fifty_two

how much people do you need to refer to get these 180k ?? also think about what is it worth and how much they would earn in the end thanks to these new customers YOU find them for free

bostontraveler

And I was going to post that I wondered who would take advantage of this... I find their persistent “parrainage” offers stingy. My Italian Amex barrages me as well with the same.
I guess people actually do refer clients... 🙉

lloydje33

You get 20k per new gold card so 9 people per year. (Dutch Amex).

Masterfrog

I have the impression that the French elite has a big inferiority complex with English expressions which often exist in French language but sound more trendy in English.
In Le Monde (the equivalent of the New York Times or the Guardian in France), they now write the word "leadeur" everytime to say "leader". It is a bit ridiculous to make French only the end of the word and leave the first syllable with an English pronunciation. At least, in Spanish it is more consistent : they use the word "líder'.

Anyway, American Express can use any expression, their AF-KLM cards will be crap unless they plan to give a big compensation. I am wondering if AF-KLM didn't impose this move. I remember they forced Amex to stop the tier miles for every expense. Maybe they think they will sell a few more tickets by making the insurance exclusive to AF-KLM. So maybe a bigger XP bonus is on the way. We'll see in 2 months.
They should give 100 XP to Platinum cards to justify the high price as it doesn't include the Priority Pass like the normal one and the insurance value will be very low. If you get a straight shortcut to Silver Status, it would be ok I guess. Otherwise they should bring a big price cut after axing insurance benefits.

fifty_two

Ok , i would say it is kind of ok if you dont do any extradordinary effort but i'd rather get money instead of miles

While euro can loose value , so can FB miles (devaluations occur every 3 or 4 years)

Also iam pretty sure they got these 20k at a much lower rate than you and i can , so it doesnt look like a big reward , considering what they will earn from each people you will reffer

You can't get really far with 20k during regular periods . The best i could have for this amount is 2/3 of a transcontinental trip in Y , and thats only during FB promo rewards . Of course we need to include taxes , which sometimes can cost half of normal prices , so it doesnt make much of a difference

canadavid

How do you manage to get 9 people per year ?

I just managed to get two (but one is my wife... and it was only to get the 150€ of AF free tickets).
Anyhow, if anyone is interested i can give a code ahahah. I still have 110kmiles room for this year.

Yreal

half my office has an Amex

got a few people convinced on those 50% trips to the caribian. "You each refer a buddy, and you both have 40k, then the last person refers their mum".

Its a bit harder now people can't really go anywhere, but you can re-refer them after a year.

Yreal

even so, there is some value in places like ibz or agp during the summer. Those tickets go sky-high, while the milles are sometimes fair.

posting an insta story about ams-agp for 19k milles mostly does the trick.

Or doing it twice and getting your free single to Asia for your backpacking 🤷‍♂️

fifty_two

I do agree with you that miles are ok to be collected and used and spend , if possible in the cheapeast and/or smartest way possible

But if you keep in mind few facts
.

• How much it cost to get these 10 new customers vs How much these miles cost them
• How much they will earn from them vs what you receive in return

.
You can see that the balance is clearly in favour of amex and not your .

Any dutch/french sales rep would have to be paid according to french/dutch law , but of course he/she would/could/should get more than this . Amex also use other channels , there we are talking about big numbers for ads .

Now you know how much ressources they allocate to find new customers and compare it with you getting 20k miles

It is basically free work that you provide with very high motivation for a currency that has no real value

But again , and to be sure iam not misunderstood , if you can get these 180k miles without troubles/efforts then go for it , however remember who is winning in the end

Book them at correct time and you can get best value . Are you talking about prices from KL ?? ST airlines ?? or all airlines in general ??

I dont want to give you a lesson about pricing (not my intention) but prices for a single destination can change a lot depending on the market where departure airport is located , so if you are in an area with high GDP then you can expect prices to go high in summer for holidays sunny destinations , and thats why i used to be surprised when i fly KLM to america and see how much dutch folks are paying to be sitting close to me , a guy who paid cheap cause his journey started from eastern/central europe

Yeah , i mean to show off in front of some people is cool, but you know we are much harder audience to impress

40k miles for tickets to some destinations that KLM sell around 450 euros (depending on location of departure) and during sales it can go as low as 350 euros .

When you remove the taxes you pay for these awards (which are not free by the way) , you have a difference of 200/300 euros (more or less) which is not so impressive

Masterfrog

Referrals went pretty fast on my side with my travel blog. I hit the 150k miles ceiling in 2019. For obvious reasons, I was far from the ceiling in 2020. But I didn't spend one mile in 2020 so my balance kept growing up. I must be at around 250k now.

