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Hi All,
I signed up for the platinum card, I have met the spending threshold and have 98k points in my account.
I haven’t used the dining credit but I have used the Harvey Nichols credit.
My husband has just taken out the bapp card on the 50k offer as he was on my family ba executive club account
How do I go about cancelling the platinum card? Do I need to transfer all of my points to avios first? Do I down grade to another card or just be a card holder on my husbands ba card? The whole point of us opening Amex was to amass enough points for 2 decent business class flights to somewhere nice in 2025 with a companion voucher which we will have around 200k points between us.
Sorry for all of the questions.Depends on do you want to keep the points in MR format of happy to move them to avios.
Option 1. Move to avios and close (chat or call)
option 2. open a ARCC (get your husband to refer you) make sure you have one MR account (sometimes you have a separate one) and then close plat card. BUT keeping MR points alive means you are prevent from future plat bonus. This card is free, implication of another credit search
Option 3 should be able to downgrade to a gold card (free for year one) or a green card (has a fee). You might be to downgrade to ARCC too.Essentially option 2 and 3 is the same, both keep MR points alive, one gets extra referral bonus but has implication on credit search – trade off both impact on future bonus
Thanks for the reply
Arcc = Amex reward card?
Mr account/points ??Pretty much what @Reney has said above, but I thought the Green card was not open to new applicants?
You can also still use the dining credits before you cancel.
@Reney could you explain you abbreviations please 🙏
ARCC = Amex rewards credit card. Rob’s review here https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/04/02/review-american-express-rewards-credit-card-4/
MR = Membership Rewards (ie Amex points)ARCC = American Express Rewards Card. Its the clear, free card that earns 1 point per £1 spent.
MR = membership rewards, which are the points you earn on Platinum, Gold, Green and ARCC. These are can be converted to many different airlines/currencies, including avios.
The BAPP earns avios.
Go to your local Ivy restaurant, and buy a £150 gift card to use the dining credit first. I am sure you know, but the HN and dining credits reset on 1st January, so you can spend them again if you spent them last year.
I would fully transfer your points to your airline, and close the account completely. This will reset your 2 year waiting period for future bonuses.
OP applied recently, so must have got the credit card version. Therefore cannot downgrade to Green card. Can downgrade to ARCC or gold.
Also, factor in the possibility of being offered a retention bonus when you try to cancel the platinum card.
A morally ambiguous person may decide to accept it and then cancel the following month.Apologies jumping on this thread. If I cancel my platinum card, but have a fine hotels and resorts booking later on this year. Will the hotel insist me using the actual platinum card for payment at check in? Thanks all.
FHR is fine but you will need to use AN Amex card to pay the bill. (In reality you can often use something else at check-out if the front desk person is half asleep but you should expect to have to show an Amex at check-in.)
FHR is fine but you will need to use AN Amex card to pay the bill. (In reality you can often use something else at check-out if the front desk person is half asleep but you should expect to have to show an Amex at check-in.)
Thank you1
I have some related but slightly different questions around cancellation of the Platinum Card – hope it’s ok to add them here rather than open another thread.
1. The changes to pro-rata membership fee refunds – I know this is set to change at the end of February. But during the early stages of Covid I had a period without work (I’m a freelancer) and at the time Amex were happy to change my upcoming annual Platinum membership fee to a monthly payment arrangement. In practice that has remained in place ever since. When searching I haven’t been to find any details for monthly payers (I suspect this is an informal arrangement and not something they typically offer). Does anybody know… if I kept the card beyond February and beyond my next anniversary month, would I be able to give notice and cancel whenever I like, or would I be on the hook for the whole year until the next anniversary?
2. Want to double check, with the yearly and six-monthly dining and Harvey Nichols benefits, there’s no problem spending these in January and cancelling in February or March?
I have some related but slightly different questions around cancellation of the Platinum Card – hope it’s ok to add them here rather than open another thread.
1. The changes to pro-rata membership fee refunds – I know this is set to change at the end of February. But during the early stages of Covid I had a period without work (I’m a freelancer) and at the time Amex were happy to change my upcoming annual Platinum membership fee to a monthly payment arrangement. In practice that has remained in place ever since. When searching I haven’t been to find any details for monthly payers (I suspect this is an informal arrangement and not something they typically offer). Does anybody know… if I kept the card beyond February and beyond my next anniversary month, would I be able to give notice and cancel whenever I like, or would I be on the hook for the whole year until the next anniversary?
2. Want to double check, with the yearly and six-monthly dining and Harvey Nichols benefits, there’s no problem spending these in January and cancelling in February or March?
