American Express Membership Rewards - Additional Cards pricing/ New benefit

As Centurion, on renewal dates after August 1 additional card pricing will change and up to three Platinum cards will cost $175 total and up to five Gold $45 total. Additional Centurion Cards will cost $1,500 each as before.

Good deal? Not for me. There are just two of us so instead of my wife's Gold card costing just $9 ($45/5) it will still cost $45. With all the other losses in benefits, they ought to give free gold cards and minimal cost platinum. Or like a good grocery store that sells five items for $45, if you only take one ring it up at $9!!!

Unless I misread the Changes to Agreement, looks like they (gasp!!!) actually improved the Car Rental Loss provisions to cover more expensive (up to $75,000) cars and add "loss of use" coverage. If so, Good for you (for once) AMEX.

If you think I am sore over the coming loss of Starwood Platinum, you're right. Hard to say anything good about AMEX right now.

Same deal with the extra cards for Platinum -- $175 fee for up to 3 additional Plat cards, $45 for 3 golds.
How many people have more than one extra card?!? (I guess one could give them to the kiddies...)

On the other hand, found a decent deal on FHR at the Ritz Carlton San Juan for a weekend in April. Hotel only booking Rack rates, which are the same as the FHR rates, so booking through PTS gets free b'fast, $100 resort credit, etc. These situations do come up from time to time! (And even when the FHR is lower than the best available rate!)

So how much is the centurion additional card holder going to cost now?

They should have a package deal like they do for the plat one that you get 3 cards for $175

The loss of use coverage addition is the return of something that used to be there but was taken away a year or two ago. Maybe they got so many bi-tches they decided to put it back! I have Plat and this improvement was added for us too, effective date I believe is May 1.

So how much is the centurion additional card holder going to cost now?

They should have a package deal like they do for the plat one that you get 3 cards for $175

Additional Centurion Cards will cost $1,500 each as before. I suspect the elite memberships and priority pass are expensive and that makes offering a deal a bit tougher. Besides knowing AMEX if they did a deal it would be three for $2500 or more and hurt those who just wanted one extra.

In which country do the additional card cost money.

In Germany one additional card for your wife/partner etc. is free plus you can get an additional card to separate your business from your private expenses.

On top of that you can get up to 3 plat and 4 gold free, everything included in your Euro 1000. membership free.

In which country do the additional card cost money.

In Germany one additional card for your wife/partner etc. is free plus you can get an additional card to separate your business from your private expenses.

On top of that you can get up to 3 plat and 4 gold free, everything included in your Euro 1000. membership free.

True, but we don't get the airline elite benefits like in the US. In Germany we only get PriorityPass...

True, but we don't get the airline elite benefits like in the US. In Germany we only get PriorityPass...

sure agreed, but airline benefits are very subjectif depending on the alliance you are flying - and please correct me if I am wrong - but in the US they also have trimmed down the airline benefits ( no US Airways status - which would come handy if you use star alliance) and since I need an additional Centurion CArd for my wife I would hate to pay an additional 1500 bucks, in the end I think it is a matter of perception.

sure agreed, but airline benefits are very subjectif depending on the alliance you are flying - and please correct me if I am wrong - but in the US they also have trimmed down the airline benefits ( no US Airways status - which would come handy if you use star alliance) and since I need an additional Centurion CArd for my wife I would hate to pay an additional 1500 bucks, in the end I think it is a matter of perception.

Although US Air is not part of the MR program so you can not convert MR points into miles, you still get Gold status with US Air.

Unless I misread the Changes to Agreement, looks like they (gasp!!!) actually improved the Car Rental Loss provisions to cover more expensive (up to $75,000) cars and add "loss of use" coverage. If so, Good for you (for once) AMEX.
Not good for me. Also added (in the Notice of Changes to Your Agreement) to the Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance Plan was the following:

The following is added to the end of the first paragraph in the "Who is Eligible for Coverage" section:
4. You maintain your Permanent Residence within the 50 United States of America, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

An an expat with my "permanent residence" in Japan, I use my US-issued AMEX to rent cars, including on my trips back to the US, for the CDW/LDW coverage. As neither a Japanese-issued AMEX nor my Japanese auto insurance policy covers CDW/LDW, losing this coverage on my US-issued AMEX is definitely not good news.

The Japan, Asia Pacific or Australia version of the Platinum International Dollar Card (http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif/cda/page/0,1641,8444,00.asp) includes "US$25,000 for personal accident and Collision and Loss Damage Waiver for the US and Canada."