Originally Posted by
GUWonder
This kind of change is not aimed at getting rid of crowding in the Amex lounges, but people are free to imagine what they wish about that.
What should also be obvious is that this change is aimed at: 1) getting Amex Plat account customers to pay for more AU cards; and, even more importantly for Amex, 2) to try to drive up a massive increase in the amount of spend being put onto Platinum card accounts. Amex wants Platinum card customers to give the Platinum cards a lot bigger walletshare than the other cards in the proverbial wallet because the biggest Plat card-related revenue (and profits) for Amex come from revenue sources that are not its annual membership fees.
While most businesses approaches have multiple goals, when I look at the AMEX model, I see: increasing AFs, increasing partnerships and credits, premium perception, etc. Look at what was done with Centurion. You mean to tell me this is some grand plan to get more $75 AU cards for people to drive up 1x spend up to 75k to get guests in the lounge for free?
While we know they LOVE the 75K spenders who put everyone on, no one is stimulated to do so for a free lounge guest. It's is more to reward those 75k spenders. The Centurion experience has been watered down over the years with an influx of guests and shifting demographics. AMEX knows the patterns of its best customers and this is the message that they are catering to that crowd.