scubadu

I can't speak for Delta, NW, and Continental as I really don't fly them. But on AA, flying miles alone does not get you into their Admirals Club in 100% of cases. If you are Platinum and Executive Platinum (AA's two highest tiers) you can gain club access on international itineraries ("international" as defined by AA in this case), but not on purely domestic itineraries.

For example, even if you are Executive Platinum (highest AA tier based on miles flown) you would not have club access flying from say LAX to HNL. Amex Platinum provides me club access 100% of the time, which is nice.

Nonetheless, your point is a fair observation and it's the one I'm struggling with. Is Admirals Club access worth $450 per year to me? Hmmm... I'm still on the fence with that one.

Regards

Recreation

Major, major bummer. I wonder what sort of arrangement AMEX had with the airlines. It may have been the latter who canceled the program.

devinreams

FWIW: my assistant tried calling on Oct. 7th (day I posted I believe) and they said I wasn't able to book a ticket (for November 1st). Soooooooo, yeah... good question.

gamer83

Wow, this is really disappointing. I was planning toupgrade to pat once my fee free year of Gold ran out...now not so much....

scubadu

Not sure that we can draw any definitive conclusion from this about how far in advance beyond Nov. 15th travel can be booked. It may just mean that there was no companion fare inventory available for the day/time combos you were requesting. These always have been capacity controlled tickets, subject to inventory availability.

Regards

ZbadhabitZ

I of course agree that your idea of whether or not this card is valuable is certainly subjective and based upon your own spending patterns. Although I have to say I'm a little surprised at how negatively you (and other members of this board) value FHR benefits. I'm not one to stay at ultra-luxurious properties; I've stayed at a Four Seasons once in my life, never been to a Ritz Carlton, and prefer the charm of boutique properties over most chains. Though, staying at properties like The Clift in San Francisco, TheHotel in Las Vegas, the Skylofts in Las Vegas (albeit this is a higher end property), or the W in New York, I have ALWAYS found FHR to be less expensive than anywhere else available (either through the hotel directly, online, 3rd party sites, etc.), and the benefit of the room upgrade, free breakfast, and extra amenity (in many cases is a free $100 spa credit or free $100 food credit) makes FHR a really really worthwhile and option. Not that I'm one to tell you to keep this card, but do re-consider FHR if it fits into your travel plans, you might be pleasantly surprised.

sbm12

Only if you are ticketed on AA, so it isn't really 100%. If you were flying on DL for HNL-LAX you wouldn't have access to any lounge with the Platinum card, but you would with the AA membership. CO/NW/DL also do the international thing for their top tiers. And for *A as long as you are *G in a program other than UA/US (and I think AC) you DO get access on domestic US itineraries. I think that ST is the same way. So my BD Gold/*G gets me in the RCCs on all my UA flights, regardless of destination.

Getting the AmEx Platinum and basing the value solely on its use as a lounge access medium is almost certainly a losing proposition value-wise. If you can get other value then the incremental cost for the lounge access is usually better than buying a membership outright from an airline.

sbm12

Those properties are generally outside the range of what I'll stay in.

My two FHR experiences are the Bellagio and the Oriental. The free breakfast at the Bellagio was fine and certainly of some value, but that was the only benefit that I used (no upgrade, I didn't go to the gym and no late checkout needed). At the Oriental I got the upgrade, didn't use the breakfast, the lunch was just OK and the late checkout was not used. I definitely got $$ value for the FHR at the Oriental, but that was on my honeymoon and next time I'm in BKK I almost certainly will stay somewhere less expensive, even with the great FHR benefit.

Yes, the FHR rate is generally good at the FHR properties. But, much like that IAP 2-4-1, unless you are planning on spending a whole lot of money anyways, the benefit really isn't helpful. Since I don't plan on doing so, I don't get the value from the program.

UA Fan

Guess this is the beginning.

studentbecometeacher

I think you've said in a post above that you've had the card for 4 years. Because the 2 for 1 domestic companion ticket program and also the lounge benefits are fairly recent (I think less than 1 and a half years old?? correct me if I'm wrong), where did you find the value for the card for the first two and a half years? Is it because you just wanted to try it out? If that is the case, then after 1 year you would have cancelled.

scubadu

I guess I should have been more clear, was making an assumption based on a previous post. For all intents and purposes I pretty much fly AA 100% of the time, meaning I'm always ticketed on AA, meaning if there is AA Admirals club where I'm traveling then the Amex Platinum card provides me entry. So, as it applies to my personal situation (which is the situation I care about), then yes, it actually really is 100%. For me Amex Platinum essentially is an Admirals Club membership because I'm always ticketed on AA.

Additionally, I pretty clearly stated that I was not speaking with respect to Delta/NW and Continental as I do not have experience with them.

I'm pretty sure that is exactly what I've been saying either directly or indirectly in most of my posts on this thread. I've stated club access was merely gravy, a nice benefit, but in and of itself, I'm not sure it justifies the cost. However, to play devils advocate, at my status level on AA, and taking into account the new AC fees effective Nov 1st, an annual AC membership for me would be $400 per year. So, if I could extract $50 more of value it might make sense. The problem is that generally speaking, I'm not the kind of guy that would pay outright for an AC membership as I don't quite travel that much.

So, sbm12 you've made the pretty compelling case regarding the Platinum not holding value minus the 2 for 1 benefit so when are you calling to cancel?

Regards

scubadu

I think it's great that you find value in FHR. Not sure why you are "suprised" nor even why it would matter if others don't. We all value features and benefits differently. If it's valuable to you that is all that matters. Your the person making the annual fee payment on your account at the end of the year.

For me personally, FHR has pretty much zero value. I almost always fly out early so late check out is irrelevant. Room upgrades are of course capacity controlled so that can be a crap shoot (now if upgrade could be confirmed at booking that might be interesting). Breakfast might be nice I suppose, but in and of itself, I wouldn't pay $450 a year for a credit card for that. I can buy breakfast! Spa credits just don't do it for me, sorry. But that's just my personal situation.

I think many folks that got an Amex Plat over the last year or two, were pretty strongly motivated by the 2-4-1. That was the lure. None of the other features of the card would have caused me to man up and pay $450 per year. Now that is gone so I'm having to reassess the price to value ratio for my situation.

Regards.

sbm12

For the first two years I had it I was on the road (domestically) 30-40 weeks a year and flying SkyTeam almost every time. That meant that I got a few hundred dollars' value out of the lounge benefit as I otherwise would've purchased an annual PC membership. The incremental cost to do AmEx instead made sense for me based on my travel patterns and I did get the appropriate value to justify it for me. In 2009 I went from ~30 domestic trips to ~5. At that point the lounge membership loses its value real fast.

Yeah, but not at the hotel. The breakfast at the hotel in the FHR program can be a significant cost. That being said, I cannot remember the last time I actually paid for a breakfast in the hotel, whether FHR-quality or not. I'd rather find a place to eat outside the hotel at a reasonable price than pay $25 for bacon and eggs. I'm also not a huge breakfast person in general, which is to say that I don't eat it often even though I do love the flavors.

For me right now the Regus membership is the single largest value following the domestic 241. If travel picks back up then the lounge might come back up in value. And I've got five months to figure it out as my renewal is in March.

peteropny

I just booked a ticket using this program and was told that the tickets must be booked by 11/15/08 with travel through sometime in 5/09.

bmanu

So I just received the Plat card yesterday in the mail, and the companion ticket was a good incentive for me upgrade from Gold. interestingly enough it still states this as a benefit - without the 11/15 expiration date.

I guess I will keep it a few month and see if I can take advantage of the other benefits... don't think I will