Originally Posted by
Kacee
Whether an exception is reasonable or unreasonable is not my issue. Rather, it's that AMEX stated a policy ($75k on the Platinum) and has now backtracked on it, and will allow cardmembers who didn't meet the published standard to bring in free guests. The stated purpose was to reduce crowding, and now they're giving exceptions that undercut that purpose. Again, AMEX can do whatever it wants, but I personally find it galling that they're now allowing exceptions. It's the same issue as airlines continually rolling over status (hello, UA) to those who haven't met the published thresholds - it devalues the experience for those who did meet the threshold.
I tend to agree with you. Also, I just think its stunning that they made the move this quickly. I might feel differently about it if we were 6 months or 1 year down the road and thus had confidence Amex had enough data to really understand whether or not the crowding issue has been improved/solved. I don't think weeks/days is nearly enough time to assess the impact.
But alas... as many point out, Amex isn't necessarily trying to solve for crowding (at least not in the way many here would like to see) other than doing just enough to keep people from canceling and dangling hope that crowding will improve "eventually."
Regards