American Express Membership Rewards - 2 points per £ for Gold card

Apply for the American Express Gold Card, and you to collect two points for virtually every £1 you spend using the Card. Kind of makes me think I shoould ditch my Centurion, especially seeing as thisis free for a year!

http://www.americanexpress.co.uk/virginx4goldcardoffer

This was recently promoted in Virgin's e-zine.

The fee is £20 more than the regular Gold Card, if I remember correctly. (£105 against £85.)

Wait a short while before ditching your card, I had the exact conversation with Centurion UK last week. Something is being done about it.

At long last the UK is going to to get accelerated earnings cards, for a slightly higher fee. This GOld card is the first of them.

Thanks,
Richard

I'm agog, Richard, and waiting on your evrey word http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif !

Roger

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by RichardMannion:
Wait a short while before ditching your card, I had the exact conversation with Centurion UK last week. Something is being done about it.

At long last the UK is going to to get accelerated earnings cards, for a slightly higher fee. This GOld card is the first of them.

Thanks,
Richard</font>

You'd think they'd offer accelerated earnings on the Centurion as a basic perk of the card, given the fee we pay....

Don't wait for them to "do something" about this, call and complain!

A while back they pulled a stunt like this in the US. The offer was a gold card free for a year with double points the first year and 1.5x points the second. I called the Platinum folks and asked for the same treatment. They wouldn't budge on any annual fees (not even crediting the gold fee amount towards my card). But, after some cajoling, I got them to give me a large pile of points as the 2x and 1.5x parts of the offer. I did not take their first offer. At first the person I spoke with felt was rather greedy of me. Upon actual review of my account, however, she offered me 5x as many points and I accepted. They gave these to me right away, based (I guess) on my history the year or so before my call.

Just got off the phone, apparently I now have to drop down to a gold card to take part in this offer!!!

Come on Amex this is crazy, plus no one there seams to know what's going on with this offer. Only line im getting is its a promotion and you need to be a new card holder to take part!

Asked for some one from Customer Services to call me back, but anyone else had any joy?

Thanks,

I'm awaiting an update

Last time I spoke to Centurion, they said I could have one of these Gold cards on my account as a normal supplememntary card for no additional charge, I said that wasn't really too much use. So they went back to the drawing board and I am awaiting the reply. Hopefully tomorrow now.

Gbremner, Did you catch the name of the person you spoke to? Drop me a mail.

Thanks,
Richard

First spoke with Centurion who seamed to be aware of the situation, she passed me to the Members Rewards section. Ended up speaking to the manger who's name escapes me, but she said Id need to speak to Virgin!!

I laid the facts out plainly, with gold card I can get 2x£ points and virgin 4x£ with centurion I get 1x£ and with virgin 1x£ but pay a lot more for the privilege (although there are a string of benefits which have been priceless). Seams kind of straightforward but not to the guys at Amex!

Will let you know what happens as to be honest most times Centurion have excelled in service, this is just very annoying......

Does this apply to all Gold cards? The VS offer as posted on iflyvirginatlantic.com appears to suggest that it is only available to VS Silver and Gold. The offer as pitched to us lowly reds is for the 'old' J1=1 point card.

They really should make the higher earnings rate available on other cards as well. If they did, I would probably get a Plat card, as the other benefits are to me probably worth the marginal cost over the Gold. It's Amex's fee revenue foregone, and my money saved!

Ok spoken with the office this morning for over and hour and here is the crux. No one wants to help!!!!

Neil, Ollie and then Becky. Now spoken with Georgina from Customer relations who promises too, but we will see!

Apparently Centurion are only entitled to standard Gold, Plat and Green cards and not any of the BA or Virgin offer etc. so cant even get this card under that arrangement. To be honest this is such a trivial matter, but its one of principal and so far the level of service from the different departments leaves me feeling very frustrated.

Maybe another credit card company could give me a better service and product?

Any joy for you Richard?

(P.S. who do I send my phone bill to?)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gbremner:
(P.S. who do I send my phone bill to?)</font>

0808 numbers are freephone!

Ok so the latest is that I can apply for the card for free and use it, but its just a promotion! They said they cant claim this card under Centurion offer because its a credit card and not a charge card, apparently any Credit Card including the BA needs to be a new application that you pay for!

So I can keep my Centurion card for the high quality extra services (which don't include higher rewards earning) and use the new gold card when spending to ensure better rewards earning (will Centurion then ditch me if I stop spending?).........

And yes I know the number is free, just venting my frustration at this marketing paradox. Customer Relations are coming back to me and Ill let you know if any progress is made, but Id recommend not holding your breath...

Monday is the day now.

I know there are a numbe rof you waiting for this to be sorted, me beign one of them http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Frontline are not aware of what is going on in the background, which clearly shows with some of the comedy responses from them.

Thanks,
Richard

Bump.

Any news?

As a Centurion card holder you get Free BA Amex Cards. It even states this on the Amex site.

No news, expecting some this afternoon, any from yourself Richard?

Thanks for the details about BA card, this is a bit frustrating that the lead Centurion customer relations representative is giving out incorrect information.

http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif/cda/page/0,1641,12712,00.asp#Q5

Nothing yet - statring to become a little disgruntled but I am sure they are taking the problem in hand.

