American Express Platinum drops the monthly £10 Addison Lee credit

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

• Mouse says:

  15 Sep15 September 06:05

  Finally gave up on Addison Lee for good a couple of weeks ago after landing at Heathrow to find out that my pre-booked trip hadn’t been allocated a driver and had little prospect of having one allocated in the next hour. The difficulty in making bookings was annoying but their failing to fulfil them was the final straw.

• Maurits Kalff says:

  15 Sep15 September 06:13

  I have never succeeded in booking a car with Addison Lee. It’s a shame, because it was an important factor to choose American Express platinum. Hopefully Uber or Bolt are considered.

  • Thywillbedone says:

    15 Sep15 September 06:50

    Uber on the decline too …takes much longer to make a booking, bookings randomly cancelled (presumably the driver finds a more lucrative job possibly with another app), prices up etc etc. I use Wheely for airport runs …not cheap but thus far has always been reliable.

    • Mat says:

      15 Sep15 September 07:19

      While that may be applicable to London trips, Uber or Bolt credits would be really useful for the trips abroad where it’s still cheaper and you’re more likely to find a driver. That’s if Amex would allow spend in other currencies.

      • Thywillbedone says:

        15 Sep15 September 07:33

        My only overseas data points for Uber in recent times were in Brussels where I failed on several attempts to get an Uber (various times of the day, trying Uber Exec etc) leaving me having to make a dash for the Eurostar when let down by a driver who had accepted the ride.

        • David says:

          15 Sep15 September 20:47

          You could have just used a taxi, or are you able to function without the aid of your phone?

      • Distichon says:

        15 Sep15 September 10:56

        Even if it ended up being domestic-use only, it would still be infinitely more useful than AL for people who don’t happen to live in London…

    • mynameisjonny says:

      15 Sep15 September 08:38

      This was definitely the case for a long while but I think Uber has improved a lot over the last few months. Rarely have issues with it now in Z1/Z2 London.

      • Rob says:

        15 Sep15 September 08:42

        Agreed. Bolt is flakier but cheaper due to their continual in-app discounting.

    • illuminatus says:

      16 Sep16 September 17:03

      Uber is definitely on the decline – it’s much better than it was 12m ago, but equally much worse than it was before – or even during – the ‘pandemic’.

      Wheels so far has been flawless. Too expensive imo for daily trips, but well worth it for airport journeys.

• John says:

  15 Sep15 September 07:31

  The guy 2 doors from me is an Addison Lee driver and I see him driving off at 6am 5 days a week and back at 5pm, so it seems like there is plenty of work or he’s too scared to tell his wife that he isn’t making and money

  • Andrew J says:

    15 Sep15 September 07:33

    There’s plenty of work, not enough drivers that’s the problem.

    • Dan says:

      15 Sep15 September 08:02

      Yup. Definitely a similar problem with Uber outside London too. Can’t get a car for love nor money on a Friday/Saturday night

  • James says:

    15 Sep15 September 08:24

    You ever watched Fake Taxi? His name isn’t John, is it?

  • Gordon says:

    15 Sep15 September 09:31

    @John I bet that there is no crime on your street due to your neighbourhood watch skills….

  • StanTheMan says:

    15 Sep15 September 11:53

    Do you monitor him the other 2 days of the week ? Or are you putting a wheel clamp on his car at the weekend?

• Gilly Gold says:

  15 Sep15 September 07:56

  McLaren tour amazing experience. Starts mid morning with refreshments and luncheon included. I would say approximately a three and a half hour experience with McLaren guest experience staff showing you around in small groups (six of us). To me, worth every point. I have visited three times. Goody bag and professional photo included. The building is amazing as well as the experience as you see the production area for McLaren as well as the iconic racing cars over the years and view the current race car engineering area.

  • Farquan Khan says:

    15 Sep15 September 12:36

    How would you compare it to Mercedes F1 factor tour via Bonvoy?

    • Gilly Gold says:

      17 Sep17 September 09:30

      I have not enjoyed that experience so am not able to comment.

• NFH says:

  15 Sep15 September 08:01

  I agree that the Addison Lee benefit has been useless for a long while. The last time I successfully used it was a pre-booked trip from LHR T5 to Canary Wharf one year ago. The prices for short trips can be extortionate, for example >£40 from LCY to Canary Wharf, so the DLR is far more attractive even with the Amex £10 credit.

• Gagravarr says:

  15 Sep15 September 08:05

  Do we know if the Addison Lee benefit was funded by Amex or AL themselves? Should be fairly easy to replace if Amex paid, much less likely if Addison Lee used to pay and a new self-funding offer is needed to replace it…

  • Rob says:

    15 Sep15 September 08:19

    Very likely to be mainly AL.

• James says:

  15 Sep15 September 08:11

  Well I use AL at least once a month so I’m £120 down – they have had there problems but so have every cab company (pandemic / brexit). Wheely would be a good replacement- they are very reliable

• Charlie T. says:

  15 Sep15 September 08:14

  Thumbs up for the service Wheely provide although too expensive for my suburban self for anything except airport transfers.

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