I just got off the phone with AMEX in the Netherlands. I gave them an earful about the negative changes that would affect me, i.e. no more double miles (because I currently have the plus option) and no status sharing. I told the (very friendly) person that I could see no improvements; and that the qualifying flights were useless to me because I hit Gold Status anyway. Her response:
(1) they only got positive feedback on the changes so far (can this be true???); (2) if there is a change in a cc, this might mean worsening conditions for some customers, including me, but that would not affect all customers (I told her that I could not see how most people would benefit from the changes).
She kept praising the fact that I could now choose how much miles to earn -- I responded by saying that I chose a long time ago, namely, double miles with the plus option and that this was now reduced to half of that with the card approximately staying the same in price (plus option compared to the new Gold card).
When she said that I could always earn 1,5 miles when booking with AF/KLM, I told her that I never do that because it costs me 7,50 Euro each time and that it is ridiculous that this fee is not waived for an FB credit card. Her response: it's KLM's fault. This is interesting as KLM in a Facebook posting yesterday asserted that it's the card companies that prevent them from distinguishing between different credit cards.
I then proceeded to cancel my plus option (not worth it for two months, especially since I must have reached the spending threshold this year anyway) and told her that I would reduce my spending and might consider canceling the card completely. She seemed to be genuinely interested in this whole situation but what can she do anyways? She promised she would escalate my complaints about this. As for the status sharing; she said that KLM wants to limit the exclusivity of its lounges to flying customers -- this argument doesn't really make sense as I can take my partner with me anyway. I guess it would only apply if my partner were to fly alone or if there are more than one partner card. She also confirmed that my partner would retain my status throughout the next year.
I just don't understand why either KLM or AMEX would come up with such bad conditions that will annoy a lot of their good customers. Bad move for both of them because I am also thinking now about switching to LH.