American Express Membership Rewards - UK Platinum AmEx - what should I get/expect in post?

Hi all,

Bit of a silly title, I guess...but a genuine question!

About 2 weeks ago I applied for a UK Platinum AmEx on-line (gave my existing BA Premium Plus details, filled in the form, printed the last signature page of the process and posted it back). I heard nothing at all from AmEx (no calls, letters, anything) but today my brand new card arrived showing my correct 'Member Since' info (^^) and in a separate envelope, my PIN. But that's it (apart from a Membersip Rewards T&C and Chip & PIN flyer)! No real literature, no welcome letter, no details of the benefits, etc.? Is this normal? Aren't I missing things (like how to get the Priority Pass, etc.)?

Should I wait it out (i.e. it's the Christmas post being rubbish) or give AmEx a ring?

TIA,

Phil

When I got mine, IIRC they sent a booklet listing the benefits, as well as forms for enrolling auxiliary cardholders (an extra for you for business, one for your partner, 4 gold cards etc), direct debit payment, Priority Pass membership (it's not automatic, you have to apply), Hilton HHonors gold membership (for one year), SPG gold (permanent) as well as what were called insurance benefits at the time, though the description has changed since the insurance selling regulations broke out.

You should definitely have something like this before long and if not, call the helpline.

And yours must be one for the first chip-and-PIN cards. I haven't got a PIN yet.

Thanks Roger. As it turns out, the call to activate the card wasn't automated like I recall from past cards so I got through to a real agent (eventually, after 3 calls each holding for nearly 10 mins! Some 'exceptional' service that :rolleyes: Apparently it was just very busy this evening). He activated the card and I took the opportunity to ask about any other info I was due - he said everything is sent at once but separately and although it normally arrives before the card, give it another few days.

Phil

The OP has pre-empted me from starting a thread on this topic.

I received an invitation to apply for the Plat card about a month ago. Very simple, here's a form, fill in two boxes and sign, which I did.

I heard nothing, so called Brighton on Monday to ask where my application was. The agent puts me on hold than tells me they've not seen the application at all. I then spend a very frustrating 45 minutes on the phone playing tag with about 6 different people. The outcome of this was:-

They had no record of my application
Although they had sent me a priority application form, they could not send me another one as they were sent out by "marketing"
If I wanted a card, I'd have to apply in full via the website.

I left the call in disgust at their general incompetence. I didn't have time to fill out the form on the website, but planned to do it today after I got home from my business trip.

When I arrived home last night, imagine my surprise to find an envelope containing a brand new Platinum card.

You could not make this up.

A few bits of advice having had a Plat for about six years:

1. Apply for the Priority Pass, Radisson, Sofitel and SPG Gold cards ASAP

2. Do NOT apply for the Hilton Gold if you don't think you will use it in the next 12 months. This is really a once-only offer, so wait until you have a few stays planned. It is especially useful because it gives a free upgrade to the Club floor if rooms are available.

3. Ring them and ask for the "Fine Hotels & Resorts" book (and it is a book - a big, fat, perfect-bound, bigger-than-A4 catalogue). It doesn't always work, but you can get some excellent hotel discounts by booking through this scheme - this year I got no discount but a 2-level upgrade at the MO Chiang Mai (plus a free lunch) and Euro 50 / night (plus a $100 spa credit) off next Easter's trip to the FS Provence. FHR benefits can also be found here: www134.americanexpress.com/travelfhr/PlatCCSGServlet?request_type=fhr&action=1&lang=en&ctry=us&pdtyp=ccsg&cdtyp=plat

4. Ask what other hotel booklets they are still doing. There used to be a nice "Luxury Small Hotels of the World" directory and the "Amex Select Hotels Directory" (a bit useless this last one, offers a few $ off rack-rate at prime business hotels). There is also a City Breaks brochure, I think.

5. Sort out your supplementary cards. The key is that ALL five supp card holders get the free travel insurance, so get one for your partner and then consider giving the others to your parents, brother etc. Just make sure they don't buy anything on the card or it gets charged to you!

6. Give the one Platinum Supplementary Card to someone who travels a lot, either flying or on Eurostar, as only Plat cards get free lounge access with bmi, Delta, Continental or Notherwest. This is also the only other person who gets a free Priority Pass as well.

