Platinum Card, what will I get for $900

[lovestotravel]

Is that booking through the AMEX service it self? are those rare occasions tho? or fairly frequent as long as booking far out enough...?

Calling American Express Platinum Travel, I have found availability on most days for Melbourne to Los Angeles

Delta is basically 2 for 1 in business
Virgin Australia and Air NZ about 30-40% off in business

I haven't checked other airlines for other destinations

Added to this the current promotion of 25% off Virgin Australia domestic business class flights, that helps also

 

[scheps]

very tempting, one question tho, the % off price, what price is that? e.g. level of ticket. As i recall, the velocity plat card with 2 for 1 barely works out to be useful and thats technically "50%" off.

I assume you only get these prices with the charge card, and not the reserve, even tho it has access to platinum travel service? umm priority pass looks good but are the lounges better than what a say one world sapphire will get into?

 

[wafliron]

Well I can only go by my own experience. Both my wife and I have Plats with comp Reserves. We both gained 80K and no more.

I gained an extra 40 K when she joined up under the refer a friend campaign. She joined in Jan.

If what you were tol is correct then the rules have changed.

Fair enough - I'll post my outcome in here as a FYI in a couple of weeks.

 

[pshepvic]

very tempting, one question tho, the % off price, what price is that? e.g. level of ticket. As i recall, the velocity plat card with 2 for 1 barely works out to be useful and thats technically "50%" off.

I assume you only get these prices with the charge card, and not the reserve, even tho it has access to platinum travel service? umm priority pass looks good but are the lounges better than what a say one world sapphire will get into?

Yes, charge card only.

Don't know what the discount is based on - but I got fares for less than a third of the full price at the time on JAL, so clearly it wasn't based on 31% off the full price.


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[scheps]

Nice. Think I will need to give them a call to see if the sign up bonus is applicable to current holder of edge and whether professional association get a fee reduction. Any experience in fee lowering in subsequent years? Or that's not possible?

 

[wafliron]

Any experience in fee lowering in subsequent years? Or that's not possible?

I haven't experienced myself (only just passed one month since getting my Plat charge card), but I've read many instances on AFF of people with Plat or Cent cards getting fee waivers or reductions if they threaten to cancel and are putting significant dollars through their card.

 

[Deleted member]

not sure if there is a thread for Centurion card. but just got off the phone from AMEX offering me the Centurion card. ......again. i asked how they justified the price when it was cheaper in the US etc ? the repsonse was that the benefits were different. so I asked what was the difference ooo i dont know wqas the response. in fxcat everything I asked was basically responded to with an I dont know. so clearly this is some call centre in the sub continent involved in a marketing campaign.
I am annoyed with the whole Plat/centurion poor insurance high cost....Bah Humbug !!

 

[pshepvic]

I am annoyed with the whole Plat/centurion poor insurance high cost....Bah Humbug !!

The centurion insurance has not changed, so I'd say that it's only poor insurance on the platinum card side.


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[lovestotravel]

Any experience in fee lowering in subsequent years? Or that's not possible?

Yes you should get it halved or perhaps some MR points, but you would need to be spending $100K per year on the card for them to do this, based on speaking to a few people

 

[Deleted member]

The centurion insurance has not changed, so I'd say that it's only poor insurance on the platinum card side.


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Ok. Fair cop. But is the extra $3200.00 worth the effort. Are centurion supplementary cards no charge? And will they cover everyone for travel insurance? Like plat used to ?

 

[scheps]

Thanks guys, pity the government charges and points are being affected..... otherwise would make it much much easier to crack 100k.

Is that a waiver or a % reduction at that point? i guess its hard to tell and most probably just reduction.

Would be nice to be able to have all three plat cards for the one fee

 

[wafliron]

Thanks guys, pity the government charges and points are being affected..... otherwise would make it much much easier to crack 100k.

I don't think there's been any news of reduced points for tax payments on the Platinum Charge card (or Cent or Plat Reserve) has there? Only Plat Edge / Goldcharge card and lower?

 

[pshepvic]

Ok. Fair cop. But is the extra $3200.00 worth the effort. Are centurion supplementary cards no charge? And will they cover everyone for travel insurance? Like plat used to ?

1 Centurion supp card free, with cent insurance. 4 Plat supp cards free with standard Plat benefits. So that means I think those 4 have the reduced insurance, but not the Cent supp card. So that's a downgrade, but not for me as I haven't used any of the supp plat cards anyway.

