News in brief:
“American Express Platinum House” coming to London
American Express has announced plans for “Platinum House”, a four day series of events in London next month.
According to Amex:
American Express Platinum House is coming to London. Platinum Cardmembers and their guests are invited to experience the best of Platinum during a four-day pop-up event at the Old Central St. Martins Building. Stop by Platinum House and enjoy complimentary food & beverages, live music performances, morning workout classes, beauty services and more.
There is a website up and running – click here – but it is pretty bare so far.
It will run at pretty odd hours:
- Thursday 13th September – 9pm to 1am
- Friday 14th September – 9am to 1pm, 9pm to 1am
- Saturday 15th September – 9am to 1pm
- Sunday 16th September – 9am to 1pm
However, we also know that upmarket fitness group Equinox will be running classes there. Here is the schedule:
- Friday 14th at 9.30am – Pilates Power with Michelle
- Friday 14th at 11.30am – Vinyasa Yoga with Holly
- Saturday 15th at 9.30am – Barre Burn with Michelle
- Saturday 15th at 11.30am – Power Yoga with Caroline
- Sunday 16th at 9.30 am – Detox & Unwind Yoga & Meditation with Caleb
- Sunday 16th at 11.30am – Rebalance & Reflect, Yoga & Meditation with Caleb
Classes can be prebooked via Eventbrite here. Amex is not yet circulating this link so there is good availability. Classes are free.
I will keep you updated if I can find out more.
Priority Pass guest fee going up sharply
Lounge access card Priority Pass has emailed members who hold a card directly with them – ie not via American Express Platinum or a similar deal – to inform them that the lounge visit fee is going up to £20 on 18th September.
The current fee is £15. The £20 fee applies to either yourself (if you have a basic Priority Pass card with no free access) or to any guests you bring (if you have unlimited free access for yourself).
It is not clear yet if holders of Priority Pass and Lounge Club cards issued via American Express and other financial groups will see a similar hike. I would be very surprised if they did not increase the fee.
Whilst Priority Pass is implying that the blame is down to lounges demanding more money, I get a feeling that this is actually demand management. More and more people now have a Priority Pass – issuance has gone crazy in the US with virtually every premium credit card now offering it – but the number of lounges is not expanding as quickly. Putting up prices may also persuade airports to give over more space to new lounges.
Full details of the changes are on the Priority Pass website here.
If you had been thinking of getting a Priority Pass, today might be a good day to lock in a version with a number of free visits. Via this link you can save up to 25% on the standard fee, which means:
£51 for the Standard card – don’t get this, as you’ll be paying £20 per visit on top
£127 for the Standard Plus card – this comes with 10 free visits
£233 for the Prestige card – this comes with unlimited free visits
Alternatively, get an American Express Platinum charge card. This is substantially better than buying a Prestige card, as the Amex version is even better – you get TWO Priority Pass cards and each lets the holder bring a free guest. This means that it gets a family of four into a lounge. Whilst Amex Platinum has a £450 annual fee, you get 30,000 Memership Rewards points for signing up (= 30,000 Avios) and a huge range of other benefits too. My full review of American Express Platinum is here.
PS. There should be some upside here. If you visit a Priority Pass restaurant, eg The Grain Store in Gatwick South, the free food and drink should (in theory) increase from £15 to £20 per person! Will it happen? Let’s see ….
(Want to earn more miles and points from credit cards? Click here to visit our dedicated airline and hotel travel credit cards page or use the ‘Credit Cards Update’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)
About Head for Points
Quick question on Gold Charge to Platinum upgrade if anyone can help. If I have offers saved to my Gold card (such as the Hilton one), if I upgrade will they still be saved to my account or do I loose them ?
When I downgraded from BAPP to the free blue card the offers transferred across after a few days.
They will still be saved…although you may see them disappear from the website and app for a day or two whilst they change the associated card number
thanks both, appreciated
OT – I know that you can add an existing BA avios flight to a 241 if the return flight was not available at time of booking. However, can you do that at any time. For example if I do not yet have the 241 but have sufficient points to book two return flights. Can I get a rebate of points if I add the 241 later and if so is there a fee?
241 needs to be added at initial time of booking. You could of course cancel the whole reservation and hope the flights go back into reward inventory so you can then use your 241.
Thanks – I thought that might be the case but thought it was worth checking. Better just spend more quickly on my BAPP!
If you get a second (and third, fourth, fifth etc.) supplementary Plat Amex card for £170 – do those supplementary card holders also get the travel insurance benefits and a priority pass?
Yes. Have done this for my parents so they could bring their friends into the lounge whilst travelling. I worked out the £170 was going to be the cost of the additional guest access anyway for their friends given the various flights they were taking on one of their trips.
Can a platinum card still refer other Amex cards like the BA one?
Yes
does anybody know if the 5 referral limit on platinum is a calendar year or a membership year please?
Calendar year.
New Priority Pass restaurant credit at HEL airport launched this week. Along with two lounge options, this is a pretty good offer in a relatively small airport. Note that I haven’t used the restaurant so cannot vouch for it, but both lounges are decent.
Try the Black Friday link below to save even more. For some reason it still works.
£41 for the Standard card
£119 for the Standard Plus – this comes with 10 free visits
£194 for the Prestige card – this comes with unlimited free visits
https://www.prioritypass.com/en/campaigns/ldn/blackfriday
The American Express “Platinum House” event in Lpndon has now been cancelled.
The exercise classes are cancelled …. the rest of it still seems alive AFAIK because I was chatting to Amex about it last week.
Ah, perhaps that’s what they meant because I had signed up for one of them. The email I received was a bit vague though and said;
“Please be aware that the American Express Platinum House London event has been cancelled.
We apologize for any inconvenience. “
Got cancellations for the classes booked by myself and other plat card holders. Guess they’re planning a relaunch.