FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Co-branded American Express cards: France and the Netherlands
Old Jan 4, 2021, 1:46 pm
  #860  
IstKong
 
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Paris
Programs: Flying Blue Gold
Posts: 574
Get a cheap non-cobranded AMEX card for your purchases and miles, and use a high-end Visa/MasterCard for insurances. That's what I have since years and it's the perfect combo. Even better if your Visa/MasterCard don't have FX fees, because AMEX still have 2,8% FX fee... for a travel card... in 2021...

The non-cobranded AMEX card allows you to transfer miles to Flying Blue at 5:4, and is also much more flexible because they allow transfer at the same rate to programs with way cheaper award ticket than Flying Blue (Asia Miles, Krisflyer...). Also, very useful these days, you can convert your MR points in cash, and for Christmas, they had a 1000 points=7€ deal which is quite good.

I don't see any point having a Flying Blue AMEX card. Miles are not as valuable as MR points (especially these days), and the XP bonus/miles extension won't be useful for the next months or even years with Flying Blue corona-policy.

In France, if you have a bank account with Fortuneo, the Green or Gold AMEX card is even free if you spend at least respectively 5000€ or 12000€ a year. Without Fortuneo, the cheapest AMEX card is only 5€ a month, a fee easily waived when calling the customer support.
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