Amex Platinum survey

[Lady London]

Yeah it was a totally scripted video with a totally compliant media person. I was speculating about the location of his tongue at a couple of moments. Jim Cramer’s shtick was great. Thank you for posting that.

[Lady London]

Yeah it was a totally scripted video with a totally compliant media person. I was even almost speculating about the location of his tongue at a couple of moments. Jim Cramer’s shtick was great. Thank you for posting that.

[NigelHamilton]

TGLoyalty wrote:

Subscription/credit at some crappy chain coffee shop! I can’t believe people still go to Costa / Starbucks in city/town centres when there are so many amazing independents with great coffee.

I agree entirely. But then this site is about picking a Hilton/Marriott etc. when there’s probably a far better boutique in the same destination.

[can2]

Every single time when I’m traveling in the UK, I “try” an independent pizza place spontaneously, and every single time I wish I had the greasy Pizza Express one instead.

Not everybody is brave or experimental, or has the time/resources to chase after independent boutique hotels, cafes and restaurants. Some of us may like the familiarity of a Hilton, for example.

[JDB]

can2 wrote:

Every single time when I’m traveling in the UK, I “try” an independent pizza place spontaneously, and every single time I wish I had the greasy Pizza Express one instead.

Not everybody is brave or experimental, or has the time/resources to chase after independent boutique hotels, cafes and restaurants. Some of us may like the familiarity of a Hilton, for example.

You really don’t need to be brave or experimental to stay in a hotel that offers better accommodation at a lower price than a dreary chain! Independents not only don’t have the enormous costs associated with being part of a chain but are entirely dependent on their reputations so the owner does much more to maintain the premises and look after guests.

These days, a Hilton or IC etc is a guarantee of nothing – there are good ones, middling ones and rubbish ones. It’s really not difficult to find good independents or indeed Airbnb type accommodation.

[meta]

memesweeper wrote:

Am I the only person who had a Pret sub and never drank the coffee? (well, maybe the filter first thing in the morning if desperate). The expresso (and derivatives) is appalling, but the tea and matcha are absolutely fine!

Their matcha is an undrinkable mixture of coloured powder, but it’s like that in 90% of places outside Japan. This is because people can’t tell the difference between seven different tastes of matcha plus they each require brewing at different temperatures. It’s not just about the foam.

[can2]

I think it is simply because the horror stories I experienced in chains were handled better than those in independents.
Similarly, for food poisonings I had at various independent international eateries were quite awful.
I never forget: my favourite Asian “sweets” place in Bristol was later given 1 for food hygiene “for live insects on food preparation areas”.
That’s your average independent and adventurous eating in England, for me :))

JDB wrote:

can2 wrote:

Every single time when I’m traveling in the UK, I “try” an independent pizza place spontaneously, and every single time I wish I had the greasy Pizza Express one instead.

Not everybody is brave or experimental, or has the time/resources to chase after independent boutique hotels, cafes and restaurants. Some of us may like the familiarity of a Hilton, for example.

You really don’t need to be brave or experimental to stay in a hotel that offers better accommodation at a lower price than a dreary chain! Independents not only don’t have the enormous costs associated with being part of a chain but are entirely dependent on their reputations so the owner does much more to maintain the premises and look after guests.

These days, a Hilton or IC etc is a guarantee of nothing – there are good ones, middling ones and rubbish ones. It’s really not difficult to find good independents or indeed Airbnb type accommodation.

[Gavin454]

Caps44 wrote:

Harvey Nichols and the UK dining credit are great, it’s basically £250.
So fee is reduced to £400.
Next year we would be able to use the foreign dining credit, so fee effectively £250.

If the HN and dining credits are stopped them likely have to cancel.

For most people the credits are probably worth somewhat less than face value. I would never normally shop at HN and have used the credit to get consumable gifts from the gift shop/alcohol section the past 3 periods. But I’d say I’m getting maybe £30 of value from the £50.

The dining credit is at restaurants that I’d not be visiting at full price. I’ve had some nice meals, but the value here is hard to calculate because I’d never have spent that much without the credit. Perhaps £75 value per £150 credit for me. Meaning that for example, eating at The Ivy might come to £100, but I could eat somewhere else of my own choice just as good and just as filling for only £50.

[TGLoyalty]

NigelHamilton wrote:

TGLoyalty wrote:

Subscription/credit at some crappy chain coffee shop! I can’t believe people still go to Costa / Starbucks in city/town centres when there are so many amazing independents with great coffee.

I agree entirely. But then this site is about picking a Hilton/Marriott etc. when there’s probably a far better boutique in the same destination.

Personally I pick where I want to stay and the tips and tricks on this site helped make stays more comfortable including GHA SLH etc so not just your big 4 global chains.

For example Indigo’s are genuinely the best boutique hotel in some second cities and have to say they’ve smashed it in Coventry it pips the Telegraph hotel which will probably be feeling the burn of being outside a big group this summer. Stratford is great too.

Marriott has some genuine class leading properties which are up there with the best in town. W Edinburgh, Uni Arms Cambridge, The Reach in Manchester could be another while the W absolutely will be. I think they’re probably not there in London but plenty major/capital cities worldwide where they have a property that’s very favourable vs the competition.

