‘American Express Platinum House’ is coming to London

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• John says:

  17 Aug17 August 05:56

  Maybe an exchange rate issue too? If UK holders are going to lounges outside the UK PP will be getting less for your £15 than before. It’s been £15 for a very long time hasn’t it?

  • Lyn says:

    17 Aug17 August 07:47

    The PP spending allowance at similar places at Sydney and other Australian airports is A$36. This is a fairly recent option there. Much closer to 20 pounds than 15,

  • HAM76 says:

    17 Aug17 August 13:15

    PP is 24€ in Germany, so over £20. We don‘t have free guests with Amex, either.

  • Marcw says:

    17 Aug17 August 16:32

    Agree. Taking everything out of the uk before the second Brexit crash

  • Alan says:

    18 Aug18 August 12:33

    Agree, aren’t PP UK-based? I’d imagine they’re hit hard with UK customers using the card abroad.

• Benylin says:

  17 Aug17 August 07:21

  Newbie Q: “you get TWO Priority Pass cards and each lets the holder bring a free guest” with the Amex charge card. Do you get 2x pass cards by default or is that with supplementary card?

  • Kevin says:

    17 Aug17 August 07:26

    With a supplementary card.

• Nick says:

  17 Aug17 August 07:32

  My parents love the lounge pass that comes with the gold card and they happily pay the £15 charged for entry by that card. I wonder if that will increase too?

  • Rob says:

    17 Aug17 August 08:52

    I would not be surprised. £15 to £20 is quite a jump in terms of the benefits you get back – even at airport prices that goes quite a way in the terminal.

• Charlie T. says:

  17 Aug17 August 07:35

  Anyone else think that Platinum House sounds decidedly like a strip club?!

  • Evan says:

    17 Aug17 August 07:47

    Nope I think that’ll just be you.

  • Nigel says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:35

    Main question is, will it be a complete car crash like the Christmas pop-up Centurion Lounge was?

    • Clive says:

      17 Aug17 August 10:31

      The Christmas lounge was great! We spent a couple of afternoons in there, lots of nice snacks and drinks. I hope they’ll do it again this year.

      • Cat says:

        17 Aug17 August 17:05

        Ditto, I went twice the second weekend – the queue was much shorter because word had got out about the queues on the first Friday. Two friends (who I hadn’t seen for a while) and I got absolutely blotto on the free cocktails. I also managed to book a slot at the snow globe making workshop, and brought my sister and my niece (who absolutely loved it). That was a more sedate affair, though!

      • Alan says:

        18 Aug18 August 12:34

        Yep, I actually made use of an Amex London benefit for once! Enjoyed the drinks and snacks when down visiting 🙂

• Frankie says:

  17 Aug17 August 07:36

  OT but bits. Travelling to Malaga in two weeks on avios redemption and need a car hire for 2 weeks. Kayak and Expedia etc offering 2 weeks for £30 or £40 with companies like Goldcar and Firefly. Avis and Enterprise etc are at least ten times more expensive. Has anyone any experience or guidance on these companies. Seems too good to be true but the offers are on all the compare sites. I’ve read that even if you have your own insurance for excess, some of the companies won’t send documents for you to claim at home if required. Thanks in advance for any help.

  • Matthew says:

    17 Aug17 August 07:41

    Just used firefly for 10 days and all good. Be careful on pick up as all the car hire desks are before you leave air side. The route painted on the floor to car hire takes you to the car park not the desks. I had a bit of a nightmare going back air side having already left, luckily I still had my boarding pass!

  • Roger says:

    17 Aug17 August 07:42

    Google is your friend but Gold car etc will likely ask you to pay for fuel upfront or something like that, possibly more expensive insurance.

    I would steer clear of such companies and go with companies such as Helle Hollis or Malagacars.

  • N says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:15

    We own a flat in that part of the world, and so hour 5-7 times a year. Long story short, we now hire from Malagacar every time.

    • Graham Walsh says:

      18 Aug18 August 22:18

      Just reading Malagacar reviews and most say you need to pay €1100 deposit. Plus the cars are off airport so need a shuttle bus.

  • CV3V says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:16

    For Malaga i used Momondo and got a weeks car hire (VW people carrier) for about £60, picked it up from the Avis desk at airport! There are some genuine bargains to be had. At Avis desk they asked if i wanted to upgrade to an automatic, but the additional rental cost would have doubled.

