Oct 3, 2018, 11:48 pm
Last edit by: 747FC
In June 2017, the American Express International Airline Program changed to a discount program, rather than "buy one get one free".
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/t...ram/index.html
To research and book, you can
1) Call Platinum Travel Services (1-800-525-3355) or Business Platinum Travel Services (1-800-553-9497). $39 booking and change fees apply
2) As of October 18, 2018, customers can use Live Chat to receive quotes. Log into your account at www.americanexpress.com/travel
3) As of May 2019, customers can log into www.amextravel.com and search and book some IAP fares. Not all carriers participate in online bookings, and not all fares appear online. (Relevant FlyerTalk thread 1 Relevant Thread 2)
The program is available on International First, Business and Premium Economy Class tickets booked through American Express Travel, on both refundable and non-refundable fares.
Good for purchases of 1 to 8 tickets on participating airlines.
Use Pay with Points for all or part of you fares, plus you still get miles from the airline.
Subject to $39 servicing fee per ticket for Platinum card members when calling.
"Travel must originate in and return to U.S. gateway (may exclude certain overseas territories) and select Canadian gateways. One-way travel permitted on some airlines where routing originates in U.S. or select Canadian Gateways." Known to include YVR, YYZ.
It was suggested that a Wikipost be written to try and collect past and example discounts, as the fares themselves are unpublished. The discounts vary, sometimes widely, based on availability, fares, and sales. I've broken it down into ranges, and sorted by the number of reports. I also combined AF/KL/DL as they have joint ventures TATL so it's hard to say from all posts which metal members were reporting. My calculations for discount ranges do not intentionally include the $39 booking fee.
Delta / Air France / KLM
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/t...ram/index.html
To research and book, you can
1) Call Platinum Travel Services (1-800-525-3355) or Business Platinum Travel Services (1-800-553-9497). $39 booking and change fees apply
2) As of October 18, 2018, customers can use Live Chat to receive quotes. Log into your account at www.americanexpress.com/travel
3) As of May 2019, customers can log into www.amextravel.com and search and book some IAP fares. Not all carriers participate in online bookings, and not all fares appear online. (Relevant FlyerTalk thread 1 Relevant Thread 2)
The program is available on International First, Business and Premium Economy Class tickets booked through American Express Travel, on both refundable and non-refundable fares.
Good for purchases of 1 to 8 tickets on participating airlines.
Use Pay with Points for all or part of you fares, plus you still get miles from the airline.
Subject to $39 servicing fee per ticket for Platinum card members when calling.
"Travel must originate in and return to U.S. gateway (may exclude certain overseas territories) and select Canadian gateways. One-way travel permitted on some airlines where routing originates in U.S. or select Canadian Gateways." Known to include YVR, YYZ.
It was suggested that a Wikipost be written to try and collect past and example discounts, as the fares themselves are unpublished. The discounts vary, sometimes widely, based on availability, fares, and sales. I've broken it down into ranges, and sorted by the number of reports. I also combined AF/KL/DL as they have joint ventures TATL so it's hard to say from all posts which metal members were reporting. My calculations for discount ranges do not intentionally include the $39 booking fee.
Delta / Air France / KLM
- Fares < 10 %: 2
- Fares 10%-15.9%: 16
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28427217-post5.html
- (First) https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28455196-post22.html
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28552399-post75.html
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28557136-post80.html
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28681679-post119.html
- (First) https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28912654-post150.html
- (PE) https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29314333-post216.html
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29314692-post217.html
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29321044-post230.html
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29485431-post250.html
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30218019-post300.html
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30337457-post316.html
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30647796-post331.html
- (First) https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31053636-post394.html
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31089400-post399.html
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32079945-post586.html
- Fares 16%-20.9%: 5
- Fares 21%+: 3
- Fares < 10%: 1
- Fares 10%-15.9%: 6
- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28581934-post91.html
- (PE) https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28658835-post109.html
- (First) https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28844429-post141.html
- (PE) https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29315142-post218.html
- (PE) https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29836516-post265.html
- (PE) https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28758330-post129.html
- Fares 16%-20.9%: 1
- Fares < 10%: 4
- Fares 16%-20.9%: 1
- Fares 21%+: 1
- Note: Prices include seat selection per this thread
- Fares <= 10%: 4
- Fares 16%-20.9%: 1
- Fares 10%-15.9%: 1
- Fares 16%-20.9%: 1
- Fares <= 10%: 1
- Fares 10%-15.9%: 1
- Fares >= 35%: 1
- Fares 21%+: 2
- Fares < 10%: 1
- Fares 10%-15.9%: 1
- Fares 16%-20.9%: 1
- Fares 10%-15.9%: 1
USA International Airline Program (IAP) relaunched as discount benefit (2017).
Jan 20, 2018, 10:05 pm
#226
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Seattle
Programs: SPG Platinum, Delta Silver Medallion
Posts: 30
It's been a 50/50 for me, half the times I get connected instantly, the other half I have to wait for a while, both times I've had to wait have been on weekends though.
