IMPORTANT: American Express suspends the scrapping of pro-rata card fee refunds

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• flyforfun says:

  28 Sep28 September 13:55

  Wow! I was just looking at putting through the final few hundred pounds to trigger my 2-4-1 earlier than the end of next month cut off I have and then cancel the card. Now I can wait until then max out the validity of the voucher and cancel when I’m ready.

  The 2 year validity remain even if I go to a regular Amex card right? The 2-4-1 is getting to be such a hassle to redeem I need a breather from it. The Barclaycard gives me the benefit of lounge access at a cheaper rate as my travel isn’t often in J or F and I lost status years ago. What’s the best non BA Amex card to go to that doesn’t have a fee or huge fee at least? I may consider a BAPP card in 2 years when I’m eligible for joining bonuses again.

• B_itchingtotravel says:

  28 Sep28 September 14:07

  oh bum, I triggered my Companion Voucher with a spend last night, intentionally delaying it to the last minute so I could travel as late in 2025 as possible (have all my other CVs lined up) My original intention was to trigger in November. At least I get 4x months refund. Need to change future travel plans now! Think I will downgrade to free BA card anyway.

• Freddy says:

  28 Sep28 September 15:54

  “This is only the beginning” Rob Burgess, 2023

  Rob got a role in Hollywood? Sounds like he’s already filmed part 1 and revealed the last few cliffhanger words

  • Coo says:

    28 Sep28 September 16:00

    Freddy – the copycat!

• xcalx says:

  28 Sep28 September 16:02

  Rob says:
  27 September 19:09

  The benefits aren’t being downgraded at all. If you compare what you got 10 years, or even 5 years, ago to what you get now there is no comparison. The only issue is whether the increase in annual fees justifies it.

  Really. I can remember a PP that gave access to airport lounges not the lottery it is today.

  On a personal note. The biggest loss that has never been replaced is the Marco Polo card that gave One World Saphire and all that offers like free seat selection from booking date, extra luggage and alternative options for airport lounges. Can’t see how a HN voucher and a couple of meal discounts compares to this.

  • Rob says:

    28 Sep28 September 16:22

    The MP thing was, if you remember, kept a semi-secret in the UK due to BA’s contract. It was also short lived. If you didn’t read HfP you were unlikely to know about it or, if you did, know what it meant.

    • Mikeact says:

      28 Sep28 September 17:42

      And another, ‘Those were the days !’.

      • polly says:

        28 Sep28 September 20:01

        Loved our MP status… even status matched it, and back again, to maintain silver, great fun. But we do put all spend possible through Amex…

  • Peter K says:

    28 Sep28 September 17:02

    Accor top tier platinum level has also gone, never replaced with anything similar. There are no top tier hotel statuses from platinum now.

    • Rob says:

      28 Sep28 September 17:58

      That’s true, although Accor is a very niche one for HfP judging by the page views on their articles.

      • Roy says:

        28 Sep28 September 23:57

        But maybe if their loyalty scheme was more interesting, or had credit card partners, that wouldn’t be the case?

      • ecugkq30 says:

        29 Sep29 September 09:41

        We would have actively stayed at a lot more Accor properties if we still had Accor Platinum. For now its mainly Hilton (free breakfast for being Gold) and IHG until the end of this year given we were one of the lucky ones who were “gifted” Diamond status in error.

  • SM says:

    28 Sep28 September 22:36

    Agree, have had an Amex for nearly 20 years, Amex plat is meant to a traveller’s card, but the current benefits don’t stack up, disproportionate fees. The MP offer was time-limited but excellent, Accor platinum was a loss too. At present, I only value the HH gold, travel insurance and car hire insurance. Regards the dining benefit, I would be happy to pay when dining out in some of the restaurants on the list and not just get a credit back for part of the annual fees. However, at times I feel I have to make a booking in order to use up the credit before it expires at the end of the year. Heard from a PP CSA that it’s important to log in to the app when searching for lounges, as Amex restricts lounges that are available for Amex issued PP members to use. Not sure if there is any truth in this, but this was from PP.

    • Rob says:

      28 Sep28 September 22:47

      Not true. What IS true is that Amex PP holders cannot access any non-lounge benefits shown on the PP website, eg free spa treatments at Heathrow.

    • Adam says:

      29 Sep29 September 15:49

      I think it is true. There was a PP lounge in Los Angeles. They took my PP card, scanned it and said this card is not eligible. Turned out this lounge did not show up on Amex or even PP app for me. Certainly no 25 USD spend credits for airport restaurants that accepted American PP either 🙁

      • SM says:

        29 Sep29 September 17:17

        Quite possible I think, did ask the PP CSA if he meant dining credits given to some PP members such as that at Grain Store but he said no, there are actual lounge restrictions.

• Lady London says:

  28 Sep28 September 17:09

  Actually I’m not really struggling with the idea of Amex having any problem justifying their offering of inducements on any product-level-prescribed ‘value for money’ test.

  Their target customer clearly has a choice, just about, in the UK market still, as to by what vehicle he chooses to spend or use his money or achieve lifestyle aspects they wish to have. Amex must compete to have customers sign up.and potentially compete again at later points to retain.