7. Make sure Amex has your email address - you will get the monthly Platinum Life email which has OK offers and occasional invites, usually around Christmas, to cocktail parties at top stores. These are usually in London but not always. There is usually a goodie bag included! My office spam filter used to block this email on a regular basis, so now I have it sent to my Yahoo account.

8. Sign-up for the Priority Pass website. The annual directory goes out of date quickly, but the website is always current and is easy to search and print from.

9. Don't expect anything useful from the concierge service. In the age of the web, you can usually get better yourself if you have time to search. However, the restaurant booking line can be useful because Amex holds 1 table per night at many top London restaurants. My success in using this has not been great, but often because the table they hold is for four people (ie they want to encourage a high spending business group) and not two (low spending couple).

10. Don't forget that your BA Amex is free when you have a UK Plat card

11. Membership Rewards is pretty useless, EXCEPT for topping off accounts in other programmes. If you have a corporate Amex, you can usually link it to your MR account so you earn points on your corporate spending.

12. If possible, do NOT voluntary agree to FlexSelect being set up on your card (the option that turns your charge card into a credit card). I was eventually offered a bribe of 3,000 MR points to turn on FlexSelect, at which point I agreed!

Oddly, I never actually use my Platinum Amex on a regular basis - I stick with the BA card and my BMI Mastercard. However, I keep paying the fee because the benefits are worth having. I try to make one charge to the card every two months so they send me a statement each month, as the statement envelopes often contain special offers or promotions that you won't otherwise receive.

Raffles - as always, thanks for the valuable and in-depth input! I got the card more for the benefits than to use it, just like you :) My new company said they'd pay the fee for the travel benefits since I'll be travelling a lot. This is all great as far as I'm concerned (especially the loophole to get my BA AmEx free which I knew about from the other board ;))! I was going to apply for everything right away, but on your advice I'll hold off on the HH card (at least until my current BA-comped one expires!), thanks ^

Thanks again for your help.

Phil

A few bits of advice having had a Plat for about six years:

1. Apply for the Priority Pass and SPG Gold ASAP

2. Do NOT apply for the Hilton Gold if you don't think you will use it in the next 12 months. This is really a once-only offer, so wait until you have a few stays planned.

3. Ring them and ask for the "Fine Hotels & Resorts" book (and it is a book - a big, fat, perfect-bound, bigger-than-A4 catalogue). It doesn't always work, but you can get some excellent hotel discounts by booking through this scheme - this year I got no discount but a 2-level upgrade at the MO Chiang Mai (plus a free lunch) and Euro 50 / night (plus a $100 spa credit) off next Easter's trip to the FS Provence.

4. Ask what other hotel booklets they are still doing. There used to be a nice "Luxury Small Hotels of the World" directory and the "Amex Select Hotels Directory" (a bit useless this last one, offers a few $ off rack-rate at prime business hotels).

5. Sort out your supplementary cards. The key is that ALL five supp card holders get the free travel insurance, so get one for your partner and then consider giving the others to your parents, brother etc. Just make sure they don't buy anything on the card or it gets charged to you!

6. Give the one Platinum Supplementary Card to someone who uses Eurostar occasionally, as only Plat cards get free Eurostar lounge access. (This is NOT a Priority Pass benefit, it is a Plat card benefit.)

7. Make sure Amex has your email address - you will get occasional invites, usually around Christmas, to cocktail parties at top stores. These are usually in London but not always. There is usually a goodie bag included!

8. Sign-up for the Priority Pass website. The annual directory goes out of date quickly, but the website is always current and is easy to search and print from.

9. Don't expect anything useful from the concierge service. In the age of the web, you can usually get better yourself if you have time to search. However, the restaurant booking line can be useful because Amex holds 1 table per night at many top London restaurants. My success in using this has not been great, but often because the table they hold is for four people (ie they want to encourage a high spending business group) and not two (low spending couple).

10. Don't forget that your BA Amex is free when you have a UK Plat card

11. Membership Rewards is pretty useless, EXCEPT for topping off accounts in other programmes. If you have a corporate Amex, you can usually link it to your MR account so you earn points on your corporate spending.

12. If possible, do NOT voluntary agree to FlexSelect being set up on your card (the option that turns your charge card into a credit card). I was eventually offered a bribe of 3,000 MR points to turn on FlexSelect, at which point I agreed!

