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@NL it isn’t remotely a criticism of HfP, it is quite obviously a criticism of Amex management. The certainty with with which Rob advises people that their voucher is safe on downgrade or cancellation notwithstanding CS advice can only conceivably come from Amex which needs to decide whether to support the players or the majority who are detrimentally affected, however much you attempt to belittle this.
I’m intrigued that you think ‘fairness’ is down to card companies to decide – a rather different tune to your position on Creation. It’s nice that you are so rich or sanguine that you don’t mind paying £250 for something when others are only paying maybe £40 and of course b/poasting (sic) about how clever they are. What isn’t so clever is that the more it’s talked about, the more people do it until the problem is too big to ignore.
Re name check, you have advised more than once on this subject that as Amex/BA doesn’t cross check names on payment makes it is safe to use any Amex card.
@JDB Re the £250 annual fee for the Premium Plus versus £0 for the base BA card part of that fee is paying for the extra 0.5 Avios per £ you receive when spending on the card. Plus, you get the ability to redeem a voucher in Club World versus only economy for the voucher from the free card. So, while there are people who hold the free card and upgrade shortly before hitting the £10k threshold they have foregone somewhere near 5000 Avios in doing so. If you value Avios at 1p that means the Premium card effectively costs the long-term holder £200. And anyone who upgrades from the free card still must pay the £250 fee as soon as they upgrade. If they only hold the card for a month that costs them £20.83 meaning long term card holders have paid an effective premium of £179.17 over the “savvy” card holder that goes through the hassle of upgrading and downgrading.
Now while that is worthwhile to many there are many more who can’t be bothered to save £179 annually especially if they are paying for Club World. Amex works on that basis. They are in the business of making money from customers as well as attracting as many new customers as possible. They are not in the business of giving rebates to long-term card holders. They deem the rewards on offer sufficient to keep people signed up. This whole website is based on making points from travel and from exploiting loopholes to get ahead of the less savvy. You plainly feel strongly about the ”unfairness of it all” but that is how it is. There is a separate thread where people are actively publishing their retention offers they’ve got when in reality they had no intention to cancel the card – that too could be seen as taking the pi$$ and not something I participate in but that is my decision. Others may view me being naïve not doing so but that is my choice. Judging by your contributions to the retention offers threads you don’t seem to be too upset by that but isn’t that just a variation on a theme?
The issue that annoys me more than the upgraders saving £179 is the inability to earn a SUB on any other Amex except the Platinum card if you hold the BAPP one. However again I would rather hold the BAPP than cancel and reapply in the future. But then again Amex is clamping down on the ability to earn SUBs with their 24-month moratorium on holding any personal Amex card to be eligible for the SUB on most Amex card. Plus, they seem to be clamping down on issuing new cards as several here have noticed – either a downright refusal or the need to reduce credit limits substantially on other Amex card held to receive a new one. You can see the effect of this by observing the number of comments on the Amex Bonvoy card article today. I’d wager there are very few readers of HfP who do not hold any Amex cards. But that does not mean there are none.
Still the rules allow you to earn a SUB if you haven’t held any personal Amex and there are plenty here who actively do so to reset the clock. That is the subject of this thread. But even so they are in the minority.
Our choice is to join others in taking advantage or not.
@AJA I genuinely appreciate your nuanced and well argued response. I too find the retention bonus thing ridiculous and have never sought or received one. Amex has now got itself into the position where people just assume they are getting one, and tell others so even more people reckon they are entitled to one so I guess at some point they will have to tone it down. The fact they still offer 50k after launching the £300 dining credit is quite extraordinary.
This thread has certainly taken a funny turn. It started out with me suggesting that someone’s absolutely definitive advice about downgrading/cancelling ought to be more caveated…
@NL it isn’t remotely a criticism of HfP, it is quite obviously a criticism of Amex management. The certainty with with which Rob advises people that their voucher is safe on downgrade or cancellation notwithstanding CS advice can only conceivably come from Amex which needs to decide whether to support the players or the majority who are detrimentally affected, however much you attempt to belittle this.
@JDB — The majority are not detrimentally affected. If I buy a product for less than you it does not follow that you are detrimentally affected. I probably pay more for my mobile phone contract than many others because I don’t chip my contract in every 12 months. My neighbours probably pay more for their holidays than I do. This is not worth worrying about. I’m not writing to EE to complain about people taking out contracts and then folding them the minute they’re allowed to under the T&Cs just to sign up for a whole bunch of (unsustainable) incentives with someone else and stay put for the minimum permitted period. I’m staggered anyone is remotely bothered about this, never mind bothered enough to contact Amex and complain!@JDB, I don’t understand why you continue to be an Amex customer if you disapprove so strongly of their practices? And I don’t class myself as rich (financially, anyway, I am rich in lots of other ways) but it’s absolutely my choice to pay £250 pa for the BAPP, I could stop this at any time so I feel I have no grounds to complain about people who exercise their own free will and do differently! Amex doesn’t tell me how to do my job and I don’t tell them how to do theirs.
But on the name check issue, if you can fill a name field (as I have inadvertently done once or twice because my computer auto-fills a lot of stuff) with a name that doesn’t actually appear on the card you’re using, and the payment is authorised, then what other conclusion can be drawn other than that nobody is checking it?
I thought it was known that Amex don’t do name verification generally – not just on BA?
Of relevance to this discussion, I cancelled my BAPP yesterday and noticed the T+C given for cancellation have changed. Any avios still with Amex (ie not moved across to BA) are now forfeit on cancellation – previously they have gone across even after cancellation, but any not yet collected were forfeit (ie for pending transactions).
No changes otherwise that I noticed, you still may not be able to use your companion voucher.
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