Originally Posted by
fifty_two
Any reason why you choose platinum instead of regular amex ???
Be aware you have only 3 big players in western europe = amex , MC and visa
Only amex is available directly without your bank . You can check which visa/mastercard your bank offer , under which conditions and what these cards can offer you compared to amex
I have the platinum amex for 2 years now as it has (on paper - never got to try it) pretty good travel insurance, and also priority pass membership (I don't really need it, but my GF who has the additional card uses it from time to time). The fact it came with additional perks such as Hilton/Marriott status was also useful, although not the main selection criteria.
did you asked hotels.com why it takes so long ?? Are these 10 bookings made with the same hotel or company ?? are they all in same country ???
Don't forget that hotels.com is just a useless man-in-the-middle , their business is to get your payment , take their commissions and pass the money to hotels
For sure with covid19 their back office is probably overloaded . My guess is that , probably , the top management decided internally on purpose to slow-down or ignore legitimate refunds requests as the volume of cancellations started to reach dangerous levels , so you should have requested refund earlier
The Dutch customer service on the phone told me that they were having lots of requests and that it will be processed between 7 to 14 days. When she looked at 3 of the reservations I cancelled, they were all "processed" and waiting at the bank (not sure their bank or mine, but clearly Amex told me that nothing was pending). All 10 pending reservations are in Japan but in different hotels and different cities and were booked on the French or Dutch hotels.com websites, all flexible reservations, but prepaid on the hotels.com website. I decided not to cancel earlier as my long haul flights got cancelled only on the 19th - and at that time, I was honestly thinking that I could reach Japan early may from Europe (I doubt this is the case anymore). The reservation I cancelled the day before my flight cancellation (March 18th) got refunded in 24 hours as usual. I cancelled that one as I found another hotel better suited for the same price at this destination - still on hotels.com, which I paid on the same day (now cancelled and pending refund). I
***could*** understand why airlines are playing cheap with the refunds, they have crew, planes, fuel etc to pay... But hotels.com is just a middle-tier which does not operate any hotels. They will pay the hotel only after my stay. The fact they are holding my money and delay the refund is not acceptable. I would not argue if my reservations were prepaid and non-cancellable, that's a risk I would have taken and in that case I would be bound for a claim with my travel insurance or hoping for a travel waiver in place. But again, I made sure to book ONLY fully refundable hotels since I knew that they have been refunding pretty fast in the last 10 years I have been using them. One would believe that the refund process is automatized, just like the payment process (the booking I made on March 18th waas very swiftly charged to my Amex). I doubt there is a guy in front of his computer sending money back individually to each customer cancelling a reservation really... but maybe I am wrong. I have with my home insurance contract a Dutch legal insuance too, if I don't receive any refunds from them within a couple weeks, I guess I will have to contact them instead.
Customer agents are most of time not well aware of all details/products offered by a company . You can't blame them when you know how little they are paid
Lets be clear , we are not talking about trip cancellation insurance but an insurance against 3rd party provider's bankruptcy ?