Oddly, I never actually use my Platinum Amex on a regular basis - I stick with the BA card and my BMI Mastercard. However, I keep paying the fee because the benefits are worth having. I try to make one charge to the card every two months so they send me a statement each month, as the statement envelopes often contain special offers or promotions that you won't otherwise receive.

Thats a great post there raffles! Just a few notes:

5. As long as the supplementary is added to the account, they qualify for the insurance - you do not have to actually activate the cards for the insurance to be valid. THis way you have no issues with them racking up a bill for you!

6. Whilst this is very true for Eurostar, the same applies for the additional lounge access outside of Priority Pass: bmi, Delta, Continental and Northwest lounge access is only given to the basic and primary supp carmembers on the account (the platinum coloured cards).

10. This is true for any of the BA AmEx cards, so you might as well go for the top end Premium plus card which is normally £120/year.

Thanks,
Richard

And yours must be one for the first chip-and-PIN cards. I haven't got a PIN yet.

I've had the UK Plat Amex card with chip and pin since September. I've found it to be a pain as half the chip & pin machines fail with authorisation (think it's a problem with the CVV no (amex 4, all other cards 3 digits).

One of my supps got a their gold one with chip and pin -but with a silver chip, which makes it look awful :p

Chris

When I applied for a Platinum card, I only received my card first... I ended up getting a booklet detailing the benefits a month later... Of course, I already knew everything since I'm a flyertalker ;-)

I had to ask a coulpe of times to get Amex to send me the travel pack with the insurance details, luggage tags (I would never use these) and forms for the Priority Pass/Hilton/SPG. The Priority Pass benefit has proved absolutely superb for me (really, it has lounges in parts of the world you just wouldn't expect) and I was treated very well during a recent stay at The Drake (pity the Hilton part isn't permenant). Oh, and I have Sofitel Gold thanks to promotion they did for Amex Plat holders.

10. This is true for any of the BA AmEx cards, so you might as well go for the top end Premium plus card which is normally £120/year.


Am I right in assuming that only the primary card holder can get the BA Amex card for free? Or can the supplemantary card holders get it too?

Hi all,

Bit of a silly title, I guess...but a genuine question!

About 2 weeks ago I applied for a UK Platinum AmEx on-line (gave my existing BA Premium Plus details, filled in the form, printed the last signature page of the process and posted it back). I heard nothing at all from AmEx (no calls, letters, anything) but today my brand new card arrived showing my correct 'Member Since' info (^^) and in a separate envelope, my PIN. But that's it (apart from a Membersip Rewards T&C and Chip & PIN flyer)! No real literature, no welcome letter, no details of the benefits, etc.? Is this normal? Aren't I missing things (like how to get the Priority Pass, etc.)?

Should I wait it out (i.e. it's the Christmas post being rubbish) or give AmEx a ring?

TIA,

Phil


have any US residents managed to get the international card -seems like it has better benefits

As a follow-up, I called AmEx again last night. Once again, I was on hold for 10mins before giving up that time then a further 15 the time after before getting an agent :mad: I find that absolutely awful for a supposed premium service :td: :( That said, once I did get an agent he was (like last time) very polite, very helpful and very efficent. He said that the travel pack is usually triggered by the first spend on the card rather than the card issue (I didn't go in to it, but I'm still mighty surprised I've not received a welcome letter or even a letter saying "Congatulations, you've been approved, your card will arrive in a few days" like I have done in the past on other cards). It should be "in the works" but he'd "take care of this right now" and get another one sorted. He also asked if my need for the PPass was very urgent so he could try and set it up some other way (I declined, as it's not!) ^

So, for future reference, maybe the expectation should be that new customers will get something a week or two after the first spend (mine was 2 weeks ago, but it has been dotted with various holidays).

Phil

have any US residents managed to get the international card -seems like it has better benefits
It definitely has better benefits- all the travel insurance which you have to pay for in the US is bundled into the UK card and is free. Compared to the UK Centurion/ Platinum travel insurance, the US one is a joke (and the UK one is free).
I have just got a USD billed card for my wife in the US- got it through UK Centurion service who called up US Amex as she did not have a US credit history or even social security number. You can probably try the other way round (ask the US guys to do it for you). I don't think there is anything that prevents a US resident from holding an international USD card.

