American Express Membership Rewards - New to Platinum - How to maximize benefits? Should I consider Citi Chairman?

Hi,
I'm trying to make sure I get the most out of my Amex Platinum, or decide if another card would be better for me. The following are my primary areas of benefit interest:

- Airport club access
- Hotel upgrades
- Reward points
- Travel planning
- Concierge service

The roadside assist I thought would be useful, but when I actually needed it, it turned out Amex only does it if you're 50 miles away from home. So, while it would be useful for roadside assist while traveling, it's not a full solution.

With Platinum:

- Co/NW/Delta only - which is decent, though obvious not ideal on our last trip where we flew Virgin.
- Hilton Gold and Starwood Gold - correct? Works for me.
- Points are generally 1 MR point per $ spent, correct?
- Wasn't thrilled with the travel planning: They didn't seem to make any effort to search for the low-cost options, and repeatedly tried to push us towards what I assume are Amex partners at higher cost - not suprising, but not useful to me.
- Haven't used concierge, I'm not even quite sure what sorts of things I'd use them for. Any common/typical tasks people here have found they're convenient to task with?

So, two main questions are:

1.) What can I do to max out the benefits from the card in terms of point accumulation, being able to offload travel/concierge for certain tasks without having to eat a premium price, etc.

How does the Citi Chairman card compare to this?

I know I'd get a priority pass - which means club access and hilton gold, correct? How does their club access compare to Amex - looking at their site it seems I could have used a lounge in Heathrow which I was unable to with Amex + my Virgin ticket.

How do Citi-rewards stack up vs. Amex MR? I remember seeing posts on there a while back that really shot down the Chairman rewards, but I forget why, etc.

Thanks in advance!

- Airport club access (not great, as you said)
- Hotel upgrades (SPG Gold, earn bonus = good)
- Reward points (MR > AC(*A) or DL(ST) + LCCs)
- Travel planning >
*Fine Hotels and Resorts - benefits, upgrades, etc - great
*Cruise Priviledges - upgrades / onboard credit , other benefits - good
*Travel packages and cruises - spend $5K get 25K MR bonus points
(can definitely save money, if you're booking PACKAGES through AMEX. NOT booking stuff through the partners. Those are "special" / "tour" LUX packages, designed to be LUX, not save money)

- Concierge service = not great but >
*Gold Card Events (not bad, can be pretty good)
*By Invitation Only (sometimes great stuff, sometimes not so great, price ranges from very low to fairly high)
*Example of request for movie premiere - Miami Vice LA $2750


reward comparison >
citi - earn on award flights sometimes
- earn flight points (but can't use them until you match the points with spend points, so not much of a plus in my personal opinion)
- absolutely worthless for first class travel, so-so for business class

amex - TRANSFER to AC / DL / LCCs programs.


the only other thing you brought up was priority pass and hilton gold.

chairman card I BELIEVE comes with hilton gold (INSTEAD OF SPG gold). to me SPG is much better. just depends on your travel.

amex only comes with spg gold.

and priority pass has nothing to do with either, its ONLY lounge access.

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and priority pass has nothing to do with either, its ONLY lounge access.

Agree with everything you said but that. I know for sure Citi uses priority pass. The benefit however isn't as good in my opinion compared to plat. With plat you and 2 others or your family of up to four get the lounge access when they are with you. With Citi you are billed for each guest. I believe its $48. Here is Citi's full benefits. I think the plat is better...

www.smithbarney.com/pdf/chairmanbook.pdf

The Chairman card charges $24.00 for guests not $48 and according to another thread the terms have been updated so that the cardholder plus 2 guests can use the lounge complimentary. I personally don't have the card so cannot verify this information. However, you can find out more information on the chairman card here (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6006122#post6006122)

"I know I'd get a priority pass - which means club access and hilton gold, correct?"

What I said in response: Priority Pass has NOTHING to do with HH Gold. (or SPG Gold either)

And as Joe said, cardholder+2 at most lounges (although some allow more), $24 per guest after that.

Plat can't compare to PP in terms of # of lounges, and ease of access.. Perhaps it's a matter of: if you are thinking about buying PP, go ahead and get Chairman Card for same price.

Otherwise, you just weigh the overall picture based on your habits.

- Airport club access (not great, as you said)
- Hotel upgrades (SPG Gold, earn bonus = good)
- Travel planning
- Concierge service

The Chairman card charges $24.00 for guests not $48 and according to another thread the terms have been updated so that the cardholder plus 2 guests can use the lounge complimentary. I personally don't have the card so cannot verify this information.

I recently switched from Amex Platinum to the Chairman Card so here's my personal comparison...

Hotel status: The Chairman Card gets you HH Gold, Amex Plat gets you SPG Gold. But you can also get SPG Preferred Plus by having an Amex SPG Platinum credit card ($30/yr.) This gets you everything SPG Gold does other than the 50% bonus on points earned from spending at SPG properties; specifically it gets you Gold-type upgrades and 4pm checkout. I won't be too sad when I drop down to Preferred Plus next year. But it's also apparently easier to get comped (NOT status-matched) HH Gold than it is to get comped SPG Gold, through various methods.

