mnmag

I think we all share the same sentiments!

mia

Why? I'm not saying I cannot think of an explanation, but I'd like to know your reasons.

I think it's very premature to reach a conclusion, let alone assert that there is a consensus. We haven't seen the list of eligible carriers. We don't know what American Express's system will recognize as a ticket purchase. We don't know what American Express's system will recognize as an incidental expense in conjunction with a ticket purchase. Why the rush to dismiss a 44% refund of your annual fee on the basis of speculation?

romeoguy

The $200 benefit would be most applicable to the airline you DON'T have status on, but would take for personal travel over your usual airline. Why would you do this? Because of the airfare differential.

I'm planning a personal Christmas-time trip to DFW. Fares for DL and UA hover around $600 round trip. Virgin America, however, has their fares at $325 for the same trip. With no elite benefits on VX, I'd have to pay for baggage fees and in-flight meals. Voila! Perfect use of the $200 benefit.

Here's a question: Assuming VX makes it into the list of selected airlines, I'm wondering if I could charge my airfare before December 1, and then pick VX as my preferred airline once the benefit goes live?

mia

-OR- because your primary carriers don't serve a destination. My mother had the audacity to move to a market that is only served by commuter airlines affiliated with carriers I prefer not to fly.

mnmag

LOL!

mnmag

I was only commenting on the consensus -- here on this thread! Clearly, I have no clue as to what the thousands of other cardholders who have not weighed-in here -- are thinking!

I think it's ridiculous that AmEx spent a lot of time, effort & $ to apprise us of these upcoming 'benefits' in the splashing brochure, -- yet give little to no detail beyond what we've already received via e-mail notifications!

I find it odd that they won't divulge the list of 'eligible' carriers (perfect opportunity to do lots of 'marketing,' all around) & the fact that we must make a 'claim' for the charges, after they are made, -- ie. making us 'work' for the benefit -- with no assurance that it will qualify under the program.

I don't see myself charging an airline tkt to the Plat card (vs. Pref Gold) when it's not clear what charges will be reimbursed & we are at the mercy of the participating airlines to process those incidental charges to conform with AmEx's system!

Okto

Especially if they turn the PR Gold into a Gold-Platinum alloy as suggested by the survey I filled out the other day - some details available here.

mnmag

Wow -- very interesting!

MIAFlyer

Hi mia,

For purely personal travel, it would not be a problem to purchase the airfare with the card. However, a majority of my travel is for business, purchased through a corporate travel agent on a corporate (non AMEX) card. Thus the % time that I would be able to use this benefit is greatly reduced v. the time I spend overall on airplanes. So the $200 benefit is not a simple "rebate" for me, and I suspect others.

I understand AMEX's desire to drive more purchases to the card, but would it not be very simple to "lop off" the first $200 of non airfare charges from whatever airline cardholders designate? Then you would have a benefit that would truly be useful, while allowing AMEX to negotiate some kind of discount for these charges/services.

Thx,

mia

Simple, but also expensive. The relationship with Continental is valuable to many Platinum and Centurion cardholders, but not to all. Many have never redeemed for OnePass miles or entered a Presidents Club. American Express needs to devise benefits which will be consumed by a similar proportion of the cardholders, and this means there needs to be some impediments. It's easier to reduce the hurdles later than to raise them.

angel.x.martinez

I currently only fly domestically. None of the airlines I fly have lounges except United. The latter being Frontier & Southwest. The CO lounge closed at DEN last year. Therefore only RCC which are not included are not an option. It would be great if they would just comp a Priority Pass on the Amex Plat.

KenP

I think it will be difficult for AMEX to match up incidental charges to airline ticket purchases especially if the airline ticket was purchased through travel agent, orbitz, etc.

Either they are bluffing on the ticket charge requirement and will comp all incidental charges up to $200 on your selected airline, or this will entail multiple calls to the customer service center if they cant match your incidental charges to a AMEX Platinum / Centurian ticket charge.

mia

When you purchase a ticket through (for example) Expedia the credit card transaction is still submitted by the airline.

cinnamon121

At first glance, I was pretty excited about the new $200 travel benefit, but now I'm not, because of all of the restrictive fine print:

1) All of my business travel must be charged to my corporate card, so I can't use the benefit for those flights.

2) My parents and SO, who are additional cardholders, don't get this benefit since the fine print specifies it is only for the primary card holder

Also, lounge access is the #1 and only reason I pay for additional cards on my account. With PC access gone and only adding the US Airways Clubs, this benefit is greatly diminished. Too bad.

I really hope Amex kicks in some more benefits, but I'm not holding my breath. Remember when they removed the 4 domestic companion free tickets and promised that they were working on adding other benefits? I'm still waiting.

QueerEyeForDelta

ummm... it's a lead up to the announcement... that... the annual fee... is... INCREASING!!