I left the mileage run game years ago I finally found pretty absurd for myself and found better value for my miles with one way direct flights I can take with lots of flexibility. I work online and I usually stay in a place for months at least. So I usually take an one way intercontinental ticket to where I want for around 40k miles + around 100 euros in taxes and I can choose when I want to come back with that system. Sometimes I enjoy a free upgrade when my destination goes into promo award.
One way tickets in economy are sometimes really expensive so I find good value to use my balance for that. I did a Bali-Seoul-Paris to come back home a year ago. That kind of ticket would have cost a lot if I bought that ticket directly. My travel expenses are really low now. I know I will pay around 100 euros from my pocket to go back to Europe almost when I want.
I use my balance for one way long haul flights only and use the cheapest flights for short trips. In some occasions, miles can come really handy too during summertime when tickets prices go to the roof.

Yolow

Here we go again with the marketing back in business,
I received several missed calls from a number located in Normandy, and eventually caught one today.
Amex presented me the upper levels of their FB co-branded cards. Not even tried to know more about a potential offer, nope, thanks.

Masterfrog

I am wondering if the card offering the best value is not the cheapest blue one for 60 euros.
You get 1 membership reward per euro (same as the costly platinum one) which has much more flexibility than miles.
Curious to see if they do something better in april or just cut theirs costs.
I guess their customers base has been declining with COVID and they try to upgrade their current base to the more expensive cards. Their margins must be really good on the premium cards.

Goldorak

I can confirm they are pushing hard for the Platinum cards. End of 2020, I had several calls with them. I spoke to may be 4 or 5 agents and they all tried to have me subscribed to the Plat card (I have the Gold one for 22 years, OMG !)

emviflyer

I think I still beat you having used AMEX in all its colours continuously since 1976. :-)

As a dual Platinum cardholder ( AF/KL EUR and Classic USD) I still have significant spend despite the pandemic on the FB/AMEX card, but AMEX seems not to be the least interested in keeping me as a cardholder. Like Mr Masterfrog I have been looking at alternatives for downgrading and perhaps not use the car for the time being.

Currently I have a small dispute with Chubb, AMEX' insurer, about my first claim ever, because they didn't bother to read the supporting documents. Let's see how they follow up on their widely publicized promises about purchase insurance.
AXA, AMEX' other insurer with whom I had a few pleasant interactions, offers a complete insurance package for similar costs, but without the requirement of paying with a specific CC. [Do we have a separate thread for AMEX insurance?]

Help me to find the real advantages of FB/AMEX for members that are KLM Platinum for life.

carnarvon

For those of you who you who pay by bank transfer, from several bank accounts, beware that starting yesterday, Amex has suspended all the cards in this situation.

There has been no warning.

When you call Amex to enquire, the credit department answers the call.

They tell you that payment by bank transfer from an account which is not is your name is now forbidden.

Payments from an account in your name but not registered at Amex is forbidden too.

They tell you that they have identified some "illegitimate" bank transfers and will send you an email with a questionnaire about them (as if they could not have sent the questionnaires without blocking the cards).

Until you answer their email, the card remains blocked. If you don’t answer within 10 days, they will suspend the account then cancel your card.

I have been paying by bank transfer for 20 years, using the AC card (additional card) for my own company expenses which the company paid direct to Amex bank account. When making expenses for friends (such as plane tickets or hotel stays), I asked them to pay Amex direct.

Amex knew it. There has never been an issue over the course of 20 years.

I told them about it. They don’t care.

I must not be the only one. Am I?

I know I am not. The lady on the phone told me that they had started to send bank transfers back already! Yes, they send the money back before informing their customers about the new rule.

I told them that they should have informed me in advance so I could adjust my spending pattern to the new regulation in order to avoid any problem. The answer was this is what we are doing now!

No. They let me spend in February things that were going to be paid by my company.

They blocked the card then they send very inquisitive questionnaires with threat of account cancellation only because they did not tell in advance that we should stop paying by bank transfer…

Thanks to Covid, fewer people will have been caught in the middle of nowhere 1000’s of km away from home without a functioning Amex, but still. This is such an irresponsible and disrespectful behaviour, isn’t’ it?

After being a card member for 31 years, I informed them I would kiss goodbye to my card in the coming days.

I know they won’t care, but what is the point of holding an Amex card if they can behave in such an irresponsible manner?

So, beware if you are in this situation...

If you are not, don't trust Amex any longer. They can let you dry in the middle of the desert by blocking your card for any reason over which you have no control.