Platinum Charge card and 75k bonus - any flaws in my logic?

[Febs]

Hi all,

As someone who's had Platinum and Gold CC's for years but never paid a cent in fees or interest, I never thought I'd consider spending anywhere near $900 on an annual card fee, but I'm currently in need of some QFF points and the 75,000 bonus points would push me just over the magical mark.

While $900 is an awful lot to spend on an annual card fee, the way I see it is:

- I'm aiming for 280,000pts for 2 x Award Explorers in Y (or 285k if I need to do it over the phone, which is likely)
- These almost translate to LONE4s, at ~$4,200/each
- Subtract the taxes (say approx $300 x 2) which you need to pay on the Award Explorers, and that means the 285k points are worth roughly $7,800, or $0.0273/pt.
- 75,000pts for $900 values the points @ $0.012/pt, so in effect I'm paying 1.2c per point, but getting 2.73c per point in value.
- Then of course, there's the other benefits like the Platinum Concierge, Priority Pass, bonus flight and Reserve credit card etc..

It's late and I'm tired, so if anyone sees any flaws in my logic, please let me know! Similarly, if there's any other way you guys can recommend getting ~70,000pts within 2 months (with no travel), I'm all ears. The only way I can think of is by combining a number of other bonus point offers available at the moment, which obviously has its disadvantages.

I have nothing against using QFF pts for 1 x Award Explorer and paying for one LONE4 (which is what we did for our holiday this year, and it worked very well), but if we can spend $900 upfront instead of ~$4,200, why not!?

Also, has anyone had any luck negotiating a discounted fee as a new Plat charge card customer? I've put approx $240k through a green charge card over the past 5 years, and have had a few Amex CC's as well, always paid off in full.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[nlagalle]

I have the Plat charge card and won't give it up soon.. I sat down and worked it out and you get the $900 out of it. having said that they did knock 50% off it this year as i rang and wanted to cancel .

I'd go for it, remembering that you won't pay an annual fee for your green amex or reserve charge. Ascent Premium is also free.

And you will get the travel insurance too!

Cheers,

Nick

 

[Keith009]

Your logic is perfect. Go for it!

Also hate to say it, but I told you so.

Save yourself $751/year and get the AMEX Platinum Edge then? Or are you gunning for a Centurion invite?

Surely you don't want the Plat Charge for the SPG Gold membership.

Actually it's only a $301 saving. The travel insurance on the Edge is also far inferior to the Charge - annual insurance for both myself and my partner more than covers the annual fee (even if I had to pay the full $900) and what we're getting with AMEX is heaps better than what we were on before.

And I prefer any charge card to any credit card, especially when it comes to business spend.

I think the Plat Charge is worth it even if I have to pay the full $900, especially as the free insurance offered is better than the one work pays for. I've yet to receive any bonus points offers though. Oh well, can't have it all I guess.

 

[simongr]

The only flaw I could see would be award availability - so it is not a sure thing that your points value is guaranteed.

Also factor in your saving on travel insurance.

 

[Febs]

The only flaw I could see would be award availability - so it is not a sure thing that your points value is guaranteed.

True, but we'll be booking 11-12 months out and are willing to be flexible (in fact, we don't even know where we want to go yet! Anyone know the best way to get to Male/Maldives on OW?)

I've used Award Explorers for the past 2 years and have found availability decent, even when returning via the US (WP certainly helps).

Also factor in your saving on travel insurance.

I'll need to look into this. I've always taken out my work travel insurance (brilliant policy, I've claimed on it several times with no hassles) as it's only $132 for personal trips for myself and my fiancée, covering up to 6 months' travel. For $66 each and knowing how good they are with claims, it's hard to beat.

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[bossreggie]

Hi all,

It's late and I'm tired, so if anyone sees any flaws in my logic, please let me know! Similarly, if there's any other way you guys can recommend getting ~70,000pts within 2 months (with no travel), I'm all ears.

