How to create an Amex Platinum insurance certificate before you travel

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• Arnie says:

  21 Jan21 January 08:30

  I’m also interested in the age question. I gave up my Platinum card at 70 because having called them to confirm they said no. But I guess it allows to your 70 th Birthday then stops at that point. I think the Business Platinum goes to 80 but not sure.

  • Peter says:

    21 Jan21 January 09:04

    That’s correct

• PlaneSpeaking says:

  21 Jan21 January 09:24

  I went to their site for a certificate but there was only the option for single destination and not multi. I attempted to use their chatbot but it understood absolutely nothing. I asked to speak to a live agent with various different permutations but it didn’t understand and amazingly, said it would put me through to a live agent before closing the chat completely! I called Amex Platinum to explain the situation and they put me through to Europ Assistance. I went through the automated menu, entered my card number and was put through to listen to people laughing and having a lovely time but with nobody to say hello and I was cut off around 15 seconds later. I called Amex again, explained the situation and was put through to Europ Assistance again. This time, I was simply cut-off before I could enter my account number. I again called Amex and got through to the first person I’d spoken with and she said she’d stay on the line until she got a real person and this actually happened. The real person didn’t know if a multi-destination certificate was possible but said she’d check. She came back a moment later and said no – I’d have to download certificates for each country. If it’s this difficult to get a certificate, I dread to think what it would be like with a requirement for urgent medical assistance. Posting all of this to save other people wasting their time. I never had these issues with Axa.

  • Gosia44 says:

    21 Jan21 January 09:54

    Thank you for this post. I have been considering the Platinum Card for some time with insurance being a critical component and I now have serious doubts. A family member had a nasty accident abroad a few years and and spent over a month in a hospital in Asia. The last thing you want is any trouble communicating with the insurance company.

    • Gosia44 says:

      21 Jan21 January 10:05

      *a few years ago

    • Rob says:

      21 Jan21 January 10:22

      Remember that you don’t need a certificate for the majority of trips.

      That said, Europ is having teething issues. There is a reader who is struggling to get a car rental claim paid because he didn’t book with Amex, even though the insurance document is very clear that you don’t need to pay with Amex to get the car rental benefit.

      • Gosia44 says:

        21 Jan21 January 11:11

        Yes Rob, you do not need a certificate for majority of trips, but when you do need one and do not have it then you are in major trouble. You only find out how much your insurance in worth when you really need it.

      • Drolma-la says:

        21 Jan21 January 18:43

        I know it used to be the case that you didn’t need to pay for car hire with The Platinum Card in order to be covered by the insurance. But that is not made clear anywhere in the current documentation, and I’m having trouble finding out whether or not the cover has changed so as to require payment by the card.

        • Rob says:

          21 Jan21 January 19:09

          It is. There is a paragraph somewhere listing what DOES require card payment and car hire is not on.

      • KieranM says:

        22 Jan22 January 09:36

        I’ve got the same issue right now and they’re slow. Took a week to review documents (they say their SLA is 3 days) and then they ask for a document that was already uploaded.
        A further week later, they’ve just asked for “Proof that the booking was paid for with the American Express card”.
        Used the chat function to query this and immediately told “You are correct. you do not need to show proof of Amex payment for CDW. I will report it immediately, so the agent who sent you the email can rectify”

  • Venturelog says:

    21 Jan21 January 12:50

    I have done this in the past when with AXA via the Amex chat\call for Europe cover. Try calling them on platinum number.

• Susie says:

  21 Jan21 January 09:56

  All of this is very concerning. For those of us who travel all the time, multiple destinations in one trip, it sounds as if its totally useless. What’s required is one certificate that is valid for the duration of the card.

  • Rhys says:

    21 Jan21 January 10:09

    ….except that you don’t really need the certificate. How often do you get asked to prove you are insured?

    • Gosia44 says:

      21 Jan21 January 10:14

      When you are unconscious and transported to a hospital in a location with very different standards to what you are used to in Europe, US or Australia, and your family member tries to prove that you do in fact have insurance, believe me, having a document with your name on it, is a matter between life and death.

