sdsearch

Well, bad assumption. I use about 10 different banks, and about 7 different airline programs, and about 8 different hotel programs, and I don't want to litter my phone with all of those apps. So unless there's some big advantage (like a promo that gives extra hotel points for using the hotel app), I don't install the app, and often I find the app so clunky I remove it when the promo is over.

Meanwhile, I'm at a real computer all day at work, and I'm near my laptop at home and in my hotel rooms, and so it's much easier for me just to have zillions of bookmarks to every bank/airline/hotel site I need and use their sites on nice big screens with a real keyboard. I hardly ever need to check my bank accounts when I'm neither near my personal laptop (connected online) or my work computer.

Keep in mind I'm not "Amex-centric" like you may have assumed most people in this thread might be. Amex is just one of the many banks I use: I have my checking/savings at Wells Fargo, and then a cashback card at Discover, plus airline/hotel/transferable points cards at not just Amex but Barclay, BofA, Chase, Citi, Diners Club, US Bank, and First Bankcard.

bigbuy

+1^
And on top of having about as many banks and frequent flyer programs as you do, I have something some people today would find bizarre, I have a cheap flip phone.
The poster you were responding to made another wrong assumption about what kind of phones "most people" use. At least most people my age.

Happy

Thank you! ^

How about me not even have a cell phone service?

TravelinSperry

I'm exactly like you. Unfortunately we are in the minority these days. Most people use apps to manage nowadays. So Amex is likely responding to usage patterns for UI.

MaxVO

I don't see a connection between the alleged traffic through the mobile app and the damage to the full featured website.
Let's just stay on the subject of this thread.I'm afraid the ill-advised changes to the website may become permanent, unless we provide Amex with regular/frequent feedback about our inconvenience.

gooselee

Respectfully, I think these comments miss the point being made about the app, and we're all actually on the same side here.

For people who are "Amex-centric" and have smartphones and want to do stuff on mobile, etc., a relatively well designed app exists that provides for much of that functionality/ability. The fact that a dedicated app exists to support mobile functionality for those who want and choose to use it is even more reason that the adaptation of the main website to become more "mobile-friendly" makes no sense.

People who prefer/need to access their Amex accounts via desktop website are essentially being given a crappier desktop experience that is being justified by a need/desire to make that website accessible on devices for which a perfectly good solution (the mobile app) already exists. The new website solves a problem that didn't exist to begin with.

I have a smartphone. I have the Amex app, and I use it for certain tasks that are relevant to me when I'm on-the-go. I also use the website - and any time I need to do something meaningful, I prefer to do it on the website from my laptop. In theory, the redesign of the website was intended for people like me who would benefit from a look-alike experience from mobile to desktop, right? Well I hate the thing and I can't imagine why I would ever load the lousy new version of the website in my mobile web browser when I can just use the app that provides a perfectly fine interface for what I need to do and is actually suited to the size of my phone's screen, rather than forced into it.

Troopers

I wasn't suggesting you install 25+ apps for every different bank, airline, hotel. Bad assumption. This thread is about Amex which requires a single app, which is more than an adequate alternative to the (less than ideal) website.


I'm sorry

sdsearch

But why, prior to your post, as a non-Amex-centric person, would I have thought to get an Amex app when I haven't gotten any other apps for any other banks?

Ie, your assumption the someone with 10 banks would choose to install an Amex app but no other apps seems to be biased based on you presumably being Amex-centric. To me, Amex is just one of ten banks, why is it their app I would have installed but none of the others?

Btw, it's not just that I have access to Amex on my work computer. I'm deep inside a building where many people have problems getting a phone signal, and go outside (or to another part of the building) to use their phone. (And we're not allowed to use the company's WiFi for personal devices.) So even if I had an app, I'd have to go away from my desk when I want to check something on Amex, while I can do it at my desk if I want to use the Amex website.

And I doubt my company is the only one in the country with reception problems (for at least some phone networks) in parts of the building.

But I guess I have to explain one more thing: Not only am I not Amex-centric, I'm also not smart-phone-centric. I've been using the internet since before most people had heard of it. I was testing a predecessor of websites for Guitar Center, for example, before there were any internet browsers. I even was briefly on the predecessor of the internet known as ArpaNet in the mid 70s. So I've been using computers with big monitors all my life, and smartphones (with comparatively tiny screens and no keyboards unless you add an external Bluetooth one) only came around in the last very small fraction of my life.

So to me, smartphones are a new different way to do something whose main benefit is more portability, but I don't need more portability for most stuff (text alerts for airline status updates are wonderful, but I don't need to check my bank stuff while I'm on the way to the airport, I can easily wait till the time I've got my laptop on the internet).

I realize it's different for people who never got very used to the internet before smartphones came along, or people who want to use the internet every minute of the day no matter where they are. I'm tired of using the internet much of the day, I don't want to use it then again in a restaurant, in my car, etc. So to me while a smartphone has its uses, they're limited. And so it makes no sense to me to download a bunch of apps i'll never use, since I can always use the mobile website from my phone (and I use websites from my phone so rarely, it's not worth it to install an app instead).

So the only apps I tend to use are ones I really need while away from computer. That's stuff like the Rewards Network app (for earning miles while dining) in case I need to look up what participating restaurants are nearby after I'm in my car, Google Translate for pointing at restaurant menus overseas, and stuff like that. But I don't particularly need to access bank stuff "on the go" like that. (If I happen to get declined or a fraud alert while "on the go", most banks don't have the ability to look that up or clear it online anyway, I have to call some voice number typically.)

Troopers

Too. Many. Words.

This thread is about the new Amex website. There is a more than adequate option in the app. You can utilize both; it's not website or app.

Re other travel related apps, if there are similar threads re those websites, use the app if they are sufficient. And many of those apps provide functions that websites do not.

You can use some apps or all apps. It's not zero or all.

gooselee

Just to be clear - you two are actually agreeing, right? You *both* think the new Amex website sucks?

Because this argument is basically:
Trying to make the website mobile-optimized is dumb. I use an app to access Amex on my phone. I only access the website on a real computer/laptop. The new website sucks.
vs.
Trying to make the website mobile-optimized is dumb. I don't want to access Amex on my phone. I only access the website on a real computer/laptop. The new website sucks.

sdsearch

Yes. Somehow (because everyone agreeing that the new website sucks was boring? ) the discussion veered into how often someone access the Amex website, and that's when it got into the "but why aren't you using the app instead" weirdness when I answered the question about how often I was using the website.

javabytes

The new design sucks. Haven't companies figured out this mobile-for-desktop experience never works well? (See also: Windows 8)

MaineFlyer16

I also hate the new website sooooo much. I wonder if it was designed for those who only have one amex card... It seems like many of the issues I and others have with the new site relate to having multiple cards. This is FT so I assume many people also have multiple cards. Does anyone with only card find the new layout any better?

trouble747

It also seems like one cannot switch between the various account-specific pages for one card anymore. If I'm on activity and click home, it goes back to my default account instead of staying on the account I'm currently viewing. Terrible!

gooselee

Mrs. Lee works in marketing and web design. I was griping about the Amex site to her the other day and she commented that mobile-first was the new trend, based on market research, and that I was just being a curmudgeon. Companies have the numbers to show that there is greater demand for an adaptive, simplified, mobile-ready site than for a desktop-optimized site with more functions/options.

Then I told her to log in to her Amex account and try to find something simple that she would expect to be able to easily access.

She hates the new site, too.