centurion gives status not Platinun amex(only SPG Gold)

family member ran into something similar
 

it sounds like the new company wants to be the point controllers so what you might suggest once there a while is something like this:

if you can prove that your way of getting tickets, earning and maintaining status, and flying so that you earn miles or use some of them all year can somehow be beneficial to their bottom line, they may eventually allow you to do it. maybe you offer some awards to others or help them do it your way over time. If you can help offset some costs of what things WOULD have been if you used AA instead of the cheapest flight, this may help persuade them too. I dont know exactly how but my thinking is along the lines that you should present yourself to them as a sort of travel guru who knows the long term result of your methods are far more valluable for the entire company money-wise.

If something like that works, and you present your case nicely enough, you may be able to stick with what you are already doing!

Good luck!
:)MM

One thought
 

Northwest allows status upgrades domestically on award tickets.

For the standard award tickets, that's a Gold/Platinum benefit only. For rulebuster tickets Silvers can upgrade as well.

Oh, I beg to differ a bit here. A couple of months after getting my Amex Platinum Card, HHonors sent me a comp HHonors Gold membership and a 50K bonus after 4 stays. This also happend a couple of years ago when I got the Amex Starwood Platinum Card. Since this happend in 2002 and 2004, I would expect it to continue into 2005. Don't count Amex Platinum out yet, it could be a savior in the long run.

Also, LewDog, to further what Marathon Man was writing above, don't try and challenge your travel agnecy or travel department at your company too soon. These people do this for a living and feel they know more than you do about travel. You may want to mention it to your boss, when he's in a good mood and AFTER you have proven yourself on the job and they like you. I say this becasue I worked for two corps in the past, Ingersoll-Rand and Tyco, both of which had travel departments and both used AMEX Travel as well. In both cases, I could always beat what they booked for me. I mentioned it to my boss at Tyco a couple of years back when I had to travel to LAX every week for 15 months. Once, when our travel department failed to book my travel, he let me do it myself and I saved almost 50% from what had been booked for me previously. From then on he let me book my own travel becasue it only took me a few minutes online and I could put it on my Amex Corp Card for reimbursement later. He said he'd take the heat if anyone from the Travel Dept. complained... I never heard any more about it and he let me book my own weekly travel from then on for the last 9 months of that 15-month assignment.

Marathon Man's comments are very good, but don't crow too loadly about your travel prowess. You may want to say something along the lines of, "Boss, if I could save you thousands of dollars over the course of the year by booking my own travel, and it would'nt take me very much time or hurt my job performance, would you let me do it?" That's almost exactly what I said/did. If a travel dept or agency knew that they could fly someone internationally by purchasing a coach ticket and using the travelers 50K miles for the upgrade, they would'nt be spending $8K on a Business Class seats too often. Fact is, they can't spend the extra few minutes it takes to figure that out, they're just looking for the fastest way to get you booked and move on to the next client, regardless of the cost in most cases.

Just my own experience, but you may be able to garner so insight from it.

CF

Thanks for the great advice. Indeed, I will want to keep my big frequent-flying mouth reasonably shut for a little while, especially considering the company's CFO is the person ultimately in charge of travel!

best, Lewis

don't lose sight of the goal
 

it's all about getting paid. if your salary stays the same (or increases modestly) and you're expected to travel substantially more under the conditions you've described then you are, effectively, taking a cut in compensation.

so--if you're looking at a substantial loss here then sort out a deal with your new management where you set your own travel conditions (while pledging to exercise good judgement with the firm's resources) or where you get paid more.

you shouldn't have to spend 1/3-1/2 of your work week in coach to get ahead.

also--look at carriers that have a better deal ... not every carrier uses revenue/booking class to upgrade you ... AS comes to mind here.

Sounds to me like the people setting the company's travel policies are not the ones traveling. Nothing but roach coach and Hampton Inns? My response to that proposal would involve the use of four-letter words.

The one case in which I'd make an exception would be a small, growing business in which I held (or had the opportunity to earn) a meaningful equity interest so that I'd have the chance to profit from their parsimony.

I'll confess I've become a real bear on this point lately. This isn't about snobbery, it's about quality of life. Many people wouldn't touch a traveling job with a ten-foot pole. When I talk to companies these days about job offers, travel policies are part of the questions I ask. Possibly, just maybe, if I really liked everything else about the company, I'd use this point to try and squeeze another 10k or so in salary out of them. How important are you to them?

Also worth considering is, if the company is small (< 100ppl or so), this policy may not be that deeply-embedded that you couldn't soften it up a little once on the inside.

-cwk.

Centurion
 

If the company has such substantial business with AmEx as to earn a lot of MR points, perhaps they can assist you in qualifying for a Centurion. And perhaps you can get the company to pay the $2,500 annual fee as part of your compensation package.

