grantsi

I did - but so far i've had no luck. I had turned the device off when i took it from my daughter.

jsk1973

That's interesting. It sounds like the person who has it hasn't even turned it on or did so and immediately turned off the WiFi. Did you send a message to the lock screen?

mia

Discussion here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...ost-items.html

Madone59

Max value $750?! Depending on where you live this benefit can actually be with $1,200..OR MORE!

I live less than 2 hours from several $500 courses, and 30 minutes to a $250 course. If you live in the right spot this benefit can be a real serious perk.

steve4

Does anyone know if the $200 AMEX Airfare credit would go away once all the planned Centurion lounges are up and running ? AMEX started the airfare credit once they lost access to the various airline lounges, but at that time Citi Chairman (now Prestige) did not offer a similar credit. Now both are competing head to head, so it would make more sense to keep the annual credit even after the Centurion lounges are all built.

eajusa

The Centurion lounges are few and far between. Amex will never establish enough lounges to justify getting rid of the $200 reimbursement.

mia

At some point American Express will increase the Platinum card annual fee by about $200 or eliminate the Airline Fee Reimbursement benefit, and Citi will jump at the opportunity to do the same. This is Citi's third attempt to compete with Platinum, and unless they enroll hundreds of thousands of customers who do not use the benefits it will end the same way.

jsk1973

Raise the AF by $200 in this CC environment, and after the Plat's benefits have been reduced? Hard to see that happening anytime soon, especially without Citi doing so first.

mia

The environment in which Chase and Citi followed American Express's lead by offering Airline Fee Reimbursements, and again followed American Express's lead in restricting card churning? This benefit takes the profit out of the segment. The others will promptly follow if American Express eliminates or offsets it with a price increase. Today we have the opportunity to have two $450 cards for less than $500. This too shall pass.

jsk1973

If Amex eliminates it, the others will have a chance to poach disgruntled Amex customers.

With all of the negativity surrounding Amex these days — some deserved, some not — it's almost impossible to believe Amex would raise the effective price of holding their flagship card by $200 per year. They're still giving the card, plus a 100,000-point sign-up bonus, to people making $50,000 per year, from what I've seen around the 'net. If they're really worried about profitability, they'd start by tightening underwriting and/or reducing sign-up bonuses.

All of the above aside, with swipe fees being what they are, Amex probably breaks even or better if the average Plat cardholder charges even $20,000 per year to the card, even with the $200 airline benefit. And I'm guessing the average is a multiple of $20,000, if not several multiples.

steve4

If that unfortunate day comes, a number of people who carry both cards (myself included) may end up cancelling both and go a la carte when it comes to accessing the lounges. No point in paying $900 a year if I can access lounges for $27 - $50 per visit (even less with lounge passes available through ebay). Even frequent travelers may benefit from a la carte access. AMEX, Chase, and Citi should be aware of this.

jediwho

I doubt they would do this in the next two or three years. Amex is losing market share across the board. By that I mean, number of swipes, dollar volume, JD Power ranking (Discover is now #1), etc. With Costco now a Visa platform, those numbers are going to look worse for Amex for at least two more years. For premium cards, Prestige is breathing down Platinum's neck. You also have Ritz Carlton (which is much more impressive than Plat or Prestige), Palladium, etc. To top it all, after four or five years, they are still #3 in prepaid card. Quite sad if you ask me that they haven't been able to gain traction in one thing.

Amex has a long road ahead before they have the guts and confidence to take any risk such as increasing fees for Platinum. The effective lower fees have helped Amex add new members at almost 5% annual clip for almost six years now.

gsxsilver

With the lowered fee, does the 50k bonus thank you points still apply?

bigbuy

It did with me last June.
Actually it was 30/60k with a higher spend to get the 60k

jediwho

Yes, the bonus points have nothing to do with low AF. The lowered AF is essentially Citi giving you $100 for doing banking business with them (usually Gold level) and not just being a credit card customer.