I spend an evening at Berry Bros courtesy of American Express Platinum

When American Express relaunched its Platinum Card earlier this year, there was a page in the glossy brochure they sent out about the range of exciting free events they organise for cardmembers. 

This came as a huge surprise to me (who has had a Platinum card since 1998) and other Plats I spoke with, since we had never been invited to anything of consequence.

I was obviously not alone in having this view, since Amex has suddenly pulled its finger out.  It is laying on more events for cardmembers in the next 3 months than I have seen in the last decade.

The first one was three weeks ago, when about 100 of us visited the historic cellars of famous London wine merchant Berry Brothers in St James’s.  A very pleasant evening was had by all, starting with a champagne reception and moving on to canapes and a tasting of a selection of Berry’s own brand wines and a (very) soft sell for their monthly ‘cellar plan’ subscription scheme.

(The most interesting aspect of all, though, is that of the 100 other people present, I knew 4 of them from various Flyertalk events!  The appeal of Amex Platinum to the hard core flyer is strong.)

You need to jump on these events quickly if Amex emails you about them.  Places, especially for free events, will disappear within an hour or so of the emails going out.  Details of events for Platinum cardholders can be found at americanexpress.co.uk/platinum as well.  For clarity, I got my place by ringing up just like everybody else!

Remember that American Express still offers excellent sign-up bonuses for both its Platinum and Gold cards, and that both currently feature in my top bonuses list on the Credit Card Offers page of the site.

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