Originally Posted by ebusch

I had a successful experience with the Platinum concierge this week. My wife and I are planning a trip to Italy next spring, and were hoping to get a reservation at Osteria Francescana in Modena. Their own online reservation system for our potential dates is not yet available, so I called in to see what the concierge could do. This restaurant is now part of the Global Dining Access program, so that may affect things, but they were able to put me directly in touch with the restaurant's Reservations and Customer Care Manager, who was able to accommodate my reservation request.

From what I could tell the concierge was US-based. I will note that in the original conversation he didn't seem to be sure how the process worked, and made it sound as though Amex would simply schedule someone to try to use the restaurant's online reservation system at the time it became available. I was a little unsure if it was going to be any better than doing the same myself, but I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email directly from the restaurant the next morning. Again this may be because it's part of the Global Dining Access and they have a backdoor of sorts to get tables outside of the normal reservation process.