I was just making a general commentary - that wasn't at all directed at you personally. I try to use all coupons also (I raised hell with AMEX a few years ago when my monthly Uber credits weren't working) and for the most part only use my Plat for airfare/FHR as well as international 1x spend (as I don't bother carrying a general use no-FTF product). My point was simply that the min-max mindset has gone absolutely bonkers when it leaks over into even something like trying to justify a $75k spend they're not coming anywhere close to hitting in order to save $50 on one-time passes a few times a year.

Maybe that wasn�t the intention, because the changes do nothing to motivate me to actually carry the Plat card in my wallet and use it for spend. I will put around $240 of automated charges for �entertainment� on it, but the physical card will remain in my travel wallet in the safe, only to come out when I head to the airport as a lounge access card.

Without making any commentary on the greater argument, note that the original point was "propensity to spend relative to income". Even using the numbers you provide, the entertainment spend relative to income is higher for the under-25 age than the 35-44 group.

Re-read my comment. Total spending by age group is different than propensity to spend relative to income (which is even noted earlier in the thread you're replying to). There are other comments in this thread from people complaining about Amex and Chase "being biased" towards specific groups WRT the new credit card changes. I think it is very apparent the changes Chase + Amex have brought to the market benefit a specific type of consumer over another.

Thank you lol.

Now Citi lets us transfer TY points to American Airline at 1:1 with the TY Premier card. This is far better than Chase's 1:1 to United and AmEx' 1:1 to Delta. One of the few reward programs that we can transfer to the large US airlines directly.

Both Citi and Cap1 will kick AmEx' butt with the new offering.... The City Premier only costs $95 and earns 3x on some common categories.

I take it the Entertainment credit takes a few days to appear?

Temporary for now (through mid-November), but still a nice option to have.

I think they want people to spend on it regardless of any earning structure. There are definitely people that fall into this camp though I doubt anyone knows how big this market is other than Amex does.

Armchair CEO is a real thing on FlyerTalk lol. I think it's one thing to criticize the company as a customer (ie "Hilton daily housekeeping eliminations sucks") and another thing to pretend to know better than the teams at these companies (i.e. "Chris Nassetta does not know what he's doing"). Oftentimes, it is the decisions that punish the over-optimizers (us lol) the most that benefits these companies the most. For example, the CSR no longer works for me as a card but I have no doubt in my mind that Chase knows exactly what they are doing with these changes.

I particularly think criticizing Amex is strange because they famously have a) top tier data science talent (like HFT level) b) some of the most comprehensive data sets in the world. I have full confidence in their ability to identify and successfully market to the most profitable customer base for them.

FWIW, I do not think that AMEX cares about spend relative to income. They should only care about total spend and that number, based on empirical evidence seems to generally grow until retirement.

It may be that AMEX is trying to lure younger folks who will keep their cards as their spending increases. That, of course, is just pure speculation on my part.

IMO: Amex cares about propensity (which is relative to income) to spend and they have gone out of their way to target people with a) a high propensity to spend b) high incomes. Entry level SWEs in SF and NYC are making ~$200K their first year out of college (https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Goog...are%20Engineer). Entry-level SWEs at HFTs are making even more (https://www.levels.fyi/company/Citad...ware-Engineer/). I think posting entry-level quant comp would be too inflammatory for this forum.

Ultimately the question is: what drives the higher propensity to spend for younger people? Is there something innate to being young that drives higher *relative* spending or is it simply a matter of younger people naturally having lower incomes.

If it's the former, Amex is obviously suited to target people that are young and working in jobs that have high starting salaries with very high career earning potential. Personally, that is why I think many (but obviously not all) of the perks Amex and Chase have introduced have been anchored around urban areas (which skew VHCOL and high income).

Also, tbh I personally believe the urban aspect matter more than the age aspect because older product leads, IB/PE/HF/whatever MDs definitely still have high spend.

Also, I think Chase targets the same demographic but for a completely different reason. Don't think Chase is just copying Amex to copy them lol. They are two very different companies issuing credit cards for completely different reasons

It is all about $$$ and AmEx does not even care what demographics they want to attract.

When AmEx announced the new changes, all of those partners were very happy. Their hyped stock prices (already IPO'ed) jumped. Goldman stated AmEx stock was going to jump. I laughed at that Goldman analyst. He certainly does not read FT.

AmEx gets little or almost no cost with offering Peackcock TV, NY Times, Equinox, Uber, Grubhub etc.... Yes AmEx wants to jack up the AF.....

When I called AmEx about canceling Platinum card, that analyst appeared to be very concerned. He knew exactly what I was talking about. All the new changes. It seems more people are cancelling the Plat card.

This is the International Airline Program (IAP), which required purchase of a Full Fare ticket to receive the companion ticket. IAP now offers discounts, which seem to be more useful to more people than the companion model: USA International Airline Program (IAP) relaunched as discount benefit (2017).

Since day one Platinum has offered what I call a laundry list of unrelated features. I do not expect this shotgun approach will ever change, because it's profitable.

Perhaps for the aspiring ultra-rich?

This is advertising. American Express is selling Uber, Saks, Clear, Equinox, Peacock, NYT, Hertz, Avis, National, Hilton, Marriott, etc access to offer cardholders a sample or discount.

The idea that people could view a credit card as a status symbol is laughable. Amex Centurion's spending requirement is doable even for small family businesses.

People hype up the JPM Reserve as the $10 million dollar card when they give out invites to people with less than $5 million invested with the firm (multiple data points for this in the fatFire travel telegram group).

In reality: UHNWs ($250m+ investable assets) have purchasing people to buy things for them.

Hopefully you didn't make the same mistake that I made, you need to enroll in the entertainment credit before you make your eligible purchase. I was not initially aware that enrollment was required, so I paid the idiot tax for the first month.