VegasGambler

Maybe, but that is the topic of this thread. It's exactly what the linked article is talking about.

itsMoe

They don't anymore.

Which used to be an Amex, and is now a MasterCard. However I will say that 1.5 miles/dollar on all purchases is very nice.

Since CSP came up a lot in this thread:
I'm actually looking into switching to Amex Plat from CSP. CSP has announced two changes that make it a lot less valuable to me:
-7% earning bonus gone
-2x points on travel gone

Additionally, EK is an Amex transfer partner, which is of use to me. But in looking at the card, I can't fathom why it's 1 point/$, whereas the Gold card gets 3x on airfare. And while CSP will reimburse up to $500 / incidence in hotel and other costs that occur as a consequence of significant flight delays, I can find no such bonus with Amex Plat.

mia

Not exactly. The Sapphire Preferred card still earns a bonus when paying for travel, but the bonus for booking through Chase's portal will end 12.31.2015. See this thread, beginning at about post 1266:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23287773-post1266.html

itsMoe

That's actually great news, I rarely used the portal for airfare anyways. With the dollar requirements for UA elite status, portal bookings are risky.

tpvn

My personal experience on the question of Amex losing big spending customers. In my mid 30, has had credit card since 19, so I can't say I am a long time credit card customer, but not a new one either. Have had 1 Amex card for 15 years. Recently sign up for the SPG card (got a wedding planned at the Sheraton HCMC and apparently the card brought in some interesting benefits, long story). Use it daily for about a month. Then last month, bought my wedding suit for $2000 at a store on Michigan Ave, and got declined. Call them twice on the spot, each time was told it was cleared, then got declined again. Ended up using my fiancee's card to pay for it. You might say it is not a too abnormal thing to happen with a credit card transaction, that they need to get used to my spending habit (they do), but that happened in front of the people I was with was, ... very embarrassing. On top of that, when I call them that night asking, politely, what was going on, they seem to be quite non-nonchalant about it. I thought charging the merchants as much as they did, they would provide a good level of customer service, but that is not the case. They used to be much better than this. I will not necessarily terminate all my relationships with them, but they will not a single dime of my big spend, including none of my wedding expense. Amex is not in the big league anymore.

eajusa

tpvn, if a csr says a charge is cleared, and then the charge is declined at the merchant's terminal, they have a glitch in Amex's computer systems. Amex beterr get their IT department on top of this.

KRSW

AMEX's IT department is too busy redesigning the website and catering to the marketing department's whims to bother with such trivial things like making sure transactions work.

tpvn

on another note, does anyone know if spending habit is per customer, or per credit/charge card account?

jft3

Checking your spending ability only checks against the amount of credit you have left (that they shroud in secrecy for whatever reason).

It doesn't take into account the merchant, which is the other necessary piece to check against their fraud algorithms. Two different functions here.

Not saying it's right or wrong, just how it is.

Tibs

Not completely accurate in my experience two weeks ago.

I wanted to make a Delta transaction that would put me 25% over my credit limit on my Skymiles card, knowing i had a refund coming in a few days. It was approved on the site and it cleared before there refund was processed without any issues.

For two weeks the card had an available of $0 while everything caught up (The refund was never processed until I called 7 days later).

Once all of this happened I decided to pay the balance.

To me it was an experiment and I really wanted the 2x miles since it was a Delta ticket.

Having zero balances on the other cards and very high limits with them might have been a factor in that check spending ability page but it certainly was not based on just my credit limit. My spending for the month wasn't unusual for Amex, but it was for this card since I switched spending to it. I still have a few weeks before I'll be able to reallocate a credit limit to it so I'm pushing the limit hard.

robertw477

AMEX lost Costco as the exclusive partner. They will survive it. AMEX is not losing its big spenders. They still have a pretty solid business. However there is fierce competition for those top spenders. They made a decision to go for different business segments. What I dont understand i the AMEX Everyday spend card (95 AF) can easily generate 1.5 MR points per dollar, while an AMEX Plat card or Centurion card earns 1 point/per $. Before Centurion card raised their costs way up I was offered thsat years ago. It was pricey to get it back then. I said if that card gave me 2/MR per dollar I would have taken it. Still to this day I look at the "benefits" on that card and I scratch my head. Those benefits are worth so little even compared to products that cost far less. In this way the smaller tier customer is getting 50% more rewards than the best customers, getting the Everyday card. Two weeks ago I was assigned a top client rep at AMEX She pitched me the AMEX Plum card for business. Its a weird product that probably doesnt have a huge base of customers. However that card pays 1.5% cash if you pay the bill within 15 days. I said to the rep that AMEX used to offer 2% on the Plum card and frankly with a ton of 2% cards on the market with a normal billing cycle and float, why would I choose the AMEX product. She did have an answer to that but that product at 1.5% is not something we would go for.

robertw477

The more you spend, the more more merchant fees amex gets. Little guy spends 10K a year and generates $300.00 in merchant fees. Big guy spends 100,000 and $3000.00 in merchant fees. One big guy worth more than 10 times the little guy. Merchant fees are a percentage of the sale. You think it is just a flat number.

tangfish

I've had a Centurion card since around 2006. I only ever use it to purchase travel and items that might need the purchase protection/extended warranty items. The MR points continue to stack up in my account and there isn't much to use them on (no good transfers in the past couple years). About 85% of my spending goes on the Fidelity Visa card I got when the Amex benefits really started deteriorating around 2009. It has no annual fee. I used the cashback to buy FB stock which has since tripled. Wish I'd switched to that sooner!

At this point the only major benefit is the DL status, which just got a whole lot less valuable with the recent changes. It's hard to justify the annual fee with that one major benefit. The Gogo addition recently is very nice in that it's something I can actually use, but in the grand scheme of things doesn't move the needle compared to the loss of CO, then USAir. Basically, without Star Alliance Gold as one of the benefits, the card is much less valuable to me.

Centurion

Amex USA Centurion Losses I miss that curtail my Amex spend are TWA and American via TWA,Continental,USAir, Virgin, SPG Platinum, Hyatt Diamond, Mandarin Oriental free nights. And why why can you not figure out how to send me an email that does not just have the word Platinum replaced with Centurion.

eajusa

When I started this game I held the Plat card, a FF credit card, and a hotel affiliated card, all courtesy Amex. Between making travel my #1 hobby and the intense competition, I have cards from 5 other banks now. Amex has to stay on its toes, if they want to remain an industry leader. I, especially, think if Citi would better promote its Prestige card, it would give Plat stiffer competition. Barclays Arrival is also being imitated by other banks, the latest being the new Discover It Miles with 3% back the first year. The savvy, high end consumer is being courted along with the more casual traveler.