AMEX Priority Pass will exclude Restaurants (August 2019)
May 30, 2019, 7:30 am
#136
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Texas
Posts: 256
Amex has a habit of announcing some whiz-bang new benefit, and subsequently slicing off bits of it and taking them back, until the feature quietly disappears. Old-timers may remember the credit line, and the ability to get cash abroad at Amex offices.
I had Amex continuously since 1970, Plat since launch in 1984, but at the beginning of this year I dropped it in favor of Chase Sapphire Reserve. Yes, that was 49 years with Amex.
I had Amex continuously since 1970, Plat since launch in 1984, but at the beginning of this year I dropped it in favor of Chase Sapphire Reserve. Yes, that was 49 years with Amex.
I remember the line of credit. My first card in 83 was a Gold Card with a 10k line of credit back while I was still in college. The gold card was issued by a bank because of the line of credit. Later AMEX started a USA Bank (they had AMEX International Banking Corp for non-USA citizens), so they could issue the cards directly. Folks got the gold card to show off, mainly guy to impress women. You could go anywhere where AMEX had a travel service office and cash a check. I remember the the Platinum Card lunched but I thought its was 1985, when the trademark on "The Gold Card" expired. If my memory is also correct you had to be a card member for at least two year and be invited to apply. I remember received my invitation. The benefits were marginal compared to the gold card, it was more an impress folks card. I believe that AMEX opened it up to anyone with a pulse late 90's.
I will repeat again, this is not AMEX first time on the club business. Old folks will also remember the Centurion Clubs that are long gone.
May 30, 2019, 8:11 am
#137
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 117
I have never used PP restaurants because I normally go to sky club or escape lounge at MSP. It seems the abuse is due to greedy people AND restaurants not checking boarding passes. If someone is legitimately flying out every week, s/he should be able to use the benefit every week.
The sure way to prevent abuses/fraud would be to change the benefits to reimbursement. You pay it upfront with your qualifying card and get reimbursed after submitting your boarding pass and receipts.
The sure way to prevent abuses/fraud would be to change the benefits to reimbursement. You pay it upfront with your qualifying card and get reimbursed after submitting your boarding pass and receipts.
May 30, 2019, 8:32 am
#138
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: ATL
Programs: DL Scattered Smothered Covered Medallion, Some hotel & car stuff, Kroger Plus Card
Posts: 10,745
First, I don't know if auxiliary card benefits qualify as "significant change". I admittedly haven't read every line of the CARD Act, but if auxiliary benefits aren't explicitly called out, I could see some room for interpretation. And the spirit of the CARD Act was more to govern the actual financial aspects of the account - interest rates, fees, etc.
Second, I think there's a very good argument that even if auxiliary benefits are covered by CARD Act, this is not a "significant change" in that the core benefit itself has not been removed. The nature of a single benefit has altered, but the fact is that the people holding these Amex cards will still receive a Priority Pass Select membership after August 1. The difference is that such membership will simply allow a different sort of access than before.
Yes, the end result is the same, but one could compare this change to any of the following: PP removing lounges from its program; Hilton/Marriott changing the benefits associated with Gold status; Uber changing the fee structure for rides; Uber adding/eliminating EATS as an eligible purchase; etc. In all of these cases, I would not expect Amex to have an obligation to inform me of such changes.
May 30, 2019, 8:33 am
#139
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Posts: 10,003
I can't speak for RedElmo but I am calling AmEx today about my Ascend card. I am still deciding what I want to do. I could switch back to the no-fee Hilton Amex but I'm kind of interested in the Everyday card for the promos it has. We'll see.
May 30, 2019, 8:37 am
#140
Moderator: Hyatt; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: WAS
Programs: :rolleyes:, DL DM, Mlife Plat, Caesars Diam, Marriott Tit, UA Gold, Hyatt Glob, invol FT beta tester
Posts: 18,942
I have never used PP restaurants because I normally go to sky club or escape lounge at MSP. It seems the abuse is due to greedy people AND restaurants not checking boarding passes. If someone is legitimately flying out every week, s/he should be able to use the benefit every week.
