Troopers

Any idea about special allotment tickets for Hamilton SF 2019? Thanks.

Troopers

Marketing 101.

ConciergeBefore

I don't know details regarding specific allotments as I no longer work there and, generally speaking, we were not privvy to the information much in advance of cardholders. But, let me give you all of my tips.

1. Sign up for American Express' Entertainment Access Newletter, which will come every Wednesday evening, and let you know about any American Express exclusive events or tickets in your are and around the country. Sign up here (sorry can't post links): online.americanexpress.com/entertainmentaccess/home.do#/newsletter.Being on these mailing lists is the most consistent way to get notification of American Express sponsored events. We gave notification for Hamilton, Museum of Ice Cream, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Drake etc.
2. Sign up for Broadway Across America Amex eClub Newsletter. Here is Houston's: houston.broadway.com/american-express-eclub/. This one varies city-to-city, but will basically get you advanced access to certain braodway shows being scheduled outside of New York, including possibly Hamilton.
3. Your "Promo Code" for 99% of AmericanExpress sponsored events will by the 800 number on the back of your card. It has to be entered without the (1) or spaces, so 800XXXXXXX. So, for example, if you go on to AXS and notice that Elton John and Celine Dion's Vegas performances have an "Amex Exclusive" section, you simply need to enter those 10 digits to see the selection of tickets held back. These tickets are always face value, but kept behind a password and Amex paywall for the exclusive access of cardholders.**It's important to note that, while AmEx has parnerships with AXS and TicketMaster, that obviously does not mean every event that use those ticketing systems are also American Express sponsored. Meaning, you will always see the AmEx logo somewhere on those two sites, but that doesn't mean we necessarily have tickets.
4. As soon as you are aware of events sponsored by AmEX in which you are interested, call Concierge to set-up a pre-order. You set parameters (price, seating section), and they will attempt to use 3 separate inventories (Concierge Exclusive, AmEx exclusive, General Public if applicable) at the time of the on-sale.
5. If it's not an American Express sponsored event, you can call them up to 15 minutes before the general on-sale, and they will wait with you in the virtual queue, using two separate browsers with priority IP access (depending on the website) to essentially triple your chances of success. As I outlined earlier, this also adds a level of pragmatism you would not have if you were to try to do this by yourself. Most high-volume onsales don't allow a map view, but simply force you to choose out of a very wide pricing section. The value difference in the tickets you pull can be drastic. But, when only one person is doing this, you are forced to release tickets without the guarantee of pulling a superior set, or at all. With concierge, you can compare, then release and repull. They are experts and know exactly how much time each "screen" will allow, and how long information takes to fill out, thus they can buy as much time as possible at key moments.

P.S. This is the type of information and services you should be provided with if you actually call concierge and the agent is good at their job.

woodandleather

Strong username to threat title to post content ratio.


Anyways, everything you said rang true. I flew to Toronto for the first time this past weekend. I was enjoying the card benefits up until that point "gold status at hilton property", priority lounge access at the airport, etc. I was feeling quite "platinum" indeed. So I thought "... i'll give the concierge a try". It was Friday night when I arrived and I asked if I could get a table for two at the restaurant/cocktail lounge owned and styled by drake...

Yeah so needless to say that didn't happen given my 6 hour notice. However, she was lovely and funny company on the phone and went through their "system" to recommend me some places downtown. She also booked me a spot in drake's restaurant for the following evening. The girl I was meeting up with told me the suggestions weren't that great so i didn't get to check them out and we ended up going to Cactus Club instead (AMAZING place that i highly recommend), then when we went in for our reservations at drake's restaurant on sunday we discovered that the restaurant was only filled to about 35% capacity anyway. Could have legitimately walked in with no reservation at all.

