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

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American Express Platinum has begun offering 20,000 Membership Rewards points to some people who ring up and threaten to cancel their card.

I say ‘some’ because when I called up myself I didn’t receive any offer.  It is definitely happening though.

American Express Platinum retention offers – Case 1

Reader 1 called up on Wednesday to ask if there was anything better to stop him cancelling than the ‘double points on spending’ offer.

The agent looked into his system and found an offer which he told the caller he thought had just been added.  He then read out from his screen, to paraphrase:

“To thank you for your loyalty and to acknowledge the loss of benefits in the current situation, we would like to offer you 20,000 points which will be added to your account immediately. With the current promotion, this has a value of £180 which in turn is 1/3 of your annual fee. “

The next day, the points were there as you can see from the screenshot above.

American Express Platinum retention offers – Case 2

Reader 2 called up on Thursday.  With no flights now booked, and with no immediate use for the card benefits except for the travel insurance (now not needed) he called to cancel.

The reader was also offered 20,000 Membership Rewards points.  However, he would not receive these until a week after the annual fee was paid, which is due in two months.  The agent kindly reminded him that nothing stops him cancelling immediately after the points appear for a pro-rata fee refund.

It is worth noting that Reader 1 has a card which renews in August, which may be why he was offered the points immediately.

American Express Platinum retention offers – Case 3

Reader 3 is me.  Emboldened by these cases, I thought I’d call up.

I thought I was on solid ground, to be honest.

I have held Amex cards for 20 years, with my Platinum for probably 17-18 years

I very rarely spend on the card, holding it primarily for the travel benefits and because I get my British Airways Premium Plus American Express for free (this is a grandfathered benefit for anyone who held a Platinum card on the day the BA Amex cards launched).

And yet ….. nothing.

The only option I was given was to downgrade to the Gold card and to have the annual fee waived for the first year.  This is the usual response judging from other readers who have cancelled recently.  I pushed harder and was put on hold for a couple of minutes, but the agent came back to say that there was no other option.  I could cancel or I could downgrade to Gold and get a free year.  I made my excuses and left.

I’m not sure what we should conclude from this.  On Monday there will be some interesting news which has a bearing on this case, as they say.  If you have nothing better to do for 10 minutes over the next few weeks (do NOT all ring today because you can be pretty sure you’ll be marked out as a HfP reader) you might want to give it a go.  There’s nothing to lose, except a little bit of your dignity.

UPDATE, Saturday lunchtime:  It appears that UK Amex call centre agents are all working from home at the moment.  The 20,000 point offer IS, I am told, “in the system” but not all agents know it exists or how to apply it.  There is a online discussion group for the call centre agents which includes an explanation of how to find it and apply it.

My own failure to get the bonus appears to be down to the fact that I called at 6pm and so was diverted to a US call centre (the woman I spoke with did have a US accent) who did know about offers for UK cardholders.

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Category

American Express Platinum card

Comments (287)

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

  • Can says:
    9 May9 May 11:18

    It was literally the quickest Amex Concierge call I have ever had. I am a low spender, ~£2K, And I had all the arguments prepared not to downgrade to Gold but keep the Platinum etc, yet they offered me 20k MR immediately. Happy about it!

  • Craig says:
    9 May9 May 11:27

    Three minute call, 20k MR better off. For the record I put little spend through the card but my 4 kids use their supp cards quite regularly.

    • S says:
      9 May9 May 12:11

      I use my Platinum quite regularly, also got the 20k MR.

  • Ian M says:
    9 May9 May 12:00

    Has anyone who’s already been given the 1 extra point per pound retention offer also managed to bag this 20k points retention deal?

    • Roger says:
      9 May9 May 12:01

      That offer came by email so quite independent of this.

      • Rob says:
        9 May9 May 12:04

        Everyone got the other deal.

        • Dubs says:
          9 May9 May 20:18

          No, I had a rention offer in march for double points before the email came out. Spoke to amex cs and had my retention offer delayed as they wont allow offers to run at the same time, so have double points for 6 months now. Tried to get the 20k but as I have a retention offer already on my account was told the system wouldn’t allow me to get it or change, but got 2500 points for trying.

    • Andrew says:
      9 May9 May 12:07

      Yes I’ve been given both and in fact the agent highlighted it this morning as she explained the current value of 20,000 being £180.

  • Roger says:
    9 May9 May 12:00

    Why Cryptic last para, Rob?

    Many readers already called.
    What do you mean by last para, please explain.

    • Rob says:
      9 May9 May 12:05

      I mean, at a guess, we have at least 5,000 Amex Plat cardholders amongst our regular readership and if 5,000 people call up today asking for £200-worth of points you can be pretty sure you won’t get them because by now the entire call centre will know about this article. Ring next week and you may be seen as someone who genuinely is looking to cancel.

      • Gary_Dexter says:
        9 May9 May 12:07

        I think he means the “Monday” remark…

      • Roger says:
        9 May9 May 12:08

        OK, called much earlier in the morning after my morning read of email in bed.
        15K better off and not complaining, Thank you, Rob.

      • Andrew says:
        9 May9 May 12:10

        The wording I used in my call was not saying I was thinking of cancelling, but asked if there was anything they could do about the annual fee and she said, short answer no, but long answer is I can give you 20,000 points etc. At no point did I say I was thinking of leaving.

        • Gary_Dexter says:
          9 May9 May 12:24

          Tried that with my Gold card.
          Was told no offer or to cancel and receive pro-rata fee refund.

          • Genghis says:
            9 May9 May 12:39

            Why do you pay for Gold? Lots of airline spend? Employer paying the FX fees?

          • Gary_Dexter says:
            9 May9 May 12:56

            Standard fee – £140.
            Used to get good use out of it for travel expenses – hotel upgrades etc.
            And yes work used to expense it all back including FX fees.
            But now with no travel…

  • PaulC says:
    9 May9 May 12:12

    Just cancelled my mother-in-laws on the 4th. Oh well, the pro-rata refund is better in my pocket right now.
    Out of interest Is there anything stopping you getting the retention 20,000 points and then the next day cancelling the card?

    • PaulC says:
      9 May9 May 12:14

      Just read it

      “The agent kindly reminded him that nothing stops him cancelling immediately after the points appear for a pro-rata fee refund.”

  • DavidB says:
    9 May9 May 12:15

    What was the annual spend in each case? That’s really the only reference point that matters to determine your value to Amex. Otherwise your article and these comments mean little.

    • Federico says:
      9 May9 May 13:47

      I have an Amex Gold and last year I spent about £16k – very unusual for me – I had my mum has second cardholder but my mum passed away so I won’t hit £16k anymore. Called 2 weeks ago and they didn’t offer me anything, today called and the system gave 20k points if I spent £4k in the next 3 months (which with lockdown I will struggle anyway).. I think from the comments amex is offering 20k to almost everybody independently from the spending (if this is your only card with them)

  • Anthony says:
    9 May9 May 12:25

    I have the business platinium card and was only offered 3000 MR points, but they have said they would put in an appeal to the backoffice team to see if they can improve on it

  • PlaneSpeaking says:
    9 May9 May 12:45

    I called Amex about a year ago to ask about the grandfathered benefit of no fee on the BA Premium Amex card as I also hold a Platinum card and they said they were no longer offering it as a benefit and I’d have to continue paying it (I didn’t apply for the BA card until it had been around for quite a while). Are you saying they’re offering this benefit again or just that they’re not culling the incentive for those who already have it?

    • Peter K says:
      9 May9 May 15:13

      Not culling for those that keep the platinum card and have this as a grandfathered benefit.

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