American Express also makes money by selling
access to cardholders with certain demographic characteristics, including income or net worth. You can see this in the media kits for
Departures and other American Express magazines:
Average household income: $296,425
Average personal income: $123,902
Average assets: $3,052,205
http://www.departures.com/mediakit/d...it_3_22_07.pdf
Likewise I think properties pay to be listed in the FHR glossy catalog, and that American Express charges retailers when they send postcards or giftcards to us.
Bingo. I was at meeting of a group of high end luxury travel providers and the Q&A at the end of the AX presentation was anything but cordial. The SEs said they were concerned that the high cost of doing business with AX in addition to the many value adds AX required was too high a cost in an environment where business was already bad. The AX rep essentially said if you don't see the value in being in our programs, don't participate. It was pretty much take it or leave it.