AMEX Launches Platinum Credit Card

[The Pope]

Full PDS details are online too:
http://www.americanexpress.com/australia/pdfs/platcredit_insuranceflightbooklet.pdf

In regards to flights, it seems to be capital city to capital city... so finally Perth people get an extra benefit!!!

Some other key points:

5. You are entitled to one Flight in each full year of Platinum
Credit Card membership. A year is 365 consecutive days
starting on the date your Platinum Credit Card is issued or
any anniversary of that date. Your Flight must be booked
before the end of each year. Flight benefits cannot be carried
forward to any subsequent year.
6. You may book your Flight in the name of another individual,
but not for an unaccompanied minor.

So book it in your partner's name, then you pay for yourself and earn the points!

8. Each Flight must be a non-stop return flight between a
Departure City and one of its corresponding Arrival Cities in
the table

No Newcastle, Darwin or Broome as destinations, Darwin can be a departure city, but not an arrival city... ie DRW-MEL-DRW is OK, MEL-DRW-MEL is not. HBA-MEL is the only tassie link

14. After a Flight has been booked, no route changes are
permitted.

subject to Qantas fees/charges.

No express mention of you do or don't pay the taxes/surcharges, only if you change a booking.

Compared to a Maximiser Gold card for $144+$36 for the supp card, it's only $215 extra... worth it for the flight I reckon.

 

[millarise]

amex platinum credit card

My initial reaction to this is that it seriously devalues the prestige of the platinum charge card ..... very soon every man and his dog is going to be 'platinum amex' ...... do you think Amex will be doing something to differentiate the charge card ??

 

[beardoc]

I like the look of this. It seems on the surface to be relatively good.

I can see a few problems, though:

* The terms and conditions don't seem to include international travel insurance when you transfer Membership Rewards Points to QFF points and use them to book a flight - you're out on your own.

* The lost/damaged baggage insurance seems a little week - they mention an excess of $100 for "each and every claim" or $250 for each and every computer claim. Does that mean if you luggage gets damaged or stolen, that they'll deduct the $100 excess for EVERY item in that luggage, meaning your excess could be several hundred dollars?

 

[ozmerish]

Giving up VISA/MC?

I have noticed a couple of posts where people are considering giving up a VISA/MC and changing to the AMEX charge card.

I use AMEX for everything that I can thow at it - even more so when ANZ started capping points. My question is this - which VISA/MC do you plan on using when AMEX is not accepted? This is on the pretense you would carry a non AMEX just for those instances.

With my spending pattern, a card that does not have a points cap is preferred - am I correct in that the CBA Platinum is the only option for uncapped points for QF (or in house reward) program?

 

[netaddict]

Re: Giving up VISA/MC?

I have noticed a couple of posts where people are considering giving up a VISA/MC and changing to the AMEX charge card.

I use AMEX for everything that I can thow at it - even more so when ANZ started capping points. My question is this - which VISA/MC do you plan on using when AMEX is not accepted? This is on the pretense you would carry a non AMEX just for those instances.

With my spending pattern, a card that does not have a points cap is preferred - am I correct in that the CBA Platinum is the only option for uncapped points for QF (or in house reward) program?

Since the changes to reward programs over the years a lot of people have moved to AMEX.

As for best reward program - CBA Platinum is unlimited as far as I know and has 1 to 1 transfer rate to Qantas. Woolworths Ezy Banking is also 1 to 1 to Qantas but has a extremly limited rewards program.

 

[mick]

Re: Giving up VISA/MC?

With my spending pattern, a card that does not have a points cap is preferred - am I correct in that the CBA Platinum is the only option for uncapped points for QF (or in house reward) program?

That's not the only option - it really depends on whether you want the added "bells and whistles". If you don't need/want the insurances, companion airfares or concierge, a good value alternative is the Woolworths EZY MC. It'll give you an unlimited 1:1 conversion rate to QFF - and at $39 p.a., it's not bad value if you need a points earning card for when Amex isn't accepted.

 

[beardoc]

I just thought of something - say you had one of the Platinum Amex Credit Cards, and you wanted to get your free ticket on a flight seven days from now that had plenty of seats available in economy, but the QANTAS Red-Edeals are sold out.

Would Amex then tell you that they won't buy you a ticket on that flight?

If they did, then the value of the ticket could be many times over the value of the annual fee, as you could use your free ticket on the high value last minute fares.

Or would they refuse?

 

[netaddict]

I just thought of something - say you had one of the Platinum Amex Credit Cards, and you wanted to get your free ticket on a flight seven days from now that had plenty of seats available in economy, but the QANTAS Red-Edeals are sold out.

Would Amex then tell you that they won't buy you a ticket on that flight?

If they did, then the value of the ticket could be many times over the value of the annual fee, as you could use your free ticket on the high value last minute fares.

Or would they refuse?

My understanding is that the ticket class booked MUST be red e-deals. So yes even if there was seats in the next class up (super saver) you'd need to pay for it.

 

[dajop]

Are Amex buying red e-deals (points are not accruable on the free flight as part of the Amex card) or are they buying a swag of points on QF for redemption or some other arrangement, and as such book you in X or T class (award flights)? Or is it an alternative industry discount class that doesn't accrue points they would book you in?

 

[netaddict]

Are Amex buying red e-deals (points are not accruable on the free flight as part of the Amex card) or are they buying a swag of points on QF for redemption or some other arrangement, and as such book you in X or T class (award flights)? Or is it an alternative industry discount class that doesn't accrue points they would book you in?

