British Airways Premium Plus membership fee refund

[JellyFan]

Andrew J wrote:

Agreed, hopefully this will be an end to unduly generous SUBs and Amex move to incentivising customer retention instead of acquisition.

It would be nice if Amex would run a “loyalty” program, similar to most airlines and hotels; rather than offering a large SUB, points could be issued at yearly intervals or once spend targets were met.

I realise they wish to incentivise growth, but the current model encourages users to cancel once the SUB has cleared, to start the clock ticking on when the next SUB can be earned.

Surely rewarding customer loyalty would pay off better in the long run?

[zapato1060]

JellyFan wrote:

Andrew J wrote:

Agreed, hopefully this will be an end to unduly generous SUBs and Amex move to incentivising customer retention instead of acquisition.

It would be nice if Amex would run a “loyalty” program, similar to most airlines and hotels; rather than offering a large SUB, points could be issued at yearly intervals or once spend targets were met.

I realise they wish to incentivise growth, but the current model encourages users to cancel once the SUB has cleared, to start the clock ticking on when the next SUB can be earned.

Surely rewarding customer loyalty would pay off better in the long run?

I think the two year wait is enough to filter out the SUB leavers. Its their prerogative, its not like its the old 6 month interval as that was taking the mickey to a high degree. And I know many have a strong opinion wether for or against but even Rob pushes the “ditch and get a pro rata refund”. Its all over this shop.

[JDB]

@Zapato1060 I think the clue is in your last sentence “Its all over this shop”. There are just so many people encouraging churning now that what was a minority sport has attracted too many clumsy amateurs (some of which we see from posts on this site) which make change very probable. There are divergent views in Brighton about this but the generosity of SUBs here is completely out of kilter with Amex policy in the US and EU. Probably the arrival of Barclays has helped the ludicrous re-re welcome bonuses. The open discussion here re retention bonuses also strikes me as being most unwise.

Of course the risk of waiting out the two years has increased as the credit environment has changed so markedly after ten plus lax years and will get much tougher as inflation, higher interest rates and unemployment start to feed through to personal incomes and balance sheets. Falling house prices and eroded savings will also feature.

Lastly, even Rob has previously remarked how Amex actively encourages disloyalty and personally I do find it a bit much that Amex rewards churning and effectively penalises long term customers. Again, the arrival of Barclays now gives one options and the BAPP is the only card in the Amex portfolio with a USP.

[JellyFan]

zapato1060 wrote:

Its their prerogative

Sure it is, I haven’t claimed otherwise.

The system being set up in such a way as to reward this behaviour is the problem, not the people who take advantage of that.

JDB wrote:

Lastly, even Rob has previously remarked how Amex actively encourages disloyalty and personally I do find it a bit much that Amex rewards churning and effectively penalises long term customers.

As I said above: I’d like to see Amex emulate airline & hotel reward schemes that encourage repeat customers, as opposed to mimicking bank or telecom firms that offer the best deals to new customers in an attempt to bribe them into switching from their current provider.

Amex’s current system revolving around ever-increasing SUBs seems at odds with the companies I assume they see as peers in the travel & hospitality industries.