Originally Posted by
openwheelracing
Co-branded card will always be a step child and eventually turn into trash. Fact.
AMEX Plat an "elite" card? Maybe if you like to ration $10/Mon for food, Uber ride rations, $50 at Saks clearance rack, $25 737 cheese box, and paying for $30 check bags. CHECKED BAGS? Am I still on Flyer Talk? HHonors and Bonvoy Gold are worth as much as the water they give you in the welcome bag. They used to put that in the room, these days that's hard to come by. Champaign for anniversary is nice, fruits are nice....can't think of any others. Executive lounges have turned into credit card lounges and they were tiny to begin with. There are just better places to be, and they are counting on that.
To be fair -
HHonor Gold definitely is not useless, especially outside US. At a minimum you get free brekkie. Often you are also being put at Exec lounge floor and therefore gain lounge access. Now if you only travel domestically, then yes, it does not worth much due to domestic properties are very stingy.
BonVoy Gold USED to be very useful - but that was due to Marriott at the time being overly generous to SPG members, to give SPG Gold the same benefit of Marriott Gold in the OLD system. The SPG Gold required less, much less, nights to qualify if not being doled out by Plat comparing to Marriott Gold. Once Marriott did the final merger, it revamped the elite classification, rightfully - so the New Gold is actually the Old Silver, no more lounge access but still provides certain minimum values. Old Gold is now New Plat in the BonVoy chart and it should be, because the nights needed to qualify is the same.
Old SPG Gold being the same as Marriott Gold before merger was really a generous gift from Marriott. I said that from being a fake Marriott Gold (SPG Gold) in the past, and I valued the benefits enough to qualify the real thing by doing a challenge before the merger was finalized. Then I requalified in 2019 thru actual nights.
Therefore the PLAT's free cobrand statuses are better than nothing from CSR. At least for those who occasionally stay at Hilton family of properties, they save the $95 AF on the HH Surpass yet still enjoy the HH Gold.