One more thing for the record in case it helps anyone else in future...all through my first billing month the online statement only showed transactions, no fee! I thought I may get away with it or have been a very special person for whom they waived it ;) Don't be fooled...the fee is charged at the very end of the first statement cycle right when they cut it off and issue it...

Phil

1. Apply for the Priority Pass and SPG Gold ASAP



How do you apply for the priority pass and get it for free? When I looked on the website when I got my (UK) Plat card I didnt see anything that would permit this.

I got a form in my starter pack, but this was a few years ago. Call the Plat helpline and ask. Once you've got it, it renews itself automatically each year - you don't need to lift a fingeer, a replacement card will drop through your door in good time.

Ah but a word of warning...If you don't use the PP during the year, they don't automatically renew it. I hadn't been using mine, so when I needed it, I couldn't find it (had *G so wasn't needing it previously).

However, if you notice it isn't there, just ring as above and they'll pop a new one in the post.

After a third call a week ago, a pack finally arrived a couple of days later, around the middle of last week. Quite why they couldn't have achieved that after the two previous calls (let alone 3 statement cycles), I do not know :mad: Now, on to putting the excellent advice from Raffles in to action! ^

Phil

A few bits of advice having had a Plat for about six years:

2. Do NOT apply for the Hilton Gold if you don't think you will use it in the next 12 months. This is really a once-only offer, so wait until you have a few stays planned.




Thanks very much for the excellent advice Raffles, but I have a query about the above point:

I currently have Hilton HHonors Gold from last years BAEC promotion. It runs out in April.

Having just received the Amex Platinum membership pack I have a few choices:

1) Tick the "I am not a member of Hilton HHonors - please enrol me." Hoping I will get a new account with 12 months of gold from now.

2) Dont tick any boxes, wait till my HHonors Gold has expired and ask for my twelve months at that point. How would I actually do this though? I would no longer have the form to send off having completed it to enrol in SPG and others. Would I just have to ring Amex and ask?

What would others do?

Thanks,

GG

It was a year before I even bothered to apply for the Hilton card so I'd recommend letting your existing card expire and applying using the Amex form well in advance of your next Hilton stay to ensure continued benefits :).

A few bits of advice having had a Plat for about six years:

1. Apply for the Priority Pass, Radisson, Sofitel and SPG Gold cards ASAP

2. Do NOT apply for the Hilton Gold if you don't think you will use it in the next 12 months. This is really a once-only offer, so wait until you have a few stays planned.

3. Ring them and ask for the "Fine Hotels & Resorts" book (and it is a book - a big, fat, perfect-bound, bigger-than-A4 catalogue). It doesn't always work, but you can get some excellent hotel discounts by booking through this scheme - this year I got no discount but a 2-level upgrade at the MO Chiang Mai (plus a free lunch) and Euro 50 / night (plus a $100 spa credit) off next Easter's trip to the FS Provence.

4. Ask what other hotel booklets they are still doing. There used to be a nice "Luxury Small Hotels of the World" directory and the "Amex Select Hotels Directory" (a bit useless this last one, offers a few $ off rack-rate at prime business hotels).

5. Sort out your supplementary cards. The key is that ALL five supp card holders get the free travel insurance, so get one for your partner and then consider giving the others to your parents, brother etc. Just make sure they don't buy anything on the card or it gets charged to you!

6. Give the one Platinum Supplementary Card to someone who uses Eurostar or bmi (or, less likely, Delta, Continental or Northwest) occasionally, as only Plat cards get free lounge access with these carriers. This is also the only person who gets a free Priority Pass as well.

7. Make sure Amex has your email address - you will get the monthly Platinum Life email which has OK offers and occasional invites, usually around Christmas, to cocktail parties at top stores. These are usually in London but not always. There is usually a goodie bag included! My office spam filter used to block this email on a regular basis, so now I have it sent to my Yahoo account.

8. Sign-up for the Priority Pass website. The annual directory goes out of date quickly, but the website is always current and is easy to search and print from.

9. Don't expect anything useful from the concierge service. In the age of the web, you can usually get better yourself if you have time to search. However, the restaurant booking line can be useful because Amex holds 1 table per night at many top London restaurants. My success in using this has not been great, but often because the table they hold is for four people (ie they want to encourage a high spending business group) and not two (low spending couple).

