Co-branded American Express cards: France and the Netherlands
Jun 9, 18, 9:45 pm - Wikipost
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Jan 4, 21, 10:16 am
#856
Join Date: Feb 2012
Programs: Flying Blue Platinum, Le ClubAccor Gold
Posts: 596
Originally Posted by Oxymore
The only way around it seems to be AF/KL issued tickets (so you could get a DL or maybe even JL ticket issued by AF/KL), but you may not have access to the cheapest fares, will have to pay a phone booking fee, and in any case, you wouldn't be able to book low-cost carriers like U2. Are they not concerned about retaining their premium card customers during a pandemic?
Jan 4, 21, 1:04 pm
#857
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Paris, France
Programs: AF/KL Flying Blue Platinum for life/Club2000 Ultimate, Accor ALL Diamond
Posts: 19,170
This is truly incredible. How to shoot yourself in the foot...
I have the Amex FB gold since 1999. I have never received a free year membership. With that change, I will seriously consider to not renew it.
I have the Amex FB gold since 1999. I have never received a free year membership. With that change, I will seriously consider to not renew it.
Jan 4, 21, 1:20 pm
#858
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
Programs: AA LT Plat (4m+), AF Plat, A3 Gold, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat/Ambassador
Posts: 2,337
FYI I just checked and there is no mention of this nonsense AF/KL/TO restriction on the regular Amex cards.
Jan 4, 21, 1:25 pm
#859
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Paris, France
Programs: AF/KL Flying Blue Platinum for life/Club2000 Ultimate, Accor ALL Diamond
Posts: 19,170
Originally Posted by bostontraveler
FYI I just checked and there is no mention of this nonsense AF/KL/TO restriction on the regular Amex cards.
Jan 4, 21, 1:46 pm
#860
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Paris
Posts: 554
Get a cheap non-cobranded AMEX card for your purchases and miles, and use a high-end Visa/MasterCard for insurances. That's what I have since years and it's the perfect combo. Even better if your Visa/MasterCard don't have FX fees, because AMEX still have 2,8% FX fee... for a travel card... in 2021...
The non-cobranded AMEX card allows you to transfer miles to Flying Blue at 5:4, and is also much more flexible because they allow transfer at the same rate to programs with way cheaper award ticket than Flying Blue (Asia Miles, Krisflyer...). Also, very useful these days, you can convert your MR points in cash, and for Christmas, they had a 1000 points=7€ deal which is quite good.
I don't see any point having a Flying Blue AMEX card. Miles are not as valuable as MR points (especially these days), and the XP bonus/miles extension won't be useful for the next months or even years with Flying Blue corona-policy.
In France, if you have a bank account with Fortuneo, the Green or Gold AMEX card is even free if you spend at least respectively 5000€ or 12000€ a year. Without Fortuneo, the cheapest AMEX card is only 5€ a month, a fee easily waived when calling the customer support.
The non-cobranded AMEX card allows you to transfer miles to Flying Blue at 5:4, and is also much more flexible because they allow transfer at the same rate to programs with way cheaper award ticket than Flying Blue (Asia Miles, Krisflyer...). Also, very useful these days, you can convert your MR points in cash, and for Christmas, they had a 1000 points=7€ deal which is quite good.
I don't see any point having a Flying Blue AMEX card. Miles are not as valuable as MR points (especially these days), and the XP bonus/miles extension won't be useful for the next months or even years with Flying Blue corona-policy.
In France, if you have a bank account with Fortuneo, the Green or Gold AMEX card is even free if you spend at least respectively 5000€ or 12000€ a year. Without Fortuneo, the cheapest AMEX card is only 5€ a month, a fee easily waived when calling the customer support.
Jan 4, 21, 1:57 pm
#861
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: CPT,AMS
Posts: 4,261
Originally Posted by IstKong
Get a cheap non-cobranded AMEX card for your purchases and miles, and use a high-end Visa/MasterCard for insurances. That's what I have since years and it's the perfect combo. Even better if your Visa/MasterCard don't have FX fees, because AMEX still have 2,8% FX fee... for a travel card... in 2021...
The non-cobranded AMEX card allows you to transfer miles to Flying Blue at 5:4, and is also much more flexible because they allow transfer at the same rate to programs with way cheaper award ticket than Flying Blue (Asia Miles, Krisflyer...). Also, very useful these days, you can convert your MR points in cash, and for Christmas, they had a 1000 points=7€ deal which is quite good.
I don't see any point having a Flying Blue AMEX card. Miles are not as valuable as MR points (especially these days), and the XP bonus/miles extension won't be useful for the next months or even years with Flying Blue corona-policy.
In France, if you have a bank account with Fortuneo, the Green or Gold AMEX card is even free if you spend at least respectively 5000€ or 12000€ a year. Without Fortuneo, the cheapest AMEX card is only 5€ a month, a fee easily waived when calling the customer support.
The non-cobranded AMEX card allows you to transfer miles to Flying Blue at 5:4, and is also much more flexible because they allow transfer at the same rate to programs with way cheaper award ticket than Flying Blue (Asia Miles, Krisflyer...). Also, very useful these days, you can convert your MR points in cash, and for Christmas, they had a 1000 points=7€ deal which is quite good.
I don't see any point having a Flying Blue AMEX card. Miles are not as valuable as MR points (especially these days), and the XP bonus/miles extension won't be useful for the next months or even years with Flying Blue corona-policy.
