Get £300 of dining credit every year with American Express Platinum

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• Martin Seebach says:

  20 Jul20 July 12:19

  Does Amex have a newsletter or something? As much as I love HfP, it feels a bit wrong that I have to learn about everything from a secondary source. I’m pretty sure I tick off the box when I signed up for the card, but never received a peep from them.

  • Symon says:

    20 Jul20 July 12:22

    This actually leaked on a Amex Facebook group a couple of days ago. For such a premium product Amex sure does like cheap word of mouth approach.

  • Andrew J says:

    20 Jul20 July 14:15

    They will send an email to members later this week introducing the new benefit I’m sure.

• Symon says:

  20 Jul20 July 12:21

  So when does the fee increase?! LOL. Can’t get my head round the Plat these days. Seems to offer less and less; and this doesn’t really change that. It’s long overdue a major relaunch, but Amex doesn’t seem to want to spend the money.

  • dst87 says:

    20 Jul20 July 12:22

    Bizarre to suggest that Plat offers “less and less” on an article talking about a new benefit worth £300 / year. Surely this is a step in the right direction?

    • Rob says:

      20 Jul20 July 12:30

      I’m confused, because – apart from the short 2-year period when you got got (de facto) a BA Silver card with Platinum – I can’t think of a time when the benefits package was as strong. Perhaps you took the loss of Taj Hotels status harder than I did.

      Feel free to search through the last 10 years of Plat articles on HfP if you think I’m wrong!

      (EDIT: Actually, they did cut the insurance age limit from 80 to 70, which excluded my Mum who used to have my Plat Supp for precisely that reason. That said, she’d fall foul of multiple pre-existing condition rules these days anyway …..)

      • markdhayes says:

        20 Jul20 July 12:50

        This is an improvement but the main benefit I used to use was Priority Pass which aside from No1 prebook (not available everywhere) this benefit is now useless

      • Symon says:

        20 Jul20 July 13:00

        I suppose, big picture, I don’t know what the Plat is these days, and I’m not sure Amex does either. When Amex introduced the AL credit it was clear they’d lost their way imo.

        The card has a legacy of being a top tier premium product. A card for high-net-worth individuals. Yet comes with PP (are cardholders really flying economy?!); which itself seems near worthless looking at the comments. And charges FX.

        You are of course right about this additional offer. Do people still go to The Ivy? But it feels like a knee jerk reaction to the popularity Barclaycard’s new offering, rather than a clear vision for the brand. Just my thoughts.

        • Rob says:

          20 Jul20 July 13:09

          Just think what the comments would be like if they gave you £300 to spend at Brunello Cucinnelli though ….

          The person you describe doesn’t exist. It’s some of weird creation driven by the media. I know people worth £20m+ who fly easyJet all the time because Luton is most convenient from North London. I know people worth £50m+ who buy their clothes in Next. I’m wearing a pair of M&S socks today along with Loro Piana shoes, some Cucinnelli trousers and carrying around an ugly free Dell laptop bag I got via my Business Plat credit last year. It’s all mixed up.

          The idea that wealthy people (let’s define wealthy at £5m+ of assets, albeit that would only buy you a modest flat in West London these day) bathe in champagne, buy their clothes in Loro Piana and eat every meal in Michelin-starred restaurants is complete nonsense. Plat isn’t even positioned that far up the food chain – I would imagine that the median cardholder income isn’t much higher than £70k average HfP reader income.

          Even with AddLee – taxis are aspirational now in London. I doubt Rhys has ever paid for a black cab in his life – when we get one to a meeting he treats it like some people treat business class flights (which, ironically, he does all the time). £70k is probably close to the minimum income required to be able to randomly jump in black cabs to go wherever you need to go without thinking about the cost.

        • John says:

          20 Jul20 July 13:34

          Perhaps you’re thinking about Centurion.

      • Alex W says:

        20 Jul20 July 16:35

        Amex Plat has lost some other useful benefits such as Accor Platinum. Didn’t it have Cathay Pacific status at one point as well?

        • Rob says:

          20 Jul20 July 17:11

          Good point, forgot about Accor. This was top tier status at the time, but Accor is a real minority interest amongst HfP readers if you look at reader numbers for our articles. Cathay was the ‘de facto’ BA Silver.

        • Cat says:

          20 Jul20 July 18:59

          Accor status itself wasn’t terribly interesting, but I did manage to status match myself to Hilton Diamond and whatever the top tier was for Marriott back then, off the back of my Accor Platinum, and then had a lot of fun exploring Hilton lounges around the world (ridiculous, I know, but some of them are absolutely worth it!).

          FWIW, my favourites were the lounge in the Hilton Dubrovnik and the Conrad in Hong Kong – mostly because I like amazing views with my free snacks and booze!

• Tazzy says:

  20 Jul20 July 12:53

  Ireland- north and south again excluded.

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    20 Jul20 July 14:02

    Soneone tell Kemi that Brexit’s not done

• Shamrock says:

  20 Jul20 July 12:54

  I think credit is due to Amex as last week no offer but same fee paid. And today I wake to an extra £300 potential benefit. No complaints from me Amex, good work.

• Chris R says:

  20 Jul20 July 12:59

  I always find the Amex Platinum content and comments interesting. With my BAPP, I pay £250 annual fee and can generally get £1,000+ “value” out of the 241 versus the cheapest CW fares.
  With the Platinum card, most of the narrative is about how you can ‘break-even’.

