American Express Platinum makes a big change to its travel insurance – but hasn’t told us (or you)

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• BS says:

  6 Apr6 April 07:26

  The policy now excludes any country which you are ‘resident’ in. I have a temporary residence permit in one country I work in, as it allows multiple entries without further visas. Reading the T&Cs I’m now not covered…

  • Bill says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:14

    Are they seriously saying a trip within the UK, in my case including flights, is now not covered?

    • Bill says:

      6 Apr6 April 09:16

      Clarification…

      “Trip” means a journey outside Your Country of Residence which must commence and end in Your Country
      of Residence, or a journey within Your Country of Residence which must include a flight, or at least one night
      of pre-booked accommodation away from home. Trip is extended to include any journey within Your Country of
      Residence for Car Rental Benefits (Section 1.5) only. Trips must not exceed 90 consecutive days with a
      maximum 240 days during each 12 month period. The Trip length will be extended to 365 consecutive days for
      Your Children under the age of 25 on a Gap Year.

      • EvilDoctorK says:

        6 Apr6 April 10:45

        I’m fairly sure that language about ‘trips’ were always included .. don’t think that has materially changed

• Tom says:

  6 Apr6 April 07:31

  Oh well.. the last straw. To be honest I’ve been looking forward to finding a reason to cancel my Plat card!

• Mikeact says:

  6 Apr6 April 07:31

  For a so called top notch card, 70 is a ridiculous cut off age in this day and age.

  • Rob says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:18

    Get Plat Business which is 80.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      6 Apr6 April 10:16

      How many 79yo’s qualify? I certainly hope I no longer need to own a business when I am 79!

      • the_real_a says:

        7 Apr7 April 15:03

        Don’t you sell some things on ebay for profit?

• Bertie says:

  6 Apr6 April 07:38

  The Amex platinum travel insurance is very week
  I was told by them that anyone taking a small blood pressure pill or statin, and with normal blood pressure and cholesterol as a result, will find they are not covered for myriad eventualities. As almost 80% of over 55 year old men have hypertension this basically means if you over around 40 you need to buy alternative medical travel insurance, and quite probably if you are under 40. This does not apply to rival travel insurance, even cheap ones. So do not get the platinum card for travel insurance. And make sure you buy another travel insurance particularly if you go to a high cost country like USA, or you could find a heart attack wipes you out. Other platinum benefits are great: the hotel, car and particularly Hertz memberships, and the car excess insurance, however again this last is valid even if you use your ba amex to pay for car hire, I wonder if this will change too.and you will have to use the platinum for car hire, to benefit

  • Rob says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:17

    To be fair, we have made 3 medical claims on the Plat insurance. On each occasion we had clearly (and knowingly) broken the rules on what you must do to get repaid. In all cases AXA paid. (Of course, most of the new policy is Chubb ….)

    • Julian says:

      6 Apr6 April 15:13

      Yes but they clearly know who you are (assuming all the claims were in the period since you started off as Raffles) so they are obviously going to be generous in your case as there is too much Amex card business at stake………………….

      • Rob says:

        6 Apr6 April 17:14

        I promise you there is no-one in this industry who consistently gives me good treatment (over and above what my status would get me) on a regular basis to convince me that my account is flagged.

    • Julian says:

      8 Apr8 April 14:16

      Interesting.

      So it seems “The Big Oil Tanker” model (unable therefore to turn on a sixpence like a small business can) used at The Brighton Call Centre is like that of many other large corporates so unable to adjust its practices so as to better serve the needs of individual callers and/or customers and therefore ultimately its own individual business interest…………….

• Robert says:

  6 Apr6 April 07:55

  Seems logical that you’ll only be covered if the travel spend was made on the platinum card, as it is providing the insurance cover.

  I can’t decide if I should get AmEx Plat or Revolut Metal? What do people recommend?

  • Lady London says:

    6 Apr6 April 12:42

    Let’s just say if costs were same I’d go for Amex every time as they’ve been around longer and are a bit more of a known quantity. Semper vigilant though.

• Johnny5a says:

  6 Apr6 April 07:59

  I’m looking to switch to the business version of Amex Plat, I’ve not had a chance to compare it. Any one done this?

  • Rob says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:16

    Fewer hotel status cards
    Insurance covers you until you are 80 and has no restrictions on how you pay
    Bigger sign-up bonus

    • Julian says:

      8 Apr8 April 14:19

      Insurance until age 80 benefit seems substantial at that age and worth seeking out this card for alone for those who have the choice (i.e. also operate their own business of some kind plus I suspect a small business person may be able to retain this card even if they are in reality retired by age 60, 65 or 67?)

• FlightDoctor says:

  6 Apr6 April 07:59

  Yikes. We’ve booked a dream family holiday holiday in the Far East this summer over 3 weeks, with most flights and accommodation booked with the BA AMEX PP card and some elements with a Tesco MasterCard where AMEX wasn’t accepted. I had assumed that the AMEX Platinum insurance would cover us, even if I hadn’t used the card. So, what to do? Is an off the shelf travel insurance policy worth getting now?

  • Mikeact says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:19

    Your handle seems to suggest that you’re doctor, and you’re asking us for advice ?

    • Obi says:

      6 Apr6 April 08:49

      To be fair he wasn’t asking for advice on what to do if you get sunburnt on holiday or if it hurts when you pee…

      Anyway Doc, do you reckon it is “fair and reasonable” for AMEX to pull the rug from under you? Which policy document applied to you when you made those transactions?

      If you don’t want the stress then get a cheap single trip insurance just in case for the big medical bills

  • Rob says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:15

    You don’t have an issue until Amex notifies you that your policy is also changing and starting the 30 day notice clock. And Amex will struggle to block claims on the basis on how you paid before you were notified.

    • Alan says:

      6 Apr6 April 18:52

      Indeed even if they change T&Cs going forward I don’t see how they can apply retrospectively. When they introduced the change previously for non-medical cover being restricted to payment on the card wasn’t that only for new holidays booked after the change was notified? Can’t see FOS feeling customers were being treated fairly otherwise…

  • Julian says:

    6 Apr6 April 13:10

    I stopped using travel insurance policies associated with credit cards after my time as a NatWest Gold Plus customer.

    More than once I ended up on skiing holidays that someone else booked for a group of us and where I wasn’t covered on the card so since then I have avoided travel insurance linked to card purchases. Perhaps one reason I preferred the Lloyds Rewards Amex card way of collecting Avios as that doesn’t have a huge fee but including a travel insurance policy tied to card use……

    However will soon be 60 (four more years) when cheap annual standalone travel policies are going to get quite a lot more expensive.

• Rob H says:

  6 Apr6 April 08:00

  Gets potentially more complicated if you pay the deposit for a BA Holiday on Plat and the balance on BAPP.

  I could see the ombudsman taking a very dim view of the way Amex has gone about this; notwithstanding the downgrade mid-year, the confusion to consumers etc. (nothing in the key terms part for example). And then the non-notification issue on top.

  Not impressed!

  • Rob H says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:27

    Looking through the policy documents for Plat, and comparing to other accounts, in the key terms section “Are there any restrictions on cover?” the other accounts state “! All benefits are dependent on the use of the Card.” This is missing from the Plat version. Now the Plat full terms do still have the effect of requiring the Plat card to be used for cover to be valid, but I’m not sure it was intended by Amex – or maybe it’s a very clever ‘mistake’. Whichever it is, written clarification is definitely going to be required from them!

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