Old Jun 4, 2014, 6:39 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Artemio
Cornčrcard: Visa or Mastercard
- Gold (220.- annual fee, 0.50 miles / franc) - current promo: 20'000 miles sign-up bonus / until 31 oct 2016 link

- Classic (140.- annual fee, 0.50 miles / franc) - current promo: 10'000 miles sign-up bonus / until 31 May 2016 link

- Current promo: Early bird additional 10'000 miles bonus - until April 15 2016 link

Swisscard AECS: American Express + Mastercard
- Platinum Duo - American Express Platinum + Mastercard Gold (700.- annual fee, 1.2 mile / franc on Amex spend, 0.5 miles / franc on MC spend) - current promo: 20'000 miles sign-up bonus / 350.- 1st annual fee / until 15 March 2016

- Gold Duo - American Express Gold + Mastercard Gold (220.- annual fee, 0.75 miles / franc on Amex spend, 0.5 miles / franc on MC spend) - current promo: 15'000 miles sign-up bonus / 110.- 1st annual fee / until 15 March 2016

- Classic Duo - American Express Silver + Mastercard Silver (120.- annual fee, 0.625 miles / franc on Amex spend, 0.5 miles / franc on MC spend) - current promo: 20'000 miles sign-up bonus / 60.- 1st annual fee / until 30 sept 2017
other promo: 15'000 miles sign-up bonus / 60.- 1st annual fee / year around link here

Bonviva american express
- platinum (30’000 bonus miles, 480.- 1st y. fee, 1 mile / franc)
- gold (15'000 bonus miles, 240.- 1st y. fee, 0.75 mile / franc)
- classic (5'000 bonus miles, 90.- 1st y. fee, 0.50 mile / franc)
----not sure if I got this promotion right ????-------

Lufthansa Miles and More – possible as a swiss resident, open first a free DKB bank account, then apply for the LH miles and more creditcard. No current promotion, 1 mile / euro (= 0.9 miles / franc)

NEW from 01.11.16 cornercard miles and more (10'000 bonus miles, 250.-, 1 mile / fr.)

NEW # 2 Cornercard miles and more gold business (same conditions as the personal gold (220.-,....), but with 10'000 welcome bonus
Print Wikipost

List of credit card promotions for swiss residents (or CH bank account holders)

Old Apr 21, 2019, 4:11 am
  #121  
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To answer j2simpso, my signup process was difficult because they kept asking for extra information. I am not laying down a massive salary as a musician and much of my work is freelance (concerts here and there) and they wanted evidence of all of it. Additionally, they kept asking for ID things, not just the work permit, but passport, confirmation I am living where I am (Anmeldebestätigung). They have so much money, the Swiss, and they're so scared of losing any of it, even just a little bit.

As for the miles bonus not yet posting, I have to reach out to them. I just haven't had the time to write a letter yet (I did the whole thing in German even though I am living in the French speaking part).

i didn't know the Swiss M&M card was a separate entity, I thought what I have just applied for was the Miles & More thing in Switzerland. I don't think you can transfer miles between cards, but the thing is to just use one card or the other, in function of what your needs are. I like the German M&M card for several things, despite the mess that their CS and website was last year: it means I can pay things in Euros without any FX fees; I like the full casco car insurance for car rentals that comes with the card and I don't think the Swiss card has it; you get good offers and a decent earning rate for Hilton using the German M&M card.
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Old Apr 21, 2019, 12:37 pm
  #122  
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
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AmEx Platinum 100,000 mile offer?

Spotted on the AmEx Switzerland site 2 cards that may be relevant for travel:
  • AmEx Platinum Card
    • Annual Fee : 425 CHF 1st Year, 850 CHF following years
    • Sign up Bonus : 100,000 membership reward points which I believe can be transferred to Swiss
    • Earn one membership point per CHF spent
    • Access to 1,200+ lounges globally
    • Access to Fine Hotels and Resorts Program
    • Travel Insurance
  • AmEx Gold Card
    • Annual Fee : 1st Year Free then 300 per year CHF thereafter
    • 30,000 point sign up bonus
    • Earn one membership point per CHF spent
    • Access to 1,200+ lounges globally
The bonus offer for the Platinum card seems especially generous considering AmEx sign up offers tend to be 50-60K for that card. Also interesting to see lounge access on offer for even the Gold card. Outside Switzerland that is generally reserved for a Platinum card.