      • Peter King says:

        21 Jan21 January 13:47

        Surely if you incapacitated and don’t have your insurance certificate on you (who does) they can just perform a wallet biopsy and use your amex card to pay for the treatment

    • JDB says:

      21 Jan21 January 10:31

      As per @Gosia44 – it’s rare to need a paper certificate but there are occasions when you would greatly benefit and it can be a lifesaver. Many countries aren’t as paperless as us and no paper, no deal.

      The same would apply for taking one’s car to the continent. You have a choice – take a paper certificate of motor insurance that confirms you are covered in the relevant country or, if stopped, accompany the police while they check.

      It probably sounds old fashioned to a youngster but physical documents of all sorts are still essential in many countries.

• aq.1988 says:

  21 Jan21 January 10:34

  Thanks for the reminder. Just generated certificates for a couple of upcoming trips, and one improvement over the old process is that you can add a beneficiary when filling in your details, so I was able to add my wife and daughter’s names to the certificate, without needing to generate their own ones, as was the process previously.

• SteveCroydon says:

  21 Jan21 January 10:46

  I’ve just been to Switzerland at the beginning of January and had to get an insurance certificate from Europ Assistance. A bloody awful process. There’s no direct phone number anywhere to contact them, only via the Amex call centre. God help you if you have to go via the Manila office! Neither AXA or EA offer the multi-country option on the certificates.
  Along with other general downgrades in the AMEX service and the general uselessness of Priority Pass, I don’t see myself renewing Platinum in March.

• PlaneSpeaking says:

  21 Jan21 January 10:56

  @Susie – I agree with you completely and maybe they’ll fix it at some point but for now, I ended up printing 3 certificates but made sure that the end date of the last sector is the date we land back in London and not the date we leave our departure country as the return flight lands the next day. Also and to those who say a certificate isn’t needed, I agree with @JDB – a paper certificate might not be a requirement for each of the 3 countries in our itinerary but having them stated gives me comfort, particularly if the aircraft is diverted to an unplanned country and there’s a medical emergency and where a certificate might be needed? Unlikely I know but I like to be prepared for all eventualities. Also, the certificate scenario was a test for me to see how easy it is to deal with a company I’ve never dealt with before to give me a flavour of what I’m likely to be faced with when I really need them. In this case, forewarned is definitely forearmed.

• Janet says:

  21 Jan21 January 11:58

  I am trying to decide whether to renew my annual insurance or not now I have platinum. I often do not pay flights with Amex or hotels with Amex as they are often paid in euros and i have a CC with no transaction fees so use this. I am reading various threads about only having cover if paid with Amex and finding this a bit unclear as the Amex website says cover when paid by card…

  • Reney says:

    21 Jan21 January 17:01

    I have just had a claim rejected because I did not pay on my card even though it would cost more as it was non GBP. Does anyone know what would be the likely outcome if I complained or take it to FOS. I feel like I should not have to pay more to benefit from the insurance. A follow up question, what if someone else in the travel party paid on my behalf? If a group is travelling we book our flight as one booking so that we are not separated, it would not be feasible for everyone to pay on their own card.

    • Bilal Mo says:

      25 Jan25 January 19:18

      On fx question, 2.99% is a feature of all non sterling transactions. Crazy yes especially for a ‘travel’ credit card, but you won’t get anywhere with a complaint on that. As an aside, when I successfully claimed back medical costs paid in mexican pesos on the Platinum, axa reimbursed me the forex charge too.

• Domo1915 says:

  21 Jan21 January 16:39

  Good point on the HSBC premier insurance. I’ve naively thought if I have the policy document and card I’m fine. Do you need to print certificates with HSBC Premier too?
  A quick glance comparing the two it seemed Premier was better cover for medical. Amex better for travel disruption etc.
  I had always thought if I need to claim I’d call either one based on situation end up in. If it’s me needing the emergency medical treatment and I’m not in a position to sort the claim myself and it falls to my wife we’re screwed anyway.

  • JDB says:

    21 Jan21 January 17:02

    The Amex Plat is actually much weaker on travel disruption! As you say, if you have both, you just need to decide which policy to claim on depending on the specific circumstances.

    It’s not essential to have a certificate, but it can be useful in some circumstances and it’s useful to have the policies downloaded so you can quickly search as and when needed plus of course having the relevant telephone numbers in your contacts. Then hope you never need any of the above.

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