American Express offering 20,000 point retention bonuses to Platinum cardholders – but not to me

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• Riccatti says:

  9 May9 May 05:53

  We can conclude, Rob that you didn’t spend enough on your Amex Platinum! (said in good spirits)

  • TGLoyalty says:

    9 May9 May 07:38

    Same conclusion I came to when I was offered nothing a month ago and it’s fair I used my Gold or my Bonvoy far more.

    Tbh I knew I’d be spending near enough nothing for the next few weeks (stash of 10% off Morrison’s/Waitrose/M&S GCs to work through) and no travel so 2 free lounge pass will do fine for a while.

  • Phat Git says:

    9 May9 May 08:31

    As I am case 2, I can confirm low spend is not a criteria. Most of my spend goes on my BA card, and I only use the Platinum for deals etc that don’t appear on that. Not spent anything on the Platinum for around 9 months. That definitely won’t change over the next few weeks as I’ve just had a couple of thousand returned to the BA card from a cancelled trip, so focus is on the 2-4-1 voucher

    There was also a suggestion that there will be new, non-travel based benefits in the next few weeks, so I’m holding off to see what they are, but will most likely drop to Gold

• dominic pearce says:

  9 May9 May 06:20

  I rang Amex on Sunday and asked to cancel my Platinum card explaining that the benefits were not of use at present
  I specifically asked if there were any incentives current or planned to keep my card ,other than the double points promotion nothing was offered
  Because of my accumulated points I decided to downgrade to the Gold Card and everything transferred across

• Rum says:

  9 May9 May 06:34

  Amex and every other card company will have their own criteria for who they want to retain.
  I got offered the downgrade to Gold a few months back and took it. I knew my travel this year would be non existent so I had no choice. Nothing stopping me from upgrading to Platinum again though.
  Likewise I am not seen as a potential good customer to creation so they rejected me for their IHG cards. So be it then. Their loss, someone else’s gain. It’s just business.

• Richard says:

  9 May9 May 07:14

  Just worked for me!
  20+ years member spend £5/£10k per month

• Nick_C says:

  9 May9 May 07:15

  “I’m not sure what we should conclude from this.”

  That Amex customer service is inconsistent?

  Maybe depends which call centre you happen to get through to?

  • David says:

    9 May9 May 07:22

    All Platinum and Centurion are dealt with by the same Premium Team. In normal office hours, there are some dedicated Centurion call handlers.

    • Nick_C says:

      9 May9 May 07:42

      Thanks!

    • MT says:

      9 May9 May 07:43

      I have always found a dedicated team handle the Centurion calls and they are far better than the Platinum or any other team. It may well be that when the Centurion team are quiet they pickup some Platinum calls but it is generally a dedicated team for Centurion with a far higher customer service level. That has been the same in my experience over the last decade and also applies outside the standard hour, although unsure about the middle of the night.

  • Hunter says:

    9 May9 May 08:06

    Not necessarily inconsistent, depends on if they (probably) are adopting a policy to inform their decision. Not attempting to retain a customer, who doesn’t spend on their card, and also receives a BAPP card for free (normally £195pa), isn’t at all surprising to me?!

    • John says:

      9 May9 May 08:36

      Yeah I thought that could possibly affect Amex’s decision not to give him anything. Would Rob have to start paying for his BAPP if he cancelled his Plat?

    • Rob says:

      9 May9 May 08:37

      Would the agent have seen that I get a free BA card? Not sure.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        9 May9 May 08:53

        if retention offers are via a system it might know that.

        Or could always be a note on your account that you get it free

      • Judge says:

        9 May9 May 09:12

        Rob – I thought you announced a while back that the grandfathered rights to a free BAPP card had come to an end?

        • Rob says:

          9 May9 May 09:14

          There was some talk but it never happened. Amex may have decided they would loose a lot of people.

• Gtellez says:

  9 May9 May 07:31

  I called 3 or 4 days ago to ask about retention offers and the agent offered me 15k points (my renewal day is at the beginning of July); however, she told me to wait few weeks before my fee is due, so the offer could improve.

• Jonathan says:

  9 May9 May 07:44

  Is anything going to be offered to business platinum customers do you think, after all we pay the same Annual fee as the personal card holders and Amex make more money on every usage from us than personal?

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    9 May9 May 08:00

    Personally, I would try one more time with Amex CS at a different time of the day. I called up recently at 6pm and got put through to a U.S call agent who was pretty awful for Amex TBH.

    • Rob says:

      9 May9 May 08:39

      I think my agent was American. This was around 6pm yesterday.

• DJB says:

  9 May9 May 08:00

  I called Amex 2 weeks ago requesting a downgrade and was offered a £180 statement credit on condition that I spend at least £1 on the card. This was on my business platinum charge card. My annual fee isn’t due for another 5 months, and I can still cancel my card at any time.

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