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Do badly chosen American Express promotions cheapen their brand?

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I accidentally started a mini-debate at Flyertalk yesterday when I criticised a new American Express promotional offer.

If I take a look at my American Express Platinum account online, two new cashback deals have appeared:

£20 cashback when you spend £100 at Premier Inn (expires 16 December, 5000 cardholders only)

£50 cashback when you spend £100 at Thistle or Guoman Hotels (expires 16 December, 10000 cardholders only)

These offers follow on from the classic:

£10 cashback when you make any transaction with Ryanair (expires 31 October)

Whilst I have these offers on my Platinum card, you may well find them showing under your BA or SPG Amex account.  The Thistle / Guoman deal would probably work on a large bar bill or a restaurant meal, depending on how it is processed by the hotel, and for one of their regional hotels represents a pretty decent deal.

The issue I raised at Flyertalk was this – ‘Is Amex diluting the Platinum card brand with offers like these?’

Or, looked at another way, is offering someone a discount at Premier Inn really a good way of convincing them that Amex understands their Platinum customers and that their £450 fee is well spent?

I booked two nights in an upmarket hotel yesterday using the American Express Platinum ‘Fine Hotels & Resorts’ programme.  That is the sort of benefit that I expect and appreciate from Platinum – it got me free breakfast and a guaranteed 4pm check-out, which I needed.

Let’s be clear.  I don’t have anything against Premier Inn (I stayed in one last year and was very positive about it) or Ryanair, who I flew many times when they used the airport nearest my parents in law.   I stayed in enough dingy B&B’s when I was younger to appreciate the revolution in low-cost lodging that Premier Inn, Travelodge, Holiday Inn Express etc have brought about.  I also grew up in an era when flying was too expensive for the average family, and I admire Ryanair’s part in changing that.

What I don’t understand is why American Express fails to understand how deals like this distort the Platinum brand.  You could argue that ‘the more the merrier’ – Amex should throw out as many deals as it can negotiate and if the majority are irrelevant to your lifestyle then so be it.  However, you can also argue that Amex should be presenting me with a carefully curated set of offers.

(Here is another way of looking at it.  If Ryanair or Premier Inn attempted to advertise in Vogue or GQ, they would be told to go away.  Publications like that understand that their advertisers help the set the tone for the whole package and need to be curated in the same way as the editorial.)

The irony, of course, is that – as a card company – Amex knows exactly where its Platinum cardholders shop and is better placed than any other luxury brand to serve up promotions which hit the spot perfectly.  But they don’t ….

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Comments (82)

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

  • avstar says:
    14 Oct14 October 06:08

    FIRST

    i see these type of offerings primarily as a promotion to the free AMEXs, which for inclusion AMEX has to offer to the premium ones. Can you imagine the reaction if the free BA AMEX was getting promotions that the £450-fee AMEX Platinum was not given access to?

  • Nick says:
    14 Oct14 October 06:19

    I have these offers available on both my Amex Platinum credit card and Amex Gold Rewards card.

  • Richard Brown says:
    14 Oct14 October 06:29

    Any Offer is good!. My Amex card got me to the front of the queue at Stansted when flying Ryanair (albeit with dirty looks from every other passenger) and Premier Inn has served the family well on a number of occasions, especially at Gatwick North, where it is bang opposite the terminal.

    • Polly says:
      14 Oct14 October 11:45

      Richard, we tried to fast track at STN also with our. Plat, but the lady controlling access never heard of this option, so we joined the 1000’s in the waiting shed, a heaving mass of people! How did you get that perk actioned please for all of us having no choice but to use FR to EU outposts! Much appreciated.

      • Andrew S says:
        14 Oct14 October 12:40

        I have never heard of this perk! Can someone please share a link?

        • Nick Burch says:
          14 Oct14 October 13:39

          It’s not an American Express Platinum thing per-se, it’s given by the Lounge which you’d be accessing at the far end using your Priority Pass card, See http://www.no1traveller.com/stansted-airport-lounges.htm – “Complimentary fast-track access through security”

        • Camille says:
          15 Oct15 October 01:06

          There IS a perk precisely like that…..I used it a couple of weeks ago when flying Ryanair out of STN on a Friday morning to the EU. I flashed my centurion issued priority pass to indicate would be visiting the lounge.

