elitefreak

http://about.americanexpress.com/new...10/conair.aspx

After Sept. 30, 2011, Amex cardholders won't be able to transfer membership rewards points to the OnePass program. Also, platinum/centurion Amex cardholders won't get complimentary access to the PC.

dw

Disappointing but not unexpected, especially with the recent addition of US Airways. Without the lounge access I guess DL will now be my backup to AA instead of CO.

On the other hand, the new $200/year credit for airline charges is great news, especially since it also covers change fees in addition to baggage charges and in-flight purchases. For once I am surprised that something is actually being added (even in conjunction with something being taken away).

mia

Thank you for posting the link to the press release.

As a reminder, previous discussion of effects of the CO/UA merger has been in these three threads:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ge-access.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...transfers.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...tatus-usa.html

The press release does not mention Centurion elite status, but that's not a suprise because there isn't much official public information about the benefits. No doubt someone will tell us when the other shoe drops.

mlad1101

If Amex doesn't announce a new partner within that time I am seriously going to have to consider dropping my Plat.
Also this news won't sit very well with all the corporate holders in NY that transfer to CO.

pr57001

First Southwest, now Continental. That's 90% of my flying. Ouch.

S.Bling

First of all the "benefits" are just empty PR to counter the bad-news of the CO drop. The "$200 credit" which is on "enrolled card" and "on a selected airline" is way too fine-print-laden to be considered an upgrade of any kind, especially 1 year before it's even rolled out.
Remember the "free business class tickets" for Plat/Cent or the bonus tickets if you enroll in their co-branded travel advisor service? It's just PR - nobody will give you 200 for nothing. Don't rejoice just yet.

Second of all as a Cent I am shocked you would even use the "pay with points" feature at all, until now. What would you gain by doing it - you get 0.01 credit per MR point, if you book through Amex? Just book yourself through whomever or wherever you want, and get the 0.01 statement credit instead...

Lastly, and I've said it before in other threads:
It's not so much that the loss of CO has been expected (seeing that they have been solidifying their connection with Chase, and slowly severing with all other issuers).
It's not even that MR or Amex is "losing CO" at all.
There's nothing "to lose", as it may.
Come 2011 (or 2012, depending how far along the process is) there will be no CO proper, anyway.
It is being merged into the new UA/CO behemoth.
And as "adding" UA to Amex's partners was never even on the table - it was obvious that in the event of CO being swallowed into UA (like NW was into DL or KL was into AF, or TW was into AA) then CO was going to be lost to the world as a whole, not just to Amex...

This was apparent when CCS explained last year (when CO and DL both added another tier above GL) that they would not be upgrading GL to PL (like USAir did) because not only wasn't an enhancement in the cards but "it's not certain that we will keep all of the domestic partners"...

:-)

Look for more instances of 1 step forward and 2 steps back with Cent, IMO.

buffcoat

When will, in fact, the other shoe drop?

The loss of transfer by itself is not a big deal to me. But the loss of CO Gold - which I agree is inevitable with the loss of CO to the world - will significantly affect the value of the Cent card.

And there's no way that UA will allow ANY temporary conferring of UA Gold Status to people who are CO Gold through AmEx, so I'm guessing it may go away sooner than CO itself does.


By the way, Cent holders (some of it AmEx's fault, some of it just the fact of industry mergers) have seen benefits changes occur in this way on the following significant American airlines:

Delta
Continental
Northwest
Southwest
USAir
JetBlue
Airtran

So, depending how you count them, your domestic airlines choices #2, #3, #4 and half of #5 are gone. No elite status, no transferrability - your options are crashing down.

I consider myself lucky - Delta is pretty much the #1 carrier out of RDU, and USAir and JetBlue are convenient for Northeastern travel (and JetBlue for Florida, and even sometimes the Carribean), even though JetBlue has no first class and you can't transfer miles to USAir. But the loss of airline benefits is getting to be staggering, especially for those who (as I am) are primarily domestic travelers.

andrewpartyman

Honestly, this is Continental/United's loss in the end. I started flying Delta Airlines SOLELY because they gave Platinum cardholders lounge access. I have since become a Platinum medallion on Delta. Last year I spent 45k on airline tickets on Delta alone for both my girlfriend and I (who is also a Platinum Medallion). Delta would never have received any of our business if it were not for their participation in the lounge access program. Continental was my second airline solely because of their willful participation in the lounge program. I just looked it up in my Amex account online and in the last 18 months, I spent 6k for Continental tickets (mainly to South and Central America). Now that Continental is out of the program, there is 100% absolute certainty I will not fly Continental. I cannot be the only person who will change their spending habits. And in the end, I would wager that a vast majority of serious travelers are using the Platinum/Centurion business and personal cards.

choster

I'll say this: the number of people who can spend in the $50,000/year range for air travel yet won't spend 1% of that amount for a lounge membership and don't travel enough to get lounge admission as a perq at least on international flights is probably not going to sway AmEx.

buffcoat

I don't think it's AmEx that needs to be swayed, unfortunately.

CAL PHL FLYER

I will continue to fly UA/CO but I will downgrade my Platinum Card to Green next September..I will probably end up getting a UA/CO branded card at that time..@:-)

flyr16

This stinks. Most of my MR transfers are to CO. And, I use their lounge often.
Not good for many of us in the NY area.

stevens397

I will have to seriously reevaluate Centurion value. The Continental Gold status was the most important perk to me and living in NJ, there really is nothing to replace it. Very distressing.

MelesMeles

Nail, meet coffin. Bye bye Amex for me. Ł300/year for a card that I can't put any spend through? Heck no.

Also, I'll be ditching my company's Amex corp card and setting up my own card for expenses. It'll be a pain in the buttocks, but no way am I willing to forfeit nearly 50k miles/year.

Edit: Wait a second...the UK UA card [b]is[/i] an Amex card (but with miles instead of MR). So, are we going to lose that or what?

mia

The UK United Airlines affinity card (in common with many other airline cards) is issued by MBNA (Bank of America). These are Amex-network cards. American Express does not issue or administer these accounts. The charges are simply processed through the American Express network rather that Mastercard's or VISA's network.

Have you received notification that Continental is leaving the UK version of Membership Rewards?