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American Express Platinum drops the monthly £10 Addison Lee credit

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With bad timing – since we did an article on the current crazy ‘60,000 points + £200’ American Express Platinum sign-up bonus yesterdayAmerican Express has removed the monthly £10 Addison Lee credit.

You can still claim it for a ride by 30th September, but the offer will then cease.

The letter being sent out to cardholders puts the blame for this change squarely at the feet of Addison Lee.

Addison Lee ends American Express Platinum card £10 benefit

In reality, given that it has been virtually impossible to get an Addison Lee ride since the pandemic started, this will not be a great loss. I couldn’t even book rides from West London to Heathrow with two days advance notice. It seems that the vast majority of AddLee drivers decided during covid that a life delivering Amazon parcels or online groceries was a better option.

The credit was also hopeless, of course, if you lived outside London or one of the cities where AddLee had a co-brand operation.

There is no word of a replacement benefit. In the US, holders of American Express Platinum get $200 per year to spend at Uber or Uber Eats ($15/month, with $35 in December) which would be a substantial improvement if it launched here.

We have updated our main article on the benefits of the American Express Platinum card which is here.


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Comments (48)

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

  • VinZ says:

    Not a loss. After they ruined an event I organised I decided to cancel my biz account with them – I was black tier so I clearly put lots of traffic through them. I asked them to cancel my account 6 months ago and it still hasn’t been done + it took them 6 months to realise that I wasn’t going to pay £700 for a bus that didn’t show up at the agreed pick-up point.

    So bye AL, you won’t be missed. And if Amex was going to introduce a Uber credit we would be in the same place – has anybody successfully managed to get a Uber lately? Not me.

    • Norm says:

      Plenty of UberEats drivers though. As long as it mirrors the US’s either/or offer it’d be a vast improvement.

  • Judge says:

    Free Now would be good. There is a history, as there were excellent Amex credits 2-3 years ago.

  • The_Bouncer says:

    My German issued Amex Plat gives me 10 x €20 Sixt Ride discounts per year. As Sixt Ride is generally pretty overpriced, I tend to use them for fares totalling a little over either €20 or €40, giving me an almost free ride that would cost maybe €12 or €25 with Uber.

  • meta says:

    I’m surprised nobody is commenting that Amex is giving less than 60 days noticed required by the regulator. It’s advertised as a core benefit of the card.

    • Chas says:

      I think I made the point in the comments yesterday (or certainly when I e-mailed Rob with the copy of my letter). I’d have been inclined to complain to Amex except for the fact that I’ve never been able to use the benefit which they can easily see!

      • Rob says:

        I’m sure if you did complain you could get Amex to give you £10 credit for an AdLee ride in October – which you have zero chance, near enough, of booking.

    • JDB says:

      The 60 days notice requirement applies to the terms of the credit card, as in the provision of charge card services/credit/credit agreement, not to the rewards and benefits which are part of a separate agreement. Amex says it will give 30 days notice of changes of changes to the MR programme for instance, unless the change is perceived to be to your advantage. Didn’t hear anyone complain that dining credits were introduced with 60 days notice. The benefits have overall been increased, the change was seemingly outside Amex’s control, so I don’t see grounds for a successful complaint which is the implication of your post.

      • meta says:

        I’ m sorry @JDB, but I just went and checked my main Platinum card agreeement.

        It clearly states the following ( I excluded the rest of the recital for brevity):

        “We can change the agreement, including by changing or introducing fees for any of the following reasons:

        • where we’re changing the card benefits offered with your account;

        We’ll give you at least two months’ notice of the change and give you details of when the change will take effect. If you don’t want to accept any change, then you can always end this agreement by paying off all the amounts you owe us and telling us to close your account (see ‘Ending your agreement’ in Part 2). If you don’t do this, we’ll assume you’ve accepted the change.”

        The separate agreement for card benefits only covers the use of points!

        On that basis given I received a letter on 15 September, I will be asking Amex to give me £20 (October + November) as I could have used the benefit in the first two weeks of November). I’m certain they’ll give it to me without too
        much of a pushback.

        • JDB says:

          You don’t appear to have read the whole agreement, but have plucked selected parts that actually don’t even relate to this type of change; plus ça change.

  • Brian78 says:

    15% of flights being altered at Heathrow on Monday. No compo if you’re impacted apparently

  • James says:

    I spoke on chat to Amex yesterday saying I was considering leaving due to losing the benefit – offered me 35k points to stay. Easy peasy.

  • SRTravels says:

    Well. Having struggled to make use of this credit the entire time I have had my card I tried my luck and managed to use it tonight. Driver was an absolute tool! Drove way too fast and got in a road rage incident with another car. Good riddance. Amex product managers, if you read this, please implement Uber credits in the UK!!

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