Tango Alpha

Not exactly Eurobonus, but relevant for FTs in the Nordic region, I think. Diners Club (at least in Denmark) has today announced, that effective January 1st 2012 a Diners Club card will no longer give free access to “Diners” lounges. There will be a fee of 95 DEK (13 euro) for each visit.

The lounge was the only reason to keep a Diners Card, which is poor in terms of acceptance worldwide. The insurance is long gone or at least bad.

Well, as long as I’m EBG and it is free I might keep it as an EB-card backup.

nacho

Where did you see this? It didn't say anything on diner's page both in DK and SE.

Tango Alpha

In an old fashioned letter – received by snail mail in Copenhagen on the 5th and dated the 4th. My wife got the same letter today. My daughters - which I gave a Diners card as a gift for lounge-use - as not got the letter - yet.

FT Guest xyzpdq

If that is the case then my Diners memberships is indeed in jeopardy as well. The only upside for DC is the 50% additional point earnings over MC and the bagageinsurrance, which I have used quite a few times. Must look elsewhere now.

jumbooze

That's too bad, I just got Diners in order to use the CPH lounge
Now I will return it before I need to pay for it.

I'll just wait till I get the signup bonus of 6000 extra points.

Svantevit

According to the letter I received yesterday, you will still earn a number of free visits to the lounges based on your spend the previous year. For each 10.000 DKK (approx. 1300 EUR) your spend you will get one free visit to a DC lounge. I.e. if you spend 33.000 DKK on your DC card in 2011 you will get three free lounge visits in 2012.

I have no idea if this only applies to people with the VIP card.

Svantevit

seat56f

Does it say whether these visits are personal, or could you use them to bring a companion as well?

cph_flyer

The letter states that the visits are personal.

Svantevit

The letter I received very clearly stated that the "free" visits earned by spending more 10.000 DKK or more is only for your personal use and that any and all guests would cost 95 DKK.

Svantevit

Banko

Same here.

Guess that means goodbye to DC for me, never really liked the card anyway (due to limited places it can be used). The lounges sure is not worth paying 95 DKK for and I would prefer to have a MC combined with EB as it is more widely accepted..

Banko

BTW - one thing that would make me reconsider is if the free visits could also be spent by a guest, that way it would actually be strengthening the offer..

FT Guest xyzpdq

Exactly.

I can to some degree accept that the more you use the card the more benefits i.e. lounge visits you get. But why on earth limit it to cardholder only. I know of no other program that in the same way severely constrains the use of earned benefits to personal use only.

In practical terms it makes the card obsolete for me - as I most often travel with a colleague or my wife. And paying DKK 95 for the DC lounge in CPH is a joke.

harlekin

If this is true (I live in Sweden and haven't received any info either) it really sucks! But if you can earn lounge visits by spend on the card as Svantevit says, then I might hang on to it anyway... it depends on how high the spend threshold is, I guess.

Today I mostly put my spend on my Amex, with the Diners and MasterCard as backup when it isn't accepted. But there are few places that accept Diners but not Amex, except for IKEA. But I guess I should make enough purchases per year at IKEA to earn a couple of free lounge visits and make the card still worth keeping in the wallet. As longe as the annual fee is still waived for EBG, of course.

Hafnia

If I'm not mistaken the letter said that there has been a high increase in the number of DC members in Scandinavia. I guess the "free visits for spenders" is a way of rewarding those who actually use the card for its primary purpose (it is a credit card after all) and not just keep it to gain free entrance to the lounge in CPH and elsewhere. I have so far accumulated 6 free visits in 2012 which I think I will probably not use all of as I usually make sure I travel within the *A network and use my EBG to get lounge access. The DC is only a back-up. By the way, I think with a Eurocard one also has to pay to get into the Novia lounge in CPH? In any case I'm willing to pay even more for access to some DC lounges such as the one in DXB which has saved me many times on 6-8 hour nightly stopovers going to KBL. In conclusion: I somehow understand the new policy and I can live with it.

BHIL

I also think this is a fair and wise decision by DC. DC is just trying to run a profitable business and if the majority of the card holders only use the card for lounge access and not for payment then it is easy to do the math. I use the card quite often to get the extra EB points (often they also offer better exchange rates than MC) and this spending will probably give me all the lounge visits I need when not travelling *A.