Concerto

goliath

The T&C regarding miles expiry are the same for all Cornèr M&M cards (and identical to all Swisscard AECS M&M cards as well).

Concerto

I am going to go for the Cornercard Gold which is currently offering 30,000 miles. When they ask for my M&M number, should I give the one shown on my German credit card, or should I give the original FTL M&M number before I got that card?

airoli

It doesn't matter, all M&M numbers ever created for your account are linked in the back-end.

LoungeLizzard

Is anyone else getting bothered by AECS about an "identity verification"?

They're claiming that they'll block my cards unless I verify my identity via whatever bureaucratic method.
The reason they give is that this is required by Swiss Law since Jan 2016, for everyone with a credit limit over CHF 20k per month.

My limit is nowhere near that, so I don't get their point, and it also appears somewhat unprofessional that it took them three years to notice what the law is.

goliath

Yes, I've had that happen as well - I believe I posted about it somewhere a while ago.

Video chat identification was quick and painless. Answer a couple of questions, hold your passport / ID into the camera, done.

airoli

Yes I also had that about 18 months ago. I did it at the post office.

Concerto

As for me, having applied for the Cornèrcard, they are asking for all sorts of justificatifs and extra info, including a Steuer Erklärung. Well, I haven't done a tax declaration in Switzerland yet so I will have to give them something else. Maybe a print out of bank accounts.

LoungeLizzard

Thanks for the replies.

I think that I'll wait and see. Not happy to do such bureaucratic nonsense.
Based on the explanation they gave, they have no grounds to block my cards, but of course they can do it anyway if they like.
I'll get at least some entertainment value out of it if they block them.
If they want to cancel my cards, then I can deal with that as well and use Cornèr for a while and then re-apply for AECS later on.

What's the minimum lapse time for AECS to qualify for the sign up bonus?

airoli

They really did block mine, as I also refused to comply with the silly paperwork initially. I eventually went through with it... but then cancelled the cards soon afterwards.

Cornercard was no less tedious though, they also wanted all sorts of paperwork from me before opening new cards.

What became of the good old "don't ask, don't tell" that Swiss banks were famous for?

YuropFlyer

Maybe ask the US gouvernment (well, not the current one - that hardly qualifies as one..) who basically forced Switzerland to go all "white money"?

While conveniently leaving out Delaware, several British islands, and other areas where all the US 1% have invested their money out..

FlyerTalker70

Apologies if advance if this is old news/discussed elsewhere but spotted this at the Geneva HB station yesterday and thought I'd share:




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
• 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
• 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

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) since that earns 2 awards miles per CHF. I cannot comment on any additional benefits since my Swiss German is poor. It also seems possible to pay the higher annual fee of the Gold card to get the additional 15,000 mile bonus although I'm not sure why you would go out of your way for something like that. Finally, the credit card can earn miles with Lufthansa Group programmes: LH, LX and OS.

Here's to hoping they don't add Senator access as a perk

Auf Widersehen,

James

Concerto

FlyerTalker70

What challenges did you encounter that others should be aware of? I hear the Swiss/Germans tend to be pedantic about things but would love to hear your experience with the application process.


Odd. Have you tried reaching out to the bank? IIRC the bank should automatically transfer the miles over to your FF account so the miles wouldn't be pooling in your account. I'd be concerned about whether the miles were lost.

Out of curiosity, why not sign up for a Swiss M&M card and get the miles transferred to there? Perhaps Swiss is less crazy with this. I'm unsure if you can transfer miles between M&M accounts (I'll let the peanut gallery comment on this one) but if you can then in theory you'd be able to take advantage of whatever benefits your status with LH gives you for award availability.

Also, at least you get a card every year! United has decided that their Golds and below no longer get a physical card with rumours swirling that this "enhancement" may hit the upper echelon of Platinum and 1K members. Fortunately, none of the Lounge Dragons at the LH lounge were fine just taking my boarding pass. However, it's still nice to have the ability to swipe a card at a Kiosk/Agent and have them pull up the reservation instead of having to read out a confirmation number like a kettle.

Safe Travels,

James

FlyerTalker70

Would also be interested to hear what 30,000 M&M miles are worth these days? Is that a great bonus? How does it compare to other CH/DE/AT credit cards in terms of sign up bonus and award mile accrual? For me (as a Canadian expat living in the UK) it seems a bit light. AmEx gives out 25,000 bonus points for anyone with a heart beat and those miles can be transferred to any number of airlines (not just the LH Group). Heck on my Canadian AmEx I'm earning 2 points per 0.76 CHF on purchases made on travel, gas, drugstore and grocery purchases and 1 point per 0.76 CHF everywhere else! They'll even give me 3 points per 0.76 CHF if I book hotel and car rental through them!

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