Airport club access: I can confirm that you do indeed get a FULL Priority Pass. The Smith-Barney materials are dated. This means 2 free guests, or immediate family, at most locations. A few locations limit guests, and others allow more (CO appears to allow 6, for example.) This is the same Priority Pass that's regularly $395/yr; so you basically pay $5 more for the rest of the card benefits.

Travel planning: Haven't tried the Chairman Card for this yet, as I like doing my own travel planning. I never used the FHR benefits, but they do have some good deals sometimes. I tried to book flights through Amex a couple times when I wasn't near a computer. They came up with ridiculous fares compared to what I later found with a 2 minute search; glad I didn't book them.

Concierge: The Chairman concierge via VIPdesk is much better than the Amex Plat concierge. It may exceed the Amex Centurion concierge level of service (it at least matches it.) I've had the card for a month or so, and they've performed complex hunt-and-seek tasks for me on two occasions so far (both requiring moderate research and then calling 30 - 50 foreign numbers to get the information I needed. The second of these two instances was fairly urgent, so they put two people on the case to get it done quickly.) Basic concierge services seem to be more efficient than Amex as well. The staff at both VIPDesk and Circles (Amex) are equally friendly and pleasant to work with. What you don't get with the Chairman concierge is as much access to busy restaurants as you do via Amex, though another thread mentions that VIPdesk has some restaurant connections in NYC and LA. But the weight of Amex can get you into a sold out restaurant if the concierge calls for you. Nevertheless, the Amex Platinum concierge has gone downhill in my opinion; they seem less capable and are more frustrating than a couple years ago in recent times.


reward comparison >
citi - earn on award flights sometimes
- earn flight points (but can't use them until you match the points with spend points, so not much of a plus in my personal opinion)
- absolutely worthless for first class travel, so-so for business class

amex - TRANSFER to AC / DL / LCCs programs.

The Chairman Card (and other Citi cards) do give you flight points for miles-flown (even on award tickets, apparently, if you pay the taxes with the card; this loophole may disappear), which you need to match with spend points as noted. So you earn 2 points/dollar if you fly as many miles as you spend dollars, and that's without the "everyday spend"-type bonuses.

But of course, as with most CC travel programs, the points are indeed fairly worthless for anything other than domestic coach tickets. And a frequent traveler is generally better off just buying domestic coach tickets and earning the miles. For this reason, 95% of my spending still goes to Amex; either MR via a Gold Rewards Plus, DL Skymiles, or SPG, depending on how the current bonuses are. I really just use the Chairman Card for the Priority Pass, concierge, and HHonors status, and occasionally when Amex isn't accepted. (I'm currently on a long overseas trip so the 3% hit isn't worth it, so I've generally been paying cash if Amex isn't accepted. The 2% Amex hit is worth it for the points. This brings up a telling example about how much more useful MR/SPG points/airline miles are than generic CC points: I spent 220k miles + $304 in taxes on a 6 stop SkyTeam RTW in biz via DL. How many ThankYou points would it take to do the same? I'm guessing well over a million. Probably at least 500k just for coach, even.)

Also keep in mind that SPG points transfer to many more airlines than MR points do (at 1.25% with the 5k bonus on 20k transfers.) But you get MR double-point bonuses often whereas SPG spend bonuses (if they exist?) do not seem to happen. However, Amex Platinum cards generally do NOT work for the MR double bonuses that keep popping up. Only Green and Gold cards do most of the time. So if you want those bonuses you may have to get an additional card. Specifically look at the Gold Rewards Plus, as it has an implicit double-MR feature, which drops to 1.5x after a year, at travel partners (this means I get more points paying SPG and Hilton bills with my Gold Rewards Plus than with my SPG or Hilton card!)

So to sum it up: if you want great concierge and airline club access but want to maximize travel rewards, the Chairman Card for the former and various non-Platinum Amex cards to put your spending on for the latter are a great way to go.

I'm probably going to end up getting Chairman, Green, and Gold in the future :|

Too bad Starwood AMEX isn't a charge card. That'd be very convenient.

Maybe the higher level cards will be good again though by the time I'm in that market.

Also, I've had great experience with the Platinum Amex "Fine Dining" feature. I've called restaurants and gotten the "no way" response when asking for a reservation, then Amex is easily able to get me in. I'm also treated slightly better when I'm coming in via the fine dining program.

I'm probably going to end up getting Chairman, Green, and Gold in the future :|

Too bad Starwood AMEX isn't a charge card. That'd be very convenient.