  • Johnny5a says:
    14 Oct14 October 06:33

    I’ve used my Platinum in Poundland and Iceland 🙂

    • Frenske says:
      14 Oct14 October 06:50

      Shame the Lidl does not accept it. Still work to do for AmEx. 🙂

      • Julian says:
        14 Oct14 October 13:47

        +1

        • mrtibbs1999 says:
          15 Oct15 October 18:11

          Given their magin is less than the Amex fee it’ll never happen!

          • squills says:
            15 Oct15 October 18:25

            Depends how big Lidl & or Aldi get! Combined mkt share closes in on 10% http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29406085

            But the growth has been – and is – phenomenal. If they got over 15% with 20% in sight within 10 years or so, they’d definitely be looking at including Amex, perhaps not on Amex’s current terms, of course 😉

            Do you think Amex charge Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons etc exactly the same fees after all the rebates etc?

            The bigger you are, the less you get charged per transaction.

  • Tom says:
    14 Oct14 October 06:38

    I have to say, the promotions this year have been pretty poor. I can’t recall really getting anything of value on my Plat..and these promos are the icing on the cake. I’d feel differently of any of them felt amazing.. like the free Melia nights of the past etc. but these feel distinctly average at distinctly average brands.

    Think it is time for the Plat to go…

  • squills says:
    14 Oct14 October 07:11

    The days when I used to think having a plat credit card somehow proved my status in the world are long gone 😉

    It’s just another credit card.

    • Volker says:
      14 Oct14 October 07:32

      Sorry for being curious: Would you use a Tesco CC to pay the deposit when ordering a Bentley? Or paying your hotel bill at the Waldorf Astoria in Edinburgh?

      I used to work in the retail business, and while I always had a close look at our customers’ cards (I learnt that Lords, Ladies etc. usually have cards issued by “exclusive” banks :-D), my colleagues would put all cards into the reader without even having a glance at them.

      (I also learnt that there are a lot of folk who collect Avios with their cards but never redeem them!)

      • squills says:
        14 Oct14 October 10:00

        The question might be: does plat make YOU feel special or do you hope it makes SOMEBODY ELSE think you’re special?

        Neither remotely interest me as far as credit cards go, though of course lounge access is nice! 😉

      • mrtibbs1999 says:
        15 Oct15 October 18:13

        I use whatever credit card I will get the most miles on to settle my bill at the Waldorf Astoria. Given my point collecting exploits and other shenanigans, I should really pay in pocket change as that’s how much the bill usually is!

    • Max says:
      14 Oct14 October 07:32

      Exactly so, they are all just credit cards.

      I have never really “got” what is so special about Amex Plat. After all you only require an income of £30k to qualify for one, so no big deal. To me this credit card does not justify a £450 annual fee and I dropped mine once the Cathay Gold promotion was binned.

      But saying that I am not averse to promotions some may consider low brow. Premier Inns are great options for some trips ( I often stay in them for road trip stop-overs in the UK when all I want is a bed and breakfast.

      You would have to pay me to get on a Ryanair flight- and even then I would most likely turn around at the boarding gate and choose to walk instead.

      So do such offers cheapen the brand? Not in my opinion, no. But then again, no credit card is ever going to make me feel special, that’s not what makes me tick. They are all bits of plastic and they all present me with bills at the end of the month. No one else knows whats cards I hold and no retail outlet is going to be bothered what card I present as long as they get their money!

  • Erico1875 says:
    14 Oct14 October 07:13

    someone doing 50 trips with BA is likely to have status and get lounge access thru BAEC
    .Someone doing 50 Ryanair trips a year is likely to extract more value from the Platinum card with the lounge access benefit.

  • Danny says:
    14 Oct14 October 07:18

    I love these deals… not all card holders are top end…. remember the days of spending endless hour’s activating 3v! The 15 off 40 at morrisons meant I had a single bottle of Laurent perrier rose delivered for 43 from 58….nice deal. I also used the Ryanair 10 pound deal and last week bought a 30 pound Next giftcard in WH SMITHS and got 10 back… its deals like this that are making me think that the upcoming gold card fee of 125 will easily be worth paying… just my 5 membership reward points worth!

    • Waribai says:
      14 Oct14 October 09:34

      Those days are still here! I pay £800 of nursery fees per month using 3V!

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