No one really knows the class of fare booked. When I followed up with AMEX when the card was launched all they would say is if there is a Red E-deal fare showing on the web you could book the free flight through them.

 

[NM]

Are Amex buying red e-deals (points are not accruable on the free flight as part of the Amex card) or are they buying a swag of points on QF for redemption or some other arrangement, and as such book you in X or T class (award flights)? Or is it an alternative industry discount class that doesn't accrue points they would book you in?

It will most likely be a special fare basis for Amex, with a name something like NAMEX, where the N indicates that seats come from the N fare bucket (ie Red E-deal) and the fare basis rules will be that it is only available to Amex and does not accrue any FF points etc.

QF do this type of special fare basis all the time. My company has several special fares that look something like XXQFYYY where the XX is the initials of the travel agency, and the YYY is the initials of my company. They do the same thing for government agencies that have negotiated lower fares that do not include FF benefits. They still get booked in a specific seat bucket (K in the example of my company above), but can have specific other conditions attached.

 

[pbsavage]

has any plat charge card holder recieved an invitation for this card yet? i called up as a plat charge card holder and they said they posted invites out to charge card holders as a special invite at the end of Aug. But i have not recieved mine yet.

 

[netaddict]

has any plat charge card holder recieved an invitation for this card yet? i called up as a plat charge card holder and they said they posted invites out to charge card holders as a special invite at the end of Aug. But i have not recieved mine yet.

Received mine yesterday. Letter was dated te 30th of Aug. If you haven't received it by last mail Friday I'd call em back.

 

[shillard]

How valuable is the concierge service? I have never actually used the service attached to my card. Looking at this more closely, the $395 AMEX fee offers more for me (and thus better value) than the $250 I pay to Citibank for the card.

Of course, others may find that the concierge service is of more value to them, so for them the opposite concluison may apply

I'm with Citibank - the concierge service has come in quite handy lately (particularly organising tickets for an interstate show at short notice), and you don't have to deal with the Kumars at #42 Sahib Lane, Mumbai everytime you call them up.

Amex Customer Service went to the dogs about 2 years ago, since then I've been progressively winding back my Amex spend and upping my Citibank spend. If the CB Platinum Visa offered a limit of around $200k (maybe they do, I really should get off my cough and ask) I'd drop Amex altogether.

 

[CdaWorld]

has any plat charge card holder recieved an invitation for this card yet? i called up as a plat charge card holder and they said they posted invites out to charge card holders as a special invite at the end of Aug. But i have not recieved mine yet.

Yes I got mine and accepted the offer. Don't know if I will use it really but the free flight is useful especially as it can be booked as a 'gift' for someone else.

 

[M@rcoPolo]

has any plat charge card holder recieved an invitation for this card yet? i called up as a plat charge card holder and they said they posted invites out to charge card holders as a special invite at the end of Aug. But i have not recieved mine yet.

I also received mine (I have both an AMEX Gold Biz charge card & AMEX Gold credit card) however the only "incentive" is that it's already pre-approved :roll:

Anybody out there received a better intro offer or managed to get a Platinum credit card at "discounted" rates?

 

[netaddict]

has any plat charge card holder recieved an invitation for this card yet? i called up as a plat charge card holder and they said they posted invites out to charge card holders as a special invite at the end of Aug. But i have not recieved mine yet.

I also received mine (I have both an AMEX Gold Biz charge card & AMEX Gold credit card) however the only "incentive" is that it's already pre-approved :roll:

Anybody out there received a better intro offer or managed to get a Platinum credit card at "discounted" rates?

Discounted rates - does complimentry or free count for Platinum Charge card holders? Platinum Charge Card holders also get a better interest rate offer by 1%.

 

[M@rcoPolo]

Discounted rates - does complimentry or free count for Platinum Charge card holders? Platinum Charge Card holders also get a better interest rate offer by 1%.

Well I suppose it does - so Platinum Charge card holders get a complimentary Platinum Credit Card...?

What about current Gold Credit Card members? Anybody received any interesting "upgrade offers" out there?

 

[netaddict]

Discounted rates - does complimentry or free count for Platinum Charge card holders? Platinum Charge Card holders also get a better interest rate offer by 1%.

Well I suppose it does - so Platinum Charge card holders get a complimentary Platinum Credit Card...?

What about current Gold Credit Card members? Anybody received any interesting "upgrade offers" out there?

Platinum charge holders receive a complimentry Platinum Credit Card.

As for interesting offers for other members, I'd expect it will take a few months or more before we start to see those if they will be made given the massive ammount of applications and other pre-approved applications they are processing at present from what a rep told me a few days ago.

 

[aasz1978]

I'll be the first black sheep and say that I think this card is not worth it for a number of reasons:

(a) This card is just like any other C/C except it's platinum and plus free airfares;

(b) The free airfares could worth as low as $29 (if you book on Jetstar) or as high as $400 (if you book on fully flexible fares). I value it at $79-$99 because that's the most common fares I could get.

(c) AMEX is STILL not accepted everywhere and the list only grows. My monthly expenses are now about 52% AMEX - 48% MC/VISA. It used to be 80-20.

and (d) if you're CPA AMEX member, why switch? If you still want it, wait till AMEX comes and ask for your business like they always do.