-James
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Old Apr 21, 2019, 2:34 pm
  #123  
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The thing is, the conditions for getting that Platinum card are probably going to exclude me. Otherwise, I would go for it without hesitation, and cancel before the second year. CHF425 maybe, but CHF850 Definitely not. I mean, where I came from, most credit cards are free. Reckon it's going to be hard to get it?
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Old Apr 21, 2019, 3:20 pm
  #124  
 
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Originally Posted by j2simpso
Would also be interested to hear what 30,000 M&M miles are worth these days?
About EUR 420 in my book.

Originally Posted by j2simpso
How does it compare to other CH/DE/AT credit cards in terms of sign up bonus and award mile accrual?
I think that is the best offer you will find for a Gold card in Switzerland (AECS Swisscard and Corner).

Originally Posted by j2simpso
For me (as a Canadian expat living in the UK) it seems a bit light.
In that case, I am not sure how easy it would be to apply for one of the M&M cards issues in Switzerland.

Originally Posted by j2simpso
Spotted on the AmEx Switzerland site 2 cards that may be relevant for travel:
  • AmEx Platinum Card
    • Annual Fee : 425 CHF 1st Year, 850 CHF following years
    • Sign up Bonus : 100,000 membership reward points which I believe can be transferred to Swiss
In Switzerland, the Amex Membership Rewards points to FFP miles ratio is 2:1 for most programs, including the transfer to M&M, so that makes only 50k miles, not 100k, as the title of your post suggests. See details on the Amex MR homepage for Switzerland (only for Avios, the rate is 3:2).

Last edited by goliath; Apr 21, 2019 at 3:26 pm
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Old Apr 21, 2019, 3:37 pm
  #125  
 
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I think you misread the site you are quoting.

Originally Posted by j2simpso
Upon further examination these are Creditcards and Diners Club cards issued by Corner Bank AG which come in three varieties:
  • Corner Card Miles & More Gold
    • Annual Fee : 110 CHF in first year, 220 CHF from second year onwards
    • Sign up bonus : 30,000 M&M award miles
    • Award Milage Earning : 1 award mile per CHF spent => 0.5 miles per CHF
  • Corner Card Miles & More Classic
    • Annual Fee : 70 CHF in first year, 140 CHF from second year onwards
    • Sign up bonus : 15,000 M&M award miles
    • Award Milage Earning : 1 award mile per CHF spent => 0.5 miles per CHF
  • Corner Card DinersClub
    • Annual Fee : 70 CHF in first year, 140 CHF from second year onwards
    • Sign up bonus : 15,000 M&M award miles
    • Award Milage Earning : 2 award miles per CHF spent => 1 mile per CHF
Looking at the application form you have tick whether you want the card to be issued as a Visa or Mastercard. I suspect the best option if you plan on putting a ton of franken on the card would be the Diners Club (either issued as Visa or Mastercard) => the Diners card is a separate card in addition to your Visa or MC (not "issued as...") since that earns 2 awards miles per CHF. => only 1 mile per CHF
Also, the "Gold" package for CHF 110/220 as well as the "Classic" package for CHF 70/140 already includes a Diners Card.
Plus you get a bonus for annual spend on every card (multiple times if you have both MC or Visa and Diners).
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Old Apr 21, 2019, 3:42 pm
  #126  
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
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Originally Posted by goliath
In Switzerland, the Amex Membership Rewards points to FFP miles ratio is 2:1 for most programs, including the transfer to M&M, so that makes only 50k miles, not 100k, as the title of your post suggests. See details on the Amex MR homepage for Switzerland (only for Avios, the rate is 3:2).
Yikes that's pretty awful. I couldn't find the conversion and assumed that it would be 1 for 1 as it is in Canada and the UK. In Canada we're looking at $1 CAD (0.76 CHF) spend earns between 1-3 AmEx points which converts 1:1 into BA Avios (OW) and AC Aeroplan (*A) or 1:0.75 for DL Skymiles (SkyTeam).

Originally Posted by Concerto
The thing is, the conditions for getting that Platinum card are probably going to exclude me. Otherwise, I would go for it without hesitation, and cancel before the second year. CHF425 maybe, but CHF850 Definitely not. I mean, where I came from, most credit cards are free. Reckon it's going to be hard to get it?
Cannot comment specifically on AmEx Switzerland but can share my experience as a Canadian expat now residing in the UK. In 2016 I applied for and was granted an Amex Gold card (I was 28 at the time). Last year and to this day I keep receiving offers to upgrade to the Platinum Card. When I moved to the UK last year to study I called AmEx and within 2 weeks they got me a UK AmEx Gold card no questions asked nor application form to fill out. I was thoroughly impressed.

