Now as it seems Amex have stopped doing Gold cards in the UK (why is this? there's a big price gap between green and platinum) what will happen when it's time to renew the annual fee? Will the gold card automatically renew or will I be offered to upgrade to platinum or even centurion (I must be approaching the £100k spend mark by now).

Also since my old amex was replaced with a chip & pin card it won't work on the self service machines on the tube. Amex say they're working with TFL on this issue and for the moment just to use the ticket office. Is anyone aware of other places in the UK that are having problems with Amex chip and PIN but worked fine with the magnetic strip cards?