Win one million Membership Rewards points and one million Virgin Points

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• Nick says:

  13 Nov13 November 06:12

  Just for info, the Virgin Red competition entry is also on the desktop site.

• Tony says:

  13 Nov13 November 07:19

  Amex experiences competition only for Gold? If platinum but not yet got the app say?

  • Rob says:

    13 Nov13 November 08:57

    Yea, Gold only.

• Manya says:

  13 Nov13 November 07:44

  Agree with the sentiment that the experiences app may make it ‘too easy’ to enrol for experiences.

  I tried to apply for a couple of the latest experiences shortly after receiving the email on Monday only to be told they were already booked. Frustrating as that’s generally the response I get each time new events are released. I can’t recall having attended any experiences this year.

  I also did check my app and the new events weren’t listed at time of checking so proceeded with the slower telephone registration.

  Am I really that slower versus everyone else to try to register or are the emails received in a staggered manner?

  I received my email from platinum events at Monday at 11:01am

  • TGLoyalty says:

    13 Nov13 November 16:37

    I had a mailer through the post a couple days before the new experiences were live saying they were going live at 9am that day

• Cat says:

  13 Nov13 November 09:12

  Tap are unbelievably awful to fly with. I flew to Madeira with my sister’s family in October. As my nieces are 3 and 7 years old, we booked the more expensive flights heading to Lisbon in the afternoon, arriving 7pm ish, then heading on to Madeira the next morning, all at reasonable hours, to minimise the chance of the three year old having a meltdown. Tap cancelled our flight, due to problems at Lisbon airport, and would only offer us flights that arrived in Madeira at times like 1am (that would have cost half the price of our more expensive daytime flights, if we’d paid for them instead). I phoned and begged for them to reroute us with BA or Easyjet, missing out Lisbon altogether, but they refused, and were incredibly rude (one agent hung up on me, the other responded to everything I asked by repeating the same line about looking at my options online, like a broken record – he refused to let me speak to a supervisor or manager).

  Our flight to Lisbon was then delayed for about an hour and a half, so we missed our connection by minutes (people on a flight to Tangier were put on a separate bus to make sure they made their connection, but the two dozen people on the same onward flight to Madeira were told we had loads of time. We didn’t – the gate had just closed when we got there) . We all then had to trek across the airport until we found a Tap desk still open, only to be told everyone would have to book our own hotel and Tap *may* reimburse them. The only flight options we were offered left at 6am,via the Azores (meaning we would all get less then 2 hours sleep in our hotel room, before having to come back to the airport) or catch the flight we missed, but 24 hours later, getting in at 1am (meaning two consecutive nights of hell with two young kids, and the inability to check into our holiday rental).

  We went with the 6am flight via the Azores, then arrived in Madeira without our luggage. The luggage arrived 3 days later, and now we face probably a year of battling Tap to get them to reimburse the things we bought in the meantime (on the basis of online forums, Tap seem to delay paying out for as long as possible, as most people give up). Yes we have insurance (my sister is my Plat supplementary cardholder), but we have to apply to the airline first of all.

  Anyway, I highly recommend you fly with anyone rather than Tap. They’re just awful. The £40 discount is not worth it.

  • David S says:

    13 Nov13 November 09:51

    Flying with TAP is fine when all goes well. It’s their almost total lack of decent customer service that’s their weakness. They make BA look world class by comparison

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      13 Nov13 November 13:27

      Sure they can teach BA a thing or two then when IAG manage to buy them

    • Cat says:

      14 Nov14 November 06:05

      I was shocked by just how openly rude CS were being, on the phone. They just don’t care about their customers at all!

  • meta says:

    13 Nov13 November 10:29

    @Cat I know they are the worst when it goes bad and I only fly them when it’s absolutely necessary.

    With TAP, it’s important not to wait at all. Send them a letter before action straight away. Don’t even bother engaging with CS as they will not respond or respond four-fivd months later.

    LBA giving them 21 days to respond then MCOL is the only way. They will respond to that given the history of their planes being impounded at various airports around the world and accounts frozen in Germany for non-payment of EU compensation. They’ve learned their lesson with that I think.

    It should all be done within 2-3 months max.

