it because the cp card expires before the date of the flights?

        • Rob says:
          17 Jul17 July 09:53

          I once read it can take 20 minutes – I never use this method myself but it is well established. I am sure someone else can chip in.

          Note that if the Cathay card expires before the flights, your seats will be released on the date the card expires anyway. This is what happens with BA if you lose status IIRC.

          • Alan says:
            17 Jul17 July 09:59

            I used it a couple of times previously (before getting BA G) – the number should certainly ‘stick’ in the booking if it has been put in the Finnair site. With it still showing the BA number when you went back to it this would suggest it didn’t change it properly in the first place. I’d suggest trying a different browser or clearing the cache and trying to go fresh into the booking again. It doesn’t matter that it’s a 2-4-1 booking. I found the change was normally through within 5-10 min. If ultimately no luck then try calling BA and asking them to do it – if you get a good agent then they seem to be able to sort things by wiping all FF numbers then starting again. You’ve got OW Sapphire so you’re fully entitled to free seat selection 🙂

          • Mr Bridge says:
            17 Jul17 July 10:04

            thanks, will wait until i get the new cp card, if it releases the seats anyway.

        • andy21 says:
          17 Jul17 July 17:44

          You can just call BA Exec club – they are very helpful and happy to apply two numbers to your booking – one to allocated seats and one to earn miles.

  • Alan says:
    17 Jul17 July 09:08

    I preferred the free Starwood night we got last year, but will be making use of the Melia one this year. I’ve had some good FHR stays and also had some good benefit out of CC Gold status. The insurance changes are very annoying, but I’m now considering an ICC dollar card to sort out that bit for another year. I’m getting fed-up of the London-centric nature of most of their little extras though, as can be seen from your list above!

  • takke says:
    17 Jul17 July 09:20

    I also got sent a 40,000 MR targeted offer for signing up.

  • Raffles says:
    17 Jul17 July 09:33

    Thanks. Yes, this must be a new card, haven’t seen it before.

    Amazon MasterCard is better, paying 1 per cent, but you only get paid in Amazon vouchers.

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