Even more interesting would be how many are the same person using multiple cards but that's probably not feasible to gather.
May 30, 2019, 8:40 am
#141
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Posts: 10,003
But the Ascend already had a 10 visit yearly limit and a requirement to use only for same-day travel and it is being tossed anyway.
May 30, 2019, 8:41 am
#142
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: SF Bay Area
Programs: UA MileagePlus (Premier Gold); Hilton HHonors (Gold); Chase Ultimate Rewards; Amex Plat
Posts: 6,680
1. Find out what a typical lounge visit costs. Make that the amount of discount that is offered at restaurants.
2. If visiting a specific airport, you must decide whether you want to visit a restaurant OR visit the lounges on that calendar day on any specific PP account. Once you visit a lounge at that airport on a calendar day, you cannot use the benefit at a restaurant, and vice versa. MULTIPLE lounge visits on the same day would be OK, but only ONE restaurant visit OR multiple lounge visits but not both restaurants and lounges.
There are a lot of ways to curb abuse without yanking the benefit entirely. AMEX is using a nuclear weapon to do this when a firecracker will do.
May 30, 2019, 10:38 am
#143
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: SFO
Posts: 3,881
May 30, 2019, 10:57 am
#144
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: YYZ
Programs: AMEX AC CX UA AA DL
Posts: 3,008
Originally the Plat card really was invitation only and required some (unpublished) number of years with some other AmEx charge (not credit) card first, plus undisclosed additional criteria. AmEx tends to put a lot of weight on your own history with them and I don't think they would be allowed to pull a credit report before inviting you to upgrade your card or get Plat as an additional card.
May 30, 2019, 12:56 pm
#145
Join Date: May 2011
Location: NYC (LGA, JFK), CT
Programs: Delta Platinum, American Gold, JetBlue Mosaic 4, Marriott Platinum, Hyatt Explorist, Hilton Diamond,
Posts: 4,895
This may be just me, but I think Amex is trying to move to an "exclusive experience" type of card. No offense, but Priority Pass restaurant benefit is just attracting churners and millennial who get overly excited about "free food" at airports.That's what the CSR is for, a low "high" tier card with an $150 annual fee... for churners.
I don't think that's the demographic Amex wants to target, they want people with higher income who value good food and enjoy having exclusive menus and courtesy drinks at high end restaurants (like with their Global Dining Collection). This may be the reason why they chose to acquire Resy. Looking forward to see what they come up with.
I agree that the Platinum Card is no longer a "status symbol" and I think that's what Amex is trying to "regain". Personally, I'm fine with Amex dropping this if this means more exclusive perks at certain events by Amex, more Centurion Lounges and more pro small businesses marketing (like their Instagram account promoting small stores and restaurants at various cities). I see this card as a membership: hotel status, purchase protection, exclusive events, courtesy drinks and special menus at restaurants, etc.
I don't think that's the demographic Amex wants to target, they want people with higher income who value good food and enjoy having exclusive menus and courtesy drinks at high end restaurants (like with their Global Dining Collection). This may be the reason why they chose to acquire Resy. Looking forward to see what they come up with.
I agree that the Platinum Card is no longer a "status symbol" and I think that's what Amex is trying to "regain". Personally, I'm fine with Amex dropping this if this means more exclusive perks at certain events by Amex, more Centurion Lounges and more pro small businesses marketing (like their Instagram account promoting small stores and restaurants at various cities). I see this card as a membership: hotel status, purchase protection, exclusive events, courtesy drinks and special menus at restaurants, etc.
May 30, 2019, 1:00 pm
#146
Join Date: May 2011
Location: NYC (LGA, JFK), CT
Programs: Delta Platinum, American Gold, JetBlue Mosaic 4, Marriott Platinum, Hyatt Explorist, Hilton Diamond,
Posts: 4,895
So lets review what I get as an AMEX Plat cardholder:
-$550 Annual Fee: Highest of all the cards.
