American Express Membership Rewards - Platinum Amex

I recently was approved for a Platinum Amex (in UK) and have been told I can expect to receive my card by next week Wednesday 26th Sept.

I am due to travel on 10 Oct and want to take advantage of the Prioirty Pass and SPG status benefits of the Platinum card.

How long can I expect these to take to come through if I apply the same day that I get my Amex card (with the relevant forms)?

Is there anything I can do to speed up the process?

Can I get the benefits without actually having the Prioirty Pass and/or SPG cards in hand?

i am not sure if this would work, however, the forms are available to print out for the International Currency Cards which are also UK issued. You can see if they would accept these for your UK card and just fax them in rather than waiting to do it by regular mail. I would call first though ofcourse.
If not, they have been very good about rushing things to me (and I am in the USA) via DHL Express so I am sure they might even be able to do same day service within the UK.

I recently was approved for a Platinum Amex (in UK) and have been told I can expect to receive my card by next week Wednesday 26th Sept.

I am due to travel on 10 Oct and want to take advantage of the Prioirty Pass and SPG status benefits of the Platinum card.

How long can I expect these to take to come through if I apply the same day that I get my Amex card (with the relevant forms)?

Is there anything I can do to speed up the process?

Can I get the benefits without actually having the Prioirty Pass and/or SPG cards in hand?

Just call Amex. When I got my Platinum card several things went wrong, so finally they arranged the Priority Passes for me, weeks before I finally got the forms to get them.

I can also confirm that if you call they will fax you the forms right now, the only problem is you probably don't have the plat card number yet.
You could always phone the priority pass guys and see if they can fast track the application once you have everything ready? I think they might have a London office too.

I don't know how it works in the UK, but I called and told them I needed my card by X date because I was going on a trip and that I'd applied well in advance to ensure I got my card. (They told me I wouldn't get it until after the date I needed it). They ended up overnighting me a card.

Can I get the benefits without actually having the Prioirty Pass and/or SPG cards in hand?

I don't think you can. It took me quite a while (ie a couple of months) to get the SPG card. They just mess about for no apparent reason.

As far as I can see, you need the Priority Pass card to use the lounge. The lounge dragons must get all manner of people trying to blag their way in so they are probably not going to be very sympathetic to your plight. :(

And don't even mention the car rental benefits - I'm still badgering Avis and Amex about Preferred Select. They just want to mess you about so you give up, I think.....

Do you need to have an SPG card reflecting your status in hand to get the benefits of that status? I don't think so. When your Platinum AmEx account has been established, call SPG and see if they have you in their system as an elite, and if not ask how quickly they can set you up as one if you get them confirmation of your Platinum AmEx account.

And don't even mention the car rental benefits - I'm still badgering Avis and Amex about Preferred Select. They just want to mess you about so you give up, I think.....

There is no such program as Preferred Select anymore. It is now called Avis First.

There is no such program as Preferred Select anymore. It is now called Avis First.

And Avis First is only available to residents of the U.S., or so I was told by Avis.

Susan

There is no such program as Preferred Select anymore. It is now called Avis First.

Just wondering, did you get Avis First via American Express? There is a LOT of confusion about it here in the UK and I'm getting the run around... :mad:

UPDATE - I called Amex last night and they gave me my card number over the phone. I downloaded the form from the ICC website (as suggested by danielmadrid07) and faxed it to Priority Pass this morning with a note saying I was due to travel soon and asking if they could fast-track the application. Within about 40 minutes they had emailed me with my Priority Pass membership number and told me my card should hopefully be with me in the next 7 days. I am seriously impressed!

Now I just need to work out what to do about getting my SPG account upgraded to Gold. I think I will call them later today as itsme suggests.

Just wondering, did you get Avis First via American Express? There is a LOT of confusion about it here in the UK and I'm getting the run around... :mad:

I've got Avis Preferred (located in NL)

FURTHER UPDATE!

I called Starwood Gold, explained I had a Platinum Amex and asked if they could upgrade my account to Gold. They told me I needed a code from Amex. So I called Amex but they didn't really know what code to give me (I think codes are the way it works in the US). Anyway, the lady at Amex came back with a code she said I could try.

I called Starwood back and mentioned the code. The guy told me that was an old code. I persevered and said that it was the only code Amex could give me and if they didn't know another code, how could I get it?!

Anyway, after leaving me hanging on the line a few times between asking me my SPG membership number and my Amex card number, the guy came back to tell me my account had been upgraded to Gold (which I then confirmed by logging on to SPG.com).

So thanks to all for the advice. I am now ready to travel next month. Now I just need to work out how to get myself upgraded from Virgin PE to UC ;-)

Oh so with a platnum card they upgrade your SPG account to gold? Ahh ok that makes sence. I couldn't figure out why getting SPG membership was worth anything since they give em out at spg.com. So you get an 'upgraded' spg account. That makes more sence.