enviroian

I currently have use the Citi Executive MC. Citi announced today that after September they are going to axe just about every solid travel insurance related benefit. The card costs $475/mo and it includes AC membership. I spend about $60K/year on the card and that also gets me $10K EQM. With these benefits soon to be gone I'm looking.

So to book award travel with AMEX you need to transfer over points to a participating airline member? Europe destinations are important to me. What airlines participate? Is it a big deal to book award travel this way?

Thanks

mia

American Express Platinum does not offer trip cancellation, interruption or delay insurance. American Express does offer extensive lounge access, but NOT for AA or UA clubs.

After you transfer it's essentially the same as booking award travel through aa.com.

I suggest you begin by reading the Wikipost at the top of this thread, you will find links to a list of transfer partners, and a summary of how to travel on airlines that are not Membership Rewards partners:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...l-program.html

enviroian

thank you for the information. I will follow that wiki post.

Steve M

Wow, that's an expensive card - more than twice the cost of Amex Centurion!

Gig103

Also keep in mind that you can transfer to many different programs but neither Chase (who still has trip insurance) nor Amex transfer to AAdvantage. You can transfer to BA Avios and some others Oneworld partners.

jags86

mia

The required spending to earn a mile is not competitive. AA miles can be earned with cards issued by Barclays -or- Citi and another card could be primarily used for benefits.

jags86

suziemay

If booking travel with points directly on the card's travel website, I find the Chase Ultimate Reward points more economical than Amex. As an example, if you use points to pay for a flight (rather than transferring to a FF program), a $1,000 flight will require ~66,666 UR points, where with MR you would be using up 100,000 points. You essentially get a 50% "bonus" with UR points.

The Platinum travel credit is also really cumbersome to use as you can probably tell by the multiple threads by airline on this forum. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve, anything that's coded as travel automatically gets credited, up to the $300/year benefit. So taxis, ubers, subway fare etc.

In case either of those are important to you, for me the CSR wins on both fronts. But there are plenty of other reasons to have the Amex Platinum. If you don't find what you need within the wiki, maybe post what you need the card to do and folks here can opine?

mia

This depends on the specific Chase card that you hold -and- the specific version of American Express Platinum to which you are making the comparison.

Sapphire Reserve offers a nominal $0.015/point travel booking rate, but there are ample complaints that the portal prices are inflated.

BUSINESS Platinum offers a 35% rebate on some airfare which nets out to $0.0154/point.

Both issuers have strengths and weaknesses that require the customer to carefully consider their individual requirements.

enviroian

Thanks for all the info! Yes, not per month per year.

I will miss the car rental insurance the most from Citi--what deval of benefits. It's like Doug Parker took over at Citi and didn't tell anyone.

Redeeming avios to fly AA is not primary for me. I'd rather redeem on ST or SA partners with much better availability to Europe than AA, IB (I don't include BA as an "award" ticket since an award ticket costs $1200 in fees).

90% of my AA flights leave DFW A, 10% C. I don't see myself going to D to get to the AMEX centurion club. Seems like a waste and from what I hear overcrowding is just as bad as the airline clubs now.

I"m just pissed at Citi. Ugh.

Thanks again for the tips.

Gig103

It isn't free, but Amex has a "Premium Car Rental Insurance" that is $20 per rental and is primary both domestic and international. Better than $11-$20 a day from the car rental company, I have that as a backup.

guv1976

Most credit cards -- including many with no annual fee -- offer free secondary rental-car LDW coverage, which is primary for overseas rentals.

For a net cost of just $75/year, the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card offers primary rental-car LDW (even for U.S. rentals), four Priority Pass visits per year, and 12 GoGo Wi-Fi passes annually. But the card's points can only be redeemed for travel credits; there is no transfer to FFPs.

Edited to add: If the OP opts to apply for the Amex Platinum, there are reports of some people getting a 100K MR points bonus offer via cardmatch.com. (I was not one of the lucky ones.)