One of the benefits of Amex Plat has been membership in Avis Preferred Select. I received a "downgraded" basic Preferred card in the mail last night so, thinking it was a mistake, I called Avis to ask why my account went from Preferred Select to just Preferred.

Well, as has been stated in the Avis forums, it turns out that the Avis Preferred Select is no longer in existence and has been replaced by Avis First. Apparently, at the basic First level, you get the free upgrades just as in Preferred Select. So, to that extent, the levels are the same.

However, after getting conflicting stories from several people at Avis, including supervisors, and then getting a different story speaking with Amex Plat representatives and a supervisor, I then got on a conference call with both an Avis supervisor and an Amex Plat supervisor together. As a result of this conversation, it is clear that the Avis First program has no affiliation with the Amex Plat card whatsoever (still has a Centurion affiliation, apparently). Neither Preferred Select nor Avis First are benefits to the Plat card. This was news to me and, more importantly, it was news to the Amex supervisor.

Is this a big deal? Well, fairly frequently I relied on the free upgrade to, for example, a luxury car from a premium car. It is actually one of the benefits of Plat I rely on with some frequency (PC club, concierge, travel, etc., are the other benefits I use regularly).

So, to the extent the price of the card is going up to $450, but the benefits I use are dropping, yes, to me it is a big deal.

A customer advocate will be calling me apparently. I'll let you know what happens.