LAST CHANCE: Free Shangri-La Jade and Star Alliance Silver status if you have Amex Platinum

If you’re looking to get yourself some hotel status cards quickly, there is no easier route than getting The Platinum Card from American Express.

It comes with SIX hotel status cards.  Five of these are given to you directly and one requires you to complete a status match.  Even better, your partner (or whoever you choose to give your free supplementary Platinum card to) will get the hotel statuses too.

Unfortunately, six is about to drop to four. You can no longer request status with Shangri-La Golden Circle and Taj Hotels from 1st April.

If you have Amex Platinum, you should sign up to Shangri-La Golden Circle by the end of March. Even if you have no immediate plans to travel to Asia, it only takes a few minutes and – as Jade status isn’t bad – it would be a shame to miss out.

What hotel statuses come with The Platinum Card?

American Express Platinum currently offers the following hotel statuses automatically:

• Hilton Honors Gold status

• Marriott Bonvoy Gold status

• MeliaRewards Gold status

• Radisson Rewards Gold status

• Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade status

You can also get the following status via a guaranteed match:

• Taj InnerCircle Gold status (Taj and Shangri-La have a formal status matching programme)

Shangri-La Golden Circle will cease to be a partner on 1st April

As you can see from the American Express Platinum website here:

“Effective 1 April 2021, Shangri-La’s Golden Circle Jade membership will no longer be a benefit of the Platinum® Card. Cardmembers can visit americanexpress.com/uk/benefitstatus to enrol in the benefit. Cardmembers who are enrolled in Shangri-La’s Golden Circle Jade membership as of 31 March 2021, will continue to have access to this benefit in line with the expiry date set out within your Golden Circle Membership, which can be found by logging in to your membership account at shangri-la.com/en/corporate/golden-circle/.”

What does Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade get you?

Shangri-La has only a limited presence in Europe via its luxurious properties in London (in The Shard) and Paris.  It has a large presence in Asia and also operates the lower priced Traders, Hotel Jen and Kerry brands.

(We recently reviewed the £10,000 per night top suite in The Shard – click here.)

Your Golden Circle Jade status will get you:

• 25% bonus base points
• “Priority upgrade to the next available best room category, if the reserved room type is not available at check-in” (I have no idea what this is meant to mean – it appears to mean you are guaranteed not to be downgraded!)
• 11am check-in and 4pm check-out (not guaranteed, and many hotels including London and Paris do not offer it at all)
• three welcome amenities
• free breakfast
• partner stays free, in hotels which charge more for double occupancy

Golden Circle status could work out well for anyone planning to travel in Asia.  The 4pm check-out, if ‘available’ and as long as your hotel is not on the excluded list, is handy.  

All you are guaranteed is the free breakfast and a welcome amenity but overall I think you could do quite well from the benefits above if your hotel was playing ball.

It is worth noting that Hilton Honors Gold is the only other Amex Platinum hotel status which gives free breakfast.

The official list of Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade benefits is here.

You can also get Taj InnerCircle Gold status

The Indian-based Taj Hotels chain and Shangri-La co-operate to allow members the opportunity to earn points at hotels in either chain.  

A status match is part of the package.  You can match your Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade status to Taj InnerCircle Gold status.

This means that Taj InnerCircle Gold status is, unofficially, part of the Amex Platinum benefit package and is another status which will no longer be available from 1st April.

Taj InnerCircle Gold status is not hugely valuable.  Taj InnerCircle Gold benefits are

• late check out
• early check in
• two upgrade vouchers
• 15% discount on room redemption rate

You do NOT need to do the match into Taj InnerCircle by 31st March. As long as you claim your Shangri-La status by then, you can still do the Taj match at any point until your Shangri-La status expires.

You are also losing Star Alliance Silver …..

Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade members also qualify for a one-off one year of Silver status with the Singapore Airline KrisFlyer frequent flyer programme.

I did a separate article here on getting Star Alliance Silver status from Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade. Star Alliance Silver status isn’t hugely valuable but you may want to claim it whilst you can.

Again, you don’t need to trigger Star Alliance Silver by 31st March. As long as your Shangri-La Jade status is claimed by then, you are free to do the Singapore Airlines status match later.

Conclusion

Realistically, Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade status was one of the least useful American Express Platinum hotel benefits if you lived in the UK.

That said, you should sign up anyway by 31st March. It doesn’t take long and you have covered your back in case you do end up visiting Asia over the next year. Your status may even get extended further as chains will be cautious about downgrading people during covid.

The official Amex information about the partnership ending can be found here.

If you want to get American Express Platinum whilst this is still a benefit ….

If you are thinking of applying for the American Express Platinum charge card to take advantage of this benefit before it expires, you can find out more in my review here.

You can apply for the card here. If you sign up in the next day or so, it is very likely that you receive your card before 31st March.

Don’t forget the sign-up bonus is currently 30,000 Amex points which makes the £575 fee more palatable – and there are plenty of other benefits, including airport lounge access.

You will also retain the hotel status cards until their expiry date even if you cancel your Platinum card for a pro-rata refund.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.