For me the additional cost is worth it. Insurance has paid out a few times on what would no longer be covered on the plat card (or any other bank issued insurance) so to me that is minimum $500 value per person (although when I've looked at annual worldwide policies + domestic travel insurance, the actual cost for equivalent insurance is well over $1000 per person). Last year I took 92 flights (about two thirds domestic) so a decent insurance policy is critical.

We both have used the Priority Pass membership - not $600 like Amex says but at least 5 lounge visits each = $200+

Hilton Diamond has paid for breakfast countless times, so that's at least $20-30 a day even if we ate outside the hotel. Would have saved at least $300+. And no, I still don't have enough Hilton nights to earn Diamond. Plus several meals in club floors, free water etc. Maybe only small savings each time, but they add up. Additional bonus points with Hilton, SPG and Priority Club also add up in value.

Not having to buy LDW or excess reduction at $25-30 a day with at least 40 rental days per year = min $1000 (but yes I would get that on plat)

I've used the discount companion fares and saved a significant amount there as well.

There are many other benefits on the card that I won't go into, some I agree it's difficult to put a value on, but even just those above have given me well over the annual fee in value.


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[pshepvic]

I don't think there's been any news of reduced points for tax payments on the Platinum Charge card (or Cent or Plat Reserve) has there? Only Plat Edge / Goldcharge card and lower?

Correct. My understanding is that they are not changing.


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[wafliron]

Correct. My understanding is that they are not changing.

Phew, I thought I'd missed more bad news on this topic

The way you worded that though: do you have some inside info (eg via account manager) that they definitely aren't changing? Or just based on the fact no notification has been sent out.

 

[pshepvic]

Someone else had confirmed in another thread that they had spoken to Amex and the Premium cards weren't changing. Can't remember the thread. Additionally, last time
I checked, only the cards mentioned above have been changed on the website.


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[scheps]

I don't think there's been any news of reduced points for tax payments on the Platinum Charge card (or Cent or Plat Reserve) has there? Only Plat Edge / Goldcharge card and lower?

Yea sorry i meant uncertain future about whether this will affect this card. My guess would be likely!

 

[Diesellife]

1 Centurion supp card free, with cent insurance. 4 Plat supp cards free with standard Plat benefits. So that means I think those 4 have the reduced insurance, but not the Cent supp card. So that's a downgrade, but not for me as I haven't used any of the supp plat cards anyway.

Centurion's Supplementary cards are under Centurion's master policy, regardless of colour (Platinum)... so the new platinum policy does not apply.
My in law is still enjoying her platinum card with Centurion insurance

 

[pshepvic]

Centurion's Supplementary cards are under Centurion's master policy, regardless of colour (Platinum)... so the new platinum policy does not apply.
My in law is still enjoying her platinum card with Centurion insurance

Really? I thought the brochures for Cent said that Platinum supp cards on a Cent account are covered by the same policy as a normal paid plat card - the insurance policy being similar but with lower limits (eg. $30k for luggage instead of $50k). And therefore that would mean the changes to Plat insurance would affect the supp cards.

Happy to be proven wrong here though!


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[Deleted member]

1 Centurion supp card free, with cent insurance. 4 Plat supp cards free with standard Plat benefits. So that means I think those 4 have the reduced insurance, but not the Cent supp card. So that's a downgrade, but not for me as I haven't used any of the supp plat cards anyway.

For me the additional cost is worth it. Insurance has paid out a few times on what would no longer be covered on the plat card (or any other bank issued insurance) so to me that is minimum $500 value per person (although when I've looked at annual worldwide policies + domestic travel insurance, the actual cost for equivalent insurance is well over $1000 per person). Last year I took 92 flights (about two thirds domestic) so a decent insurance policy is critical.

We both have used the Priority Pass membership - not $600 like Amex says but at least 5 lounge visits each = $200+

Hilton Diamond has paid for breakfast countless times, so that's at least $20-30 a day even if we ate outside the hotel. Would have saved at least $300+. And no, I still don't have enough Hilton nights to earn Diamond. Plus several meals in club floors, free water etc. Maybe only small savings each time, but they add up. Additional bonus points with Hilton, SPG and Priority Club also add up in value.

Not having to buy LDW or excess reduction at $25-30 a day with at least 40 rental days per year = min $1000 (but yes I would get that on plat)

I've used the discount companion fares and saved a significant amount there as well.

There are many other benefits on the card that I won't go into, some I agree it's difficult to put a value on, but even just those above have given me well over the annual fee in value.


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So supplementary cards free are 1x centurion and 4x plat?