American Express Membership Rewards - Comparing Platinum Concierge to Visa Signature Concierge

I'm starting this thread because of a great experience I just had with the Visa Signature concierge service, which I haven't used in years. In fact, the card itself is locked in our safe at home and is almost never used--the AmEx plat has become our daily card of choice.

I, like others, have had hit-or-miss success using the platinum concierge for things. Sometimes they seem to really care, take the time to understand a request, and do it thoroughly and professionally the first time. Other times I spend more time going back and forth with them than it would have taken to do a task myself, or they just throw up their hands and give up with seemingly no attempt at meeting my needs.

Anyway, I submitted my Visa request online and was promised a response within 12 hours. Sure enough, about 6 hours later half of the task I requested was complete and they asked for some additional information for the other half. They also needed my card's security code, which I couldn't get because our only safe key is with my wife in Denver (don't ask). I asked them if they could hold onto my request until Friday or if they could process it with a different, non-Signature card. They told me they would be happy to hold my request until Friday, apologized that they are not allowed to charge any other cards, but provided me all the information I needed to call the supplier directly if I chose to use a different card.

Maybe I've been trained to set my expectations too low, but this level of service (timely, competent, and helpful) really impressed me. Is there a reason that AmEx can't consistently offer the same? Was my Visa experience an anomaly, where in reality they're just as hit-or-miss as AmEx?

I recently got the Merrill + Rewards card which uses the same Signature Rewards benefits. I tried a test to compare its concierge service with that of Amex Platinum.

I sent the same request to each via an online form: "I am looking for an automatically replenishable major credit card (e.g. Amex, Discover, MC, or Visa) than can replenish from my checking account the same amount each month without manual intervention. This would have to replenish a card in someone else's name." (The idea was to give a family member a card instead of writing monthly support checks. Also, I didn't want to give him a card on my account since I didn't trust him not to run up a huge bill.) Here are the results, anecdotal as they may be.

MERRILL + VISA:
Received a response with one day providing two options, each from unrelated companies.

AMERICAN EXPRESS PLATINUM:
Received initial response two days later, indicating they couldn't help me because any product they referred me to would be a competitor of Amex. I replied that since Amex offers no replenishable card product, no other company competed with them for such a product. Based on that, I asked that they reconsider their definition of a conflict of interest and respond to my inquiry. It has been 5-8 weeks and I still haven't had a response from Amex.

The ironic thing is that if any of the companies could consider this request to pose a conflict, it would be Merrill since they offer Visas and MCs but they still appropriately referred me to unrelated Visa and MC issuers. To Amex, a replenishable company that targets uncredit-worthy people and charges high fees because of that fact, is far from being a competitor. This is a strike against Amex in my book.

Another ironic fact is that both companies outsource to Circles! However, both Chrysler and Mercedes Benz get 90% of their parts from the same vendors. The point of that is that a good company can use a good vendor in different ways. Amex may require certain response times and narrowly define the issues they can help us with, whereas another company (Merrill) may have other requirement and less restrictions on what they may help us with.

I don't know if that explains what happened, but is a possibility. While this one example does not show a pattern, it can be useful as one of many experiences that show a trend. So take it for what it's worth and nothing more.

My experience with Amex Concierge is limited and negative. It consisted either of (a) them trying to upsell me to services I didn't need, at a premium price, for which I have to assume they were getting a kickback (for instance, when I called to reserve car service, being quoted a price about 60% above what the regular black-car services charge); or (b) fumbling, un-resourceful interactions that (as you suggest) I could have gotten to the (mediocre) answer myself faster (e.g., calling to send flowers to someone in Hong Kong and being told, after ten minutes of hemming and hawing, "Well I am on a website called 1-800-Flowers.com, and . . . ." Gee thanks.

My one decent experience was with a fairly resourceful young guy who succeeded in finding, on short notice, a hotel massage place that was able to make a reservation for my GF at a premium time. He also did what none of the others did -- took my number (as opposed to making me wait on the line) and actually called me back in a reasonable amount of time (as opposed to three days).

I'm starting this thread because of a great experience I just had with the Visa Signature concierge service, which I haven't used in years. In fact, the card itself is locked in our safe at home and is almost never used--the AmEx plat has become our daily card of choice.

I, like others, have had hit-or-miss success using the platinum concierge for things. Sometimes they seem to really care, take the time to understand a request, and do it thoroughly and professionally the first time. Other times I spend more time going back and forth with them than it would have taken to do a task myself, or they just throw up their hands and give up with seemingly no attempt at meeting my needs.

Anyway, I submitted my Visa request online and was promised a response within 12 hours. Sure enough, about 6 hours later half of the task I requested was complete and they asked for some additional information for the other half. They also needed my card's security code, which I couldn't get because our only safe key is with my wife in Denver (don't ask). I asked them if they could hold onto my request until Friday or if they could process it with a different, non-Signature card. They told me they would be happy to hold my request until Friday, apologized that they are not allowed to charge any other cards, but provided me all the information I needed to call the supplier directly if I chose to use a different card.

Maybe I've been trained to set my expectations too low, but this level of service (timely, competent, and helpful) really impressed me. Is there a reason that AmEx can't consistently offer the same? Was my Visa experience an anomaly, where in reality they're just as hit-or-miss as AmEx?


NB: there's a pretty signficiant difference between Bank of America's worldpoints concierge service (which they give to their visa sig. card holders) and the standard visa signature card concierge. The former's awful, and the latter I've had decent luck with (they incorrectly diverted me to the standard service once or twice before wising up. . .)

Just one man's opinion. . . .

Not to pull off topic, but I have a World MC, which also provides concierge service.

I can't compare directly to the other two, but my experiences with the MC service has been more along the lines of what people are getting with the Visa. Any time I have called, service has been prompts and helpful. More importantly, they have been significantly faster than I would have been doing the legwork myself - and this is including time to dial/connect/verify/etc.

I have been looking at dropping my MC and the wife's DL AmEx for the AmEx Plat, with the concierge and the domestic companion being the two great draws, and going through these threads, I'm starting to wonder if it would even be worth it.

I have been really happy each time I have called the plat concierge and asked them to do something. Granted, I have never asked for any involved, but they have been prompt and responsive when I have called.

I have been looking at dropping my MC and the wife's DL AmEx for the AmEx Plat, with the concierge and the domestic companion being the two great draws, and going through these threads, I'm starting to wonder if it would even be worth it.

Just a note about the companion ticket benefit, which is discussed extensively elsewhere: the value of the benefit really does depend on your individual situation. Based on my destinations, the two times I tried to use Amex's "free" companion ticket benefit, I found it to be more costly than buying two tickets directly through the airlines using their regular published fares, so that's exactly what I did.

Just a note about the companion ticket benefit, which is discussed extensively elsewhere: the value of the benefit really does depend on your individual situation. Based on my destinations, the two times I tried to use Amex's "free" companion ticket benefit, I found it to be more costly than buying two tickets directly through the airlines using their regular published fares, so that's exactly what I did.

Yeah, we are thinking about getting it because we are planning on heading to Hawai'i next year. I'm finding flights in the 900-1000 range, so as long as they don't quote us 1600 or more, we would come out ahead.

I have used the companion deal several times with great success. As another poster mentioned, it depends on your situation. I fly out of DFW on AA so most of the flights I want are available. I have used the Companion service 5 times in the last year 1/2 and only once did it not make sense and the rep even (to their credit) even acknowledged you could do better on your own at the time.

The other benefits definitely outweigh the cons of the concierge service. With the abundance of availability of internet, most feats can be done with a few clicks instead of dialing concierge. Just my .02 cents.