lexdevil

Wow, that makes it a real option for me. I could totally see downgrading my United Club card to the Freedom Unlimited at some point, if I decide I can live without the United Club access.

Have to say thanks to all for their input. I've learned a lot on this thread about card options I had not previously considered (like keeping all 3 $400+ AF cards, or getting a Freedom Unlimited card for unbonused spend).

tmiw

Actually, a lot of issuers are slapping the Visa Signature/World MC logos on even their low/no reward cards to increase swipe fee revenue. As one can imagine, retailers are really unhappy about that. (Well, also about paying fees to accept Visa/MC at all, but that's for a different thread.)

Los_Pepes

I don't think you can PC from a UC to a Freedom Unlimited

lexdevil

If not, I assume I can just move the CLs around, cancel the Club card, and open a Freedom Unlimited. Same result in the end.

LWT3

I'm late to the thread. Interesting read, and I'll just add two thoughts. First, if it's your job to come up with a marketing algorithm for a credit card, it seems very unlikely that you would take gender into account. Probably would be both a bad business practice and illegal. Second, I'm sure creating a good algorithm is challenging. You know it won't be perfect in any case, and if you're going to get it wrong, you'd rather err on the side of missing some good potential customers rather than making too many offers to bad (unprofitable) potential customers.

gooselee

This.

Also, OP seems to alternate between acknowledging that Amex has no way of knowing what they're "missing out" on in terms of category spend on other cards, then going into detail on how many $ are being spend in XYZ categories at whatever points earnings rates.

As I can see it, Amex's algorithms are actually working well in this case, even looking beyond the limited detail available on just a credit report.

Look at OP and you see a high-earning, high-spending, travel-heavy individual with low risk of default, very low likelihood of incurring interest or late fees, high attraction to travel benefits, high probability/rate of utilizing benefits. Look at the husband and you see a moderate-earning, moderate-spending, moderate-travel individual with low risk of default, very low likelihood of incurring interest or late fees, decent attraction to travel benefits, and moderate probability/rate of utilizing benefits. By comparison, both individuals pose very little risk to Amex and represent very low revenue potential beyond merchant fees. However one individual is likely to cost Amex much, much more in terms of benefits, a difference potentially greater than the delta between merchant fee revenue.

In other words, taking all things into account, OP's husband is more likely to be profitable to Amex while OP herself is more likely to represent a net cost to Amex. If I were Amex, I'd be going after the husband, too. Their ideal customer from a card benefits perspective is someone who pays for lots of benefits that are never actually consumed.

sigma6

I represent OP's husband profile minus the 32 year credit history(I think mine is 18yrs). Can someone please send Amex my details? I mainly fly out of OAK for 2-3 domestic leisure trips/Yr so I never see the CENT lounge at SFO. Spend will be non-bonus also. I do a lot of amazon and costco shopping so I would rarely need AMEX shopping benefits to supplement already excellent customer service. I am definitely cheap to keep.

FlyerMel

Sorry, it's a bit off topic for the original thread but your having 3 Priority Pass cards piqued my interest. What do you do with them? I assume they are all in your name since you are the card holder (do they allow that??). Is there a real benefit to that? I do have Amex Platinum which gives me Priority Pass but I ignored CSR offers because it seemed silly to have two cards with overlapping benefits, like, what would I do with a second Priority Pass (presumably it has to be in my name)? So I am really curious to see what use you are getting out of your 3 priority passes :-). Maybe I am missing on something here...

krazykanuck

The benefit is when I get bored and make card houses with all my spare cards, I have three that look the same. they all have my name on them but priority pass identifies accounts as card sponsor (so Chase, or Amex, etc) and then the individual. So theoretically you could have more and more PP accounts but the benefits and terms are different and separate.

In practice, the only difference between amex plat/chase car/ and Citi prestige with priority pass is how guests are charged. Using the platinum access you're charged for every guest, Prestige allows 2 guests, and CSR allows unlimited guests (subject to lounge specific rules). Also Citi and Amex allow you to use the PP digital app, while Chase doesn't. So for me my default PP card is the Citi prestige membership.

edealinfo12345

The same stupidty that has one chasing an additional 50K points worth $500 when one has travel spending exceeding $100,000. Kind of penny wise pound foolish.

The CSR Priority pass specifically allows unlimited card holder guests to visit the lounge at no extra charge. The Amex's Priority Pass version doesn't allow for this and therefore doesn't come anywhere close.

madbrain

If most or all of the credit accounts are joint, then the OP's account history for the last 32 years should be nearly identical.

Certainly seems weird for the algorithm to behave that way.

I can't really comment on the gender aspect, as I'm in a same-sex marriage. My unemployed husband seems to be eligible for the same great offers from Amex and other card issuers as I am.

Like the OP, nearly all of our accounts have been joint accounts, for the past 10 years, long before we could get legally married (which we did 3 years ago). Recently, as we started churning card last year after not applying for a new one for the 2 preceding years, it has started to diverge, as we have discovered things like the Chase 5/24 limit, Citi 8/65, etc. So, most of our new accounts are individual accounts, without authorized user cards.

I would say it's quite possible that gender is an input to the algorithm used by Amex for their offers, and if so, it's pretty silly of them.

Stephanie Vickers Cameron

My boyfriend and I both make 6 figure salaries and own a home together. We have similar credit scores (mine is higher!). I went through card match and was �pre-qualified� for the AmEx 100k offer. When I clicked through they said it was no longer available. I still went through with the application and was approved for the platinum card. I travel so much more than my boyfriend and hie flies on my companion pass for Southwest. A couple of weeks after they told me the 100k offer wasn�t available, he received one by mail. This makes me livid, and seeing that that the Centurion lounges are mostly patronized by males hasn�t impressed me either. They need to get with the times that females make more of the financial decisions than males. Seems like pretty sexist marketing to me! #callingoutamex

mia

Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to our mass market economy. When someone told you that the offer "was no longer available", they only meant what you already knew when you clicked [Apply], that it was no longer available through the site that you used.

All card issuers have a multitude of offers outstanding at any time, and nothing about any of these offers is even slightly personal.

Diplomatico

I'm sorry, this is an absurd allegation - that AMEX is somehow discriminating against women wrt credit card offers/applications. Elevated sign-up bonuses are often targeted to entice people who don't already have AMEX cards.

Counter DP - my wife has zero income, doesn't work. Auto-approved for a platinum card.

gengar

There is so much to decompress here.