10. Don't forget that your BA Amex is free when you have a UK Plat card

11. Membership Rewards is pretty useless, EXCEPT for topping off accounts in other programmes. If you have a corporate Amex, you can usually link it to your MR account so you earn points on your corporate spending.

12. If possible, do NOT voluntary agree to FlexSelect being set up on your card (the option that turns your charge card into a credit card). I was eventually offered a bribe of 3,000 MR points to turn on FlexSelect, at which point I agreed!

Oddly, I never actually use my Platinum Amex on a regular basis - I stick with the BA card and my BMI Mastercard. However, I keep paying the fee because the benefits are worth having. I try to make one charge to the card every two months so they send me a statement each month, as the statement envelopes often contain special offers or promotions that you won't otherwise receive.

Raffles - many thanks for updating this the other day. I have been musing on getting a Platinum card for a while, and you may at last spur me to action.

I still have a couple of questions I hope folks can help with:

1 I had thought from previous posts elsewhere that the SPG Gold benefit (which seemed universally highly valued) was going away. Is my recollection wrong?

2 I currently mainly use a BA Amex Premium Plus (for the two-for-one cert) and have an International Dollar Card which is only marginally convenient so was thinking of giving it up anyway. Is there any way of getting a supplementary card with my Plat that would be a US$ card (or indeed a Eur card)?

3 If I end up with a Plat Card and BA Amex, is it possible/straightforward to transfer existing MR points to the Plat?

4 Given the adverse comments re Amex customer service, is it better to apply on-line or via one of the mailshots I receive from time to time?

Thanks!

<<possible/straightforward to transfer existing MR points to the Plat?>>

Do you mean transfer Membership Rewards points earned with a USD denominated card to a GBP denominated account? I have read that American Express will do this but the number of points will be adjusted to reflect the currency exchange rate.

Redemption rates vary between versions of Membership Rewards in (very) rough reflection of the currency values. Examples: SPG Starpoints are USD 3:1 or GBP 2:1, BMI miles USD 2:1, GBP 1:1.

dennis

2 I currently mainly use a BA Amex Premium Plus (for the two-for-one cert) and have an International Dollar Card which is only marginally convenient so was thinking of giving it up anyway. Is there any way of getting a supplementary card with my Plat that would be a US$ card (or indeed a Eur card)?
No. You need to pay a separate annual fee for a IEC or IDC. Even as a Centurion cardmember.
3 If I end up with a Plat Card and BA Amex, is it possible/straightforward to transfer existing MR points to the Plat?
Membership Rewards accounts are independent of card accounts, so if you currently have a MR account, upgrading to Platinum should not affect it at all. The situation may be complicated if your MR account is currently linked to a foreign currency card - I don't know about that, it's a bit of an obscure situation.

1 I had thought from previous posts elsewhere that the SPG Gold benefit (which seemed universally highly valued) was going away. Is my recollection wrong?

2 I currently mainly use a BA Amex Premium Plus (for the two-for-one cert) and have an International Dollar Card which is only marginally convenient so was thinking of giving it up anyway. Is there any way of getting a supplementary card with my Plat that would be a US$ card (or indeed a Eur card)?

3 If I end up with a Plat Card and BA Amex, is it possible/straightforward to transfer existing MR points to the Plat?

4 Given the adverse comments re Amex customer service, is it better to apply on-line or via one of the mailshots I receive from time to time?

Thanks!

1. There has been no announcement that SPG Gold is going. It is true that Centurion cardholders are being downgraded from Plat to Gold, but there is no world that Plat holders will be downgraded from Gold to whatever comes next!

2. Not sure

3. Your Membership Rewards account is separate to your credit card account so, yes, if you change from, say, the IDC card to a Plat charge card then you keep the same MR account. At one point I had 3 different cards (Corp Amex, Plat Amex, Gold Amex) all feeding into the same MR account.

4. Apply through quidco.com and you will get some cashback from Amex (this works for ALL UK Amex cards except Red)

Am trying to get the SPG Gold for my Amex platinum but am struggling. I had an old SPG account that lapsed and then a Moments account that became an SPG.

Anyway I forgot about all that so applied for a new SPG account and sent my Amex form off.