As for which card to get I was thinking sign up for the first year to get the bonus 100,000 points then downgrade to the Gold. I suspect 300 CHF is not a bad price to pay just for the lounge access alone - looking at the Priority Pass website (one of their lounge partners) in ZRH alone they got 5 lounges:
  • Swiss Business Lounge in Zone D
  • PrimeClass Lounge in Zone E
  • DNATA Skyview Lounge in Zone B
  • Aspire Lounge in Zone E
  • Aspire Lounge in Zone B
An all you can eat Priority Pass membership is 399 EUR annually so this comes in well under that amount and offers more lounges I think.

One other thing that I should point out is that if you have status with LX you'll can the annual fee slashed:
  • Swiss M&M Platinum is 500 CHF/year for HON Circle Members
  • Swiss M&M Gold Plus is 0 CHF/year for Senators and above
  • Swiss M&M Classic Plus is 0 CHF/year for Frequent Travellers and above
Looking at the requirements to hit status with the LH Group I have to wonder why anyone would want to accrue status with them. Senator Status requires 100,000 miles? Really? Over at UA I get their equivalent of Senator status for half that on virtually any fare across the *A network (except Light/Basic Economy fares which only earn 50% miles).

-James
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Old Apr 21, 2019, 3:50 pm
  #127  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
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You are mixing up a lot of things (and topics) in your post.

The Amex cards you mention up-thread (the ones with MR sign-up bonusses) do not get discounted with M&M status, only the M&M Amex cards (the ones earning M&M directly at a better ratio, issued by Swisscard AECS) do. @:-)

As far as your idea of simply signing up for one of these cards while residing in the UK as a Canadian expat - give it and try and report back.
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Old Apr 22, 2019, 3:35 am
  #128  
 
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Does the Alex plat (the 100k points promo card) also come with a travel voucher like it does in Germany?
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Old Apr 22, 2019, 5:34 am
  #129  
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Might still be worth it for one year for 50,000 miles, if that is what 100,000 MR points convert to. That's still a good rate for CHF425, and it would be interesting to have the card for a year and see how the numbers add up. After that, CHF850 is a bit steep, but that depends on what is included. I am a bit unclear about it all, because the posts above are a bit unfocused and I am not sure what you actually get for it all or if it is worth it.

Should I not get a discount as FTL for my Cornčrcard Classic, goliath? They charged me CHF140 for it (plus CHF1.50 for postage because I have still not had the time to set the card up online). See you Friday in Zurich, maybe?
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Old Apr 22, 2019, 5:48 am
  #130  
 
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Unfortunately no discount for the Corner M&M Classic cards as FTL (still CHF 140), free for SEN/HON only. However, the Corner M&M Gold cards would be discounted as FTL (CHF 140 instead of CHF 220).

Yes, I plan to be there on Friday!
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Old May 27, 2019, 1:44 am
  #131  
 
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just saw it now but until the end of the month 20k miles new customer sign up bonus for the Classic card duo.
https://www.miles-and-more-cards.ch/...=Booster_Q2_19
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Old Jun 25, 2019, 7:57 am
  #132  
 
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just in case people don't care about the points, you can always get the cards with full price, along with a voucher of same amount.
remember that the voucher can be only used when you buy tickets worth 999+..... so no annual fee, but you need to buy flight (expensive one) once every year
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 3:15 pm
  #133  
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I finally got the 30,000 bonus miles for the Cornčrcard, in the promotion that lasted until end December last year. I had already had a credit of 5,000 miles, so I don't know what that was about. I had to push them with a little polite reminder letter in German.
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Old Oct 16, 2019, 11:37 am
  #134  
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
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Posts: 69
The Rewards Shop from American Express Switzerland does offer in a current promo a 1:1 conversion to Miles & More.

Promotion valid until 31.10.2019
  • Conversion: 1 Membership Rewards Point = 1 Miles & More Mile
  • Minimum: 1,000 Membership Rewards Points = 1,000 Miles & More Miles
https://rewardshop.americanexpress.c...ent&scroll=800

With the current 100'000 points offer for new Amex Platinum Holders (425 Fr. first year) a pretty good deal. But only if the points posts until the end of this month...
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Old Oct 18, 2019, 9:42 am
  #135  
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Oh dear, it's a bit on the late side to turn all that around and make a successful application and then convert the Membership Rewards Points. It's just a question of time, as usual. Are these conversion offers a regular thing, or is this a one off?

ETA - found the link. How long will it take to be processed? Is this feasible by the end of the month?

Last edited by Concerto; Oct 18, 2019 at 9:57 am Reason: further thought
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