Amex "I'm going to cancel my card" - bonus points given thread.

[GCC]

Ultimate card. Rang and spoke to Australian CSA. Asked about retention offer and told as expected this couldn’t be done. Told her to go ahead with cancellation. When she confirmed “the card is cancelled” asked about any incentive to reinstate. Same response, offered the Discovery card and declined. Card member since 2018 - originally Plat Charge then ultimate for the past 3 years. Spend probably 10-15k per month over that time. Time to start the 18 month wait….

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Here's a new one. Called to downgrade from Ultimate to Discovery after the annual fee hit, because I didn't particularly want to pay the $450. Was offered 40K QFF to keep the Ultimate and not downgrade. Very unexpected and I was genuinely going to downgrade, so a nice surprise!

 

[Silvia]

Here's a new one. Called to downgrade from Ultimate to Discovery after the annual fee hit, because I didn't particularly want to pay the $450. Was offered 40K QFF to keep the Ultimate and not downgrade. Very unexpected and I was genuinely going to downgrade, so a nice surprise!

Thanks for the tip. I've had some issues with Amex today and I raised that I was going to cancel or downgrade. They offered 15k. I'm happy to take the points.

 

[Daver6]

QF Ultimate card. Did the dance on the phone. No points on offer. Lower interest rate or a downgrade offered. Landed up keeping the card and it's still of value to me.

 

[coriander]

QF Ultimate card. Did the dance on the phone. No points on offer. Lower interest rate or a downgrade offered.

I had the same conversation with Amex last week (member since 1988). Elected to downgrade to free Discovery (rep said I could upgrade again to Ultimate at any time without a new credit application) as my chances of flying are going to be remote going forward; I'm keeping my Explorer card, though, as I value Amex Rewards more than QFF points.

 

[bmcc]

New data point. After trying to resolve (unsuccessfully) some account issues with Amex AU over the past two months, I called to cancel my Plat Charge citing the ongoing issues.

Transferred to cancellations team, who fixed the issue within 5 minutes and deposited 200,000 MRs into my account as a goodwill gesture.

 

[foggy]

New data point. After trying to resolve (unsuccessfully) some account issues with Amex AU over the past two months, I called to cancel my Plat Charge citing the ongoing issues.

Transferred to cancellations team, who fixed the issue within 5 minutes and deposited 200,000 MRs into my account as a goodwill gesture.

I want some issues for next year.. anything that can be replicated?

 

[Daver6]

New data point. After trying to resolve (unsuccessfully) some account issues with Amex AU over the past two months, I called to cancel my Plat Charge citing the ongoing issues.

Transferred to cancellations team, who fixed the issue within 5 minutes and deposited 200,000 MRs into my account as a goodwill gesture.

Good to know how to get issues resolved in future.

Can you share, high level, what sort of issues you needed resolved?

 

[Franko Costa]

New data point. After trying to resolve (unsuccessfully) some account issues with Amex AU over the past two months, I called to cancel my Plat Charge citing the ongoing issues.

Transferred to cancellations team, who fixed the issue within 5 minutes and deposited 200,000 MRs into my account as a goodwill gesture.

I wish I had issues too

 

[bmcc]

Good to know how to get issues resolved in future.

Can you share, high level, what sort of issues you needed resolved?

Basically something went wonky with my account. I was unable to pay bills, book travel or transfer MRs. Very strange as it had been working fine for almost 10 years. AMEX's attempts to resolve it were very unsatisfactory - they pretty much put it in the 'too hard' basket until I called up to cancel. Then it was miraculously fixed in the space of 5 mins with bonus points awarded.

 

[Uncharted6264]

Just did mine, spoke to a very helpful rep who seemed to have a mutual understanding of what I was doing.

Same as everyone else here, can't do a retention bonus but "maybe if you cancel the card".

"Cancelled", reinstated immediately and got 40k QFF. Took less than a minute. (Personal card, decent spend on it).

 

[unfunkable]

Explorer Card - don't use it at all now for last 3 months as Mrs has a charge now.
Due to roll over in Dec.
Member since 2016
160k points to keep it which I took.
edit: was putting through ~60k/month for work. But nothing in last 3 months
edit: my 1st time ever 'cancelling' the card

 

[_TheTraveller_]

New data point. After trying to resolve (unsuccessfully) some account issues with Amex AU over the past two months, I called to cancel my Plat Charge citing the ongoing issues.

Transferred to cancellations team, who fixed the issue within 5 minutes and deposited 200,000 MRs into my account as a goodwill gesture.

Wow I wish I had the same luck a few years back. I obtained a membership which allowed me the 1250 pa fee but it took 6 months to change over and multiple follow ups and I raised this when I asked to cancel and offered a measly 20k. Kept it regardless but damn 200k!

Annual fee landed on the plat charge, just called and was offered 50k. Kept the card.

