ojala

Amex doesn't seem to know themselves how the 75% works.

What happens if you spend frequent flyer miles on a ticket and pay the remaining taxes and charges on Amex. Is that 100% or is that something else.

Sometimes you pay the accommodation when you check out and American Express is not the most accepted card in the world. Bad luck with the accommodation and the total can easily drop below 75% even if you bought the flight with Amex.

Amex has managed to kill the premium image for the card with a single strike. I know at least a dozen fellow card holders who are about to cancel their card.

TTL

Report all your credit card numbers to the service provider. Loose your wallet after having had one too many and get all your cards cancelled just by one phone call.

But what if your wife just had confiscated your wallet and went to sleep to another room? Or if you have just misplaced one of your cards?

remymartin

stop service is as described above.

The key chain thing is an anonymous key chain which you attach to your keys, and if lost and found by someone else, the finder gets some cash and you get your keys anonymously. I think it's a rather good idea.

HHonours, not sure if the two incidents are connected. I've found that HH points are lost when Hilton decides to lose them. Some people have lost millions of points, eek!

My HHonours card was renewed and as I didn't have enough stays to qualify as a *blue*. I haven't used my card since...

remymartin

Agree 100%

BTW, I just found out what you meant with the phone calls - 30 numbers to get to talk to an agent, incredible!!

I talked to a very nice agent. When I asked what happens when a hotel doesn't accept AMEX she replied (very nicely) "we've been instructed to say book hotels that accept amex"!

vulle

Got an e-mail from Amex, with no answers regarding tickets bought with frequent flier miles when taxes are paid with Amex... Instead they recommended that I contact the insurance provider myself!

I sent a quick response with unanswered questions and wrote that I expect to be contacted instead, either by the insurance company or by Amex... Let's see if it takes another five weeks.

I was also told that the reason for this enhancement is to make people use Amex more, and anyway that Amex Plat is so much more than just a credit card with insurance.

Amex hasn't made my any happier today anyway. I am in NYC at the moment and have been doing little shopping (not much). My card was then declined at Macy's with a purchase of ~250 USD. I had to call Amex in Finland to clear out this mess as they didn't think that they should call me if they have suspicions of card fraud...

Why oh why is there no other prestige credit card in Finland... /Rant off

sakari1707

Have now received an further e-mail from Amex explaining that:
- if hotel does not accept Amex, and thus not paid by Amex, insurance is not valid
- for car rental insurance to be valid, 75% of rental fee needs to be paid with Amex in addition to 75% of the flight and hotel, if one of these are not fullfilled, insurance is not valid
- if you take a cruise less than 24 hours, insurance is not valid
- if you pay by air miles, insurance not valid unless 75% of those points are transferred from Amex MR-points (+ there has to be that Amex paid hotel)
- Amex is not going to lower the annual fee, it will remain 550 euros

Just got a new Nordea (bank) MasterCard Gold that has an insurance valid abroad always when I travel without needing to pay anything with that card. Although some of the benefits on that insurance are not as good, they are still very good. And the card costs me nothing!

WilcoRoger

I totally forgot that I have this card (as it is non-point earning anywhere, it's been in the drawer for a long time) and that it has insurance. Should look into it again. Though a normal travel insurance is very-very cheap if it is part of your home insurance, so I haven't paid much attention to those provided by CCs.

vulle

How strange... I was told yesterday that if I pay with frequent flier miles the insurance is valid if at least 75 % of flight taxes and other charges are paid with Amex. So the answer I got is totally diffrent from the answer you got.

sakari1707

The use of reward miles was not on the e-mail I got yesterday, but about 3 weeks ago they said they need to be transferred from Amex MR.... Go figure?

Today they sent yet another e-mail saying their earlier info on car rentals was false... If you rent a car and 75% of it is paid with Amex, the car part of the insurance is valid even if no flights or hotels are involved, but I presume only the car part.

Anselmi

This is exactly the same answer I got on phone. If you have transferred your MR points e.g. to BA or AY and pay with miles, 75 % is counted of points you have converted within validity of miles. I thought this was clear but unfortunately no. We need to have a solved case reference from the insurance company.

Any good ideas where to transfer my CCs? I would like to continue earning points but with better benefits. UK?

WilcoRoger

In Finland I would stick to AX. In UK you have a bunch of other options, including AX as well. Unfortunately they all require UK residence

EDIT: I just looked up the Nordea MC Gold insurance terms - not bad at all. They even have a Purchase Insurance, which can be very useful - and all this without any fees! ^

http://www.nordea.fi/Henkil%C3%B6asi...et/997442.html

ojala

Nordea MC Gold looks pretty standard in it terms. Ålandsbanken seems to have the best terms in their premium cards.

But has anyone found any alternatives (in Finland) for the Amex Plat rental car coverage?

WilcoRoger

Sorry to bring up this old thread, didn't want to start a new one.

Until the end of June AMEX Finland offers 30% bonus on MR transfer to BAEC Avios, so the original 5:4 ration goes 5:5,2

I'll probably transfer a chunk, a these rates it's about 1,3 Avios/euro spent

remymartin

Definitely an interesting offer. As I haven't transferred anything yet and don't have status with BAEC what's a good chunk to start with? Also, I'm gutted by the fact that I won't get points when using points..

kauppias

I wonder how many cancelled their amex cards due to the insurance? I did