this is sort of a general observation/opinion from an FT newbie - wasn't sure if if there was a more appropriate thread or forum to deposit it in, will take lashes willingly if someone wants to move it:

i've been using amex travel and fhr to book trips with my platinum card for nearly several decades. like many longstanding vendor offerings one encounters in life, the returns of keeping a platinum card seem to have been slowly dwindling over the many years.
i remain largely uneducated about similar programs from other vendors - chase, a. harper, virtuoso, etc - but i assume the same trend persists to some degree or another on those as well. (would love to be educated/convinced here to switch to something else, but i have done a cursory glance-around every so often and have a vague understanding of what these programs offer)

there are the everyday value things:
not being able to find much, if any, rate difference between amex website prices on flights/hotels as compared to the airlines/hotels own websites. i get that the benefits add value, and i don't expect amex platinum to offer gigantic savings while offering the very meaningful benefits. nor do i expect them to include every airline/hotel chain known to man like budget aggregating sites do.
but it should at least be able to match what quality airlines and hotels themselves are offering on the same flights/rates, and it's not uncommon for me to now find amex quotes on identical flights/rooms that are significantly higher than those vendors' own rates. twenty years ago amex plat travel often quoted flight and room rates below vendors' own published rates while still offering the same platinum/fhr benefits.
they're also not able to incorporate many fhr hotel/resort 'packages'. other than using the card to pay the package price (without fhr benefits) for the 5 X points.
removing the companion 1st/bus international ticket benefit long ago was a total killer, too, but that admittedly feels like it happened during the carter administration.

these things, again, that's all fine - nothing gold can stay. not disappointing enough to make me want to switch programs.

but by far the worst part of amex travel/plat/fhr for me is the state of the website itself. it's weird, because i don't hear much chatter about it, at least to the level i think it deserves. and i haven't engaged with other program's website to compare.
but man o man, negotiating with that website feels more and more like a cruel endurance test every time i do it.
at least for me on macs - several different ones, all plenty up to date, i'm excellent with upkeep, trying multiple browsers....
maybe it's better with windows. i just find it super janky. not only painfully slow, but requiring incessant re-logging in, telling you it might 'log you out' when simply returning from a rate check (and then not, in fact, logging you out), confusing and outdated search 'features', GUI hasn't a clue how to resize itself on chrome, safari, firefox, etc. outdated look/mechanics that have been in need of a reboot for seemingly ever.
i try to call to book when i can (for the above reason(s)), which is less convenient. not sure how much more time consuming it actually is, these days, with that website, but there one faces the usual ballet of entering/saying your card number multiple times, poor connections, difficult to understand agents....

still, i keep the card solely for the room upgrade and airport lounge benefits. (less so, these days, as the priority pass roster has badly dwindled)
the room upgrade alone, when i do use fhr to book, feels like a real value for the annual fee.

no real question here, other than whether anyone experiences similar nightmares on a mac with amex travel website. or if amex insiders know if there's ever been any groundswell for re-doing it?