  Provided they have controls in place to accept customers and to protect their own credit risk ongoing, and we’ve certainly heard sufficient about that recently, I see no way in which Amex should be embarrassed about their usage of signup and/or retention incentives. After all, they’re a worldwide business, long established in the UK, and they can take a global view as to where their choice of customers and way of managing them will get them.

• Dipesh says:

  28 Sep28 September 17:52

  Amex cards aren’t worth it these days. Put your spending on a long term 0% card and invest the money in high interest accounts. You make a killing and aren’t restricted on what you can buy with it.

  • Harrier25 says:

    28 Sep28 September 19:24

    Thanks for the financial advice. 🙄

  • polly says:

    28 Sep28 September 20:05

    The BAPP is still the best value card, if you manage to earn enough avios per annum, to grab an Asia 241 in J. Admittedly it’s more difficult now with just SIN and HKG to fight for. That’s worth more to us in lieu of investing. As it comes with flexibility. We would not be buying flexible J class fares to Asia.

    • Gordon says:

      28 Sep28 September 21:38

      Hi Polly, Agreed, BAPP is my card option, even with the £250 fee, the once a year 2-4-1, used wisely is a great advantage and cash saver on a cabin that you would not otherwise pay for on a J or F fare to Asia.

  • Freddy says:

    28 Sep28 September 20:54

    That advice doesn’t help me with high business spend

• Thegasman says:

  28 Sep28 September 21:24

  What’s the deal with once in a lifetime bonuses in USA? Do you get one bite of the cherry from the date policy implemented or do previous bonuses exclude you?

  The “big news” won’t be Amex exiting the U.K. market, that would surely fall into the price sensitive information bracket so the SEC would take a dim view of bloggers being tipped off before a public statement.

  • Mikeact says:

    28 Sep28 September 22:21

    The rule of 2, 3, 4, generally applies…

    • Rob says:

      28 Sep28 September 22:49

      There are so many US Amex variants that the lifetime bonus rules have less of an impact. There are 3 different versions of Plat for example, co-branded by different organisations.

  • JDB says:

    28 Sep28 September 23:29

    They are supposed to be once in a lifetime per card type but in practice it can be as little as seven years (effectively the lifecycle of your credit record). What they have in the US that they don’t have here is that at the point of application, it will tell you whether you are eligible for the SUB so you can not proceed and try again later.

    They do offer retentions in the US as it’s a competitive market but unlike the UK, they are these days most commonly conditional. They stopped pro-rata refunds years ago for cancellations but allow them for downgrades.

    Last month US Amex changed the basis for supplementary cards on Plat – I think you used to get three for $175 whereas now you only get one at the higher price of $195 and subsequent ones are chargeable at the same price. There’s also a lot of talk about the launch of a card between Plat and Centurion and that after that access to Centurion lounges and some other benefits would be restricted to that new card and Centurion. Obviously Plat is much more widely held in the US so Amex lounge overcrowding is a big gripe.

    I imagine that at least some aspects of all these changes in the US will reach the UK in due course.

• CarpalTravel says:

  29 Sep29 September 06:28

  Your highlighting that makes provides a compelling reason why they might delay: AMEX is about to make some significant changes their offering(s). Not necessarily the one linked above, but something.

  I imagine certain people would take quite a dim view of them removing pro-rata refunds shortly before making other (presumably detrimental) changes that are likely to result in an increase in the number of people wanting to close their accounts. That would also tie in with Rob’s alluding to their being more news coming.

  • JDB says:

    29 Sep29 September 07:17

    I don’t know what the terms for cards in the Nordic region were, but in the UK they state:-

    “This benefit will start on the date you save the benefit to your Card and end on 31 December 2024.” and “The first benefit period ends on 31 December 2022. The next benefit periods will run annually from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023 inclusive, and 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 inclusive.” so it would certainly be a big deal to remove them although they can, as long as they give notice.

    It’s certainly a very expensive benefit to provide, so maybe the trade off is a higher fee or no dining credit.

    • NicktheGreek says:

      29 Sep29 September 07:38

      Wasn’t part of the idea behind this in recognition of PP access being non existent throughout many UK airports? I don’t know how their arrangement with PP works, but would they pay less per card member if they visited lounges less (ie they couldn’t get in) so this was a balancing exercise? I’d assume they thought the lounge situation would be back to near normal in 2024, and didn’t want to needlessly commit to something.

      In mid 2024 I’m guessing I’ll still have rubbish lounge access, will have used my £300 dining, and on the verge of nothing new as a substitute, the annual fee will no longer be justifiable to me. And I won’t renew.

      • ken says:

        29 Sep29 September 09:02

        Ask yourself this.

        If you didn’t have PP access through AMEX would you buy it ?
        Or if you bought it, would you renew ?

        I think access is unlikely to improve as its been a significant problem in the UK for years. Bundled credit card PP access are going to be the least attractive passengers for lounges, that is giving the least marginal revenue, per visit.

        The food & drink offering is often so poor that you wouldn’t pay for it anyway.

        Has a trivial value to me.

    • ken says:

      29 Sep29 September 09:13

      I wonder if someone at AMEX thought that the non use of the dining credit would be much higher than has turned out, and its proving a more expensive benefit than originally thought.

      No idea what the “Dinner for 2” gets you, but sounds worrying like a glorified Tastecard or the laughingly named Gourmet Society card.

      Better restaurants but can’t use on a Fri / Sat.

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