reivilo

Dear all,

Looking for a piece of advice regarding the Amex Plat in Canada or the Priority Pass.

I'm travelling a bit now (+-15 times/year) and I'm looking for a way to get lounge access. I'm considering directly purchasing the PP (with 10 passes for 250usd) or maybe get the Amex Plat (but it seems pretty expensive to me for what you get in Canada).

I'm mainly flying from/to BCN, YUL, LHR and sometimes CDG. Won't be spending a lot of time in other airports in the US & Canada. Does the PP offers interesting lounges ?

I already have a decent credit card which gets me 2% cash-back on foreign currency transactions (90% of my transactions are out of Canada) and almost the same travel insurance.

On top of that I'm trying to get it before Christmas to take advantage of it on my trip home, but this would not allow me to use 2 but only one 200$ voucher on a plane ticket (calendar year being pretty synchronized with membership year).

The 60 000 mile promotion is interesting but I would be paying for it.

Trying to make my mind and I'd appreciate any advice.

Thank you very much !

mia

I suggest you start here:

http://www.prioritypass.com/

Lookup the airports where you travel, and see what they have.

American Express Platinum includes a Priority Pass Prestige level membership. What you need to evaluate is whether the other Platinum benefits are worth the incremental cost.

markandrew

Amex PP allows a free guest into the lounge so for companions, definitely worth it. Also Amex Plat allows you to add extra card users for $175 which is an ultra cheap way to get PP if you and another person can split the cost.

For Y1, Amex is obvious choice, spend $699, get 60k points worth minimum
$600, plus $200 credit plus top line priority pass. After that, you can make an economic assessment of whether it is worth it going forward.

PP lounges range from outstanding to dismal. The plat card gets you into Amex centurion lounges also which are outstanding.

beep88

AMEX Platinum is better than PP Prestige because of the 1 free guest. Also a few additional AMEX lounges not available with PP.

Cana2013

For year one, Amex Plat is definitly the choice for you. For Amex lounges and some other lounges, you can bring spouse + 2 kids.

Reid

2% cash-back without FX Fees? If so, please share the name of the card you're currently using.

mikeycanuk

The Plat supp card gets another PP membership?

reivilo

Visa Odysée Or with Desjardins, not sure if it's available outside of Québec.

There are FX fees (the typical 2.5%) but gives you back 2% and an extra 20% on everything you accumulated if you don't miss a payment at the end of each year. So you almost get everything back. Side-note I'm suspecting Visa itself is majoring the spot rate of about 1%, making the total conversion 3,5%.

BTW I'm opting for the amex plat this year, anybody had success referring themselves (I already have amex gold)?

Thanks for the advice !

Reid

Wouldn't you be better off with a Chase Marriott or Amazon card. No FX fees (save 2.5%) + 1% cashback on Amazon or 1 Marriott reward point per dollar spent.

markandrew

Yes! And 5,000 points for adding user makes the fee really around $100 I had various supplementary cardholders, only benefit not to accrue to supplementary in the day was CX.