Jan 21, 2018, 1:29 am
#227
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 1,774
Jan 21, 2018, 12:23 pm
#229
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: LHR
Programs: AA
Posts: 773
I ended up waiting an hour and 40 minutes, after which time I finally spoke to an agent and at the end of the day it didn't even seem that there were any discounts available on BA premium economy, at least for the routing and general date range I wanted.
Jan 21, 2018, 12:39 pm
#230
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 17,457
IAP saved me ~$750 on two r/t Z/J tix on AF/KLM to Athens. $6250 from AF, $5500 from IAP.
$750 is about what our Platinum cards cost. Without IAP, I would question Platinum's value for us.
I did like the previous IAP because the tix were full fare, fully refundable (and even on BA allowed seat selection at purchase).
$750 is about what our Platinum cards cost. Without IAP, I would question Platinum's value for us.
I did like the previous IAP because the tix were full fare, fully refundable (and even on BA allowed seat selection at purchase).
Feb 1, 2018, 3:32 pm
#233
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 998
Almost all my travel is personal and usually is booked far enough in advance that I'm totally flexible, so I very well could make whatever they put together work for me by just saying how many days where and during what month, maybe give them a specific carrier, but honestly that usually isn't too big of an issue either...
Does 5x travel count with buying the IAP booked tickets? Are these special fares that don't earn miles/segments with airlines, or are they usually pretty standard tickets?
Feb 1, 2018, 7:24 pm
#234
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 16,871
Wow! Not bad... and maybe I should look into this, I don't travel international a lot in Biz/F so I've never used IAP... I'm curious how it works, or what works best. Should I do my homework first and figure out the best flights (cheapest from what I can see publicly) and then call and feed those specific flights to the phone agent... or do they have the flexibility for me to just say "Hey, I'm interested in going to Japan in October for 7 days, what's the cheapest Biz/F ticket?" and have them find the cheapest. (Obviously I would be at a computer to double check to see if the fare was actually much of a savings off what I could buy)
Almost all my travel is personal and usually is booked far enough in advance that I'm totally flexible, so I very well could make whatever they put together work for me by just saying how many days where and during what month, maybe give them a specific carrier, but honestly that usually isn't too big of an issue either...
Does 5x travel count with buying the IAP booked tickets? Are these special fares that don't earn miles/segments with airlines, or are they usually pretty standard tickets?
Almost all my travel is personal and usually is booked far enough in advance that I'm totally flexible, so I very well could make whatever they put together work for me by just saying how many days where and during what month, maybe give them a specific carrier, but honestly that usually isn't too big of an issue either...
Does 5x travel count with buying the IAP booked tickets? Are these special fares that don't earn miles/segments with airlines, or are they usually pretty standard tickets?
Ive been more than impressed with the agents I have talked to. They have always offered lower cost alternatives, even if I declined them.
Feb 5, 2018, 8:21 am
#235
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Seattle
Programs: SPG Platinum, Delta Silver Medallion
Posts: 30
When I booked my Delta flight through IAP I got 5x points for that purchase, and that flight also showed up on my Delta dashboard right away and looks like a normal Z fare ticket, I am flying it next week so I will confirm here if I do earn MQMs and MQDs.
Feb 5, 2018, 1:46 pm
#236
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: ATL
Programs: DL Scattered Smothered Covered Medallion, Some hotel & car stuff, Kroger Plus Card
Posts: 10,745
I see the DPs on this thread saying 5x MR earnings and (usually) full MQM/RDM earnings...I'm more just curious how the discounts work on the back-end.
Feb 5, 2018, 1:58 pm
#237
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Seattle
Programs: SPG Platinum, Delta Silver Medallion
Posts: 30
Out of curiosity, can you also see a receipt on DL.com? Does it just show a lower base fare than what is available through normal/public booking channels?
I see the DPs on this thread saying 5x MR earnings and (usually) full MQM/RDM earnings...I'm more just curious how the discounts work on the back-end.
I see the DPs on this thread saying 5x MR earnings and (usually) full MQM/RDM earnings...I'm more just curious how the discounts work on the back-end.
Feb 23, 2018, 2:13 am
#239
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Seattle
Programs: SPG Platinum, Delta Silver Medallion
Posts: 30
BTW, as a follow up, I took my flight and I indeed got my expected amount of MQMs and MQDs credited to my delta account right away, so in all respects these are perfectly normal tickets, just cheaper.
Feb 23, 2018, 7:38 am
#240
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: LAS
Programs: AA EXP, AS MVP, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Explorist
Posts: 34
I booked ORD-BKK on Qatar yesterday using IAP. The process was a little rocky. The agent had to verify my Schwab Platinum card was eligible and somehow managed to charge the wrong card (my Blue Sky and Platinum cards both have the same last 4 digits). I managed to get the correct card charged and in the end saved $330.