Domestic Companion Ticket Program Cancelled as of 11/15/08
 

Wow, this really detracts from the benefit of the Platinum card.

Screenshot here

Not really. The domestic buy one get one was never a very good deal. If they end the international buy one get one that would be a whole differant thing. That program has some benefit.

We got some pretty decent deals on the domestic 2 for 1 program. Sorry to see it go.

It will be interesting to see if this is just the first of many benefits to disapear.

Are you sure you didn't get that completely backwards?

I found the domestic program to be very useful, especially with rising airfares. But the international program is a total rip. I have never encountered any destination or routing where you can't just buy two discounted biz or F tickets for a small fraction of the 2-4-1 International program's price.

No joke, if two discounted F tickets are $4k directly from the carrier, then the Int'l 2-4-1 program will quote you $10k+ for one of the exact same seats. It's a absolute rip-off. The ONLY and I mean ONLY time it *might* be even remotely useful is if you needed a couple of last-minute tickets, and the airline has jacked the fares so mercilessly as departure approached that you might save a little money (and I mean a little) by going through Amex. Other than that it's completely useless.

I have saved two or three times the card's annual fees in airfare using the domestic 2-4-1 program, however. I will be sad to see it go, and it's one more reason I will probably be downgrading to green or gold, unless they roll out some additional benefit that makes continuing to shell out $575 ($450 primary, and 2 AU's) for the card.

Count me as one who won't renew at the end of my current period. The domestic companion ticket program was the only reason I joined.

wow
 

wow - this sucks. i only got to use it once. bye bye platinum card..

However if you are flying at the last minute and there are no discounted F or J seats available then the 241 can be a viable option.

I agree with most above. First of all, this program was fairly short-lived, didn't they just introduce it a year or so ago?

I have used the domestic companion program several times for great deals - the best being when United quoted me in the neighborhood of $470/person for IAD-SFO over a random weekend for a wedding, and the domestic companion program got us BOTH tickets for $420 total, all-in.

I also agree that the international companion program is almost completely worthless. I've never had them quote me flights that were anywhere near the price of simply paying for two business tickets directly from the the airline, much less a consolidator.

$500 a year for two cards is getting harder and harder to justify.

Can we cancel our Plat membership right away then?
I upgraded my Gold card to Plat last week and I didn't even receive it !

I'll wait until we hear from Amex
 

I think something like this should be communicated to us (mail, e-mail, something) pretty soon. If not I'll be a bit disappointed.

If anything, this may be a good reason to argue out of my fee. I haven't looked into it but is this deal included in the terms? Maybe something about bait/switch here.

Anyway, like I said, hopefully we'll hear from Amex soon.

this was the best part of the card as far as recouping the annual fee.

You cannot use this program for the last minute travel It requires 14 days advance booking.

I am surprised that Amex did not notify cardmembers. Don't they have to give us 60 day notice?

This program cancellation really dilutes the benefits of the platinum card. I will have to re-think if I will renew my card then.

Actually, it was 7 day advance booking. They have already removed the FAQ, which is where it previously stated the 7 days. However, in the "Booking A Reservation" tab at https://www143.americanexpress.com/c...ompairfareprog it still states, "at least seven (7) days prior to your departure date."

This change is a problem for me. It was the benefit that I used to justify the annual fee. The other crap is fairly worthless ("purchase price protection", etc.) The second most valuable benefit is club access. We fly AA 99.9% of the time, Continental once in a blue moon, and Delta/NW exactly never. Club access is nice, but hmmm... not sure it's worth this much.

Unfortunately, I've had the card for a whopping one month and likely would not have gotten it had I known the benefit would be canceled. I may see if I can "unwind" this.

Regards.

Thanks for correcting me scubadu

Have they made the same changes to the CENTURION card??