First of all I wasn't referring to all of Amex products, I have a biz gold I use extensively for PPC, and amex revamped green card and a few others.

Also i'm not not dumb, I know you can get the $200 back by cheating the system with travel banks and airline gift cards but most of those loopholes are closed. Delta no longer works, united travel bank is shut.

I think the biggest difference is Amex, and specifically amex platinum is not compelling when you live abroad, which is probably why within my circle of friends, which all by definition live abroad and make their living online (hence the term "digital nomad" which has become a bit tainted in recent years, but dunno what else to call ppl like us), Amex is not as popular, esp the platinum. The amex biz gold that gives you 4x on ppc and blue for biz that gives you 2x points on $50k spend is another story.

There are a few amex lounges in Mexico but they aren't anything special, the priority pass is far superior abroad and really all you need. I miss not being able to access Delta skyclub when flying Delta economy in Atlanta, but most the time i was flying biz on points anyways, and when I wasn't the priority pass lounge in terminal F was good enough. The 2 years I had a platinum card when I visited the centrion lounges they were so packed I would have rather stayed in the terminal.

Saks credit is useless to me, never shopped there in my life, uber credits only work in the US. I have no need for dell credits.

I've also used the concierge a few times I was less then impressed. Only one time they pulled through getting me a reservation a few weeks in advance for a top 10 restaurant in the world in Lima.

I guess if you live in the US where you get access to the lounges, you can actually use the credits, it might make sense. Perhaps Amex just caters more to ppl who travel domestic in the US and don't live abroad. If you live abroad and don't spend much time in the US, its hard to get value.

I still like keeping a nice balance of Amex points though, the 100k points in J Roundtrip Mexico City to SE asia by transferring to ANA doesn't even come close to being beat by any other program. (most other programs is more like 100k each way)

Anyways I stand correctly you guys are right, just because it doesn't make sense for ppl who live abroad and work online, doesn't mean its that way for everyone. If I was in the US more often or lived there i'd probably get better use. I imagine Amex discourages our crowd because the fees to process transactions abroad is more expensive anyways and therefore eating away at their margins.