I guess it is quite easy to get full or partial discount on the Gold and Platinum cards but you have to negociate and play hardball by phone. Saying the world "canceling" works fantastically. I red positive posts in forums from people who got the Gold card for free with around 20k spending on the card. The same applies for internet providers when you ask the termination service : one call and you get a magical yearly discount.

Being loyal and nice is worth nothing those days with those companies. And remember, most of those calling agents are working short term, most of the time with pretty bad working conditions, so they are often not very aware of all the fine prints and and they don't value loyalty as you would. They mainly care about their monthly target.

As Canadavid mentioned, the Fortuneo Mastercard World Elite + classic American Express Gold for free is by far the best deal around and there is no call to make as long as you have 12k of spending.