Unveiled: the 2025 Amex Platinum dining and Harvey Nichols cashback changes

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• r* says:

  31 Oct31 October 08:59

  Splitting the dining credit is annoying. Now it takes twice as much effort to use and the overseas list is still fairly limiting.

  Is hn definitely going or is this just them extending it because they dont know what to do with it yet?

  Will there be any priority pass prebookings provided next year?

• Geoff says:

  31 Oct31 October 09:01

  My (previously used) HN offer has disappeared from my saved offers and it doesn’t appear in my new offers so no option to add it back in. I was expecting to use the current 6 month’s worth in the run up to Christmas.

  • Luca says:

    31 Oct31 October 09:02

    +1

  • Andrew J says:

    31 Oct31 October 09:03

    Maybe they want us to use it after Jan (in the retail quiet period) by applying this 6 months extension to the second half of this year’s credit.

    • tiriavpo says:

      31 Oct31 October 11:55

      They assure me it is still saved to my card and cannot see why it is not showing for me.

      • Alan says:

        8 Nov8 November 11:57

        Yep, just Amex IT flakiness, will be fine if previously saved and not yet used.

• Stu_N says:

  31 Oct31 October 09:02

  Can’t believe the negativity here. If you never leave your provincial town I agree you’ll struggle to spend the credits, but then I do question why you have a £650 card focused on travel benefits…

  However, if you go to a UK city occasionally, ideally London – but there are options in other places – and do a couple of city breaks a year you’ll spend the credits without really trying. Look at restaurants you fancy, cross-check to the participants and book one in the intersection of that Venn diagram. Hopefully Tim will update the maps if the list of restaurants change (see sticky in Amex sub-forum) to make it even easier.

  • EC says:

    31 Oct31 October 09:08

    More fool you. It’s hard to see how losing £100 worth of HN credit in favour of a harder to use dining credit (that’s just some of your money handed back to you) is a positive

    • Stu_N says:

      31 Oct31 October 09:41

      The HN credit and dining credit are both rebates on the fee. There’s no difference.

      FOR ME its a positive, as I easily used the dining credits, and will continue to do so – but I generally bought something from HN to use the credit.

      FOR YOU it is the other way round.

  • JDB says:

    31 Oct31 October 09:09

    It’s the overseas list that’s really the bigger issue. Nothing in South America, South Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East, China. The European list in eg France and Spain pretty thin outside capital cities and the obvious over touristed places and/or includes some dodgy places. Spending it once was tricky, so now twice as tricky.

    • jj says:

      31 Oct31 October 09:47

      Spot on, @JDB. The UK list is very irritating, though. We have some superb local restaurants that would hold their head high if they relocated to Mayfair, but Amex has decided the UK doesn’t really exist outside the M25.

      • Rob says:

        31 Oct31 October 10:01

        Why Amex? You think Amex pays the £150? AFAIK it is split. Any restaurant willing to cough up can go on the list.

        • SammyJ says:

          31 Oct31 October 10:43

          The owner of the restaurant we dined at in Washington DC had no idea they were even on the list. Had an issue with it as we didn’t get the rebate – Amex said we’d used a 3rd party provider but it was just the card machine that the restaurant uses, hence the conversation arose.

        • jj says:

          31 Oct31 October 10:51

          It’s pretty clear that Amex hasn’t bothered to pick up the phone to any restaurant outside London. That’s what’s irritating.

    • Cat says:

      31 Oct31 October 11:54

      Agreed – annoyingly nothing in Central America either. My only hope for 2nd half of next year is an 8 hour layover in Toronto (on the way to Panama and Costa Rica). Any recommendations?

      For anyone visiting London – I highly recommend Duck & Waffle and Bob Bob Ricard is good fun too. Also, in Hong Kong (which is part of China now, whether they like it or not) I recommend Mott 32 – the food was incredible.

      • meta says:

        31 Oct31 October 12:08

        I had food poisoning at Duck&Waffle, they even admitted and refunded me. So I’m not going there again.

      • Polly says:

        31 Oct31 October 18:24

        We used ours in Singapore in two places.. and one in northern Phuket. Managed to use it all. But this year only in Bordeaux. Which was very nice. Bit more difficult now it’s split.

  • BBbetter says:

    31 Oct31 October 09:14

    This.
    Those not traveling abroad enough – how are they using lounge benefits or car hire insurance?
    Many would also not be eligible for health insurance with existing conditions etc.
    not sure why they hold on to the card.

    • tony says:

      31 Oct31 October 09:39

      I’ve just run a calculation. Year to date I have made around £950 of savings. 12 lounge visits, HN sell quirky stuff so I think it’s good, the food credits used in full plus the member offers (there’s a useful tab on the desktop to track these) and a few free breakfasts via the Hilton gold card.

    • jj says:

      31 Oct31 October 09:56

      Lounge benefits are pretty fringe to anyone who travels business class, which the target Platinum customer would normally do; just the occasional shorter daytime trip in PE or where business class isn’t available. I’ve personally had massive value (>>> £1,000) out of the FHR programme, this year, though.