Just keeping a small tab of how many points they owe me....

Thanks,
Richard

I never received a call as promised on Monday or Tuesday, no real faults with AMEX in the past but this is just irritating. Its such a trivial matter, but what makes it worse is the misinformation coming from the people that should know better!

Should you expect rewards for the inconvenience and chasing that's been involved? As I mentioned never had a real grievance with AMEX before.

I called plat services - got through to membership rewards who suggested I could always downgrade to this gold card. I requested a manager call me, who never did. I called yesterday, apparently the call request was put on my 'account notes'. I got the address to write to them insted.

Just about the same for me when I called a couple of days ago.

At first the Plat 'service' person thought it must be a Membership Rewards issue, as he knew nothing about this card issued by his company!

I had a MR question anyway, so reluctantly agreed to be transferred to MR.

Anyway, the upshot of the conversations was:

- the 2 MR points per £ card is only available to new members (which we knew);
- no, I could not have this gold card as part of my Plat entitlement, nor indeed any gold card - something tells me I was misinformed here;
- yes, the only way I could get one of these new cards would be to cancel my plat and apply for a new gold account;
- yes, this is a stupid way of managing affairs.

I sometimes wonder why we bother ...

For those of you with Centurion Cards in the UK, you may want to phone them up and ask nicely - you might be surprised http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Thanks,
Richard

Any other Centurion card holders have any luck? If so who did you speak with, and what specifically did you ask for?

Thanks!

I spoke to Membership Rewards and Accounts both said that this is not possible and advised me to try speaking to Virgin

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!

Can anyone here shed some more light on this offer for me?

My circumstances:

1. I currently hold a standard Amex gold card
2. I have no desire to have anything but a gold card
3. I would like to take out this higher-earning gold card

My call to Amex was unsuccessful. I was told that there was NO way for me to get this card.

First they told me that I had to be 'invited' by Virgin to apply. I pointed out that the offer was posted on the Virgin website (http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/flying_club_other_partners.view.do#amex). Then they told me that I had to speak to Virgin. I pointed out that Virgin refers all enquiries to American Express.

Then they told me that "the offer is not open to existing cardholders." I took this to mean that they would not waive the first year's fee for new cardholders. They interpreted this as meaning that no current cardholders can apply at all.

I suggested I cancel my card, then re-apply. No dice here, either. They said that they'd simply re-open my old gold account.

They acknowledged that this was a fairly poor way to build customer loyalty, but they couldn't suggest any way around this impasse.

So -- has any existing cardholder actually managed to acquire one of these legendary cards? Who did you have to sleep with?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Understand your frustration - I would wait as a new Gold Card with accelerated offering will be out soon. Thats why the fee for this card is higher than the existing gold card.

I agree that the general AmEx staff are not too hot on dealing with this - It took me and a person at AmEx a while to sort this one out for my account. You have to blame marketing, it was them that caused this chaos.

Thanks,
Richard

The fee - £125 - looks expensive, but if I understand correctly, it includes a second card (otherwise £35) and Membership Rewards (otherwise £23.50), so compares well.

But they won't let me have one! (Yet?)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by RichardMannion:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Understand your frustration - I would wait as a new Gold Card with accelerated offering will be out soon. Thats why the fee for this card is higher than the existing gold card.

</font>

Do you have any further insights as to when this "accelerated earning" gold card will be out? I.e. is the roll-out imminent, planned for many months from now, or are you sworn to secrecy?

Thanks.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by RichardMannion:
For those of you with Centurion Cards in the UK, you may want to phone them up and ask nicely - you might be surprised http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
</font>

Hrm, might you possibly be a bit less vague about this? I don't necessarily want to spend three days on the phone chasing the one person in Centurion who might know anything about this, so is there any chance you can name names and provide facts?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NickW:
Hrm, might you possibly be a bit less vague about this? I don't necessarily want to spend three days on the phone chasing the one person in Centurion who might know anything about this, so is there any chance you can name names and provide facts?</font>

That was Richard, not me!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by hrm:
That was Richard, not me!</font>

Ha, this could get confusing.

(this is where 'Ha' comes in and asks me why I'm talking behind their back)

Still no bonus rewards posted to my account, should of been done by end of July!

Anyone else have any joy?

It is hard to believe... I am only Platinum Card holder at Amex but they do provide the best customer service to me... Honestly!
However, in the UK, we are under priviliged for the benefits ... We receive much less bonuses than our fellows in the US...








Ok spoken with the office this morning for over and hour and here is the crux. No one wants to help!!!!

Neil, Ollie and then Becky. Now spoken with Georgina from Customer relations who promises too, but we will see!

Apparently Centurion are only entitled to standard Gold, Plat and Green cards and not any of the BA or Virgin offer etc. so cant even get this card under that arrangement. To be honest this is such a trivial matter, but its one of principal and so far the level of service from the different departments leaves me feeling very frustrated.

Maybe another credit card company could give me a better service and product?

Any joy for you Richard?

(P.S. who do I send my phone bill to?)