    • Mikeact says:

      13 Nov13 November 17:39

      Should have gone direct with BA.

      • Cat says:

        14 Nov14 November 06:14

        My sister didn’t want to get up at 3:30am, to leave for the airport at 4am for the 07:30 flight with a 3 year old and a 7 year old. The BA flight was my preferred option too, but I let her choose the flight times, according to what she thought the girls could cope with.

        We are now completely on board with “Take Another Plane”!

    • Cat says:

      14 Nov14 November 06:10

      Thanks @meta – I’ll get on that next weekend. I just wanted to have one weekend that wasn’t entirely dominated by chasing lost luggage, chasing compensation claims from airlines, and now – washing and rewashing smelly clothes that were damp and trapped in a bag for 8 weeks!

      It was nice to focus on something else for once!

      Next weekend, I’ll start sending an LBA threatening MCOL, CCing everyone and their aunt.

      I really appreciate the advice! How are you anyway, meta?

      • meta says:

        14 Nov14 November 19:50

        Jet lagged. I can’t yet fully recover from spending several months in a different time zone, even though it’s been five days since I came back.

    • LadyP says:

      14 Nov14 November 21:37

      Thanks so much for this advice, @Meta. If we were offered two business class seats on TAP to anywhere in the world completely free of charge, we would decline rather than ever fly this airline again.

      Very similar experience to @Cat last week, routed through Lisbon from Faro but leaving 1.5 hours late. Boarding closed on connecting flight although plane still at the gate. Also refused seats on last flight an hour later. No assistance at all airside. Same very long trek through airport, 3 hour wait to be dealt with, surly manners, had to book own hotel etc. Easyjet every time from now on.

      Will send in LBA tomorrow. Checking their address. Companies House gives 2.01 and 2.02 Vauxhall Sky Gardens, 153 Wandsworth Road SW8 2GB. Google gives their address as Terminal 2, London Heathrow Airport. Any ideas which is right – or maybe mail both?

  • AJA says:

    13 Nov13 November 10:35

    @Cat You sem to be having a run of bad luck with flights. Hope you’ve had a payout from AA.

    As others have said TAP is awful when it goes wrong. Still living up to the unofficial slogan that TAP stands for Take Another Plane.

    • Cat says:

      14 Nov14 November 06:18

      I haven’t had the best luck with flights recently @AJA!

      AA have agreed a compensation amount, that is actually surprisingly fair, all things considered. They should have done it 2 months ago, though. I now just have to wait for the payment to go through.

      Completely agree with the unofficial slogan, along with ours – “TAP are cr@p”, which was said on holiday often (outside of the girls’ earshot, obviously!).

• Alan says:

  13 Nov13 November 09:47

  Is the Amex Experiences app any good? Does it offer anything different than the brochures they send out with Michelin-star tastings for a few hundred quid in London? I’m yet to see anything interesting in the brochure or the emails so just wondering if they offer anything different in the app?

  • Rob says:

    13 Nov13 November 10:28

    They list a few global Plat events just in case you happen to be travelling but not much else except for reminders of the card benefits.

    Occasionally the odd extra event is added between the quarterly mailings.

• Sammyj says:

  13 Nov13 November 09:57

  I can’t find any form in the Amex Experiences app, and it seems to be for Platinum cards (I closed mine a few months ago, but had the app previously from that, and now have a Gold card) – what am I doing wrong?!

  • Rob says:

    13 Nov13 November 10:25

    Did you select Gold when you installed the app?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    13 Nov13 November 16:37

    There no log out so I think you need to delete and reinstall.

• Kevin C says:

  13 Nov13 November 11:08

  A note with this quarter’s Platinum brochure said it would be the last one they sent out. I applied for the tasting of the somewhat expensive cognac. Unsurprisingly I wasn’t picked.

  I assume the gold experiences are just for gold personal card holders or are business gold holders included as well?

• Justin says:

  13 Nov13 November 12:34

  Hi Rob,

  Are you aware if it’s possible to switch between Platinum and Gold within the AmEx experiences app?

  I signed up under Platinum when it first came out but am unable to find a way to access anything related to my Gold Card.

  Thanks.

  • Anthony says:

    13 Nov13 November 12:46

    You need to delete the app and download it again to be able to switch unfortunately

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