All in all, this just confirms what has already been noted in this thread. The lady on the phone was lovely and pleasant to deal with but i'll likely never use the service again short of amex-preseale stuff. Service is just aimed at people with more arrogance and money than common sense because you can do anything the concierge can do in 30minutes or less.

gooselee

I disagree. Yes, success involves the cooperation of a third party, but I think Amex is guilty of some healthy exaggeration in terms of the number of relationships they have or the level of effort a concierge will put in. If all the concierge is going to do is pop a search into OpenTable, I can just as easily open that app on my own vs. spending 10 minutes navigating the Amex phone menu, explaining my ask, confirming food allergies, confirming a special occasion, listening to the "card may be charged" speech, and waiting on hold for someone else to check OpenTable.

The one good thing I used to get from concierge was the city guides when I was travelling, but I stopped even asking for those when M&S started showing up as a good "local" restaurant in every single major city I went to.

Perhaps. But Marketing 201 is about being able to actually deliver on your promises...at least most of the time.

Gig103

The concierge helped me out with securing a reservation at the French Laundry, something I have failed to do on my own.

I also called about tickets to the Hamilton touring production. I was told they had seats for LA, but I missed that and in Tempe it was only through Ticketmaster. Still, the concierge was patient and checked all my dates to be thorough.

And, oddly enough, when the card was only a few days old I got disconnected talking to a CSR and when I called back it said there were long hold times but no option to get a callback. So I called the concierge who found me a supervisor in the CSR department. By the time I was warm transferred, the supervisor had read the notes on my file and so it sped up the resolution of my issue.

ConciergeBefore

Haha, thanks.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I think there is value in the concierge service for certain people. Having somebody attempt to call a restaurant every day for two weeks up until the day of to check for cancellations is pretty worthwhile. And we do have a lot of excellent working relationships with many restaurants whose Maitre D's will give us priority on waiting/cancellation lists. Same with setting up ticket pre-orders, accessing concierge inventory, or having tours or tickets underwritten to guarantee their quality. Plus, all this information is not something I would otherwise not be allowed to tell customers.

And also, not to be mistaken, I never advocate a gap between "say" and "do" in a business, so I do think there is room for a more honest presentation of what concierge can offer. But just reading through some of these comment from people who expect Concierge to convince a Michelin-starred restaurant to create extra seating for them on Independence Day weekend because it's their birthday, I just laugh. If you construed a commercial selling a vaguely luxurious lifestyle on the television to mean we would absolutely, positively have an opening at the restaurant of your choice, on the exact date and time of your preference, with two week's notice, you're a perfect candidate to give your a head a shake. Disappointment is directly proportional to one's ego-to-realism ratio. This is why Centurion cardholders were much better to deal with. Though they have high expectations in diligence and effort, their comprehension of limitations and willingness to pay a premium price for their inflexibility/lack of planning makes them [usually] much easier to please.

zoobtoob

Of the requests I've made in my 2 years of Plat membership:

1. Restaurant reservation at one of the Amex listed restaurants, local restaurant.
   • Convoluted process for something I could have done myself.
2. Restaurant reservation at another of the Amex listed restaurants, foreign country.
   • Excellent experience, special table, benefit rendered. ^
3. Request to find a rental camera telephoto lens in a foreign country for a weekend as part of a month-long trip.
   • Request ignored. No call back. No email back.
4. Request for soccer tickets in Italy
   • Advised they cannot buy tickets on my behalf but would email me a list of local ticket agents so I can book it myself.

Needless to say, I no longer use the service. Kinda useless.

Brian Chen

Where is the list of amex restaurants and is there any benefit to reserving from them?

Thanks

mia

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/c...ng-collection/

Beltway2A

Interesting. I called Amex to inquire about the benefit at a few of the Jose Andres properties but the agent had nothing definitive at the moment. Nonetheless good information to have, thanks!

Brian Chen

Thank you

detjason

levilevi,
Would you be able to attach the 30-50 page pdf guide sample you are referring to so we can see what you are describing? Thanks

Brian Chen

OMG i did not know this, i'm doing this right now lol

mia

A poster helpfully uploaded a copy of a guide provided by American Express. I have removed it because the document is copyrighted.

Here is Flyertalk's policy:

I will see if I can devise a solution that will satisfy the policy.