Pathetic Amex Plat phone and webchat

[Steamrollersam]

I’ve been a happy Amex Platinum customer for 12 years. For the past 18 months I’ve noticed a general decline in service they provide. Wait times on phone have blown out for me lately to >20 minutes.

Today calling to cancel a flight tomorrow via Amex travel I was on hold for 45-55 minutes before I hung up 3 times between 12:30 pm and 7:30 pm AEST. I had no answer on travel chat between those hours. On Chat on the main account page I had three different people try to “help” out who were absolutely useless, providing numbers and links that never worked. They kept trying to fob me off and requesting me to end the chat saying I wouldn’t be able to engage anyone in travel chat if I remained logged on with them. Working from home sick I was able to keep two computers and two phones on chat or on hold to speak with someone, but ordinarily I wouldn’t be able to do this.

Any bright ideas? What’s the recourse if I can’t modify my booking to fly tomorrow? I mantas won’t deal with me because I booked through Amex travel (travel credit and cash). Looks like I’m claiming travel insurance….

 

[sudoer]

Any bright ideas?

Call Platinum Concierge first thing in the morning. They can push you to the front of the Amex Travel queue - I've had them do so when my line dropped while I was on hold for 90 minutes.

Failing that .. ask to speak to cancellations?

 

[Jousams]

Perhaps try doing a chargeback LOL

 

[N860CR]

Perhaps try doing a chargeback LOL

Funny you say that... while it wasn't a chargeback as such, I did get screwed around by Amex Travel in regards to an airline refund for a flight from 2020. 12 months later and still no refund, Amex Travel kept blaming GA. Lodge a complaint with AFCA, Amex refused to play ball (came up with a strange refund amount) so it got escalated up to a case manager who pretty quickly said "you paid for a service that wasn't provided as the flight was cancelled, you're entitled to a full refund. And they can't charge you the $250 cancelation fee". Ruled in my favour and got the whole amount back (I was quite ready to accept the cancelation fee as well).

 

[Steamrollersam]

Update: I kept trying the concierge phone line and eventually got a UK Amex travel agent on the phone. She obviously was not aware of the Qantas Travel Well policy but disappeared for about ten minutes to talk with Qantas about a refund. I was informed it was a no-go and I would have to pay the $99 rebooking fee to change the date of the flight. I said I would just no show.
Then I got a call the next day from an Aus-based Amex Travel in response to an email sent the day prior about my troubles contacting them. No apology, just insistence that I KEEP TRYING to call TRAVEL not concierge (ha!). Then I mentioned chargeback because I was getting annoyed, to which she replied that the amount for the flight was to be credited back to me.
Must say this puts me off Amex Travel, that I’ve never had issues with but I exclusively used them for hotels in the past.

 

[Daver6]

Amex Travel responses have been atrocious since Covid with ridiculous wait times.

Perhaps try doing a chargeback LOL

Don't joke about this. My brother had four EK bookings via Amex Travel (four individuals all on the same flights). EK cancelled a bunch of flights. He received a refund from Amex Travel for 3 of the 4 bookings. He spent forever chasing Amex Travel for the fourth one. Eventually her just did a charge back on the platinum card.

 

[Paul Mc]

Hi all,

Just to give a heads up about a recent poor AMEX Travel experience / "gotcha" with using them for flight bookings. We were unable to contact AMEX Travel at all on a weekend recently for help with a change needed.

We had booked using the annual $450 Travel Credit (as part of the AMEX Platinum card offer) for a flight booking the other month. All done on-line, that went fine. The problem arose when we tried to make a change to a flight on a weekend. The AMEX Travel website does not enable to make any changes at all to flights (well, not for our booking anyway). So I went to call them - but AMEX Travel is only phoneable Mon-Fri. The website said to use the AMEX Travel Chat line.... but there was not Chat link available! I waited for a few hours for the "Chat" link icon to become available... it never did (actually, for the whole weekend). So I called the AMEX Service Centre - the person apologised and said that the Travel Chat support was not functioning due to staff shortages. They said to just book another flight, do a No Show for the original, and then try and get a refund from AMEX later. I didn't like the sound of that and of my chances of ever getting the extra money paid back.

So just a heads up for anyone who might be seeking to use an AMEX Travel Credit and needs assistance with bookings outside of Mon-Fri at the moment.

