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For my most recent referral in Jan it took 11 days for points to show on my account. How long has it been?

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executiveclubber wrote:

@TGLotalty, regardless of their mode of transport you may want to read a little about the plight of those doing the delivering and leave a tip…

@executiverclubber
It’s not just the gig economy (which is truly terrible). I stopped using these services when I realised at least 20% of the people delivering to your door aren’t who they were supposed to be. This article talks about illegal workers, selling of accounts and potential modern slavery which doesn’t sit right with me. All of which are easily solvable by tech companies like Uber and Deliveroo

https://inews.co.uk/news/delivery-riders-account-sharing-facebook-black-market-2957089?srsltid=AfmBOoqtRVnRFBRIfrHIO8KunwfJ7Co5p99Iejplb7Ezt4vYkwKJbjNJ

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@jdb maybe slightly exaggerated 🙂

I don’t always have access to lounges when travelling to Europe as sometimes the only option is TUI, Jet2, easyJet etc so PP is useful. Amex have made a positive change in allowing me to pre book Clubrooms at BHX (which is fine).

Currently the 35,000 points, PP and Dining credit is where I get my value. I’d also like to see more Amex events in the regions but I realise not everyone would want this. Amex really need to focus on who they want to attract (which must be based on value extraction) and shape the benefits around that group.

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@JJ I’ve stayed at plenty of Hilton hotels under the brands I mentioned that are superb. Also you mention lounges are of no use for you (London centric view), as someone that is in the regions and travelling to Europe from a local airport we don’t always have the choice of travelling in business so PP is useful. Maybe they should just ban the poor people outside of the M25 from having the card!

It’s all around asking members what they want and going with a majority as you are never going to please everyone…I suspect the idea of a personal shopper service and a lounge at Bicester wouldn’t be high on peoples list of benefits they would value, although I stand to be corrected!

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jj wrote:

Raise the minimum income to £150K (£200K inside the M25), scrap the lounges, ditch the insurance. Then leverage the improved customer demographics to broaden the hotel status beyond tawdry, shabby Hiltons and Marriotts (GHA Discovery? Jumeirah? Some charming boutique hotels?). Offer more things that go beyond price – maybe a proper concierge service that can access ‘full’ restaurants and hotels, lounges in places like Bicester, personal shopper services.

The cash backs have been economically illiterate. Instead of £100 cash back at HN, they should have offered a 30% discount on spend above £300 in one transaction. Instead of £150 dining credit, they should have offered a bottle of decent champagne per couple on spend above £150 per head…that would get the credit cards spending more freely.

This bonkers post has made me laugh, every benefit you’ve listed above is of no interest to me and I suspect looking at the previous posts most people would agree. Highlights being Personal Shopper services, a lounge at Bicester and Shabby Hiltons (like the Conrad, Curio, Waldorf, No Mad etc etc)

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I’m sure you are still only allowed to take one guest in with your plat – so you can prebook fir yourself and +1. The gold card doesn’t have this benefit to pre book. If you had added your wife as a secondary card holder on your plat she is also entitled to PP benefit and can pre book for two people.

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I’d been on chat a few times over the last 3 months and no retention offers. I knew it was less than a year since the last one. Tried again on Friday which is just over a year since last retention offer and given 35,000 points.

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Less than two days last time I transferred a few months back

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Rui N. wrote:

That is true, but when you travel to the US you don’t pay stuff in PPP, you pay in dollars. And people in the US get a lot more of those now, so prices are higher for us-

This is spot on, go to the US every year and prices have been increasing greater than inflation and any exchange rate differences. Example from 10 years ago showed we paid £115 for hotels in Santa Barbara and Cambria. Even looking way ahead these prices are £330+per night but basic hotels (I know they are tourist hotspots but they always have been). In my opinion prices are going up with salary increases in the US. Big tech are paying silly money for really basic tech jobs and it pushes up salaries and prices!

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In my opinion it’s an ideal choice for an early morning flight as it’s a complete stress free short walk. I’m staying in August and looked at the best options and it’s booking as a member of Accor live which gives you a discount but make sure you go via TCB to Accor for 10% which will take a few months to come through.

