American Express Membership Rewards - Accelerator Plus cancelled / reduced to 25%?

I feel somewhat out of place amongst all the Centurion discussions with my lowly Gold charge card, but I wonder what Amex was thinking cancelling Accelerator Plus for Gold holders and reducing it to 25% for Platinum holders (or leaving at 50% but disallowing airline program transfer). Anybody else been hit with this, or is this Canada only?

Has anybody redeemed for travel using exclusively MR points, w/o converting to other airlines (is that even possible?) - how bad of a deal is it? Currently with Amex Canada, if you want 50% point bonus, you have to forgo redeeming for airline points...

AMEX Canada implemented this change a long time ago. Fall 2006, I think, so I'm surprised you're only finding out about it now. The termination of Points Accelerator coincided with the re-jigging of the Aeroplan charge cards.

See, this was the problem: the regular Canadian Amex charge cards had a greater potential rate of return on Aeroplan (transfering from Membership Rewards) than the actual Aeroplan cards. The Gold Card with Points Accelerator, in particular, was fantastic for accumulating points and transferring them to Aeroplan. The Platinum Card, as well, was a better product than the platinum Aeroplan card when it came to accumulating and using Aeroplan points. So basically Amex's classic charge card products were actually, in some respects, better Aeroplan cards than the Amex Aeroplan charge cards themselves. So something had to change, and they tinkered around with the Aeroplan cards, raised the annual fee of the Platinum Card, and introduced this rule for the Platinum Card that if you want to earn 1.5/$ you have to forego transferring them to airline programmes. With the Gold Card, this meant the cancellation of the Points Accelerator programme.

The change has also meant that Amex Canada pushes the Aeroplan cards on you hard. When I've called to either upgrade or apply for a particular card they try really hard to convince you that what you really want is an Aeroplan card. A quick comparison of the regular Amex charge cards offered in Canada with their counterparts in the US or most other countries finds Amex Canada to be sorely lacking. Except when it comes to those Aeroplan cards...

All in all, Amex Canada just seems to have focused on Aeroplan as their primary products and is letting its classic charge cards die a very slow and painful death. I wonder if this same strategy is being played out in other countries where Amex also has co-branded cards with major airlines (like the UK, France, Australia, etc) or if it is just in Canada.

...Fall 2006...

This is the same time that Double Points for Everyday Spending was removed from USA-issued Membership Rewards. I think these changes were part of a companywide initiative to reduce the cost of rewards programs. This Year versus Last Year is not the important comparison, we need to look at Membership Rewards versus other card issuers' programs and choose the best value.

Oh, I got my letter about the cancellation of Points Accelerator way back, it just happens to be taking effect as of next Monday (and that's when I'm moving to another Amex card, heh). I realise that the Gold card w/PA was the _best_ product - hell, I racked up almost 190,000 in a year and a half of having it through ... focus and concentration. :) As such, it comes as no surprise that they'd can the Gold card... but the Platinum card, I would expect, would be exempt from it, if only because it caters to a slightly different audience (Aeroplan Platinum = Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge access, etc., whereas Platinum Card - Delta and other US airlines)... so I'd have figured it would have been different. Hence my surprise - I was doing "mileage consulting" to someone at work, and I was suggesting he get the Platinum card, until he phoned in and was told that they have these weird new tiers and it's basically worthless now.

Quite unfortunate, really. This leaves no decent alternatives for accumulating Aeroplan miles rapidly (1.5 miles/$ with the CIBC Aerogold at grocery stores only, ha).

When are we going to get a decent programme in Canada?

The transfer on MR to many partners is very de-valued compared to the US. And since our currencies are now equal, we should have equal value on our transfers.

CIBC is not my favourite banker, but they're better than the very greedy RBC. I think Airmiles may have more bonus-earning opportunities than Aeroplan these days. Bank of Montréal offers Airmiles to chequing account balances, and even debit transactions earn. You can get double that opportunity by holding a Mosaik Mastercard.

When are we going to get a decent programme in Canada?

The transfer on MR to many partners is very de-valued compared to the US. And since our currencies are now equal, we should have equal value on our transfers.

CIBC is not my favourite banker, but they're better than the very greedy RBC. I think Airmiles may have more bonus-earning opportunities than Aeroplan these days. Bank of Montréal offers Airmiles to chequing account balances, and even debit transactions earn. You can get double that opportunity by holding a Mosaik Mastercard.

Actually, you can get even more with the Westjet Mastercard from BMO - 1 / $15, which is the best redemption rate that exist for Air Miles (I think even Amex is 1/$20). Mind, BMO's customer service is NOTHING like Amex....

Edit: I just realised what a compliment I made to BMO by even putting it on the same LINE as Amex..... I hope the text wraps, heh