Spent maybe 10-20k this year as I shifted more of my spend to my US cards.

 

[Uncharted6264]

Spent maybe 10-20k this year as I shifted more of my spend to my US cards

10-20k a *year*, and you got a 50k offer? I spend like 200k/mo at the moment and got told to basically get stuffed today on my business card. Mind you this is after a success on my personal card!

How do you find the USA based cards? I know a lot of people are excited about them but I calculated the Qantas points per dollar (incl. Currency conversion), and it came out to about 0.6666 QFF/AUD? So the 1.25 per dollar seems a lot more attractive to me seeing as I'm going to be Aus based for the next few years.

Hoping you can enlighten me though, re USA cards, as I have a lot of USD expenses and paying a huge intl % fee. The rewards being better would make me take the leap.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

10-20k a *year*, and you got a 50k offer? I spend like 200k/mo at the moment and got told to basically get stuffed today on my business card. Mind you this is after a success on my personal card!

How do you find the USA based cards? I know a lot of people are excited about them but I calculated the Qantas points per dollar (incl. Currency conversion), and it came out to about 0.6666 QFF/AUD? So the 1.25 per dollar seems a lot more attractive to me seeing as I'm going to be Aus based for the next few years.

Hoping you can enlighten me though, re USA cards, as I have a lot of USD expenses and paying a huge intl % fee. The rewards being better would make me take the leap.

Check out the US Amex thread on this sub-forum. Heaps of insight.

I spent way more last year and was given peanuts which annoyed me. I was determined to cancel the card this year but ended up getting some value out of it. I heard timing mattered a lot. E.g. pre-AF vs post-AF.

The US cards really shine with the category bonuses like x4 on dining and x3 on transit/travel and greater variety on transfer partners. You also have a wider range of cards to churn as well but the journey definitely takes patience.

 

[Uncharted6264]

Check out the US Amex thread on this sub-forum. Heaps of insight.

I spent way more last year and was given peanuts which annoyed me. I was determined to cancel the card this year but ended up getting some value out of it. I heard timing mattered a lot. E.g. pre-AF vs post-AF.

The US cards really shine with the category bonuses like x4 on dining and x3 on transit/travel and greater variety on transfer partners. You also have a wider range of cards to churn as well but the journey definitely takes patience.

Yeah I've definitely been reading that thread, it just comes back to my understanding that basically it has an earn rate of 0.666 QFF/AUD and Qantas actually seems to have the best availablity of rewards flights coming out of Aus to say LAX (and I can't find for the life of me any J rewards to LHR with *any* airline .. so transfer partners don't matter to me on that front). Bonus earn would be great but my spend looks to mainly be in the regular earn category. But I'd be 100% happy to be corrected on any of that, was a while ago I did the numbers.

I'm just post AF unfortunately, no letting up.


Unfortunately for me my amex is quite crucial to how I run the business at the moment so I can't actually carry through on any threat to cancel. They probably know it too

He did advise to ask again in a few months so there's that.

 

[Franko Costa]

Yeah I've definitely been reading that thread, it just comes back to my understanding that basically it has an earn rate of 0.666 QFF/AUD and Qantas actually seems to have the best availablity of rewards flights coming out of Aus to say LAX (and I can't find for the life of me any J rewards to LHR with *any* airline .. so transfer partners don't matter to me on that front). Bonus earn would be great but my spend looks to mainly be in the regular earn category. But I'd be 100% happy to be corrected on any of that, was a while ago I did the numbers.

I'm just post AF unfortunately, no letting up.


Unfortunately for me my amex is quite crucial to how I run the business at the moment so I can't actually carry through on any threat to cancel. They probably know it too

He did advise to ask again in a few months so there's that.

How are you getting 0.666 QFF/AUD? I think your maths is wrong

 

[Uncharted6264]

How are you getting 0.666 QFF/AUD? I think your maths is wrong

It potentially is yeah, and id love it to be because that would mean it would be more viable for me.


Earn rate regular spend on AMEX USA cards: 1 USA-MR/USD.

Transfer rate: 1 USA-MR= 1QFF

1 USD = 1.5 AUD

Spend 1 AUD, get 0.6666 USA MR/1QFF.

1/1.5 = 0.6666

 

[Franko Costa]

Ok. Most people wouldn't use US Amex for their spend though - people use it for the sign on bonuses and bonus points (like 4x dining, etc). They would use their AU and transfer points to US Amex

AU spend $1 = 2.25 MR
AU MR to US MR = 2.25 * 0.67 = 1.5075
US MR to QFF 1:1 = 1.5075
So A$1 = 1.5057 QFF

 

[Uncharted6264]

Ah I see, I was approaching it from the other angle. I have a decent USD spend so I get dinged the conversion fee but seems like it *could* be worth paying from my perspective for the points... I'll have to run the numbers again. Good to know about the better rate with the transfers though.