Amex D-Day Approaching (14/4/19)!

[MathNerd]

Yes, you read right, it is now officially only one (yes, ONE) month before one of the biggest hits ever to have graced the CC landscape... AmEx halving the value of their MR program.
For those that have been offered a doubling of points balances, read no further
For the rest of us, this month is crucial. Every dollar spent will be scrutinised, trying to extract as much ancillary value out of it.
The party's volume is about to be seriously reduced, and I for one am keen to keep on dancing.
How are you going to make the most of the music while it's still playing?
I, for one, will definitely be solving a lot of maths equations.

 

[casanovawa]

Yep I closed my Explorer already and have my Platinum Edge still open for the year (annual fee in Feb) so will spend up on that as much as possible before the cuts and then transfer my 120k+ points to Asia Miles I guess... Although looking at that site i find it a pain in the cough that when you want to check out a redemption it seems like they will give the required miles total but you have to contact them to find out the taxes etc... Does anyone know how to get that stuff to show up without calling or talking to someone???

Else I'll just transfer to my Krisflyer account... Then will just see how the rest of the year pans out and whether I shut the Platinum Edge down also...

 

[Revolutionary String]

I always had the Essential card open for the offers and no annual fee, although not completely sure whether I'll be keeping my Explorer card moving forward.

While the Explorer has some neat perks (and the credit technically offsets the AF), it's still a "travelling" card which attracts a Forex fee. It would be nice if this were to change (e.g, the higher-end cards lose the Forex fee).

 

[lobo76]

I think I'll be cancelling my Amex. I've already transferred all my points to Velocity (have almost half a million there now) which I'll be using up this year on flight redemptions I think... it seems that the value of rewards programs have now been eroded so much there's hardly any reason to keep going.

 

[opusman]

It's clear that for the foreseeable future sign-on bonuses are where the value is going to be. So the sooner you cancel your Amex the sooner you can get it back again with the juicy bonus

 

[Deleted member]

I will be cancelling mine at the end of the month, tired of the misinformation and untruths told to me by the so called service team.

 

[JohnK]

AmEx halving the value of their MR program.
For those that have been offered a doubling of points balances, read no further

I think that date will be crucial to many people going forward with the earn rate effectively halving.

 

[daft009]

I'm hoping there is a KF bonus that gets announced before D day

 

[SOPOOR]

I must be the only one, but im heading towards:
keeping both cards,
I get 1ppd for explorer transferred to kris,
I get 1.5ppd for edge for groceries etc. (but ive already prepaid 1 years worth of wish gift cards)
my visa gets 1ppd in qantas but I prefer kris so keep and use explorer, where there is no surcharge

having even 1 card excludes me from other amex signup bonus anyway

im naively thinking that maybe a woolworths gift card bonus eg 1000-2000 pts for only1 visa or similar will come around a few times a year,
I will absolutely smash the offer, and it will be worth having the edge
combined with any statement credits, supp cards and shop small will hopefully offset the annual fee

 

[Ken1]

Yep I closed my Explorer already and have my Platinum Edge still open for the year (annual fee in Feb) so will spend up on that as much as possible before the cuts and then transfer my 120k+ points to Asia Miles I guess... Although looking at that site i find it a pain in the cough that when you want to check out a redemption it seems like they will give the required miles total but you have to contact them to find out the taxes etc... Does anyone know how to get that stuff to show up without calling or talking to someone???

Last September I booked to fly with BA ZRH-LHR-SYD with Asia Miles for 90,000 points each compared with 139,000 points if the same flights were booked with QFF. I wanted to find out the cost of the taxes & charges before I transferred points from Amex to Asia Miles so I phoned them. However I was given an incorrect amount for the taxes - higher than the amount turned out to be. I initially transferred 5,000 points from Amex to see how long it would take to arrive in my AM account before transferring the rest to have the required 180,000 points needed.

Once I had the 180,000 points in the account I could then see the amount of taxes & charges before I booked and I was logging in each day for a few days before the date we needed was released to check that J seats were being released daily. The amount of taxes worked out to be close (within a couple of dollars) to the amount QFF would have charged for the same BA flights if I had booked through them, after converting from HKD to AUD.

