The £5 service fee is quite normal and has existed for a while I think. It is separate from the Amex fee.

It is usually waived without difficulty in my experience. ("Your website crashed when I was making this fourteen leg flight incorporating six fare components partially operated by three of your partners, no idea why ...?")

To be honest most of the telephone operators seem quite glad I know exactly what I want and that it's even easier because the reservation is already somehow in the system from an office in Amsterdam????