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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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Comments (287)

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

  • Simone says:
    9 May9 May 15:46

    Offered to split the renewal fee over 12 months or get the 20k points. Got the points.

  • Rob says:
    9 May9 May 15:49

    Just tried this. No go. ‘These are tailored offers and not showing on your account’. Offered me the gold card downgrade which I declined.

    I will call back in a couple of days and try again, failing that will move my MR points out and cancel. My prorate refund is about £190 which is much the value of the points so surprised they didnt go for this.

  • meta says:
    9 May9 May 15:51

    I just called too. Got 20k points no problem. Didn’t say I was going to cancel, just said is there anything they can do for me as I am not using much of my travel benefits. The agent offered two offers: monthly payment of the annual fee with 3-month deferral (effectively extending my membership year for 3 months) or 20k points. She said points will be put into the account within 48h.

    Now I suspect the offer on Monday will not be for those who already received some compensation. However, I have got over 40k points in compensation points last year, so that’s ok.

  • Andrew Wells says:
    9 May9 May 15:54

    Having seen the comment about the Germans being offered 40k or 60k, I’ve just done my call and got 40k.

    Agent was in the UK and knew of the 20k straight away. I asked her why we were not getting the 60k that the German market was receiving and thought I would change my arm and ask if there was a way to get this. It was jokey ‘don’t ask, don’t get’ conversation, so she said she would look in to it. 3 mins on hold and she confirmed they could do 40k, which she has applied.

    Very happy at 40k, especially as we won’t be travelling anywhere for pretty much the rest of the year due to one of the family being on the shielding list. Will be lucky to leave the house before year end!

  • Rob says:
    9 May9 May 15:54

    So do we expect that there will be a different offer on monday?

    • meta says:
      9 May9 May 16:05

      Yep which won’t be available to those who take this one. I also suspect if this goes on further then we’ll see another offer in July/August.

      • Rob says:
        9 May9 May 16:13

        Ok. Will wait until monday before trying again. Surprised I wasnt offered it. Maybe because most of my spend goes through BA Amex premium.

      • Josh says:
        9 May9 May 16:23

        Hmmm whether to call tomorrow or Monday…I was going to downgrade soon anyway because the card benefits are useless if they can’t be utilised.

  • James M says:
    9 May9 May 15:55

    Just phoned and received a 15k points offer, not 20k – however accepted this as a good result!

  • Gary_Dexter says:
    9 May9 May 16:03

    Interesting they’re allowing people to split the annual fee monthly.
    Do you think they’ll do that for new applicants…?

    • Alex M says:
      9 May9 May 17:33

      What’s the point if you get fee pro rata refund anyway?

      • Gary_Dexter says:
        9 May9 May 19:50

        Paying the initial chunk up-front (which isn’t an issue) and they’re pro-rata refunds never seem to add up.

        I cancelled a Gold card once before (£140 fee) 1 month after it renewed and got £103 back – surely it should have been more like £128 ish.

        • Charlieface says:
          9 May9 May 23:13

          Renewal is charged a month after actual renewal

    • S says:
      9 May9 May 20:22

      By offering that I think they are preparing to make the Gold card metal in the UK, and a monthly fee I imagine would be a lot more attractive to millenials.

      • Gary_Dexter says:
        9 May9 May 21:45

        Let’s see what Monday brings then…

      • HM says:
        9 May9 May 23:16

        After Rob’s article on 10/04 about the Metal Gold in Sweden I did some digging on Reddit which yielded the following: Metal Plat announced in 04/2019 in Scandinavia, Metal Plat announced in UK in 05/2019. Based on the same timeframes, I suspect Monday may well bring a Metal Gold here in the UK. Hope my sleuthing is proved right!

  • EJH says:
    9 May9 May 16:03

    Anyone had any luck with Euro ICC Plat?

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