Amex Plat worthwhile for me?
 

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this. I have read the posts and done the searches etc, but would like some information.

I'm based in the UK and am thinking about getting the Amex plat. Main reasons are for the lounge access, free travel insurance (would pass on spare cards to other family members so they will benefit from that) and free BA prem plus card.

However I will probably be hitting BA silver pretty soon and getting decent annual travel insurance is about £60 - £80. I normally fly BA, but do use other airlines every so often.

Another option I'm thinking off is getting Amex Gold to take up the free virgin miles offer and then either get the cheap upgrade to BA prem plus or upgrade to platium after I get the miles and then get the BA prem plus.

Yet another option is just to get Amex Blue and then pay the £30 for the BA prem plus.

If I'm correct the other benefits of platinum are: coincerge (sp?), SPG gold, BMI lounge access, Eurostar lounge access, certain flight ticket upgrades, Hilton VIP for one year, Hertz gold, free supplementary cards.

I am in a similar position, was toying with getting Amex Plat when I was offered it (yep, they found my pulse ;)) about a year ago. The main reasons were lounge access and SPG Gold, although my travel plans meant I made BA Silver (most of my travel is with BA), Star Alliance Gold and SPG Gold. I had the BA Amex Premium Plus for £30 anyway.

In the end thought I could get comprehensive travel insurance for less than £275. My girlfriend doesn't like Hiltons (so that was out), I'm less than 25 so Hertz #1 was useless and I never travel on Eurostar!

Your best option is to evaluate what benefits you'd use and if they are worth more than £275 get the card. If not then perhaps go with Amex Gold for the VS miles.

For me it was a relatively easy choice. In my experience the travel benefits seem good if you travel a lot on cheap tickets, Priority Pass for lounge access and SPG Gold for the odd room upgrade when SPG Gold isn't equivalent to dirt where you are staying ;)

Man, you are under 25 and hitting all of these milestones, how are paying for this? Or are you just some prodigy millionaire?

Paraphrasing Groucho Marx here, as evidence of the platinum card's further dilution, I got one just recently, and I have been asking myself the same question.

The Gold has worked it out marvelously for me, and I'm trying to figure out how much better Platinum is than Gold? As to the MR program, you don't seem to earn more points/purchase on platinum, so that's not so hot. I won't ever use the 2-for-1 international ticket oppty. though I'd probably use the lounge access.

I really think the platinum is best for those who use amex heavily, and who are confirmed road warriors.

Probably if it's difficult for you to see the benefit in having it, it's not worth it. I'm going to send mine back, and keep my Gold.

I've only just graduated from Uni but most of it was from working while back home in holidays and careful budgeting of my monthly allowance which allowed me to travel in premium classes about 90% of the time. Having a girlfriend who lives 3700 miles away and a few European daytrips helps the amount of travel....

BA Silver was earned the regular way, *A Gold was a comp as was SPG Gold although should earn that the hard way this year....

Depends... Plat works for me - lounge access, better car rental discounts alone have paid for the card vs. gold, and I've had good experiences using the fine dining, hotels & concierge.

Few queries. If I opt for the Gold for the Virgin 20,000 how does this work. Are they 20,000 MR's (therefore maybe putting them into another airline) or do they specifically have to go towards the Virgin scheme?

Also can I opt for the Gold card (£95 fee) and then upgrade to Plat at £275 - £95 = £180 or will I have to pay the full £275?

Where can I find info on the level of free travel insurance offered for Plat cardholders? Is it in the "Summary of Benefits" document on the Amex website? I've had a look at this document BTW. Sorry, hage now read the full document, it does detail the travel insurance benefit.

Thanks

I'm not certain, but as with the Starwood card, you'd probably be earning miles on the co-brand's loyalty scheme, i.e., Virgin Miles. This seems limiting, but there are often special benefits attached to having the card, above and beyond any of Amex's other cards.

I actually know the answer to this, as last night I decided to test run the platinum, but I asked the CSR who activated my card, "what happens if a couple weeks from now, I decide it's not for me? Do I lose the $395, or do I get it back?" and he informed me that I would get back a prorated amount. So, I presume that they would do the same for the gold card, only charging you in annual fee for whatever length of time you have it, and you get a prorated amount back to either apply to the plat's annual fee or whatever.