2. None whatsoever – as long as the credit (reimbursement) has been applied (which took about a week for me, longer for some others)
@steven.c – in respect of your Q re monthly payment and cancelling, you need to look at the agreement you entered into at the time as it seems there are different ones in force.
Some people have agreements to pay the annual fee on a monthly basis such that you still have an annual contract. Others have what is, in effect, a rolling monthly contract so you can cancel whenever with whatever notice is required. It makes a difference!
You are probably already paying an increased fee?
When you activate hotel statuses from Amex platinum how long do they usually last from activation? Is there a better time to activate to maximize the status duration in case you were to cancel the card (assuming you don’t need the status prior to activation)?
When you activate hotel statuses from Amex platinum how long do they usually last from activation? Is there a better time to activate to maximize the status duration in case you were to cancel the card (assuming you don’t need the status prior to activation)?
Many of them last for years after cancellation — there’s no known science to an optimal time to invoke/cancel the benefit.
@steven.c – in respect of your Q re monthly payment and cancelling, you need to look at the agreement you entered into at the time as it seems there are different ones in force.
Some people have agreements to pay the annual fee on a monthly basis such that you still have an annual contract. Others have what is, in effect, a rolling monthly contract so you can cancel whenever with whatever notice is required. It makes a difference!
You are probably already paying an increased fee?
Ahh right ok. I’ve just gone back through emails – they didn’t email me any details about the terms of the monthly payment arrangement at the time, so I guess I’ll need to give them a call to check.
My fee has so far remained unchanged at £48 per month.
Find me another travel insurance policy that has Postponement cover and I will happily dump the Platinum card. Very rare to have this on any insurance policy, which basically allows you to move your holiday and will pay for the change costs!
If I pay with my Platinum card now for Fine Hotels + Resorts booking for latter in the year and cancel the card.
Are there any issues when checking in and out? I will still have my BA Amex.Find me another travel insurance policy that has Postponement cover and I will happily dump the Platinum card. Very rare to have this on any insurance policy, which basically allows you to move your holiday and will pay for the change costs!
In what circumstance do you think you might use this and what do you think it provides?
I’m asking as I’ve been let down badly by the Amex/Axa travel insurance twice in the last year and is the main reason I will be cancelling my Plat card.
It might be a different scenario you are imagining but on one occasion our flight was diverted to Cancun instead of Mexico City so we lost our first night pre-paid accommodation and a pre-paid expensive excursion that was booked for the first morning we were meant to be there. Insurance didn’t cover this as BA put us up in a hotel in Cancun so we weren’t out of pocket apparently?!
Similar happened last month, we were sat on plane for 4 hours at the gate waiting to depart for Chicago whilst they tried to fox a problem and then the crew timed out so we were shuttled of to cheap airport hotel o/n for a flight out the next day. Same lost expenses (hotel night and excursion) were claimed for but was denied as we were given accommodation and didn’t have to pay out additional due to the postponement.
If I pay with my Platinum card now for Fine Hotels + Resorts booking for latter in the year and cancel the card.
Are there any issues when checking in and out? I will still have my BA Amex.This exact question has been asked and answered above in this post.
Find me another travel insurance policy that has Postponement cover and I will happily dump the Platinum card. Very rare to have this on any insurance policy, which basically allows you to move your holiday and will pay for the change costs!
In what circumstance do you think you might use this and what do you think it provides?
We usually book flights and hotels 6+ months in advance and hence prices are lower, so last Summer my son was unwell so we couldn’t travel and had to move the trip back 4 days. Hotel was fine and they had space so they moved us, but flights were £1k more to change. Amex has postponement cover, so they reimbursed me. Most other insurance policies pay you the cost of the initial holiday which is fine, but then you have to rebook at your own cost and at short notice flights are highly inflated.
Hence for us it’s invaluable…..2nd time we’ve done this.
Find me another travel insurance policy that has Postponement cover and I will happily dump the Platinum card. Very rare to have this on any insurance policy, which basically allows you to move your holiday and will pay for the change costs!
Yes, the postponement cover is good and not common with other travel policies, but every policy has its own strengths and weaknesses, as the comment above re absence of travel disruption cover in very standard circumstances demonstrates; the whole Platinum ‘travel inconvenience’ section is overly prescriptive/poor and offers very low cover.
Travel insurance is a very personal thing which depends on many individual factors including age, health, travel type, appetite for risk/self cover etc. Personally, I wouldn’t wish to rely on the Platinum policy and I would expect it to offer better cover given that it is offered with Amex UK’s most expensive publicly available card. Ultimately, having several (free or very low cost) packaged policies works to plug the respective deficiencies in each policy. The alternative is a standalone policy that meets very specific needs.
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