American Express Membership Rewards - UK Plat Travel Services

Introducing yet another profit centre for AmEx in the UK... Not content with quoting room rates which are considerably higher than available elsewhere, the latest scam is a GBP 20 fee per room if you subsequently decide to cancel the booking.

I would understand if this applied to prepaid bookings but not for the rest. What's so time consuming about retrieving a booking a hitting cancel?

Are AmEx UK trying to make using the Platinum Travel Service yet more unattractive?

Where did you hear this and from when is this fee being introduced?

From UK Plat Travel Services, which tried to charge me the fee twice over (two rooms booked) for a non-prepay booking.

On further investigation got conflicting information: frontline were adamant the charge applied; I challenged and stated that I had no intention of paying a cancellation fee unless it had been quoted as a condition at the time of booking (which doubtless would've influenced my decision as to whether to book with AmEx)

When a more aplogetic rep rang back I was told that the £20 fee applied to bookings cancelled within a week of the stay and therefore would be waived. Even so, I find this unacceptable for the following reasons:

1. It's not stated at the time of booking
2. I can find no reference to it in the terms and conditions
3. Why is AmEx seeking to penalise people for changing their travel plans on a fully changeable booking where the norm for most hotels is 24-48 hours cancellation notice?

UK Plat cardholders, be aware of this scam.

When a more aplogetic rep rang back I was told that the £20 fee applied to bookings cancelled within a week of the stay and therefore would be waived.

Whenever I book a room through Amex, I ask what the cancellation policy is for the hotel concerned. The answer is usually "6pm on day of arrival" for large chains, sometimes sooner for smaller hotels. I believe the £20 charge may have been specific to the hotel that you were booking rather than a blanket policy by Amex.

Nope, blanket policy (which is new to me), apparently.

I have stopped booking rooms with Amex since long time ago- use the Hilton or Starwood website. They quoted me 80 EUR more for a room in Rome compared to SPG.com- that too compared to a standard, fully flexible, cancellable rate on SPG.com!

I find all Amex travel centres guilty of this. They tend to want to book their Amex Corp rates first. And they try not to offer you the lowest possible rates at any hotel.

I've used the Amex plat travel service twice now and on both occasions have been dissapointed with the rate/location of the hotel and so on. BCN was a particularly bad example:

I asked for 3/4 star hotel and emphasised that a good central location was far more important than the quality of the room (in BCN, a hotel is just for sleeping off the night's drinking). What I got was 2 star hotel at a 3/4 star price a good 30 minute walk form the Ramblas and 20 minutes walking to the nearest tube station. Never again - if they cannot be as effective as Expedia (where I usually can get a good location and 4/5 star hotel for the prices Amex charge) then I don't see the point in using Amex. They really need to catch up with the times.