 

[Berlin]

Oh wow- biiiig mistake to ever book travel online with Amex. It has been like that for a while- it somehow counts as a totally different department from normal travel bookings and with any changes/disruptions you end up with the rather useless 9 to 5 staff in the dedicated “online travel department” or, worse even, with some Philippines call centre (I don’t think I have to elaborate further on that one).

Don’t ask me why any company would try to incentivise NOT using the easy digital channels and doing most of the work themselves but Amex does. So if you rather use the tried and trusted “my dad always did it this way” channel of phoning the platinum travel department, you usually get rather skilled travel consultants who tend to even know how to use their GDS and understand what a fare class is. I had some very pleasant interactions even recently but never with that online bunch. I know, it’s hard to believe in this day and age and I’m myself very hesitant to pick up the phone if it can be done online. But with Amex, if anything happens down the track, you’re so much better off with the analogue way.

 

[Hwmcm]

I agree that Amex Travel is problematic but Amex have changed something with the Platinum team recently and it's a major improvement. Historically I've found the Platinum phone and email concierge (both lifestyle and travel) to be hit and miss and overall I've usually found it easier to sort things out myself than mess around with them. Having said that I've noticed that their phone system has recently changed and every interaction I've had with the Platinum concierge since has been excellent.

I recently had an online booking with Amex Travel where the flights got messed up by Virgin. I called Amex Travel and they were not helpful and that was a waste of time. I thought I'd try the Platinum travel team (even though previously they have told me they can't do anything for bookings with Amex Travel) and in this case they had access to all my bookings and had the issue sorted out for me in 10 minutes. Since then I've used them to book flights, hotels, restaurant, transfers and they have been super responsive and great to deal with each time.

I don't know what they have changed but they seem to be doing something right.

 

[bullerdude]

I agree that Amex Travel is problematic but Amex have changed something with the Platinum team recently and it's a major improvement. Historically I've found the Platinum phone and email concierge (both lifestyle and travel) to be hit and miss and overall I've usually found it easier to sort things out myself than mess around with them. Having said that I've noticed that their phone system has recently changed and every interaction I've had with the Platinum concierge since has been excellent.

I recently had an online booking with Amex Travel where the flights got messed up by Virgin. I called Amex Travel and they were not helpful and that was a waste of time. I thought I'd try the Platinum travel team (even though previously they have told me they can't do anything for bookings with Amex Travel) and in this case they had access to all my bookings and had the issue sorted out for me in 10 minutes. Since then I've used them to book flights, hotels, restaurant, transfers and they have been super responsive and great to deal with each time.

I don't know what they have changed but they seem to be doing something right.

This was always one of the frustrating aspect of having an Amex platinum. Booking online meant that the platinum concierge was unable to assist with changes etc.

Out of interest, are you booking your flights the platinum concierge now or still online?

 

[Hwmcm]

Yes, agreed. Also frustrating is the fact that the card comes with a travel concierge, hotel member status, and is designed to earn frequent flyer points, but the concierge can't book reward flights or hotel member rates. That has always struck me as strange.

I've booked things using both concierge and online recently. I suspect I will use the concierge more going forward. In my last few interactions with them they have been very responsive and helpful, and have been able preempt, suggest and book things based on a very brief email or call. I haven't been able to fault them recently. Historically it felt like I had to do the research and give step by step instructions for everything so I it was easier to just booked it myself online.

 

[Berlin]

I suspect I will use the concierge more going forward. In my last few interactions with them they have been very responsive and helpful, and have been able preempt, suggest and book things based on a very brief email or call. I haven't been able to fault them recently. Historically it felt like I had to do the research and give step by step instructions for everything so I it was easier to just booked it myself online.

Same here, solidly pleasant interactions recently. If Amex keeps up their game like this, then they’ve made themselves my travel agent going forward.

 

[bullerdude]

Great news!

Didn’t realise we could still engage the concierge via email; I know they scraped it in the US.

 

[bullerdude]

can you point me in the direction of the concierge email please ?

 

[Daver6]

can you point me in the direction of the concierge email please ?

Concierge [email protected]
Platinum travel team [email protected]

 

[Steamrollersam]

Any luck getting restaurant bookings overseas using the concierge email? I tried a UK-based concierge a month ago to nab some reservations for French restaurants and he said they don’t do these anymore. I’m quite sure I spoke to an Aus-based concierge in January about last-minute Melbourne restaurant bookings.

 

[rbjhan]

They messed up my PP registration - still unresolved, after multiple phone calls and offered me $50 as compensation...bah