American Express Membership Rewards - Anyone else waiting for Plat kit in Germany?

Hello,

I have received a plat. card four weeks ago but have nothing received but the card yet. I called them and they told me that the plat. kit including concierge phone number, applications for family cards, starwood application etc will not be sent out before April as they are "under printing".

So I can not use any of their amentities but have to pay for them?

There´s no different concierge-number in Germany! It´s the same 01802-750750 you enter through, like for any other plat-questions.

Forget the welcome-kit, if you don´t depend on 2 tacky luggage-tags!

If you need any other application forms, just call them and ask for them to be sent to you. Uusally they even fax you these forms, so you don´t have to wait!

Starwood-Gold-Enrollment is much easier and quicker, by making asimple phonecall to Starwood! Just ask plat-service for the phonenumber and the special enrollment-code.

Axel,

thank you for the tip! i have enrolled with starwood in no time, a very quick and friendly procedure. took less time and it took the amex person to find out their phone number http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
also they are now faxing me the applications for hilton and for priority pass.
for room reservations with hilton & starwood, do you usually contact them or do you book via amex for better rates & upgrades?

Hi Uli,

nice to hear, that my information was helpful.

By the way, I downgraded from Cent. to plat. again and kept the card only, because it is one of those few on the german market that offers a full CDW-Insurance (Vollkasko) for carrentals.

I rarely ever book any flights or hotels through Amex again, because - as I had experienced - you usually never get a really good or competitive rate for a flight, car rental or a hotel(neither as a plat. nor as a cent. cardholder!!).

I book most off my travels on the internet:
For example, when it comes to hotels, "HRS.com" is still unbeatable!!!!
The best prices and in any cases of complaint they offer a customerservice, that Amex could only dream of.

Greetings

Axel

I still like the upgrades which I normally get if I do have VIP card with the specific hotel chain. Right now, as I am getting gold with starwood and hilton anyway, I think I will concentrate my stays to hyatt hotels as their program is not supported in the German platinum program http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Hi Uli,

don´t forget: Hilton Honours gold-status with your plat-card is only free for the first year.

To keep you HH gold-status after that, you have to acccumulate the minimum number of hotel stays at Hilton hotels each year.

axel i hope to have the black card by then so the status w/ hilton should be fine.
i also heard in FT before that they wave this rule of "one-year-only" for you if you ask.
BTW the lady from starwood told me on the phone when i was applying for her card that the status would be there as long as i hold the card.
anyway, i do not think all those middle-tier-memberships really help too much.

Plat. kit arrived today.
Really lousy. A fax would have been enough.