Announcement4u

eastindywalrus

So, it sounds like you don't see much value in trip interruption insurance because you've never had a trip interrupted. Well, I could just as easily say that I don't see the value in emergency medical evacuation insurance because I've never had to be medically evacuated. Insurance is worthless until you need it. Then you realize either how glad you were that you had it, or how much you regret not getting it.

mia

No.

No need. Just use a referral offer:

American Express Referral Offers (Read Wiki before posting).

MaxVO

Just a reminder that one can now use referral links to apply for any card that comes up as available. The person who generated the original referral link will still get the same bonus, regardless of which card is eventually obtained.

twkidM3

how do I check if I receive 4x on my charge? I'm looking at the online account, does AMEX shows the point earning after it's been posted? Or do I have to wait for the statement? Doesn't seem to have an effective way like Chase where they say this transaction gives 4x/3x/1x... Kind of annoying.

mia

Asked and answered earlier in the thread. Read THIS post.

jediwho

The way I read his comments and based on my experience is that it's very hard to get much economic benefits out of the Trip delay or travel insurance because either airlines would pay for your hotel stays, or the delay won't be significant enough or the tickets are not expensive enough to do to a doctor to get a certificate (pay copay, deductible, etc.). Essentially with trip delay/travel insurance, your downside would average around $500 and once you adjust for probability of it happening and the joint probability of you getting the benefit is much much lower. Second, $500 is not going to make or break you, if it did we won't be having multiple CC with more than $450 AF. Compare that to medical evacuation that could run over $100,000. Sure, the probability of that happening is hopefully much much lower than one needing travel or trip delay insurance, but $100K is a large number for most people.

sfo3388

Have a PLAT. By knowing I won't get any bonus offers, I still decided to apply the new Gold this morning. Got this message:

Oops, we're sorry. This offer is not available at this time.

Too popular to accept new applications?

Edit: application went through by using a different way.

mia

Agreed. Award tickets are superior to discounted fares because most programs allow miles to be redeposited for a small fee. The serious expense comes when you need to re-book the flight, if there is no saver award seat availability, but most credit card insurance doesn't cover the cost of the new ticket, only the cost of the redeposit fees, change fees, or unused non refundable revenue ticket.

JHake10

nall

Do we know if the various credits ($100 airline credit, monthly dining credit, or the 10% back on dining as part of the signup bonus) reduce spend towards MSR?

RumPatrol

UPDATE: Metal card (regular gold) arrived today in a standard envelope, it also arrived with a reply envelope to mail back a metal card for disposal, which is unnecessary in this situation but I do appreciate it. I'll hold on to the envelope for future use. I'm not exactly sure where this card was mailed from, it wasn't in the usual plain white envelope with a return address in Nebraska like the last few Amex cards I've gotten. If I didn't know what it was, I'd have thought it was one of Amex's personal loan ads that I get every other week.

Interestingly, in addition to the security code being different, the expiration month/year is also different, which seems like it might cause some problems for some people. My expiration year went from 22 to 23 and obviously the expiration month is now October, which I assume it will be for everyone else now. For those of you with existing PRG accounts requesting the metal card, make sure you double check your new card's expiration date.

RumPatrol

I've had MANY trip delays and interruptions actually, including being caught in a signal 10 typhoon just last year. In none of those situations would Chase's travel delay/interruption insurance or any other travel delay/interruption insurance have helped me. Chase's trip delay reimbursement is capped at $500 per ticket. While $500 isn't nothing, it is hardly make it or break it money and realistically, delays of 12+ hours are really quite rare. I've had 2 in the last 10 years of heavy flying and both were mechanical so lodging and a meal was covered by the airline. Again, perhaps I've been lucky, but travel delay insurance preys on the fear of people who think airlines and airports are some sort of lord of the flies hellscape when in reality, most are among the most efficiently run businesses you'll ever see.

Trip cancellation insurance on the other hand is a legitimately good benefit, one I do wish the Platinum had, but it is just not something I imagine comes up that often. Perhaps if I had a family and was traveling with 4 or 5 people in my party and I was needing to purchase 4 or 5 ~$1,000 tickets plus hotel I'd think differently, but traveling solo or with just my wife, I'm just not spending that kind of money. I live in South Florida and deal with hurricanes on a yearly basis, I frequently travel to Asia and deal with typhoons on a yearly basis including 2 in 4 days last August and not once have I spent or lost more than a few hundred dollars as a result. The hassle of gathering and submitting paperwork and spending an hour on the phone with a credit card company would be more costly to me. For those of you with children, especially small children prone to random illnesses, trip cancellation insurance is likely far more important.

As for travel interruption insurance, correct me if I'm wrong, but Chase's travel interruption insurance does not actually include reimbursements for expenses you incur as a result of that interruption. At least it does not explicitly include them and I've seen more than a few data points to suggest it does not. To me, the most expensive part of any potential interruption is the booking of last minute alternative transportation, which in most cases will run in excess of thousands of dollars per person. I believe Citi does explicitly cover these expenses, as do most third party travel insurance companies, but from what I understand, Chase does not. That's a big asterisk if you ask me.

Again, YMMV on all of this and every situation is different, but I think the benefits of Chase's travel delay, interruption and cancellation insurances are overstated and are preying on fear of things that just aren't likely to happen and aren't likely to be that costly if they do. It isn't like medical insurance. Medical care can run in excess of 6 digits very quickly. But hey. maybe I've been really lucky.

Precisely. 12+ hour delays are just plain rare and in all honesty, if we're spending $450-$550 just to carry these cards, covering the random 12+ hour delay that may or may not ever happen isn't really putting a dent in anything. It certainly isn't happening so often that you're needing to utilize it repeatedly. If it is, that sounds like a planning problem more than any sort of random act or bad luck. Add in that a lot of those 12+ hour delays might be mechanical or other problems covered by the airline and most people, even the most frequent of travelers, simply are not going to utilize that benefit that often.

Medical evacuation on the other hand, while even more rare, is something that will absolutely break you and, in most cases, will run in excess of $100K almost immediately. Add in the difficulty that would otherwise come from trying to arrange evacuation in a foreign land by yourself and that is a definite peace of mind benefit. The fact that you don't even need to use the Platinum for your trip to get evacuation insurance is itself an impressive benefit.

If I'm planning an especially expensive trip, one that is costing me in excess of the $10,000 Chase might cover, I can very easily buy third party travel insurance on a trip by trip basis, likely for far cheaper than the CSR's annual fee would cost me.

tmiw

I thought the CSR's trip delay coverage was >6 hours, not 12. I must have missed a recent change or something.

Anyway, the one delay I've had recently (that required an overnight stay) was weather related, which Delta didn't cover. The most difficult part of the claim was getting the letter from Delta. I also remember Chase ultimately covering everything I charged on my cards as a result of the delay, but then again, they could indeed no longer be doing so.

Kagehitokiri

delivery sounds like how i got my metal plat card