Well.... You could get yourself a luxury car dealership and pay for ALL the VICROADS Registration/Stamp Duty fees on your VISA which will get you between 100K - 200K points every single month!

 

[Febs]

Also hate to say it, but I told you so.

Haha, yes you did. Under these circumstances it seems like the best way, but I probably wouldn't pay $900 for the 2nd year. The benefits are good, but not $900 good IMO (considering that for me, the travel insurance saving is only $132, the Priority Pass I'd rarely use, the Earth Platinum concierge is excellent and already free, etc...)

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[gibspmuh]

Anyone know the best way to get to Male/Maldives on OW?

Unfortunately the only OW flight to Male is BA from Gatwick - so not the most convinient option. That being said, Singapore Airlines has good availability to Male from Singapore (they certainly did when I flew anyway) - so you could have an open sector between Singapore and Male and carry on from there on your Award Explorer. Otherwise I hear AirAsia is starting up flights to Male too if you want to do it cheap! :shock:

 

[Febs]

Unfortunately the only OW flight to Male is BA from Gatwick - so not the most convinient option. That being said, Singapore Airlines has good availability to Male from Singapore (they certainly did when I flew anyway) - so you could have an open sector between Singapore and Male and carry on from there on your Award Explorer. Otherwise I hear AirAsia is starting up flights to Male too if you want to do it cheap! :shock:

Thanks! Just read about those Gatwick flights. SIN-Male could be an option if the fares are reasonable (then onto Gatwick on BA).

Would happily take Air Asia option for shorter flights (we're going to Langkawi on the same trip and will fly them KUL-LGK). Flew them to LGK recently and they were great, though I wouldn't want to experience that seat pitch for more than an hour or two...

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[gibspmuh]

SIN-Male could be an option if the fares are reasonable (then onto Gatwick on BA).

I'd recommend a Krisflyer redemption rather than paying for the flight - it's only 20,000 points per person one way (less 15% if booked online). The joys of Membership Rewards makes it easy to get the points over to Krisflyer as well, only takes a 2-3 days usually in my experience. I guess the only downside is finding the additional points on top of the points you already need for the Explorer award.

 

[serfty]

The only flaw I could see would be award availability - so it is not a sure thing that your points value is guaranteed. ...

Of course, there is the minimum value in that 75K MR points can be used to redeem $750 worth of travel with Amex Travel.

Of course, there's easily a lot more value that can be had than that.

 

[kpc]

I'm too thinking about signing up for the charge card esp with the bonus 75K pts (currently have Amex plat credit card). After the first year, I'm not sure the $900 annual fee is value for me as I get "free" travel insurance with my union membership. What happens to your points in the premium ascent program when you downgrade back to the standard plat credit card?

 

[JohnK]

- I'm aiming for 280,000pts for 2 x Award Explorers in Y (or 285k if I need to do it over the phone, which is likely)
- These almost translate to LONE4s, at ~$4,200/each
- Subtract the taxes (say approx $300 x 2) which you need to pay on the Award Explorers, and that means the 285k points are worth roughly $7,800, or $0.0273/pt.
- 75,000pts for $900 values the points @ $0.012/pt, so in effect I'm paying 1.2c per point, but getting 2.73c per point in value.
- Then of course, there's the other benefits like the Platinum Concierge, Priority Pass, bonus flight and Reserve credit card etc..

It's late and I'm tired, so if anyone sees any flaws in my logic, please let me know!

Your logic sounds great and I hate to spoil a logical statement with reality but....

The taxes on a Oneworld award would be more like $1,000 x 2 = $2,000 not the $600 you had factored in to the equation so if you value the 2 Oneworld awards at $8,400 the net value less taxes is $6,400 so the 285,000 QFF points are valued at $0.0225/QFF point. Still excellent value.

So in effect the 75,000 QFF points are valued at ~$1,680 which is more than the $900 cost of the Platinum charge card for the first year.