Unfortunately SPG are more clever than me and merged the new account into the old one before Amex requested the upgrade to Gold so the upgrade never happened (presumably because the new account on my Amex form was now defunct)

Anyway have queried this with SPG and they have asked for my Amex card number (easy) and 'the code provided to upgrade my account'

Anyone know what this is or do I need to ring Amex?

Anyone know what this is or do I need to ring Amex?

Ring Amex. It is a 2-3 letter secret code!

Raffles as ever a sterling overview of things to do when you receive your Plat card.

I received mine about two weeks after applying, and sent off the forms the day after I received them (Friday 14 July) but still no sign of a Priority Pass and none of my accounts have been upgraded (viewing them online).

Should I start chasing or is 26 days too short a time to expect the upgrades to have cleared?

I seem to think that Ms Raffles's Priority Pass (which I applied for 2-3 months ago when the new rules on the supplementary card came in) arrived relatively quickly. If none of your cards have turned up then I would ring Amex and make sure they haven't lost all your paperwork.

Similar experience to Raffles. Priority Passes arrived within two weeks of posting the form.

Going slightly OT: does anyone know if the UK Amex Plat BMI Business Lounge Access allows a guest? (I believe BMI bill Amex for the lounge access, so why not? :) ).

Raffles - Just a little addition to this... rather than spending a little each month on your card to get a statement, you could do the opposite - pay off a bit too much (even just a penny) so that your account's in credit. They will always send you a statement when there's a balance on your account, even if they owe you. This way you'll always get the statement, for just the cost of the 1p that you leave on the card.

Been trying to justify a Platinum Charge for a while, booked a holiday with Virgin & the car-hire insurance is £308. Bingo! Applied Tuesday last week, spoke to Amex & faxed back signatures Wednesday. PINs arrived Tuesday, cards yesterday.

Main card came in a pack with all the forms, tags & booklets. Noticed the Travel companion tickets section expires 30th April 2006 ;-) I already have HH Gold until April, so I didn't tick that box. Can I get them to send me another form then to get another year? Only stayed once this year (although didn't stay at all last, and they up'd me from Silver to Gold anyway).

Can I get them to send me another form then to get another year?.

This form is a new invention that only got issued earlier this year, so I doubt anyone has any experience with it yet. However, I'm sure Amex has a record of whether or not you have had your Hilton Gold comp and would be happy to send you a new form (or indeed sort out the comp on the phone).

Does the BMI UK lounge access include the DUB lounge?

The welcome pack suggests it's all BMI lounges - anyone's experience different?

12. If possible, do NOT voluntary agree to FlexSelect being set up on your card (the option that turns your charge card into a credit card). I was eventually offered a bribe of 3,000 MR points to turn on FlexSelect, at which point I agreed!

Bumping the thread because I remembered this advice (of course!) and have held off so far...today I got an offer to sign up for 2,000 MR points. Cheapskates! I may hold off a little longer :)

I went through Quidco and got £40 cashback for applying for the Platinum Charge Card after seeing some advice here. :)

I see that the Nectar card and the Red card give £35/30 cashback too. Anyone tried applying for all three Plat/Red/Nectar cards and getting the money from Quidco? Or would Amex start to get jumpy at all the cards you have?

I went through Quidco and got £40 cashback after seeing some advice here. :)

FlexSelect is something offered to EXISTING Amex Plat customers to pursuade them to operate their charge card like a credit card. You can still apply via Quidco, get your £40, refuse the FlexSelect option when applying and then sit back and wait for the 'bribe' letter from Amex.

Multiple cards - Amex in general has no problem with multiple cards, although your credit needs to be OK. Plenty of other card companies offer cashback through Quidco, though. (Also look at Coral - currently offering £30 when you place a £10 bet!)

The OP has pre-empted me from starting a thread on this topic.

I received an invitation to apply for the Plat card about a month ago. Very simple, here's a form, fill in two boxes and sign, which I did.

I heard nothing, so called Brighton on Monday to ask where my application was. The agent puts me on hold than tells me they've not seen the application at all. I then spend a very frustrating 45 minutes on the phone playing tag with about 6 different people. The outcome of this was:-

They had no record of my application
Although they had sent me a priority application form, they could not send me another one as they were sent out by "marketing"
If I wanted a card, I'd have to apply in full via the website.

I left the call in disgust at their general incompetence. I didn't have time to fill out the form on the website, but planned to do it today after I got home from my business trip.

