Yes, that's correct. The only program that provided any tangible benefit (re: car rentals) was Avis with the one class upgrade - which I have used pretty frequently (e.g., rent premium, upgrade to luxury).
I still haven't heard from customer advocate. Just to clarify someone's post above, I believe there are two tiers of Avis First - the first includes a one-car upgrade. The second begins giving you free rental days as well as the upgrades. At least that's what one of the very conflicting stories I got was. There is information on the Avis forum that contradicts this, however, so who knows.
Of interest, as I said above, the CSR at Avis has apparently given me Avis First membership (she said it was permanent and wouldn't go away, Avis supervisor - probably correctly - said it would go away if I didn't meet a rental threshold in a period of time). However, when I go to
www.avisfirst.com, I can't register my wizard number and can't log on to the site - it says "Our records indicate you are not a Avis First member".
Now, as I understand, this program literally was rolled out 1-2 days ago and they are still working on things like the website. So who knows what is going on.
But, as far as this forum goes - the bottom line is that, as of now, Amex Plat fee goes up, benefits go down. At least temporarily. In the big scheme of things, no big deal - can always get a different credit card. But the lack of coordination between Amex and Avis, and the very obvious surprise of the Amex supervisors at this change, is interesting.