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Although having no escalators is ridiculous the issue is throughput at security. A month back I had fast track and I was 10 yards away from the scanners and witnessed an absolute mess, from having 20 people ahead of me it took me 25 minutes to get through the final security channel. The people operating the scanner had a shift change but the new guy instead of concentrating on scanning kept stopping, standing up and moving trays! This is all down to queue management and procedures. Why would they change when they are making so much money from fast track, management don’t really care about bad press if they have a captive market and making money!

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BHX has always had a very small set of stairs just opposite the lifts and I noticed these are now blocked off and only used by staff.

Must admit I thought the lifts were an interim solution and they were going to build a new escalator! Nothing to blame passengers for wanting to get to the airport early. If they opened up more security lanes they would resolve the issue overnight but this would mean paying for more staff and losing out on the money they are making out of fastpass (which isn’t that fast). Totally unacceptable!

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Unfortunately the dining credit won’t work as it’s an Amex Event and is taken direct by Amex. I’m always cursing they don’t have many events in Birmingham and now they have one when I’m on holiday!

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In my opinion Pret would be a terrible idea. I like the dining options and surely this is a market Amex Plat is aiming for. I’ve been on a few Amex dining events, the last one in November at Orelle Birmingham was fully attended even tho it was only announced 3 weeks before the event (It was also great value). When the spring events were announced I don’t think you had a single event North of Watford.

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I did use the chat both times…..being turned down by phone would feel even more of a rejection!

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NorthernLass wrote:

You can certainly cancel at any time (and get a pro-rata fee refund at the current time, though this is due to change at some point).

Have you actually asked for a retention bonus though? There is an entire thread on here about it!

I’ve asked about 7 weeks ago and they said nothing on the account but check closer to renewal date, I asked again today and nothing going, I was direct and to the point in asking for a retention bonus :-), it could be that it’s might be just under 12 months since the last one.

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@bbbetter In my opinion these benefits changes would be terrible.

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Been in 3 other Centurion lounges across the US and all were really busy, some had a wait and queue to enter so its the norm.

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ammo1337 wrote:

Thanks all for the advice, decided to book the clubrooms just to be sure. They always like to be early so they should be able to take advantage of the full 2-3 hours or so.

Clubrooms is definitely the way to go

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LA is a big sprawling city so too big to walk everywhere. A good central safe place we stay is West Hollywood, our go to place is The London but not part of a chain, if you search for hotels in West Hollywood you’ll see the chains. From WEHO you can walk to Hollywood and Bev Hills. It’s a good idea to book a half day tour – loads available. Just make sure the observatory and Venice beach are included.

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Plat Member since 2020. Renewal up 10th May, last (and only) retention was 35k in August. Used chat to try for retention and was told nothing on account at moment and try again closer to renewal which is close anyway. Mostly use Barclaycard so Plat is only used for benefit spend. I can just about justify the fee at the mo as I’ve made use of travel benefits and had some referral bonuses. Will try again in a few weeks but likely to cancel if I don’t get an offer. I’m sure I won’t be missed!

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Sean Mc wrote:

I do it in Vegas – 6.30 am first race each day.

Now this sounds like an idea 🙂

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Maples wrote:

I’ve just noticed that the Gold card’s referral offer has changed, for the person referring. It’s offering me 14K MR points but also this:

Membership Rewards® points for each approved friend. Offer ends 9 January 2024.
Plus, if your first successful referral is before 14 November 2023, you will earn an additional 2 Membership Rewards points for every £1 spent for 3 months, up to £6,000. This is on top of what you already earn on your Card. T&Cs apply. Offer ends 14 November 2023.

So, that’s 3 MR points for 3 months, up to £6K spent. Curious to see what the Platinum one is like…

The Plat is still the usual 18k reward points which is what I’ve previously got for two referrals this year. No mention of additional spend points.

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I had to contact Avis directly and after searching on forums found the below form to complete it, It was delayed as I also needed to link my Amex platinum card to my Avis account. You can still use an alternative card to pay – when booking abroad try and use a no fee fx exchange credit card. Avis updated my account within 48 hours.

https://www.avis-preferred.com/amex/

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sloth wrote:

Tbh it doesn’t matter what reason you give for cancelling, you either have retention offers on your account or you don’t. The only one I had was a downgrade to gold which I declined and just cancelled

That’s just not true, if you’ve held the card long enough and use the correct language you will get a retention points offer rather than just an offer of downgrade to gold.