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GOOD NEWS: American Express reinstates the old rules for Platinum travel insurance

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Good news.

American Express has reinstated the old Terms & Conditions for the travel insurance benefit that comes with The Platinum Card.

There was a huge outcry from Head for Points readers when we highlighted the original change last week.  To put it into perspective, the original article was read over 25,000 times on the site – this was DOUBLE the 2nd most read article last week.  It was also read by our 13,000 email subscribers.

What is the rule now?

Here is a link to the travel insurance Terms & Conditions on The Platinum Card website.

Last week, American Express changed the wording (under the definition of ‘Account’) to say that you must pay on The Platinum Card to be fully covered by the insurance.

This was bad news, because many HfP readers preferred to pay with a different American Express card.  After all:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus offers double points on BA flight bookings at ba.com, earns 1.5 Avios per £1 on all other spend and spend counts towards your 2-4-1 Avios voucher (£10,000 spend required)

Preferred Rewards Gold offers double points for airline spend and double points abroad, and earns you 10,000 bonus Membership Rewards points when you spend £15,000 per card year

Starwood Preferred Guest American Express offers double points at Marriott hotels

All of these cards are a better choice than paying with The Platinum Card which only offers 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent.

The old wording has now returned.

Look at the document now and it says that you can pay with (under the definition of ‘Account’):

“your consumer and small business cards issued by American Express in the UK, excluding corporate cards and any American Express cards issued by bank partners”

…. and still be covered.  American Express has confirmed to me that the old wording is back permanently.

How does the Amex Platinum insurance work?

As a quick reminder, for medical and other ‘big stuff’, you are covered irrespective of how you paid for your trip.

However, for claims under the categories below, you needed to have paid with a qualifying American Express card – which last week changed to just The Platinum Card:

  • Cancelling, Postponing and Abandoning your Trip
  • Cutting Short your Trip
  • Travel Inconvenience
  • Personal Belongings, Money and Travel Documents
  • Purchase Protection
  • Refund Protection

Thanks to everyone who complained to American Express, either directly or via social media, following our article last weekend.


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American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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Comments (169)

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

  • Lee says:

    OT – AMEX gold card
    2 points for foreign currency 2 points for every £1 spent directly with airlines
    will those earning stack? ie. 4 points for every £1 spent directly with airlines using foreign currency?

    • Crafty says:

      No.

      • Crafty says:

        Hang on I’m wrong! Just double checked and unless I’ve got some weird coincidences going on with amounts spent, then they do in fact stack. I have 117 pts for “outbound spend” and a further 117 pts for “airline bonus”.

  • massivekettle says:

    Do you have to rent a car with the Platinum Card to benefit from the car hire insurance?

    Is the car hire provided by AMEX Plat equivalent to say Insurance4CarHire?

    • Rob says:

      Pay how you want. Insurance is fully fully comprehensive, you can decline everything.

  • Kazim says:

    Great so the HfP outcry caused them to reverse these rules, can they now reverse the rules on sign up bonuses from a few weeks ago- surely the outcry regarding that was greater??!

    • Lady London says:

      Ooh look I just saw a pig fly past the window

      • Lady London says:

        *translation : relates to an old British saying “and pigs might fly” as a comparative to the credibility of something being proposed

  • Travel Strong says:

    If American Airlines move my flight to the next day (they have) and I have to pay an extra nights hotel stay and extra day car hire (I will have to) – should I claim from Amex travel insurance? (I paid for the flights on Amex Platinum). The flight is a few weeks away.

    I was just going to suck it up. And probably still will. But I am still interested if this sort of stuff is covered.

    • AndyGWP says:

      Please give it a try and let us know… I’d be interested to know for sure 👍🏻

    • Lady London says:

      I think that sooner than stretch and possibly abuse the conditions of travel insurance for something that you know perfectly well will happen when you travel now and that you could still avoid if you wanted to, I’d sooner tell the airline to ‘shove it’ and request them to provide whatever flight you like that you’ve identified that does not incur any additional expense.

  • Mike says:

    OT but AMEX related:

    Does anyone have experience with appealing AMEX refusals?

    I cancelled an SPG card last week and applied for a BAPP online immediately afterwards.

    Recieved a rejection letter in the post today. I still hold a Platinum charge and platinum companion credit card.

    Is it even worth appealing?

    How long should I wait before re-applying?

    • Bonglim says:

      Often in your situation it is because the ‘total’ credit being offered to you from Amex is maxed out. They would be counting your credit on SPG card (even though just cancelled) and platinum credit card and something for plat charge card. The credit limits have probably ballooned while you had them.

      I have heard in the past people calling after rejection and getting accepted by reducing the credit available on another card. In your case that would be the cancelled card, but you just acted to quickly. I have not done it myself.

      I would say that if you called and explain you had just cancelled one card you would have a good chance of turning over the decision. I have not done it myself though, so wait for others to reply.

      • Shoestring says:

        yep SPG gave my wife something pretty stupid (£20K or so, no laughing down the back if that’s chickenfeed for you but I just thought it silly). So if it’s still counted when next application goes in too soon, no surprise if Amex think they’re potentially over-exposed.

  • S music says:

    So for the last time can you please make it clear for all of us,
    If I have a platinum card but booked travel with a non amex card am I still covered for medical insurance?

    • Rob says:

      Yes. I thought that was totally clear from the original article?

      Although you should obviously read the policy document as there are various exclusions for existing ailments etc.

  • Ben says:

    Sorry, I’m not sure if this has been asked before. I have the following scenario:

    What if I added my dad as a supplementary card holder, but my dad paid for his flight ticket using his own BA card. Would my dad be covered by the plat travel insurance, including the travel inconvenience cover? Thanks

  • Kenneth says:

    In order to be fully covered by the Platinum Card car insurance, do I need to decline the car insurance that comes as standard with the car hire? I have two trip coming up shortly: one to the US, one to Sardinia. Plan to book through Avis. Advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

    • George says:

      As far as I know you don’t need to – Platinum picks up whatever you’d have had to pay up to its limits. If you keep CDW and your excess is therefore £1000, Platinum should cough up for it.

    • Shoestring says:

      It’s the complete opposite with most excess policies, ie you *must not* decline the free insurance that comes with your car rental or you’d invalidate the excess cover being offered by Plat or any of the excess ins specialists.

      What you decline at the car rental place is the optional (expensive) extra insurance.

      • Utter says:

        “decline the free insurance that comes with your car rental ”

        Nonsense. Nothing is free.

    • the_real_a says:

      Decline whatever you can decline and AMEX will pick up the rest.

      In the US its common for car insurance to also cover rental vehicles so they are well versed to have ALL insurance removed, and then become 100% liable for any and all costs in an accident. AMEX plat also allows you to do this, but i would not be comfortable. I`d much rather limit my exposure to just the excess since the regular insurance costs almost nothing. Its the “Super CDW” that is the extortionate cost.

      • Shoestring says:

        no – don’t decline what comes included (ie free/ standard insurance that comes with your car rental) or you will invalidate the excess cover

        • the_real_a says:

          I do agree that there is no benefit in declining something thats included free – and practically from a UK national’s perspective its virtually impossible to decline the CW element anyway.

      • Rooster says:

        I thought Amex plat was effectively just excess insurance not a full replacement car rental insurance

        • Rob says:

          It is 100% full replacement. The old terms brochure used to say in big letters at the top ‘Decline everything – it’s on us!’ or words to that effect.

    • Rooster says:

      Decline excess reduction insurance

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

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