Raffles

Amex has launched an exclusive new card in the UK in association with Harrods. The card is brown, in a similar design to the standard Gold or Plat cards, with the addition of a Harrods logo.

Card is currently invitation only to selected people who carry a Harrods Rewards (loyalty) card. I haven't had an invitation despite having a Harrods Rewards card (and living just behind the shop!) so they are obviously only picking off the highest spenders so far.

Not sure what the fee is. The main perk is a free night at The Ritz hotel in Paris when you spend £5,000 in any calendar year on the card, which seems surprisingly generous. There is also lots of 'blah' about being offered exclusive products etc through Harrods, although who knows if this will amount to anything worth having.

I will update further if they ever get around to sending me my invitation. There are no leaflets in the shop, nor is it mentioned on the Harrods or Amex websites - although there is a tiny story about it in the current issue of Harrods Magazine. It was also featured in The Spectator last week - see here: http://www.spectator.co.uk/print/the...ew-black.thtml

Club_IC

While a free night at the The Ritz in Paris is certainly nothing to sneeze at, this is more of a cross-promotion activity than anything else since Harrods and The Ritz Paris have the same owner

137677

I got an invitation a fee weeks ago. The fee is £150 and besides the 'free night' at The Paris Ritz when you spend over £5,000 in a year the only other tangible benefit seems to be extra Harrods Rewards points.

Not totally clear whether the free night has to be in conjunction with a paid night

The invitations have so far only gone to black level (and perhaps some high spending gold level) Harrods Rewards Card Holders.

Raffles

£150 is modest - I was expecting something higher to position it above the Plat fee and to cover the cost of the Ritz night. However, I assume that Harrods will actually be going for volume rather than quality in terms of cardholder numbers, albeit after a low key attention-seeking launch, so I expect an invite to be turning up soon! There simply aren't that many Black cardholders - it requires a £10k pa spend in Harrods - and I'd be surprised if the take-up rate of the card was more than 10% from amongst this group.

Bonus Harrods Rewards points could be of interest, depending on the structure. If you were getting more than 1 point per £1 of general spend (not Harrods spend) then it would be pretty generous, given that 1 point = 1p and you're not exactly short of ways to spend them in Harrods.

137677

You get 1 extra point on Harrods purchases in addition to the tier related points and 1 point on non-Harrods purchases. And the night at The Ritz is subject to availability....

mia

Is it confirmed that the card is issued by American Express rather than a bank? I think it's likely because the card resembles American Express issued cards, and there does not seem to be a Blue Box on the front panel of the image accompanying the Spectator article. I assume they had to go with brown, rather than Harrod's green, to prevent confusion with the base green charge card.

Raffles

In that case, not such a good deal. Although, if I can get full clarity on the T&C's of the Ritz offer, it may be worth doing for that alone. There must be snags because the Ritz is not a big hotel (175 rooms) and there are only 365 days in a year .... I doubt they are willing to give away more than a couple of rooms a night to Amex cardholders.

Kagehitokiri

ML+3 used to give 4 nights at RC for $50K, so $12.5K per night.

vs this card at $10K per night, but if you can only get 1, thats not that great.

Raffles

Depends where you live - 1 night is enough if you're only popping over from London for the weekend!

137677

The card is issued by Amex and not a bank - the only reference to terms and conditions for the night at the Ritz is the following foot note in the brochure:

"spend over £5,000 on your card in a year and get one complimentary night's stay at the Ritz Hotel Paris, in a double room (subject to availability). One complimentary night during any visit to the Ritz Hotel. Other restrictions may apply"

Roger

I'm trying to think why anybody would want a card associated with the phony pharoah. A night at the Ritz hardly seems worth the effort (speaking as an RA who usually gets a great stay at the IC).

Declare interest: I have 5 AmEx cards (), so another would get in the way. The AmEx Red looks the best, and the idea of a brown card just doesn't do it for me.

As always, YMMV.

mia

I think the reputation of the store predates current ownership.

Roger

Quite. Has the royal warrant disappeared yet?

We've no need to go to the Egyptian grocer now that Waitrose has opened in Motcomb Street.

jib71

Yes. I should think it's for high net worth customers and royalty only.

Oh.... Harrods? Better make that high net worth customers only, innit.

pantster

No, tourists.