American Express and Preferred Hotels launch an ‘extra night’ offer

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• John2 says:

  14 Oct14 October 12:45

  AMS airport.
  Travelling Club Europe and have priority pass. Which lounge is best?

  • Lumma says:

    14 Oct14 October 13:38

    Food in Aspire, Drinks in BA. BA lounge was packed last time I was there and the only seats were the dining table style ones which I found really uncomfortable

• fivebobbill says:

  14 Oct14 October 13:11

  O/T. I have a friend who has an Amex Plat, but wants to cancel as the £450 renewal is due. However he has over 80,000 MR points in his account and doesn’t want to move them yet.
  His wife has an Amex Gold. If she adds him as a supplementary cardholder, can he add it to his current MR account? And if so can he then cancel his Amex Plat and keep the points?

  • Genghis says:

    14 Oct14 October 13:18

    No and no. Possible solutions:
    – ARCC
    – ICC Amex

    • fivebobbill says:

      14 Oct14 October 13:49

      Thanks Genghis, thought not but worth asking…

  • John says:

    14 Oct14 October 14:48

    Given that the fee is charged per day, but merely billed all at once in advance,, wanting to cancel because the next year’s fee is ‘due’ doesn’t make sense. He is literally paying £1.23 per day to keep his points as MR unless he wants the other ongoingr benefits of the card

  • Rob says:

    14 Oct14 October 23:12

    No. He needs an Amex Rewards Credit Card (search for our review).

• Lumma says:

  14 Oct14 October 13:46

  the 50,000 Krisflyer points to the Middle East, is there a way to find out what kind of plane you’ll be on? Seems like it’s less of a good deal if you’ve got to change planes halfway across Europe and you’re stuck in European business class. Some of the routes do so a plane type but most just show ()

  • Russ says:

    14 Oct14 October 16:04

    Google the flight number until you come across a website FlightAware. Tells you what aircraft type is currently flying that route although nothing’s guaranteed for future flights.

  • Rob says:

    14 Oct14 October 23:11

    Obviously Lufty and SWISS are short haul connecting to long haul. Turkish and Egyptian vary but you can check the plane by looking up a cash ticket online.

• faithy says:

  14 Oct14 October 13:48

  OT.
  Travelling Club Europe. Can you take someone into the lounge?

  • Genghis says:

    14 Oct14 October 13:57

    Assuming no status, no

  • Gavin says:

    14 Oct14 October 22:07

    I’ve charmed a few lounge hosts into letting my mate in with me when I’m in CE (no status). It can be done, but YMMV

• faithy says:

  14 Oct14 October 14:06

  TY. But I can with priority pass?

  • Peter K says:

    14 Oct14 October 14:12

    With the priority pass from Amex platinum you can take someone for free. With a normal bought priority pass you can pay (£20?) to take a guest in with you.

  • Anna says:

    14 Oct14 October 14:59

    Not the BA lounge unless they are also in CE.

    • Peter K says:

      14 Oct14 October 15:50

      True, only 3rd party lounges with priority pass. BA lounges are for Business class and BA silver/gold members only.

• Russ says:

  14 Oct14 October 15:56

  Is it still worth getting an amex international dollar card for the uplift plus, any way to get a referral bonus for that?

  • Alan says:

    14 Oct14 October 17:08

    Only 1.3 uplift now so not nearly as good. Never had referral bonuses on the ICC cards AFAIK.

    • Russ says:

      14 Oct14 October 18:49

      Thanks for your help Alan. Still not a bad return as I’ve a fair few long haul trips in mind over the next couple of years and a healthy MR balance. Shame about the bonus but if thems the rules…

• Cuchlainn says:

  14 Oct14 October 16:15

  OT – Advice please ( priority to Avios then MRs ) :
  Currently 10 months into the 1st year of the the old PRG Charge Card – will not make the 10K bonus for £15K spend ( used spend to trigger bonuses on other cards ) and have cancelled my own BAPP last week, having referred other half for her BAPP ( and my 3,000 Supp bonus )
  Do I refer other half for new PRG CC and earn 9,000 MRs ( possibly add self on a week or so later to see if 1st Supp triggers extra 3,000 ) ? OR
  Self-refer to Plat Amex, transfer MRs to Plat card and close old PRG Charge card before I get charged the 2nd year / 1st annual fee ?