-Centurion Lounges: Often Crowded. This will make it worse as people who may go to restaurants (e.g. Timeberline in Denver, P.F. Change @ LAX) will now crowd the lounge.
-Hotel Program: Bonvoyed! and Hilton
-PP Lounges: Amex Plat make up a significant percentage of PP membership. Now, instead of being able to use restaurants to alleviate pressure on lounges or get a bite to eat when PP lounges are at capacity, either we crowd the PP lounge more or we are left in the cold.
-Uber: $10 per month. Enough for perhaps one ride.
-Airline credit: That I can only use for incidentals.
-Saks Credit: Useful for some but I shop at Banana Republic and find Sak's overpriced.
Seriously, we are paying for an upper tier premium product, I would expect to be treated as such.
-$550 Annual Fee: Highest of all the cards.
-Centurion Lounges: Often Crowded. This will make it worse as people who may go to restaurants (e.g. Timeberline in Denver, P.F. Change @ LAX) will now crowd the lounge.
-Hotel Program: Bonvoyed! and Hilton
-PP Lounges: Amex Plat make up a significant percentage of PP membership. Now, instead of being able to use restaurants to alleviate pressure on lounges or get a bite to eat when PP lounges are at capacity, either we crowd the PP lounge more or we are left in the cold.
-Uber: $10 per month. Enough for perhaps one ride.
-Airline credit: That I can only use for incidentals.
-Saks Credit: Useful for some but I shop at Banana Republic and find Sak's overpriced.
Seriously, we are paying for an upper tier premium product, I would expect to be treated as such.
May 30, 2019, 1:11 pm
#148
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,417
The restaurants don't exactly have much incentive to police things, provided that they are still getting paid. Which probably plays a large part in how we ended up where we are.
It would be interesting to see some numbers on how many visits are repeat visits in the same location on the same day, average number of guests, and so on.
Even more interesting would be how many are the same person using multiple cards but that's probably not feasible to gather.
It would be interesting to see some numbers on how many visits are repeat visits in the same location on the same day, average number of guests, and so on.
Even more interesting would be how many are the same person using multiple cards but that's probably not feasible to gather.
AmEx certainly can identify unique individuals even though they might alternate among the AmEx cards they use, and if they can get the membership account number from PP (or pass information to PP regarding which individuals are associated with lists of multiple PP Select memberships given by AmEx), it should be easy to detect multiple visits by AmEx cardholders.
What could be harder to catch would be someone using a PP from AmEx and PP from another credit card or a paid PP account multiple times in the same day at the same restaurant, but this would be of somewhat less concern to AmEx, although in many cases it would still be abusive.
During bad IROPs, multiple restaurant visits at the same airport on the same day or a restaurant followed by a lounge would seem OK. If your airport stay stretches to ten or more hours, you obviously want more than an appetizer and a drink, or if you've done this, you then need a good place to wait for the remaining time.
What could be harder to catch would be someone using a PP from AmEx and PP from another credit card or a paid PP account multiple times in the same day at the same restaurant, but this would be of somewhat less concern to AmEx, although in many cases it would still be abusive.
During bad IROPs, multiple restaurant visits at the same airport on the same day or a restaurant followed by a lounge would seem OK. If your airport stay stretches to ten or more hours, you obviously want more than an appetizer and a drink, or if you've done this, you then need a good place to wait for the remaining time.
Last edited by MSPeconomist; May 30, 2019 at 1:17 pm
May 30, 2019, 1:14 pm
#149
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,417
I once saw the criteria (partial?) posted at an AMEX office cashier counter in Toronto. Platinum Card invitation required 10,000 CAD charge annually. There was also a life time membership option which was about 10X the annual fee at the time. What a bargain, in hind sight.
I've never seen the lifetime membership offered in the USA. It could be messy if AmEx later wanted to cancel the account.
May 30, 2019, 1:38 pm
#150
Moderator
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