Have you checked the terms and conditions of the insurance linked with your amex card ? for western europe the insurance is signed with AXA if i remember correctly , so visit amex website and check your contracts
Conditions and coverage varies according to the card you have and agreements they made with the insurance company amex choosed for your country , unless you live in the US where they have their own insurance company
If not covered by amex then go to some insurance providers in your market and ask them to provide you a quote for a tailored contract which cover such situation
As they might not have it in their portfolio , either they will reject from start or make a final offer after underwriter's analysis
I checked again the contract of the French amex platinum, and the only protection which is offered is if an item purchased with the amex gets stolen destroyed or lost 3 months after purchase with the amex (and electronic devices excluded). The website does not make it that clear really, you need to read the ful terms and conditions of the insurance (available on the website) but also the full terms and conditions of the card itself (convention generale de compte carte in french - and that one is no longer available anywhere on the website ! This document would summarize the handling of claims for instance). Looks like unlike in other countries like the US, there is nothing like a real purchase protection for goods and services paid with the card but not delivered (this "chargeback" mechanism I read a lot nowadays on FT). In case someone else uses my card to purchase something I never accepted (like stolen card or stolen card data) then I am protected. But if I buy something and it never arrives, I don't think I am covered, especially if it is a service like a flight or a hotel stay. Another example I had this week : I ordered something last week end online on a Belgian shop located 40 km away from where I live. The items were in stock when payed for, and this is why I ordered on this website. One week later, still haven't received anything. I contacted the store who replies me that some items I ordered are out of stock and they don't know when they will receive those. My amex was charged 24 hrs after the purchase. When enquiring if I could cancel the order and get refund, they replied this was not an option as the order was initiated. I guess if I ask Amex to do something about it, I am confident they will tell me to pound sand... The fact I thought this premium card product offered protections which I don't actually have is on me. What I am pissed at Amex is that they just refused to postpone any recent hotels.com payments (about 1000 Euros) I made during the month of March (so during the March billing cycle) for reservations which were pending refunds - and I was able to prove that, or even enquire further on what could be done.
The travel agency is another entity of amex , a bit separated from the credit card business , but you should think of it as any kind of travel agency .
why do you book tickets through this channel ?? Because of membership rewards ?? QR doesnt accept amex ??
Also unless no other choices or if i dont care, i usually avoid 3rd parties for booking hotels/flights , because they are useless as soon as problem arise with airline/hotel
About 9 days after cancelling the trip as QR cancelled 3 flights out of 5, I received a refund notification from Amex travel yesterday evening. So hopefully the money will be back on my account soon. I tend not to use OTAs, and when I do, it's only the "big names" (So expedia/hotels.com or Amex travel). I prefer to book with airlines directly besides a few exceptions (Iberia flights being one for example - as they customer service is one of the worst in the industry in my experience, so dealing with Expedia for instance is easier). Another exception is when booking complex itineraries. For my parents first time in Asia, I decided to play "safe" and trust the good things I read about Amex travel so I went ahead and booked back in July a trip with Amex travel using their website for a double open jaw QR flight in business class next month. Should anything happen, I thought that dealing with Amex travel would be easier than dealing with the airline directly. Another reason is QR's own website. They simply could not quote me the itinerary I wanted, while the Amex website could. (I love QR in the air, but their IT is not their
forte). Now, since I am going to receive a refund just a couple weeks after cancelling and given the current situation when dealing with airlines nowadays, I cannot say if I was right or not to book with Amex travel, and I don't know if I will do that again or not. Finally, I used once Amex travel Netherlands during my sabbatical leave last year and had a decent experience when KQ decided to change schedules. Since I thought the Dutch and the French amex travel services were similar I decided to try again.
Classic and pure PR bullshlt , from my experience and feedbacks from other people i met in this industry, the only customers they really support and cherish are centurions ,VIPs and big corporations because that's where the big money is .
So if you complain about 55 euros then you haven't yet reached a level worth for them to turn their words into actions
for couple of years i had a love/hate story with amex service (credit card and travel agency) from different perspectives (corporate and private) in several countries and i can say their flexibility and willingness to help depends on who you are (or who you represent) and the case itself
I partially agree. Since 2008, I spent with Amex about 800000 Euros in total (I am not millionnaire, those expenses were mostly for business purposes, maybe 75% at least). I never had a single delay paying my bills, and used their travel insurance protection once in 12 years back in 2016 for a 200 Euros claim. Amex charges a commission to the retailer between 1 and 3% IIRC. Add to this the foreign exchange fees I paid which I estimate in the ball park of 5000 Euros total (mostly from USD, CAD, CHF, DKK, NOK or GBP), which were pure profit for amex (They charge 2.8% of the sum over here - one of the highest around) and the monthly fees. I am aware I am not the biggest fish around, certainly. But I might not be the smallest either. I agree on the love/hate story with Amex (at least Amex France). Right now, I am in hate mode, with the highest intensity since 2008 :-)