I’m okay with using chain coffee shops when that’s all that’s around but you won’t find me in one in a city centre anywhere and especially not London. Its like that with hotel chains.

[jj]

I have much more of a problem with chain restaurants than chain hotels, as chains are about consistency. If a dish has a consistent taste across the seasons and in different towns, that’s not natural. It can only be achieved with industrial centralised kitchens, flavourings and flavour enhancers, and a host of additives that preserve shelf life and texture when the dish is transported, stored, and repeatedly cooled and reheated.

I would genuinely prefer to eat food that an insect has crawled over. I have an immune system to cope with that.

[Caps44]

Gavin454 wrote:

Caps44 wrote:

Harvey Nichols and the UK dining credit are great, it’s basically £250.
So fee is reduced to £400.
Next year we would be able to use the foreign dining credit, so fee effectively £250.

If the HN and dining credits are stopped them likely have to cancel.

For most people the credits are probably worth somewhat less than face value. I would never normally shop at HN and have used the credit to get consumable gifts from the gift shop/alcohol section the past 3 periods. But I’d say I’m getting maybe £30 of value from the £50.

The dining credit is at restaurants that I’d not be visiting at full price. I’ve had some nice meals, but the value here is hard to calculate because I’d never have spent that much without the credit. Perhaps £75 value per £150 credit for me. Meaning that for example, eating at The Ivy might come to £100, but I could eat somewhere else of my own choice just as good and just as filling for only £50.

Harvey Nichols, my wife uses it for her regular beauty creams, so that’s something that is tangible.
The Uk dining credit again, places we would usually eat for a treat, birthdays etc…just used our 2024 credit at Daphnes.

So I see this as £250 cash back. Hotel status is useful, especially for Marriott. But if the HN and dining go, then the card is pointless for us and I would move to the Marriott one.

[TGLoyalty]

If you want to get some real value out of the Amex dining credit consider First table there’s are a few places on there I would revisit and makes them genuine value. Just have to pay £6 to book and either dine on the first or last table of the sitting.

[can2]

jj wrote:

I have much more of a problem with chain restaurants than chain hotels, as chains are about consistency. If a dish has a consistent taste across the seasons and in different towns, that’s not natural. It can only be achieved with industrial centralised kitchens, flavourings and flavour enhancers, and a host of additives that preserve shelf life and texture when the dish is transported, stored, and repeatedly cooled and reheated.

I would genuinely prefer to eat food that an insect has crawled over. I have an immune system to cope with that.

Wrong, you don’t have an immune system for that — unless you are an antibiotic denier.
E. coli is not a joke, especially if you have a small child, or travelling internationally

[jj]

@can2 this is way off topic, but the last time a restaurant meal made me ill was a beach shack in Turkey, 1994. After eating I discovered the loo was a hole in the sand with a small bowl of brown water as an alternative to toilet paper. The chef used the same loo and the outcome was predictable. I’m sure I’ve ingested a few germs since then, but I must have had an immune system for them.

[can2]

Speaking of,
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c51n0731nklo

It is ironic how the discussion on the Plat card evolved into food poisoning 😉

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

can2 wrote:

Speaking of,
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c51n0731nklo

It is ironic how the discussion on the Plat card evolved into food poisoning 😉

I absolutely bloody love a food poisoning story though. Prawns have done me in 3 times:
At the Grand Lux Cafe in The Palazzo Vegas
On board Iberia LHR to MAD
In the Cathay F lounge before a flight to JFK where I deleriously hallucinated that the rest of the passengers had frozen

[tbtb31]

How did everyone receive their survey? Via email? App?

[strickers]

Email.

[Nomad312]

Via email. There was a lot of emphasis on what benefits were important to you and which possible new ones might be (asked a couple of times to allocate a total of 100 points across various options, the more points given the greater the importance).
Hardly any of the suggested new additions appealed to me at all.

I think they’d be daft to mess with the dining credit but I hope they’ll confirm one way or the other soon. The value I’m likely to get from the insurance and airport lounges next year is less than the fee so I’d rather not gamble as to what the other benefits might be when renewing.

[Maples]

I had only received an email for the Cashback Everyday card.

[Caps44]

Interesting that Amex France removed the international part of the dining credit last year.

[Maples]

Bringing this thread up after seeing the changes to Amex Gold in the US including $7 per month credit for Dunkin Donuts. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a £5 credit each month for Starbucks for the UK Platinum based on the survey.

[dannyc]

£5 a month credit for Starbucks would be more or less a coffee…one coffee a month… They are delirious if they think that would prompt more sign ups.

[Paul]

Surely the benefits need to aspirational? The dining credit does this and has allowed me to dine where I otherwise would not. HN is also useful whereas Pret a mortgage is not somewhere I would even consider.

[JDB]

Paul wrote:

Surely the benefits need to aspirational? The dining credit does this and has allowed me to dine where I otherwise would not. HN is also useful whereas Pret a mortgage is not somewhere I would even consider.

I think the Plat card long ago gave up the idea of being aspirational. Of course it should be, but when it offers access to second rate lounges (save the small number of its own brand ones) and only offers status in the most boring mass market hotel chains as the principal benefits, the facts speak louder than the marketing guff.