In my past attempts at Amex Platinum Charge retention offers, some being successful and others not, my calls were picked-up in Manilla. It seemed to me that the information being provided was already indicated on their computer as the response was instantaneous. I got the impression that the Call Centre people were not decision makers, but just provided a robotic response, reading from the screen. They seemed to have no authority to make offers. However, others may have a different view on this.
I once asked "Did the computer say 'No' ", and it was confirmed as "Yes" (the computer said 'No'). After that, I ended up cancelling the card anyway, as I could see no real benefit in continuing to hold it. This was about 12 months after the devaluation.
There is a report or two about escalation with a good result, but whether that was due to incompetence/mis-understanding during the initial response, who knows?
Edited (to provide additional information)
So another interesting experience I had - I decided to call Amex via the number on the back of my card. Got put through to Manila.
Had a chat to the agent about my annual fee that just got posted, and whether she coudl waive any of the fees. She went away, then came back a few mins later and said she couldn't. She also said there were no additional offers on my card.
Sensning I was getting no where, I said "oh that's ok, maybe I'll call back to retention"
She then said to me, oh are you thinking of taking your business elsewhere?
I then spoke a a bit about me not being in Aus atm blah blah blah (I'm living in SEA atm) - and she then again asked "so does that mean you're thinking of cancelling"
To which I then replied - yeah I guess so.This set her off to put me on hold again to "check" if they could do anything - and sure enough she came back and said "If you keep your card for another 12m, we'll give you 200k points, how about that sir?" (she also said they'd be posted in ~3 biz days so will let you guys know)
To which I replied casually "sure, why not, thanks"
Seems that it's massively luck of the draw / agent's mood / how nice you are / mercury is in retrograde?
I have had Amex's for some years - i think my charge, reserve and plat edge are all "5 years old" almost - that may have been a part of this?
Happy hunting!