When I arrived home last night, imagine my surprise to find an envelope containing a brand new Platinum card.

You could not make this up.

Actually, I had the same experience. This is going back to last November, but I had logged into my Gold AMX Account Summary page and happened to see at the top of the account details that I'd been offered a chance to apply for the Platinum card. I thought nothing of it and then a few days later when I was speaking to my Gold card rep, I asked about it and decided to go ahead and make the upgrade. Well, a few days after doing so, I followed up with Gold cs, platinum cs and platinum new accounts and nobody had an record of me ever being offered the Platinum card nor even an application in my name for it. Guess what: Within a week to a week and a half I received it.

Seems like the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing! Luckily now that I am a Plat card holder, things have worked rather smooth for me when I do call them up.

...nobody had an record of me ever being offered the Platinum card nor even an application in my name for it. Guess what: Within a week to a week and a half I received it.


No great mystery. Sounds as if American Express uses batch process computer systems. No one can see items that are "in progress" until the next time work is posted from one database to another.

No great mystery. Sounds as if American Express uses batch process computer systems. No one can see items that are "in progress" until the next time work is posted from one database to another.

Can be worse than that. I went for a supplementary card for a friend. Heard nothing.... Phoned up, they knew nothing - just allow up to 2 weeks, 4 weeks blah blah. Was told that there was a bit of a backlog.... In the end it became pointless as she completed her trip and it was for the insurance I was applying for the card.

Anyway ages later I was on to them about something else. I asked about the card I'd never received. They told me that stuff had been subcontracted out - eg certain mailing houses took certain forms etc. The unexpectedly honest guy said they'd had a dispute with one of their suppliers and all the forms received during a certain window (about 3 weeks I think) had been shredded unprocessed. It was during that time my form had gone in. Of course all this came to light ages afterwards - the reps were kept in the dark about it until some time later.

That has always been my experience of Amex/UK. Stuff is constantly divided up and farmed out. That's why the left-hand doesn't know what the right-hand is doing and people are powerless to intervene. All they can do is re-start the process again via another channel (eg by telephone rather than paper form etc). They regularly change suppliers and stuff can disappear down the cracks.

The moral is get Amex Plat UK for its tangible benefits (mainly insurance for a number of people who need not be your family, and PP). Ignore any intangibles eg a general expectation of "premium" service. They operate through call centres like everyone else. I get a much better call centre experience from Nationwide - and their's is the card I use when not in the UK. The 2.75% saved seems worth more than MR. In the UK I use BMI MC via MBNA - though my GBP spend is so small I don't worry about it.

A few bits of advice having had a Plat for about six years:

1. Apply for the Priority Pass, Radisson, Sofitel and SPG Gold cards ASAP

2. Do NOT apply for the Hilton Gold if you don't think you will use it in the next 12 months. This is really a once-only offer, so wait until you have a few stays planned. It is especially useful because it gives a free upgrade to the Club floor if rooms are available.

3. Ring them and ask for the "Fine Hotels & Resorts" book (and it is a book - a big, fat, perfect-bound, bigger-than-A4 catalogue). It doesn't always work, but you can get some excellent hotel discounts by booking through this scheme - this year I got no discount but a 2-level upgrade at the MO Chiang Mai (plus a free lunch) and Euro 50 / night (plus a $100 spa credit) off next Easter's trip to the FS Provence. FHR benefits can also be found here: www134.americanexpress.com/travelfhr/PlatCCSGServlet?request_type=fhr&action=1&lang=en&ctry=us&pdtyp=ccsg&cdtyp=plat

4. Ask what other hotel booklets they are still doing. There used to be a nice "Luxury Small Hotels of the World" directory and the "Amex Select Hotels Directory" (a bit useless this last one, offers a few $ off rack-rate at prime business hotels). There is also a City Breaks brochure, I think.

5. Sort out your supplementary cards. The key is that ALL five supp card holders get the free travel insurance, so get one for your partner and then consider giving the others to your parents, brother etc. Just make sure they don't buy anything on the card or it gets charged to you!

6. Give the one Platinum Supplementary Card to someone who travels a lot, either flying or on Eurostar, as only Plat cards get free lounge access with bmi, Delta, Continental or Notherwest. This is also the only other person who gets a free Priority Pass as well.

