Originally Posted by
goliath
In Switzerland, the Amex Membership Rewards points to FFP miles ratio is 2:1 for most programs, including the transfer to M&M, so that makes only 50k miles, not 100k, as the title of your post suggests. See details on the
Amex MR homepage for Switzerland (only for Avios, the rate is 3:2).
Yikes that's pretty awful. I couldn't find the conversion and assumed that it would be 1 for 1 as it is in Canada and the UK. In Canada we're looking at $1 CAD (0.76 CHF) spend earns between 1-3 AmEx points which converts 1:1 into BA Avios (OW) and AC Aeroplan (*A) or 1:0.75 for DL Skymiles (SkyTeam).
Originally Posted by
Concerto
The thing is, the conditions for getting that Platinum card are probably going to exclude me. Otherwise, I would go for it without hesitation, and cancel before the second year. CHF425 maybe, but CHF850 Definitely not. I mean, where I came from, most credit cards are free. Reckon it's going to be hard to get it?
Cannot comment specifically on AmEx Switzerland but can share my experience as a Canadian expat now residing in the UK. In 2016 I applied for and was granted an Amex Gold card (I was 28 at the time). Last year and to this day I keep receiving offers to upgrade to the Platinum Card. When I moved to the UK last year to study I called AmEx and within 2 weeks they got me a UK AmEx Gold card no questions asked nor application form to fill out. I was thoroughly impressed.
As for which card to get I was thinking sign up for the first year to get the bonus 100,000 points then downgrade to the Gold. I suspect 300 CHF is not a bad price to pay just for the lounge access alone - looking at the Priority Pass website (one of their lounge partners) in ZRH alone they got 5 lounges:
- Swiss Business Lounge in Zone D
- PrimeClass Lounge in Zone E
- DNATA Skyview Lounge in Zone B
- Aspire Lounge in Zone E
- Aspire Lounge in Zone B
An all you can eat Priority Pass membership is 399 EUR annually so this comes in well under that amount and offers more lounges I think.
One other thing that I should point out is that if you
have status with LX you'll can the annual fee slashed:
- Swiss M&M Platinum is 500 CHF/year for HON Circle Members
- Swiss M&M Gold Plus is 0 CHF/year for Senators and above
- Swiss M&M Classic Plus is 0 CHF/year for Frequent Travellers and above
Looking at the requirements to hit status with the LH Group I have to wonder why anyone would want to accrue status with them. Senator Status requires 100,000 miles? Really? Over at UA I get their equivalent of Senator status for half that on virtually any fare across the *A network (except Light/Basic Economy fares which only earn 50% miles).
-James