Originally Posted by
Statman
If you want to play this game.
I was at Hong Kong for about 10 days in early September and did not have any issues using it in any restaurant or bar that I want to.
I was also in Greece including Athens, Santorini, Mykonos and Crete in mid October and everywhere I went to accepted the American Express card that I had.
I was also in Madrid, Sevilla, Córdoba and Alhambra recently and everywhere I went the card was accepted.
I was in Seoul, Jeju, and Busan in February and no place rejected the card.
I was in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto at the beginning of the year and everywhere I went accepted Amex.
Like everything else on this forum, your mileage may vary. If you want to cancel the card when the renewal fee comes, then by all means do so but your anecdotal evidence (like mine) is purely anecdotal.
First of all, the Gold card does not provide any advantage in bonus earning when used overseas. But as I said, it is a moot point even the limitation is annoying because AMEX is definitely less acceptable outside US.
In fact when we were in Australia, each place we went, did not display any card logo at all. But I always ask if the merchant takes CC, based on the experiences in Taiwan in the past. Sure do, they all quickly reply yes, ONLY Visa or MC.
I know in Hong Kong many here dont have issues but then again, many here dont go to the restaurants we go, being the ex Hong Kongers that we are. If your outings are limited in places in Lan Kai Fang and the like, or IFC ICC and at TST, like Ocean Terminal / Harbour City, yes, you can use AMEX virtually anywhere, though it still does not earn you any bonus because the bonus is limited to US establishments.
In reality in Hong Kong there are TONS of places, including some highly recommended places, they only take cash or Octopus.
We dont have problems in Greece, Spain, Japan and South Korea though where the last time we visited / transit was a few years ago.
We had to spend 3 days in Los Angeles because the only available AS saver seats were on the Thanksgiving day so we were like having a "forced" stopover in SoCal. A Chinese restaurant in the Little Saigon area told me they dont take AMEX (to be fair, they do not display the logo). The owner flat out said it was too expensive for them to take AMEX.
Meanwhile, an In-N-Out happily take it.
It all depends on one's spend needs - for us, Visa/MC are far more acceptable at places we go. My decision not keeping the Gold is based on US usage that the coding of bonus categories are inconsistent, not agreed with how Visa cards coded, requires the cardholders to check to make sure AMEX to post it or do the right thing to make amend - that is too much hassle to me. Not to mention the AF is hard to offset in our scenario versus the alternative, such as CSR or the no fee TD, are so much easier to earn and to use - both have a guaranteed cash value, and the CSR currency is transferrable just like membership rewards which cash value is 50% less and transfer partners are not superior, now with Aeroplan faces imminent devaluation. So for me, I dont see much incentive for me to pay the $250 fee when my year is up. Hey, there might be another targeted offer down the road, just like this one (3rd 50K bonus in 5 years all first year fee waived).. [img]data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAAQCAIAAAC QkWg2AAACj0lEQVQokWNgQAU37r9YeXxzwcryvEWli3etvXbrK QMucPPBS6/NvsIbBeWOyOteMNQ9ZSi9XoGznd+qzuHa7Wfoqo/dviK6T0j3k47zf3fH/x72/z3t/nva/vWy+emlckSfMZdj/+kzCNVXHz4VOS5s89/W5Ji5Wru22+8Ar/8Rnv/Dnf4HKrfq6Ky20r9mz5DNeenmQ6gG0yMmxv+N9dYYiBlL6zQbi +pL+v2P9f+fIGYkpdFkIm4rq9ZnrLTHRDpflYGBgeHcvTuSNyR c/7tKecu4f/JP+J+rWWtkucnNeqeXWplhxP9Cx58h4s5yJre8mMoET129yTDz 6iLt/5oe/738/4eG/0+M+J8e/T838n9+1P/8sP/5gf+zff9nOP+PsfoSLLpYs2vzNIboQ3HChaLCuWKSZfLy5aqSB YqSBSoK5doKFTrihapi+SrSZRoipUq8MVJcXuJufcEMPpv87Uw c3l19v2LiShddl2fnnz4+86g4pijNP+3J2UfPzz/xMPRc1rvkw+337rYels1uDBMuzJB2lfn///+Vq1dDQsP/////////CRMnNjQ2QdiR0bHnzp////+/jKlyw5YJDOce32WwY7h78v7de/e8ffwhitrbO8rLKyHsoKDQ6zduPLv+jEGW4cTtmwwMDAwiHSKW ztb3rz8MCYlA0lAFYUdERt+9ftfRzYU1VRgaD1cePmbwZ1CV1i jKKsa0oaK4SkNGi8GS4eK9h4jIPnT9HIMJg5Ss7I2zt/7//z939rze7r7////fvnBLVl6RQZ1h7xWkpAFNpw+ea2bqMLAxSGvIqahqKCqpyGgqM LAzqGfqX3/wHGeavXrnyaxNS1M7cpM7c2dvXX71HnryBgB12T0ROqyNEgAAA ABJRU5ErkJggg==[/img]