In France, if you have a bank account with Fortuneo, the Green or Gold AMEX card is even free if you spend at least respectively 5000€ or 12000€ a year. Without Fortuneo, the cheapest AMEX card is only 5€ a month, a fee easily waived when calling the customer support.
For me the AF/KL one is extremely useful, both with the extra XP in some years, and the 3 instalments for AF/KL tickets, the extra miles covers the card fee, otherwise it have no benefits over any normal credit card you can get in NL, if it wasn't for these 2 reasons I probably would have never gotten an AMEX.
Jan 4, 21, 3:17 pm
#862
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Paris, France
Programs: AF/KL Flying Blue Platinum for life/Club2000 Ultimate, Accor ALL Diamond
Posts: 19,170
Also, do not forget the nice regular offers we get regularly (like XXX EUR cash back for YYY EUR spent at AFKL, etc)
Jan 4, 21, 3:45 pm
#863
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: GRU/LIS
Programs: FB Platinum, ALL Platinum
Posts: 182
Really shocking from Amex !
Don't know if the very few remaining benefits would justify the annual fee:
Never saw a company being so careless after its customers.
I am pretty sure a lot of people will cancel their cards and we will see again in the next months/years a lot of Amex booths at airports, the same ones as a few years ago, trying to sell their product through some smoke screen subscription offers.
Don't know if the very few remaining benefits would justify the annual fee:
- Miles earning and 3 instalments for AF/KLM tickets: OK... but if you spend a lot with the card. For instance Amex is still not accepted everywhere in France. Also, the majority who travel for business usually do not pay straight for the tickets (depending on the size of their companies, it is usually done through travel agencies).
- XP bonus : interesting for silver and gold FB Amex card, with respectively 4,33 and 5,5 Eur/Xp. (worth a XP run without having to fly just for the XP
, and saving you the hotel night). - Some random offers, but as they are random, you never know. I recently saved some Eur on the last AF deal but it was the only one I took advantage of for 2020, the other ones promote too much consumption (I suppose offers may differ whether you have silver/gold/plat FB Amex).
Never saw a company being so careless after its customers.
I am pretty sure a lot of people will cancel their cards and we will see again in the next months/years a lot of Amex booths at airports, the same ones as a few years ago, trying to sell their product through some smoke screen subscription offers.
Jan 4, 21, 4:00 pm
#864
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Paris
Posts: 554
Originally Posted by Ditto
But why have a (cheap) AMEX at all?
For me the AF/KL one is extremely useful, both with the extra XP in some years, and the 3 instalments for AF/KL tickets, the extra miles covers the card fee, otherwise it have no benefits over any normal credit card you can get in NL, if it wasn't for these 2 reasons I probably would have never gotten an AMEX.
For me the AF/KL one is extremely useful, both with the extra XP in some years, and the 3 instalments for AF/KL tickets, the extra miles covers the card fee, otherwise it have no benefits over any normal credit card you can get in NL, if it wasn't for these 2 reasons I probably would have never gotten an AMEX.
Also, as said, there are often some very good cashback offers (AF-KLM, but also Fnac in France, Hilton/Hyatt/Marriott, etc...). The benefits of the card largely compensate the annual fee for me. I think that I receive easily 1000€ a year in benefits with the card.
Originally Posted by Goldorak
Also, do not forget the nice regular offers we get regularly (like XXX EUR cash back for YYY EUR spent at AFKL, etc)
Jan 4, 21, 6:50 pm
#865
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
Programs: AA LT Plat (4m+), AF Plat, A3 Gold, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat/Ambassador
Posts: 2,337
Originally Posted by Goldorak
But that's expected and logical, isn't it ?
Jan 4, 21, 11:21 pm
#866
Join Date: Feb 2012
Programs: Flying Blue Platinum, Le ClubAccor Gold
Posts: 596
Originally Posted by bostontraveler
And why do you say so?
Jan 5, 21, 12:09 am
#867
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Paris, France
Programs: AF/KL Flying Blue Platinum for life/Club2000 Ultimate, Accor ALL Diamond
Posts: 19,170
Originally Posted by canadavid
They can not restrict a non-branded card to a specific airline. That would be another step in the non-sense.
Jan 5, 21, 3:43 am
#868
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: CPT,AMS
Posts: 4,261
Originally Posted by Goldorak
Also, do not forget the nice regular offers we get regularly (like XXX EUR cash back for YYY EUR spent at AFKL, etc)
Originally Posted by IstKong
I keep it because when travelling for business I spend a lot with the card so I collect a lot of MR points. These points are useful when I'm a few miles short of an award flight, because it's way cheaper to transfer MR points to a loyalty program than to buy miles with cash. It's also "free money" when I pay my balance with the points.
Jan 5, 21, 7:19 am
#869
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: mostly not far from AMS, otherwise NUE
Programs: FB Platinum, Hilton Gold, ALL Silver
Posts: 2,255
Got the callback from AMEX today regarding my requested discount of 300 EUR on the annual FB plat fee - it has been approved.
Jan 5, 21, 7:33 am
#870
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
Programs: AA LT Plat (4m+), AF Plat, A3 Gold, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat/Ambassador
Posts: 2,337
Originally Posted by mfkne
Got the callback from AMEX today regarding my requested discount of 300 EUR on the annual FB plat fee - it has been approved.