  • Third Passport says:

    20 Jul20 July 13:45

    This! There are a lot of “nice to have” features but no game changes, for me!

  • JDB says:

    20 Jul20 July 14:02

    Yes, the fact that they charge such a high fee, then feel they have to give you half back as long as you eat at certain restaurants says a lot about the paucity of underlying offering for most people. I don’t see it as ‘free money’ as some describe, it is just giving you back your own money with strings attached. Also, if you had a genuinely valuable product, you wouldn’t need to keep paying retention bonuses; will be interesting to see if these continue at 35k/50k.

  • jj says:

    20 Jul20 July 14:35

    Who mentioned break even? For me in the last 12m, the amount that I would have been prepared to pay to get the benefits received have been insurance £200, car hire discounts £300, Centurion Lounge visits £280 (travelling with large family group in economy plus visits to airports with no open OneWorld lounge), dining credit, £200, HN credit, £100. That’s £780 before the latest benefit, so much more than my fee.

    On top of that, I’ve had car hire upgrades with a list price of about £600, enjoyed room upgrades and other benefits with a list price of at least £1,000 through Fine Hotels and Resorts, enjoyed a 6.30pm checkout at a pricy resort hotel, and generally skipped queues and been treated better due to businesses having an unreasonably inflated perception of my worth.

    I count that as more than breaking even.

    • Thegasman says:

      20 Jul20 July 20:43

      The travel insurance isn’t worth £200 unless you’re handing out maximum permitted number of supplementary cards to those who wouldn’t already be covered as your family anyway. I assume as a Platinum holder you’d also qualify for HSBC Premier (free) which has better cover limits & at least as good claims handling based on my experience of both.

      Car hire discounts could almost certainly have been matched/bettered if you know about Hertz Australia & Brazil.

      I’ve held a Platinum for last 3 years (& previously when cheaper) but the current fee definitely didn’t stack up pre this guaranteed dining offer without the annual hefty retention bonuses. The fact Amex consistently hand them out is a tacit admission of this as JDB has already pointed out.

      • Thegasman says:

        20 Jul20 July 20:48

        Also Emyr could match FHR & car hire status is handed out like confetti.

        Don’t get me wrong, it’s possible to make Plat work in purely financial terms but you’ve got to squeeze Amex for every last drop to do so.

      • jj says:

        21 Jul21 July 00:05

        @Thegasman, nonsense.

        Have you ever priced up worldwide travel insurance with winter sports cover for 6 adults who aren’t your dependents? That’s what I need and that’s what I get with my Platinum card.

        On car hire, Hertz prices were considerably higher for all my trips, as were the prices offered by multiple car hire comparison sites or BA holidays. For one trip, only Avis had last-minute availability for the full size SUV that I needed to accommodate 6 adults, luggage and skis from a small regional US airport over President’s weekend, so I couldn’t possibly have saved money with Hertz. You aren’t the only person who knows how to read the relevant forum thread, btw.

        Everyone’s circumstances are different. The value I get is genuine, but I totally recognise that other people may not get value, and next year I would cancel if the value ran out.

• ThriceForgiven says:

  20 Jul20 July 14:01

  Relatively O/T though still on point for value for money, re Amex Platinum insurance (travel inconvenience/baggage delay):

  Insurance T&Cs state up to £300 if my baggage doesn’t arrive within 4 hours. Are the £300 a) to be claimed against itemised replacement purchases submitted to AMEX via receipts, or b) does AMEX provide you with a £300 credit for you to spend as you see fit?

  In the case of a), does AMEX then check your itemised purchases/validate whether you actually needed to buy the items?

  I’m taking a weekend trip soon and if the worst were to occur, I can still make do without my baggage, but I would like to avail myself of the £300 benefit. I’d rather receive a £300 credit, but if I guess if it comes to it I’d need to go on a clothing shopping spree? How do people normally use this benefit?

  • PIL says:

    20 Jul20 July 15:21

    You will have to submit itemised evidence. It happened to us during Easter £900 worth of clothing later helped to ease the 48h wait for our luggage!

  • Nigel Hamilton says:

    20 Jul20 July 16:05

    I recall claiming for this on an air France Amex gold on flight from Moscow to Ljubljana. Process is the same. I spent 190 eur which included a belt and sunglasses, and Amex paid the lot. I did need to show receipts though.

• Mart says:

  20 Jul20 July 14:15

  To confirm – if a restaurant requires a deposit at time of booking (specifically an Aus restaurant I would like to visit requiring 100USD per head), and then I pay the balance at the restaurant, this will all count towards the spend?

  • Rob says:

    20 Jul20 July 14:52

    The rules say No.

    In reality, as long as the deposit is processed via the same till as you would use to pay the balance on the night, you’re fine.

    You are NOT fine if the deposit is processed at a central head office somewhere with a different merchant ID to the main restaurant.

    • meta says:

      20 Jul20 July 16:15

      Last time I used it at Hélène Darroze and they took the payment the day before I arrived. Got the credit without a problem.

• A says:

  20 Jul20 July 14:51

  New York selection is different compared to the one that ran until the end of last year…and noticeably Balthazar is now missing from that list (but Balthazar london is in the london list…odd!?) which means no take out croissants & bread or a quick brunch there..
  Still, it’s something that wasn’t there before, there are a couple of places near me I will use it at, and the UK credit will for sure get used next time I’m next back in the UK, so all the credit will get used one way or another.

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