Originally Posted by
steveholt
The Optio card is the one to watch here. This was a pre-pandemic idea that now has a reason to exist as an upgrade on the Platinum card with unlimited lounge access. AMEX can add a few things in (annual DL MQD? PP with restaurants?) plus its usual coupon book to get people to pay $1500-$2000.
My full expectation had been that any credit card lounge access changes would be announced in the context of a new higher AF card such as the rumored Optio card. That being said, with these changes as well as the Amex CL guest rules, it seems like Amex's focus has moved away from people who just pay the AF and towards people who spend a lot of money on Amex cards. It seems to me like the "Optio" card is now just a Platinum or DL Reserve card with $75K annual spend.