I was booking a room for 5 nights at the Regent Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills for a relative and while the hotel quoted a price of $350 per night, PTS at first quoted $400+ per night. When I pointed out to the PTS agent I could get the room cheaper by booking directly with the hotel, she put me on hold and then came back agreeing to book the room at the lower rate. Since the lowest rate wasn't offered the first time around, I just assumed this was standard Amex procedure and never called them again. Perhaps my experience was not typical then?

Regarding the "Gold Card Events".... those are also available with the Gold Card ....I booked concert tickets once using this service and was able to get 2 orchestra seats when mezzanine were the best available otherwise. Well, the seats turned out to be in the very last row of the orchestra section, so they weren't that much better than mezzanine.