American Express Membership Rewards - Amex Platinum - Personal vs. Business

I have seen old threads, but nothing recent.

In the past, the Biz had a lower fee and better benefits, (OPEN, etc.).

Now that the annual fee is $450 on each card, I am not sure what card to go with. Or maybe even cancel.

My past few experiences with Amex Concierge was very bad. I had to call them 3 times over 3 weeks to get information. Then, at the end, they really did not help me out. I had a very specific request of what I needed done, and they did nothing more than send me some canned reviews and responses.

I have had an Amex Plat Charge Card for over 10 years and am considering canceling.

From what I am reading, and hearing, Amex has really gone down hill over the past years.

Welcome to Flyertalk.

If I understand correctly, your dissatisfaction is primarily with the Platinum concierge service, and you are asking if the personal concierge is better than the business? In my understanding the concierge service has long been outsourced to Circles.

Do you care to tell us more about the request you submitted, what you expected, and what was done? If another Flyertalk member has made a similar request you might learn if the poor performance was typical or an abberation.

I have both personal & biz "open" Plat. Personal for points, biz for cashback & free additional cards for employees. Different cards for different reasons. :)

I have both personal & biz "open" Plat. Personal for points, biz for cashback & free additional cards for employees. Different cards for different reasons. :)

Op is trying to compare Personal and Business Platinum charge cards, which are different from Optima Platinum cards. Employee cards are not free on Business Platinum Charge card nor Business Platinum charge card provides any cash back benefit.

www.open.com/businessplatinum
www.americanexpress.com/platinum

Absolutely correct, my mistake. I think another coffee is in order this morning :rolleyes:

My restaurant requests via AmEx's Concierge have been reasonably successful. Everything else has been :rolleyes:. I've had a few that I thought were pretty basic that I got no real help on (securing event tix for something in HKG, for example, where they said language issues were the problem). But I've gotten into restaurants that were showing otherwise as full when I had AmEx make the call for me.

Welcome to Flyertalk.

If I understand correctly, your dissatisfaction is primarily with the Platinum concierge service, and you are asking if the personal concierge is better than the business? In my understanding the concierge service has long been outsourced to Circles.

Do you care to tell us more about the request you submitted, what you expected, and what was done? If another Flyertalk member has made a similar request you might learn if the poor performance was typical or an abberation.

I live in Cleveland and we have some winery's in the area. Needed some help making reservations and needed recommendations. This was for an overnight with my wife for our anniversary.

My Request:

1- Need recommendation for top winery in area
2- Best hotel accommodations near winery
3- Restaurant Recommendations - Either at Winery or Hotel, or in area.
4- My dates were very flexible - Any one of four possible weekends

I called and made my request. As usual was told that I should hear something back within 24-48 hours. No problem.

One week goes by and I call Amex. They have no record of my call and cannot find me in the system. I then make another request for the same information. Receive same response, 24-48 hours. No Problem.

One more week goes by. Nothing from Amex. I call again. And again I hear that they have no record of me calling and I am not in the system. I make another request. 24-48 hours. Finally, when I receive the recommendations they are for some hotels and restaurants in DOWNTOWN Cleveland. It was as if they had not listened to anything I said. They totally wasted my time.

During my conversations with Amex, they were telling me that Concierge would help with restaurant reservations and travel would take care of the hotel. I was getting the impression that neither of them would be taking the lead on my request and put everything together. In years past I have have Plat Travel put everything together on my trips. Restaurant, Things to do, hotel, car, etc.

I did not think that my request was all that difficult. Please let me know if my expectations are out of line.

I want to be able to call a service and have them take care of these types of requests.

My most used benefits of Amex Plat:

1- Airline Club Access - 95% of time, I travel on Continental
2- Concierge - Restaurants - Hard to Get Tables - General Reservations


Has anyone here used the concierge services or other benefits from Visa Signature or MasterCard World? If so, how does it compare to Amex Platinum?

I am considering dropping the Amex Platinum and just going with the Continental Airlines Pres Plus card.

I already have Visa Signature and MC Word cards. So if their service is good. I may just use them in the future.

Thoughts? Advice?

-Ryan

Has anyone here used the concierge services or other benefits from Visa Signature or MasterCard World? If so, how does it compare to Amex Platinum?

I am considering dropping the Amex Platinum and just going with the Continental Airlines Pres Plus card.

I already have Visa Signature and MC Word cards. So if their service is good. I may just use them in the future.

Thoughts? Advice?

-Ryan

It varies, I guess you won't know until you try them

Visa Signature - Mondial Assistance
World M/C - VIP Desk
World Elite M/C - Virtuoso
B of A (World MC and Signature VISA) - Les Concierges

Obviously depends on your card type Signature and World are more general concierges so I would say technically the service level should be lower than AMEX Plat. Virtuoso I've heard good things about so they should be at least on par with AMEX.