  Thanks in advance

  • Bonglim says:

    14 Oct14 October 18:05

    It’s a slightly difficult one:
    – I think you might be able to find a link for upgrading PRGC charge card to platinum. That is NOT the same as self referring.

    I would
    1 – cancel and supplementary cards you have on your gold card, wait a few days.
    2 – find the upgrade to platinum link and do that – you will need to spend 1000 GBP and if you do so before your get to 1 year you ‘might’ not be charged the 450 fee.
    3 – as soon as you are approaching that target refer your other half to the card of her choice. (plat or gold)

    4 – Then you will have a choice to make. If you are going to get some other referrals through soonish, then process them asap before closing your platinum card. For example if you can put through the spend fast enough, then refer yourself and partner for SPG cards, and perhaps a cash back card each or perhaps her to BAPP card and you cash back card. If your wife is getting a platinum card, it is less of an issue.

    5 – when all the points have posted for referrals close your platinum card. If you have been charged 450, you will get a pro rata refund.

    One of the main perks of platinum card is 18k MR points for referring any other card (up to 90k points). If possible try to max that out.
    In that time you can also sign up to all the hotel benefits, which you keep for a year or so after closing your plat card.

  • tom1 says:

    14 Oct14 October 18:06

    I think the upgrade route from Gold Charge to Plat Charge is still working (not heard anything to the contrary), and can get 20k MR for £2k spend in 3 months. You don’t have to close the old gold charge card – your account just gets changed from gold to plat (you can even use the physical god card and it goes to your plat account). You could then apply for supp cards and if lucky, might get bonus, While plat, refer as many friends as poss for 18k MR – and certainly refer OH or yourself for your next card before you close.

    If you can hit the plat spend target reasonably quickly, you might be able to close before the Plat fee gets applied (usually plat only gets charged from the anniversary of your gold charge). Even if you do get charged, cancel as quick as poss and get a pro-rata refund.

    If you haven’t spent all your MR points before you close, and don’t have a specific use in mind, I think transferring to SPG/Marriott is still regarded as the best way to go – from there you can transfer in to Avios, Virgin, IHG, Hilton and more with reasonable rates (sometimes even. better than direct from MR if you can do 60k Marriott at a time).

    • Genghis says:

      14 Oct14 October 18:41

      MR -> Marriott -> airline is never better than going direct now (assuming airline is both Marriott and MR partner). I would never do MR->Marriott->Virgin-> IHG / HH due to the devaluing, ie turning something worth 1p into about 0.375p / 0.25p (someone check the math, and that includes the 25% uplift in 60k batches).

      • Peter K says:

        14 Oct14 October 19:23

        30k MR = 30k Avios
        30k MR = 60k HH
        30k MR = 30k Virgin => 30k IHG/45k HH

        30k MR = 60k Marriot
        60k Marriott = 25k Avios
        60k Marriott = 25k Virgin => 25k IHG/37.5k HH
        NB (Virgin only can be converted with a minimum of 10k miles then in 5k increments IHG, 10k miles HH)

        Definite loss going via Marriott.

      • Genghis says:

        14 Oct14 October 19:42

        Almost. 30k MR = 45k Marriott

      • TGLoyalty says:

        14 Oct14 October 21:46

        I’d probably hedge my bets and half to avios and half to virgin. Healthy balances in both for me at the moment though so Marriott for me, even if I “lose” value ie 0.75 vs 1p for miles. I think you can end up with a lot more than 0.5p per point with of the high end hotels in some major cities.

    • tom1 says:

      14 Oct14 October 20:07

      ah yes, sorry forgot MR to SPG was halved.

      • Peter K says:

        14 Oct14 October 20:49

        Ha ha, yes. 30k MR is definitely 45k Marriott (2:3)!

  • Cuchlainn says:

    14 Oct14 October 22:08

    Thanks for all replies

• Alan says:

  14 Oct14 October 17:08

  Only 1.3 uplift now so not nearly as good. Never had referral bonuses on the ICC cards AFAIK.

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