American Express Platinum card improves its travel insurance

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• BJ says:

  13 Aug13 August 07:43

  You have to wonder who came up with this list and how much thought went into it. Have to smile when same condition (which isn’t a condition at all) appears in the list twice, under both common and technical names.

  • RWJ says:

    13 Aug13 August 21:00

    Yes I noticed that too, assuming we’re thinking of the same thing.

• simonbr says:

  13 Aug13 August 07:49

  While urticaria is there, I don’t see allergy or anaphylaxis on this list, which is an important omission for many families.

  • Reney says:

    13 Aug13 August 08:05

    I see hay fever on the list, I have never really thought about this one as pre existing condition…

    • john says:

      13 Aug13 August 11:06

      Quite! And who knew that having a mole was a pre-existing medical condition!

• Mikeact says:

  13 Aug13 August 07:49

  70 ? What a ridiculous low cut off age this day and age.

  • Brighton Belle says:

    13 Aug13 August 08:06

    Looks like all Presidents and candidates are too unhealthy to get Amex Travel insurance but fully qualified to run a country with umpteen nukes.

  • Peter K says:

    13 Aug13 August 08:12

    It’s all about risk. Someone’s done the maths and decided that the platinum fee doesn’t cover the higher risk for over 70’s.

    • Mikeact says:

      13 Aug13 August 08:31

      Amex Platinum £575,
      Lloyds Platinum Account £252 Age Limit, 80.

      • Peter K says:

        13 Aug13 August 10:26

        But no MR points, hotel statuses, cover given on purchases etc, so is not a fair comparison.

        • Mikeact says:

          13 Aug13 August 11:53

          I disagree, impossible to compare exactly, However, AA cover for my wife’s 5yr old car, and mobile phone insurance, which annoyingly had to use twice is well worth having, and of course, when you get to 70 with Amex, how much extra are you going to have to pay for an annual ,worldwide travel policy ?

    • Alan says:

      14 Aug14 August 03:01

      Although weirdly up to 80 on ICC Plat at the same price.

• Fred (Your comment is awaiting moderation) says:

  13 Aug13 August 07:57

  How does the Amex Platinum Business insurance compare?

  • Rob says:

    13 Aug13 August 08:13

    Far better. 80 years, fewer requirements to have paid for items with Amex to be covered for small stuff.

    • Fred (Your comment is awaiting moderation) says:

      13 Aug13 August 10:22

      I meant in terms of the health exclusions etc discussed in this article?
      Are any policy updates being made to the ‘business’ Platinum card travel insurance as a result?

• Cavallinorampante says:

  13 Aug13 August 08:47

  The changes to the Amex Platinum Travel Insurance police are welcome but they have missed one opportunity. Why do Amex still have an age-70 limit for their Personal Platinum Card but an age-80 limit for their Business Platinum Card? It does not seem to make sense when it’s Personal Platinum membership has an older demographic. It means that they are losing long-standing cardmembers such as me, who are switching to a Lloyd’s Premier Bank account which covers account-holders for excellent Travel Insurance with generous other benefits up to age-80 for half the annual fee of Amex Platinum.

  • Rob says:

    13 Aug13 August 09:16

    Was 80, they cut it a few years ago.

  • Mikeact says:

    13 Aug13 August 10:01

    If it was the same person in Amex deciding 70 for personal and 80 for business… makes you wonder which Uni he/she went to. Totally stupid.

• Ian says:

  13 Aug13 August 08:52

  The narrative in the article is not entirely correct. The Amex document does not say you can’t be covered if you are receiving treatment for the pre-existing conditions, it says only if “the insured person is not awaiting surgery for the condition, and has been fully discharged from any postoperative follow-up”. As an example, glaucoma is listed as an acceptable condition but anyone with that condition is likely to be taking prescribed eye drops for the rest of their lives. They are receiving treatment for the condition, but not awaiting surgery nor post-operative follow-up.

  • Peter K says:

    13 Aug13 August 10:13

    That depends on the type of glaucoma and whether the drops are working of course, but generally your point is good 🙂

• Harry T says:

  13 Aug13 August 10:03

  Is this part of amex trying to appeal to younger customers? They are covering more exciting/dangerous sports etc, and few potential younger clientele are likely to be concerned that hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia are excluded. I say this because the metal cards were clearly designed to be flashed on Instagram 😂

  • Harry T says:

    13 Aug13 August 10:06

    However, given the card costs £575 a year and the benefits are skewed towards luxury travel, it really doesn’t make sense that they don’t cover over 70s, or give you the option to extend cover to common comorbidities. Unless they literally only want to target the nouveau rich youth or the remarkably hale middle aged? Probably worth noting that a good portion of adults likely have hypertension and deranged lipids, but aren’t aware.

    • Brian says:

      13 Aug13 August 21:58

      Do people actually post pictures of their cards (numbers hidden obvs. Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if they did it with the numbers on) to try and impress random people on the internet? How sad

  • Andreas says:

    13 Aug13 August 10:44

    The appeal is certainly working – SCUBA cover is something I will actually use. 30 meters is shallower than my diving qualification allows, but generally you can see all the good stuff above 30 meters anyway. The metal card is a bit of a novelty, however given I just use Apple Pay, I won’t be flashing the card around (or even taking it with me most of the time). I certainly am not going to be dumb enough to post a picture of my card on social media 😂

    • Harry T says:

      13 Aug13 August 13:22

      I’m led to believe that people post their metal cards on Instagram because it’s only your name on the front and not the card number 😂. Thankfully I don’t have Instagram.

• Alice C says:

  13 Aug13 August 10:04

  My experience with Amex Platinum Insurance resulted in a large judgement against them by the Ombudsman who said it was the worst case they had ever seen in trying to avoid a settlement for what was an unavoidable accident.

  • Harry T says:

    13 Aug13 August 10:37

    Can you share more?

    • Alice C says:

      13 Aug13 August 19:59

      I prefer not to go into much detail Harry T but it took 3 years and a file the size of a small house after a simple broken leg due to a freak fall. And yes it was involving Axa too.

  • Lady London says:

    13 Aug13 August 11:07

    Was that with Axa as underwriters? for me when a policy switches to Axa that’s a warning to look at the small print for downgrades

    • BJ says:

      13 Aug13 August 11:37

      Your posts persuaded me long ago, I don’t consider them for any insurance at all. This new list from amex has done nothing to change my mind.

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