  • Vivian says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:51

    I’ve never used Goldcar but having read the consumer champion column on The Guardian it seems Goldcar run their business by charging customers insane excess charges when “damages” are found after returning the car. Do a search on newspaper websites and it doesn’t seem like anyone has a positive story about Goldcar.

    • john says:

      17 Aug17 August 11:57

      Bare in mind that positive stores are not newsworthy of course!

      • Alan says:

        17 Aug17 August 12:52

        You are correct in that.

        I have, however, read about Goldcar in the MSE forums. Not good. I certainly wouldn’t book with them

  • RussellH says:

    17 Aug17 August 10:24

    There have been any number of horror stories in the weekend newspaper money sections about Goldcar. Typical stories describing on return the person checking the car back in often seems to know exactly where the 3mm long scratch in your paintwork is – they do not seem to need to look for it.. The repair bill is then several hundred €.

  • IndiaCharlie says:

    17 Aug17 August 11:44

    I’ve used goldcar in the past at PMI and would personally never use them again (or rhodium which is the same company). Of all the budget companies they had the worst attitude of staff and poorest service. Think of these cheap car hire companies like a Ryanair. – The base price is cheap but *everything* is an extra and is charged handsomely. If you have Amex plat insurance then the excess issues are not so much of an issue but without it I’d look on a local Forum on TripAdvisor or expats and find recommendations.

  • APPL says:

    17 Aug17 August 13:04

    Had a car from Goldcar Malaga in May this year.
    Declined all additional insurance, because have Amex Platinum.
    Didn’t have any problems, and ended up being by far the cheapest of all options.
    One thing worth noting though, they actually charged my credit card for ~£1100 when I declined insurance, and refunded it after returning car. I thought they were only placing a hold, so got stung by fx fees.

  • pauldb says:

    17 Aug17 August 14:51

    I’ve used them all without issue but admit that the false damage fear is only overcome by having Amex Plat. Make sure you are comparing like-for-like: they may have easy-fuel options with a crafty €30 admin fee which you pay even returning full.

  • Graham Walsh says:

    18 Aug18 August 09:33

    I got a great deal when I booked cash flights via BA and added a group 1 car on from Avis this was for end of April. Doing the same trip next year and the prices for Avis via BA were through the roof. The good thing about Avis preferred is head straight to the parking lot and grab your keys. No need to wait upstairs at the car hire desks in Malaga. Realised that after 10 minutes. Doh.

• Go says:

  17 Aug17 August 07:37

  Two questions.
  Is the Amex platinum annual fee vat exempt?
  How much does it cost to add a 2nd supplementary platinum card?

  • Genghis says:

    17 Aug17 August 07:44

    Yes. Credit institutions don’t charge VAT but it means that they can’t claim back any VAT.
    £170.

    • Go says:

      17 Aug17 August 07:53

      Thanks Genghis

• Alan says:

  17 Aug17 August 07:45

  I really hope this doesn’t mean a devaluation of Amex Plat lounge benefits – these sort of random London events have zero appeal, I’d prefer they plough the money into actual tangible benefits.

  • KevMc says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:12

    +1.

    Pop-up palates and yoga classes?! It screams to me that they have no idea who their customer base is in the UK, and that this idea has been dreamt up by the marketing department in California.

    Or perhaps I misunderstand who the majority of UK Amex Platinum card holders are in Y2K18?

  • Kevin says:

    17 Aug17 August 10:48

    I think it looks fun and I’m looking forward to it. Admittedly I live in London.

  • Susan says:

    17 Aug17 August 11:50

    +1 am already fed up of getting Londoncentric offers or for things without an outlet anywhere near my area or spending patterns. Even my Hilton offer, £100 back for £500 spend (great!)) turned out to be only for US Hiltons -so not use whatsoever.

• Andrew says:

  17 Aug17 August 07:59

  O/T: Trailfinders Amex offer – spend £1000 get £100. It states in terms several times “Holiday” – but would it trigger for flight only? What has been the experience in the past? Is it just one card machine in the shop that processes all payments regardless of what they are for, or do flight only go through a different system?

  • Rob says:

    17 Aug17 August 08:50

    I think Trailfinders has a chunky booking fee for flights only?

    • Stephen says:

      17 Aug17 August 09:41

      I often use them for flights and have never been charged an extra booking fee. They also accept Amex and didn’t add credit card surcharges back when most others did.

    • John says:

      17 Aug17 August 12:17

      £75 in 2016

  • Allan says:

    17 Aug17 August 19:11

    Used it last time and while they added a fee of about £50, it still saved £50 overall. That was a flight only booking.

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