Gajan

I just phoned AMEX and was told that the changes will be announced on 22 August. The decision to change the card has come from KLM.

The very friendly agent told me that status sharing will depend on which card you have (i.e. how much you are willing to pay), but could not tell me how much the fee would be. It would also depend on other situations which she could not tell me as they are currently getting trained on.

Furthermore I was told that there would be other benefits which "might be better than status sharing" (I wonder what that can be..).
As to the answer how long status sharing would last she could not give me a definitive answer. Based on previous contact it could be that the changes will not go in effect this calender year.

Gajan

Edit:

As the previous thread was getting a bit confusing with discussions regarding the Dutch and French American Express cards I have now moved the recent posts regarding the NL Flying Blue American Express cards to their own thread. You are requested to add new comments regarding the NL FB Amex in this thread.

For those those who want a recap of what has been said:

• By November all current NL FB Amex members will receive a separate Flying Blue card. All sub card holders will receive the status from the main card holder until 31.03.13. After that date they will have to earn their own status;
• Current situation (Plus Option / more miles per Euro spent) will cease per 18 November 2011. From this date the number of miles you earn depend on which American Express you choose;
• People who do not have the Plus Option will automatically be transferred to the Silver FB Amex;
• People with the Plus Option will automatically be transferred to the Gold FB Amex;
• It would appear that the airline wants to only reward the people who with status and not other people. The only way to share status is by taking the Platinum FB Amex and being Platinum Flying Blue member.
• If you take the Silver and Gold Flying Blue American Express cards you can have unlimited sub cards.
• For those people who have their annual fee waived based on spending pattern you are requested to contact American Express to discuss your situation under the new programme.

Xandrios

I did have quite some charges not in Euro, but the transaction fees in total have not been more than a couple of bucks. Not hundreds of miles worth

A week has passed and Amex NL has promised to call me back twice...and twice hasn't. I am pretty sure this is going to be my last year with them...their service is getting worse and worse. Yes they are polite and seem competent on the phone..yet somehow when an issue appears that they are not familiar with..silence.

brunos

Amex charges close to 3% on foreign exchange transactions. Meaning that they use an exchange rate that adds some 3% to the interbank exchange rate. May be the worst card in terms of foreign exchange.

stimpy

Well there are some Visa cards that also charge the 3%, but this is the reason I have kept cards both in Europe and the US. However the new thing is Amex Plat and Centurion in the US have eliminated all foreign exchange fees. So there is less of a reason to keep a Euro Amex. Maybe soon, no reason at all.

KLeM

Weird, I had the contrary. Spend around 8k and received 20k miles this month? Might have something to do with Turbosparen though, but it wasn't stated as such. Nothing weird over the past few months, always the regular 2 miles per Euro.

Xandrios

Well I found out. If your Amex invoice is dated for example August 6th, then miles are only counted until three days before that. Miles for transactions between August 3-6 are posted the next month.

Furthermore the lady was able to verify that something will change with the Dutch card, but didnt know details yet. We will be notified by snail mail...

[edit]
Yay! Post 1000!

pititom

If we stick to the thread's subject, the Air France / KLM American Express cards charge 2% on foreign exchange.

Xandrios

So..it's 22 Aug..did anybody hear anything about the changes for the Dutch card? I'm abroad so haven't been able to check my (snail) mailbox yet.

stimpy

Nothing new on the website that I can see. Nor anything in the post today.

tgv2

New Dutch card are:

– American Express Silver Card Flying Blue €75
Award Miles at KLM and SkyTeam partners € 1 = 1 Mile
Award Miles for other charges € 1 = 0,8 Mile
2 free segments

– American Express Gold Card Flying Blue € 140
Award Miles at KLM and SkyTeam partners € 1 = 1,5 Mile
Award Miles for other charges € 1 = 1 Mile
4 free segment

– American Express Platinum Card Flying Blue € 570
Award Miles at KLM and SkyTeam partners € 1 = 2 Mile
Award Miles for other charges € 1 = 1,5 Mile
8 free segments

New for all cards: Fly now Pay later for AF/KL flights.

Gajan

Compared to the old situation this is quite a bad development, but at least the situation is the same for the French and Dutch cardholders.

Has any date been given when the old cards will be changed to new cards?
I was told that no changes would take place this year, but apparently anything can happen ;-)

nldogbert

Hi,

Just noticed that with the new cards, only Platinum card members (570 Euro/year) do you get to share your FB status with ONE family member

New benefit is a sort of "your partner" not sure what this definition will be. Will family members also qualify for those without a partner. ^

Seems that there are some goods and bads.. though to me this is a downgrade especially the FB status sharing. Well, at least another good reason to add to why I dumped FB after the April Fools' day enhancements...

Cheers!

Gajan

I remember reading (Flying Dutchman magazine) that a while back 100.000 FB Amex's had been issued. I have no doubt that number will decrease significantly now. Besides that status sharing has been cut, the number of miles earned per Euro spent has also decreased significantly.

I am not too sure what the "benefits are which are better than status sharing" (referring to my phone call last week), as the lady one the phone must have a different idea of good benefits than I do...

Gajan

stimpy

Doesn't it say that you get 5 additional members with Platinum? 5!

I'm sure you could sell Platinum status to 4 other people to pay your fee. Assuming you totally trust them of course.

tgv2

Even worse, only platinum FB members can share their status FB gold with Amex platinum can't share their status at all.