I much prefer it being a credit card! You have a proper limit that you know ahead of time, rather than an unknown limit hidden behind "no preset spending limit" terms. And you can use the handy online reallocator if needed. Amex once warned me my spending privileges could be "at risk" if I didn't pay off my Business Platinum early when I had an unusually high balance...when the balance was around 25% of my available Amex credit card limits combined. (And my credit history with Amex and elsewhere is flawless other than one accidental mortgage late a couple years back.) Never come even remotely close to my Amex credit card limits in a month.

The Chairman Card's "no preset spending limit" actually makes sense. They give you an regular credit limit, which was extremely generous in my case (and which you can move around between cards as well), then approve purchases past that limit on a case-by-case basis (as Amex alludes to doing, but apparently really doesn't.) Not that I'd want to put my spending on that thing with the silly ThankYou rewards. :)

Also, I've had great experience with the Platinum Amex "Fine Dining" feature. I've called restaurants and gotten the "no way" response when asking for a reservation, then Amex is easily able to get me in. I'm also treated slightly better when I'm coming in via the fine dining program.

Agreed. I've had a few times when Amex managed to get me into a "full" restaurant. I'm not really sweating that with the Chairman Card though, as I can always fall back on friends with Centurion or Platinum cards to make a reservation if absolutely needed. And I've never felt like I've been treated better after making a resevation with the Amex Plat concierge. But it is nice to have that right at your disposal (but not worth the annual fee just for that benefit!)

Yeah, speaking of those sorts of benefits, I'm probably going to get a Quintessentially membership before my big RTW style trip. And if CENT doesn't pick back up, I'll probably just go back to Q in the future, instead of going for CENT.

And karthik my point was I'd gladly pay $400+ per year for a Starwood card with "no limit" and perhaps a couple other benefits. :P

Airport club access: I can confirm that you do indeed get a FULL Priority Pass. The Smith-Barney materials are dated. This means 2 free guests, or immediate family, at most locations. A few locations limit guests, and others allow more (CO appears to allow 6, for example.) This is the same Priority Pass that's regularly $395/yr; so you basically pay $5 more for the rest of the card benefits.



Where did you read that a Priority Pass would entitle you to 2 free guests?

EVERYONE who has the Chairman Card says their current T&C clearly states it. Forum search. I think 5 people have quoted their documents verbatim.

Ah, you're referring to the way he said "full PP" aren't you?

I really don't remember if the $395 PP includes 2 free guests or what.. I DO remember some people saying that it appeared CITI paid for their guests sometimes at some locations. So if PP does NOT include it standard, then CITI covers the cost themselves for Chairman Cardholders.

In that case, I guess that the Priority Pass that you get through the Chairman card is different than the ones advertised on the PP website. I have a prestige PP membership through my Amex Centurion card but eventhough I can use it as much as I want, it is not free to bring guests in (24 EUR / guest)...

This is weird though...

As I said, I definitely remember people saying CITI paid for their guests sometimes.

So if it's not a PP standard benefit, CITI covers the cost. It's one of their special benefits.

(Making it even BETTER than a regular PP, so even better value)

Sorry, I was apparently was mistaken about this being the same as the "full" (aka "Prestige Membership") Priority Pass which actually runs $399, not $395. The T&C do indeed state 2 free guests (sorry, don't have them with me, but as Kagehitokiri noted others have apparently quoted them), and Citi has confirmed this to me over the phone as well. I mentioned the SmithBarney PDF linked above (which have the T&C stating no free guests) and Citi said that they were indeed out of date.

Please note that there is a thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=429495) in the Other Credit Card Programs forum covering the Chairman Card in more depth if you're interested. This includes information from other people who've called Citi to confirm the 2 free guests on the PP, as well as quotes from the T&C about free guests.

I got the SmithBarney client Chairman Card application packet a couple months ago, and I BELIEVE the T&C was properly updated in that, but not certain. Ended up just applying via the web anyways since I was told there was no difference applying via SmithBarney (unless you're a larger client and they're going to waive some/all of your fee; I'm not, so no fee waiver.)

I'm guessing they included the 2 guests to be able to compete with the Amex Plat club access, since otherwise Amex Plat would be a better option for DL/CO/NW flights.

The PP website states "SAVE up to 70% with our corporate member program" (which includes being an Affinity Partner, as Citi probably is) so I guess that's how they can offer the $399 PP+free guests on a $400 card.

Oh yeah, one more thing that hasn't been mentioned about the Chairman Card: the unlimited free companion ticket benefit (for all classes of service, and both domestic US and international travel.) It has very strict terms and conditions, and is of dubious value. I have yet to try it out, but from the Chairman Card thread it seems most people haven't had much luck with it, but a few have had success in limited cases.

The new companion thing with CITI is buy 1 $299 min restricted get 1 free.

But people have said >

- $299 = has to be lowest price of ANY airline on route
- they "make up" fares that have nothing to do with the actual fares you can find online

Thank you very much for your very clear answer! Confusion cleared on my side thanks to you.

I don't know much about the Chairman Card since it is not, as far as I know, available in France.