With Centurion you will get CO Gold, Delta Gold and US Airways Gold status (and I've heard rumours that if US Air goes under, they will find another Star Alliance carrier to replace them). You also get Starwood Platinum, Priority Club Platinum / IC Ambassador, Hilton Honors Gold and Hyatt Gold, plus Avis President's Club and Hertz priveliges (triple upgrades).

There is a no-fee Merrill Lynch VISA that some people are keen on because you can earn some free nights in Ritz-Carlton each year, but it doesn't earn airline status. Search the AmEx forum for a thread that was going there a month or two back. I got the card but haven't used it to qualify for perks yet.

Depending on where you will be travelling, the Priority Pass might be useful but I would check first to see if they have lounges that cover your frequent routes. With increased security in airports, it can sometimes be difficult to reach a PP lounge to which you have access if your flight is from another terminal or concourse. But if you know where you'll be flying to/from most often and with which airline, you could check this out ahead of time.

AmEx Platinum gives you access to the CO, DL and NW lounges when traveling on those carriers regardless of your class of travel.

Susan

A "much smaller" company that has multiple offices? :confused:

Is this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? If so, I would think that they wouldn't be making you use reward points to book a flight. These people sound cheaper than Wal-Mart, which is not what I would call a career enhancement.

I think there's a big difference between spending a reasonable amount of money on travel and using reward points. Those points are intended for the business traveler as a reward for using that particular supplier (credit card company, airline, hotel chain, etc.)

It's not supposed to be a $-off rebate. I'm sure you are aware that if your empoyer uses reward points for business travel, a taxable event has occurred, kinda cutting into the "savings". :)

Besides, how far must this go? What if the employer said, "Well, we can see you've got an extra $1,000 in your checking account you're not making any use of; why don't you buy the airline ticket on the next trip? We're a small business and need your help". Blah!

I've worked for a small business before, and you know what we did when cash flow got so tight we couldn't make payroll? The directors (such as, ahem, a CFO) deferred their own paycheck by a few days until the requisite cash arrived. We didn't Wal-Martize ourselves with idiotic policies and shoo off good talent.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if this really is a good career move, it makes no sense that they would treat you worse than a zero-experience college grad intern.

Just thinking about Centurion makes my head swim - not for the cache or "cool factor" (is there any such thing anymore) but as you said, for the multiple-program status.

My fiance and I have only been with Amex for just under a year and we're not quite at the spending threshold for Centurion, but I am wondering if, as you suggested, Amex offers a corporate card equivalent - even unofficially. That would certainly be a nice benefit to have.

best, Lewis

Two offices.... theirs', and my home office (i.e. my house.)

Best, Lewis

i work for a small company with 5 offices. There are less than 50 people in the entire company. There are 2 west coast offices, 3 east coast offices, and one in new orleans.
on the plus side, our travel policy is good in that we can keep all of our miles and book with whomever we please. the negative side is that it must all be in economy class. even the long asia trips :(

Do you have any idea what percentage of your flights will be booked using Amex awards?

Since you will be travelling so much more in the new job, it is entirely possible that you might exceed the mileage that earned your current status on AA, even with the cheesy corporate Amex award usage policy. [I agree, don't rock the boat now. After you've proven yourself will be the time to ensure a disproportionate amount of the corporate "free" flights are not being dumped on you, and to point out how they can be used more cost-effectively elsewhere.]

Since you already seem to have an idea who is the low-cost carrier on your expected flight patterns, and it's not AA, now would be the time to seek a status comp on the predominant price-leading carrier, and to begin directing all your personal discretionary travel to that airline as well.

My guess here is that this business purchases substantially more than travel with their AMEX and receives enough points to cover all or virtually all of their flights. If this is the case, the OP will not have much success getting them to allow him to purchase tickets unless he can come up with alternative, better uses for the points. This may be possible, as it seems his flights will include a lot of back and forth from his home to the office, and these trips may be scheduled in advance to take advantage of deep discounts, and consolidated on whatever carrier might have the lowest fares on that route.

The OP seems to be most concerned with lack of status, because of lack of upgrade opportunities. Given that this job is a substantial upward move, with presumably substantially greater monetary compensation, I would suggest that the OP explore ways to get status and/or upgrades without purchasing tickets, by using some of the added monetary compensation.

1. Centurion card mentioned above. I would suggest that if it is worth it to him, he pay for this card out of his own pocket. I know that this will seem like heresy to some, but this way is certain to work, and doesn't involve walking into a new company and asking them to lay out a substantial amount of money before he proves himself.

2. Investigate opportunities to have status comped.

3. Look at opportunities to purchase status (often offered at this time of year).

4. If OP is close to million mile status on AA, look at ways to get miles without flying/doing personal flying to get over the top.

My assumption here is that the OP has done a maximum job of negotiating salary and terms/conditions of employment before starting the job. Since nothing has occurred yet to alter his employer's view of his worth, he has nothing more to negotiate with at this point. It would be fair, however, to set performance goals and rewards for achieving those goals in the future. Just my perspective as one who has done a lot of flying for a small company, and has also hired and supervised others who did so.