uppereastsider

So, what is Amex's rationale for giving 4x US Dining/groceries to the Gold Card vs Plat Card? After reading the plat card thread, seems a lot of people would have liked to see a dining bonus over there, let alone groceries. I would have seriously considered the plat if these benefits were added, instead I'm glad to be basically paying 30 dollar net annual fee for an easy bonus (2k in 3 months is great!) and a dining & grocery benefit that now adds an Amex back into my day to day wallet (while my poor SPG Amex collects dust, sitting in my sock drawer just hoping I can get more than 95 in value from the certificate so I don't cancel the card)

patrick.barnes

(Off topic but Amex sent me a spend offer once I upgraded to the Luxury card [for 100k points] which basically restored the old earning rate for $25k of spend.)

jw461

Has anyone tried Uber Eats? Wonder if it would get 4x as a "restaurant" or 1x like Uber.

uppereastsider

With the CSR, it codes as Uber and receives 3x for transportation but not dining. It also counts towards the CSR's 300 dollar travel credit. My best guess is it'll code as 1x for the Gold

krazykanuck

Different market segments. Amex's target market for the Platinum card is a consumer that spends enough and has a high enough income to not really care about various earn rates. I mean the number of people willing to pay a $450, now $550, annual fee is pretty limited. Also I would guess that Platinum card members are already spending a lot on dining without the incentive of 4x earning.

patrick.barnes

tmiw

I think it also helped that contactless on Visa/MC worked fairly reliably and that there were cards being issued en masse for those networks. That's still not quite true for the US, though it is slowly improving.

jediwho

Depending on how much you place value on the Saks Fifth's credit, net AF for Amex Platinum is less than CSR. Throw in FHR, IAP, toeing service and medical evacuation, this car more than pays for itself.

DCfearfulflyer

Has anyone run into an issue where the online application says your not eligible for the welcome offer due to past history, having an offer in the past, and so on, but non of those are true?

I've never had product (have to other amex non charge cards) and have a great history with amex. I called customer service yesterday and spent approx 30 min on the phone with them. They confirmed that nothing precluded me from the offer, nor should it from the referral offer. That said, their was nothing they could do on their end outside note it in my account. I would have to call back after applying and they could take a further look at the application and what might have happened.

I weighted my options and decided to apply and give them a call today.

Kagehitokiri

where is sensor on reader or thing on card?
literally 'never' working at multiple stores, except once

will be interesting if either one of my two new cards will work easily, if so then clearly a case of a bad card/thing though odd it worked once

mia

Using a contactless card is not a precision skill. I believe there is an antenna (wire) that surrounds the entire perimeter of the card, but technical aspects are well covered in this thread:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cred...artphones.html

See also here:

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/c...ess/index.html

Kagehitokiri

did not work at 2 of the places they list

like i said, ~5 years ago it worked every time with no problem. actually for the entire ~5 years i had starwood amex with expresspay

with current / newish metal contactless, it has only worked once. perhaps its a bad card/thing but bad in such a way that it occasionally does work.

there was discussion upthread about it, so i posted here

im guessing one difference is old MSD vs new EMV

some mentioned (old system?) not working

Javier1704

Hi everyone,

So, I finally received my gold card (after 10 days of applying) thanks to UPS losing it and taking a week to find the package.

I applied through a referral link that gave me an offer of 50,000 MRs after spending $2,000 within the first three months of account opening. Looking at my card member agreement, I noticed that the annual fee says $195 instead of $250 (I applied on October 4th). Does anyone knows if this is a system error or if that will be the annual at least for the first year?

PHLondoner

It's kind of annoying that they seem to quickly give 4X to national chain restaurants, but a lot of my local cafes and restaurants in the city do not receive the bonuses. I mean, I got 4X at freaking Rita's Water Ice for my kids $2.50 ice... but not at a high-end gastropub where I dropped $75 the other night.... Seems like their coding system is a little flawed.

mia

The coding system is the same at American Express, Mastercard and VISA. The merchant's acquirer (the company that processes their card transactions) chooses an MCC (merchant classification code) when the account is opened. It is not assigned by the card network or the card issuer, and it's not likely to be changed. Many small companies operate more than one type of business, and they often use the same merchant account for all of them. This means the MCC may be correct for the original business, but not for those that piggyback on the account later.

If you expand the entry you can see the classification. What does your gastropub's entry say?