 

[JinbaIttai]

I must be the only one, but im heading towards:
keeping both cards,
I get 1ppd for explorer transferred to kris,
I get 1.5ppd for edge for groceries etc.

You're not the only one.

For points earn I don't believe anything beats the Explorer/Edge combo, even after the "enhancement" - which of course is exactly why they're doing it.

 

[Wello]

This month for me is to maximise spending within budgets. Only grocery shopping at local Coles where I am local champion so getting 4 points per dollar with Platnium Edge. Need some new furniture so have been looking and ready to make purchase on Explorer and purchasing Woolworths e cards at 5% off on Platnium Edge. The week before DDay I will make sure I purchase anything early in the week to make sure points land on time. All points will than be sent to KF.

 

[Haplo]

I am one of those who received a doubling offer but affected by the reduction of points earned on restaurant/travel/overseas on the charge and groceries on the edge. Fair to say not happy with the change as I spend a lot of FX and travel on the card and the earn rate will be (almost) halved after D Day.

Will move to a no conversion fee card as the 3% conversion fee is no longer worth the points.

 

[LadyC]

Still planning on keeping both my Explorer and Edge at this point. Although less than I would like, it is still a better SQ earner than elsewhere. I can keep churning the QFF cards to keep both pots topped up. Looking to prepay some expenses this month where possible though!

 

[Saltywings]

Keeping both my cards. As people have said, Amex have smartly engineered it so that they go from being well-ahead in 1st place to just slightly ahead...still in 1st place with respect to points earn.

Cheeky.

A certain fire-breathing card to handle all non-Amex expenses and Coles MC for the FX-free o/s stints.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

I am one of those who received a doubling offer but affected by the reduction of points earned on restaurant/travel/overseas on the charge and groceries on the edge. Fair to say not happy with the change as I spend a lot of FX and travel on the card and the earn rate will be (almost) halved after D Day.

Will move to a no conversion fee card as the 3% conversion fee is no longer worth the points.

I'm a 2x person as well. Looking at the 28 Degrees for 3 months in Europe at the end of the year but the Qantas Premier Mastercard remains at 1.5 FFP/$

 

[MathNerd]

Thanks everyone, great insights.
I'm also in the same camp as a lot of you, there's no better combo than the Explorer/Edge for earning KF in Australia. Whilst the earning potential has been halved, the combo is still the best earner that I can see, especially since I'm not too interested in QF and VA programs (they're too status-based for my liking).

So as far as I've got my eye on SQ redemptions, it looks like AmEx can't be beaten.

 

[hossein_au]

Thanks everyone, great insights.
I'm also in the same camp as a lot of you, there's no better combo than the Explorer/Edge for earning KF in Australia. Whilst the earning potential has been halved, the combo is still the best earner that I can see, especially since I'm not too interested in QF and VA programs (they're too status-based for my liking).

So as far as I've got my eye on SQ redemptions, it looks like AmEx can't be beaten.

Isn't the best combo, Plat/Edge (post D-Day)?

 

[andye]

Isn't the best combo, Plat/Edge (post D-Day)?

Well technically its Cent/Edge
Value extracted from annual fee (which encompasses overall spend) will mean it varies from person to person

 

[Renato1]

As I don't know of any card that currently gives me 1.5 points per dollar on grocery shopping, and as my Platinum Edge card is effectively free given the Travel Credit, I'll be holding on to it and collecting 1.5 current points per dollar at grocery stores. Though I'll get better value from my Qantas Money Mastercard or Jetstar Mastercard anywhere where my Platinum Edge card currently only earns a point a dollar, as that will become effectively half a point per dollar.

I've been using up my Member Reward points booking hotel rooms for this year's trip. I had a stroke of luck the other night, when I'd accumulated enough points to book another room for a night in Lisbon. I cancelled my 7 night booking in Lisbon, bought the first night with the Member Reward points at about the same price as Booking.com had for it, then rebooked the remaining 6 nights at the same hotel at Booking.com. There was some Genius discount going on that day, and I saved around $200 on the last six nights relative to my previous booking. I most probably wouldn't have checked, had I not been trying to use the Member Reward points up.
Regards,
Renato