7. Make sure Amex has your email address - you will get the monthly Platinum Life email which has OK offers and occasional invites, usually around Christmas, to cocktail parties at top stores. These are usually in London but not always. There is usually a goodie bag included! My office spam filter used to block this email on a regular basis, so now I have it sent to my Yahoo account.

8. Sign-up for the Priority Pass website. The annual directory goes out of date quickly, but the website is always current and is easy to search and print from.

9. Don't expect anything useful from the concierge service. In the age of the web, you can usually get better yourself if you have time to search. However, the restaurant booking line can be useful because Amex holds 1 table per night at many top London restaurants. My success in using this has not been great, but often because the table they hold is for four people (ie they want to encourage a high spending business group) and not two (low spending couple).

10. Don't forget that your BA Amex is free when you have a UK Plat card

11. Membership Rewards is pretty useless, EXCEPT for topping off accounts in other programmes. If you have a corporate Amex, you can usually link it to your MR account so you earn points on your corporate spending.

12. If possible, do NOT voluntary agree to FlexSelect being set up on your card (the option that turns your charge card into a credit card). I was eventually offered a bribe of 3,000 MR points to turn on FlexSelect, at which point I agreed!

Oddly, I never actually use my Platinum Amex on a regular basis - I stick with the BA card and my BMI Mastercard. However, I keep paying the fee because the benefits are worth having. I try to make one charge to the card every two months so they send me a statement each month, as the statement envelopes often contain special offers or promotions that you won't otherwise receive.

hey i was wondering, when i had my platinum card i couldnt get a lot of those things but with the centurion card i can. Does anyone know what happened? Also not partainng to this quote. My black card has an ic chip but i didn't know that you could get one on the platinum. any explanations?

...when i had my platinum card i couldnt get a lot of those things ...

Is your account issued in the United Kingdom?

The above is still all correct as per the UK cards T&C's.

I have a question about supp. cards. I've had the Plat card for a while, but only just ordered supplementary cards. The cards have been sent to my address (makes sense, and might - I suppose - be useful if I want to give someone the insurance benefits without giving them an actual charge card that I'm responsible for.....). My question is: are statements for supp. cards sent to the main cardholder's address as well? If so, is there provision to have them sent to the supp. cardholder? I want my family members to at least try to pay their bill before I have to!

(this is UK by they way, as per the OP)

Thanks.
J.

My question is: are statements for supp. cards sent to the main cardholder's address as well? If so, is there provision to have them sent to the supp. cardholder? I want my family members to at least try to pay their bill before I have to!



You will only receive one statement, but it will be split out among the different card numbers. So charges are kept separate, but you are responsible for paying the bill.

One thing I find annoying is that you only get one payment coupon for the entire amount due. I always send two cheques, one for my personal expenses and one for business. One of the well-advertised benefits of having supplementary cards is to split personal and business spending.

Once when AmEx lost my payment and hadn't credited my account, I phoned them and the rep. tried to say that sending two cheques (in the same envelope and summing to the total due) was probably the problem, as they couldn't cope with two cheques. I found that to be ludicrous since I'd been doing it for 10+ years without incident. When I pointed out that I needed to pay my personal expenses from my personal checking account, and my business expenses from my business checking account, he understood and agreed with me that it was odd they didn't send separate payment coupons for the different cards.

Mine is the UK-issued IDC, so YMMV with a UK-issued sterling account.

Susan

Thanks, Susan.
I'll have to devise my own system...

Mine is the UK-issued IDC, so YMMV with a UK-issued sterling account.

Nope - it's exactly the same as you've outlined on a UK issued GBP Platinum card.


One other quirk I've noticed - I didn't request all of my supplementary cards at once (in fact, they were requested one at a time). Each of my supplementary cardholders received a Platinum card, instead of the Gold/Green cards after the first one..... handy I guess if they want to use a Eurostar/AA/BD lounge!

My question is: are statements for supp. cards sent to the main cardholder's address as well? If so, is there provision to have them sent to the supp. cardholder? I want my family members to at least try to pay their bill before I have to!

I'll add that each supplementary cardholder can create their own online account and view their own transactions without seeing the transactions of anyone else. Of course, the primary cardholder can see everyones account.

Additional cardholders cannot pay their own bills online and they also can't see when payment has been made as all payments are shown as from the primary cardholder.