David Jones: AMEX to Latitude

[albyd]

I haven't tried that yet - only just made my first spend on mine as I applied from scratch. I'm surprised they gave me such a small credit limit given my income and not that many other lines of credit. I even applied for the "Prestige" card to maximize my chances of getting a decent limit - I wonder whether it matters if I applied for the $99 card or the $300 one - they said I can go through the application for a higher credit limit in 3 months. Might try that.

 

[nugstar]

Most concerning issue I've had to date with Latitude:
They've screwed up processing a BPay payment to them. They've only credited my account with 1/3 of the actual payment sent. How that happens is beyond me but hey, it's latitude.

The woeful resolution process requires the customer to upload more details first rather than latitude opening an investigation to check their owns systems first.

Everyone make sure you check your payments if their over and above the closing invoice balance.

 

[Flyfrequently]

I have the same QF Amex Ultimate Card and I like it. The flight credit is great, makes the card effectively no-fee if you use the credit for a weekend getaway somewhere that you might not ordinarily do.

After being knocked back for Credit Limit increase on Amex Elevate (as a retiree), I have now been invited to upgrade my no fee Amex Discovery to Ultimate.

In your considered experiences and opinions @Kerrodt and @PineappleSkip it is easy/cost beneficial to proceed with this?

Can fly domesticlly to ulitise the Amex $450 spend, but have read otherwise ie Q flights "cheaper" on Q website as opposed to Amex travel.

If there is a better thread to answer this, happy to be redirected.

 

[Kerrodt]

After being knocked back for Credit Limit increase on Amex Elevate (as a retiree), I have now been invited to upgrade my no fee Amex Discovery to Ultimate.

In your considered experiences and opinions @Kerrodt and @PineappleSkip it is easy/cost beneficial to proceed with this?

Can fly domesticlly to ulitise the Amex $450 spend, but have read otherwise ie Q flights "cheaper" on Q website as opposed to Amex travel.

If there is a better thread to answer this, happy to be redirected.

@Flyfrequently I’m not sure what you are referring to when you ask if it is “easy/cost beneficial to proceed with this?”.

If it is the upgrade from another Amex card to this one - I have not done that.

If it is using the credit, then I have done that many times.

The travel using the credit is booked on the Amex Travel website (not on the QF website) and it must be Qantas flights to use the credit.

Sometimes Amex Travel will not have access to some of the cheap fare buckets that might otherwise display on the QF website as Amex have possibly run out of what they have access to in that bucket. But that is a genuinely rare occurrence for me. I have mostly seen that when trying to book something that is departing in the next week or so. Book far enough in advance and you should see matched pricing between the two websites.

The Amex Travel booking engine doesn’t know that you are going to use the flight credit when you do the search (the payment option comes later in the process) so it isn’t a case of Amex trying to scam you because you’re using a flight credit. It is more likely an Amex inventory availability issue.

On a couple of occasions I have booked an outbound leg via the Qantas website and the inbound leg via the Amex site (or vice versa) as the pricing was better.

Also bear in mind that the credit has to be used in one shot and any leftover value is forfeited if the fare is less than $450 e.g. if you book a $150 MEL-SYD flight and use the voucher you will lose the residual $250.

Is there anything else that you’d like to ask/know?

 

[Flyfrequently]

@Flyfrequently I’m not sure what you are referring to when you ask if it is “easy/cost beneficial to proceed with this?”.

If it is the upgrade from another Amex card to this one - I have not done that.

If it is using the credit, then I have done that many times.

The travel using the credit is booked on the Amex Travel website (not on the QF website) and it must be Qantas flights to use the credit.

Sometimes Amex Travel will not have access to some of the cheap fare buckets that might otherwise display on the QF website as Amex have possibly run out of what they have access to in that bucket. But that is a genuinely rare occurrence for me. I have mostly seen that when trying to book something that is departing in the next week or so. Book far enough in advance and you should see matched pricing between the two websites.

The Amex Travel booking engine doesn’t know that you are going to use the flight credit when you do the search (the payment option comes later in the process) so it isn’t a case of Amex trying to scam you because you’re using a flight credit. It is more likely an Amex inventory availability issue.

On a couple of occasions I have booked an outbound leg via the Qantas website and the inbound leg via the Amex site (or vice versa) as the pricing was better.

Also bear in mind that the credit has to be used in one shot and any leftover value is forfeited if the fare is less than $450 e.g. if you book a $150 MEL-SYD flight and use the voucher you will lose the residual $250.

Is there anything else that you’d like to ask/know?

Thanks for that information @Kerrodt

I had read that flights could be more expensive but your comment about fare buckets/ inventory availability makes sense.

So, as long as I use it in one go, on QF flights via Amex Travel it appears to be worth it for me.
(Also have read up a bit more since my post.)
Again, thanks.