      • r* says:

        31 Oct31 October 10:06

        Have you actually had that value tho? If you get 100 in resort credit but are paying 90 more than a regular booking would be, I dont think youre getting 100 in value for example

        • BBbetter says:

          31 Oct31 October 10:22

          FHR rates may not be far off the best flexible rates (obviously not in all cases), so unless you prefer prepaid rates, it can be a good deal.

        • jj says:

          31 Oct31 October 11:15

          I’ve had that value because FHR has run 4-for-3 promotions or similar that the hotel won’t countenance matching for a direct sale and I can’t find from any other source. I’m not including the value of the resort credit, upgrade or late check-out.

          The deals have been with mid-sized chains (eg Kempinski). I guess they have data which tells them that Platinum card holders tend to be big spenders for add-on services.

      • Alan says:

        8 Nov8 November 12:00

        Ironically more benefit for those of us living outside London on the PP front as more likely to fly a LCC on shorthaul and thus make use of it (whereas those in London with BA status will already have lounge access).

• Philip says:

  31 Oct31 October 09:07

  Disappointed in this. HN ok as I always order wine (although their inflated prices means it is not really £50). But I will not manage to get an overseas trip in each half of the calendar year where I can use the £100. And we have no restaurants here in Northern Ireland on the local dining list (even worse than Wales with its single one!) which makes that benefit useless unless I can manage to use it on a trip to GB. I have asked Amex if the dreaded Ivy can be added to the list – Ivy Belfast opened recently but did not get added to the list. But my call ended up with someone overseas so I have low confidence in my request getting through to the right person. Maybe I should try to guess email address for Hannah Lewis (who sent the email re the changes) and contact her! As things stand my 2024 local dining benefit is going to go to waste.

  • Ian says:

    1 Nov1 November 07:00

    Ivy Exeter has been around a long time, but wasn’t added.

• Alexthenotsogreat says:

  31 Oct31 October 09:07

  Well I travel fairly frequently and struggle to use the overseas credit – it’s very luck-of-the-draw that it fits in with travel plans. My trips next year are Bulgaria, Malaysia, Indonesia and Portugal – none of which is on the list.

  Overall I’m disappointed – was hoping for something a bit more innovative than just a change (and for some, including me, a worsening) of the existing

• Alan Smithee says:

  31 Oct31 October 09:07

  I think you have misread the HN credit – they are just giving an extra six months to spend not adding another £50.

  • Rob says:

    31 Oct31 October 09:24

    I suppose it’s possible I couldn’t been talking to Amex about these changes for weeks ….

    In reality, amusingly, I knew HN was being dropped before Amex knew because I was doing a little side project with someone from HN who wanted to introduce Bicester-style multi-airline rewards.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    31 Oct31 October 10:00

    You need to read the terms on the offer again. It’s another £50 starting 1st Jan

    • Andrew J says:

      31 Oct31 October 10:07

      According to a poster on the forum – Amex CS confirmed that it’s not a new credit, just an extension of go current timeframe.

      • Rob says:

        31 Oct31 October 10:10

        What is this, open mic night at the local comedy club? Since when did the Amex call centre have a clue?

        I suspect the only reason its been rolled over – given that HN wants out – is that Amex has continued to advertise the card with this benefit attached (ironically HfP has been more circumspect than Amex in advising people of the risks of it ending) and removing it at Christmas would be seen as too short notice.

        It wouldn’t surprise me if Amex is funding the full £50 for the H1 June credit to keep HN involved for longer than it wanted.

        • Andrew J says:

          31 Oct31 October 10:27

          Let’s hope you’re right.

        • ed_fly says:

          31 Oct31 October 10:44

          This made me laugh.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        31 Oct31 October 12:02

        It very clearly said it starts again every 6 month ha when the terms were updated last night.

        It’s disappeared for now but no doubt it’ll reappear.

        • JimBurgessHill says:

          1 Nov1 November 07:21

          It’s reappeared >>

          “ Save this American Express Platinum Card benefit to your Card® and spend in store and online at Harvey Nichols by 30/6/2025 to get 100% back on eligible transactions made up to £50, Benefit valid once every 6 months”
          https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/benefits/retail-and-lifestyle/the-platinum-card/harvey-nichols/

• Dragonlady says:

  31 Oct31 October 09:08

  Lounge access isn’t a ‘ soft ‘ benefit if you can’t get into the lounge ( both Plaza Premium and Priority Pass ) . I’ve been ‘ waitlisted ‘ x3 in the past few weeks ( in Europe) as only ‘ paid ‘ bookings were being granted automatic entry . Waiting an hour is farcical ..If it wasn’t for the car hire insurance ( which I’ve had to use a couple of times ) I’d probably be calling it a day ( and I’ve had the card over 15 years) .

• OnTheRun says:

  31 Oct31 October 09:27

  Don’t mind the UK split actually, but the overseas dining credit split isn’t good, especially due to the very limited country choices on offer. So many countries and cuisines – so little choice offered by Amex Platinum.

  HN credit – I’m happy it’s going, but would have liked to see Selfridges in its place, given the wider variety.

  • LittleNick says:

    31 Oct31 October 09:42

    Agreed, splitting the overseas dining credit is a right pain and makes is less likely I’ll be able to use the 2x£100. Unlikely to renew come end of August next year

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