Qantas/Amex Changes [consolidated threads]

[armanie]

Hi Oz_Mark,

Yes I'm a premium card holder and it's the same letter.

But I can just see Amex making the Accent Premium program available to other non-premium card holders with a higher joining fee.

Hence, IMHO, a grab for more money.

armanie

 

[simongr]

Hi Oz_Mark,

Yes I'm a premium card holder and it's the same letter.

But I can just see Amex making the Accent Premium program available to other non-premium card holders with a higher joining fee.

Hence, IMHO, a grab for more money.

armanie

I am not sure why this is Amex making a grab for more money. QF have forced this change by forcing all card holders to go to Direct Sweep if they want to put points to QF. This is a change by QF to own more of the card/points share.

 

[oz_mark]

But I can just see Amex making the Accent Premium program available to other non-premium card holders with a higher joining fee.

It may depend on whatever agreements that have negotiated with QF. It may be that as part of allowing transfers to Qantas they have restrictions on how many people can actually be members of Ascent Premium.

At this point, as a platinum credit card* holder, I have not got any notification of any change, so business as usual for me.


(* although I have pretty much decided to go for a plat charge card, that will be waiting till I get closer to the anniversary date of the credit card)

 

[armanie]

I could be wrong?!

armanie

PS: just realised my typo. Should have been Ascent, instead of Accent. Haha!

 

[oz_mark]

I could be wrong?!

You may be right, but all the evidence points to QFF wanting this practice to stop, and Amex negotiating a way to allow at least its top tier customers from retaining the option to transfer to QFF (I guess they have market research to support the need to do this).

 

[JohnK]

Are we certain that Ascent Premium would only be available to Platinum credit card holders? Has there been mention of a membership fee for Ascent Premium or would membership be complimentary?

 

[oz_mark]

Are we certain that Ascent Premium would only be available to Platinum credit card holders? Has there been mention of a membership fee for Ascent Premium or would membership be complimentary?

None of these things has been mentioned, as far as I am aware

1) Only Platinum Charge card holders seem to have had any communication
2) They seem to have been moved onto Ascent premium on a complimentary bases
3) Platinum credit card holders do not seem to have been informed of any change at this point in time

 

[JohnK]

So one can assume that Ascent 'Lite' is still work in progress. Hopefully the only change to Ascent 'Lite' will be the much discussed no transfer of points to QFF and the membership fee does not increase.

 

[savydog]

Got my letter today, I am Amex Rewards Maximiser. No offer to trade up to Accent Premium. Lists the benefits of staying with Ascent and right at the end confirms that subject to approval I can change to a Qantas co-branded card if I want to continue to earn QFF points.

 

[oz_mark]

Got my letter today, I am Amex Rewards Maximiser. No offer to trade up to Accent Premium. Lists the benefits of staying with Ascent and right at the end confirms that subject to approval I can change to a Qantas co-branded card if I want to continue to earn QFF points.

For most Ascent members I would expect this to be the case. Qantas are working on getting rid of transfers from such programs and while AMEX have found a way to allow their premium members to continue, I doubt that Qantas would want this to be an opt-in option for others.

 

[kamchatsky]

Oh well, for people who participated in AFF most people would actually channel the points to AA or SQ/VS/CX programs anyway. However for most general public they will want to be "upgraded" to the co-brand card for get QFF points.

Maybe I should have got the no annual fee Qantas Amex card when it was available earlier At $149 there is no way I will get that card, way too expensive for what it is.

Now the question is when will they cut the ties with Citibank Visa/MC? I hope CB will do us all an additional favour by making 1:1 point transfer to Krisflyer (maybe too much to ask) or at least bring another partner into it, like VS or CX (Citibank HongKong already have gold card allowable for transfer to CX/SQ/TG/NW programs).

 

[JohnK]

Oh well, for people who participated in AFF most people would actually channel the points to AA or SQ/VS/CX programs anyway. However for most general public they will want to be "upgraded" to the co-brand card for get QFF points.

I think Qantas is making a serious mistake here. Why would someone with a fee free for life Amex Gold card, or similar, paying $80 pa for Ascent upgrade to an Amex Qantas credit card with direct sweep to QF and a minimum annual fee of $149? The selling point of Ascent MR points is the ability to have a choice of redemption partners. With an Amex Qantas card there is no choice. You don't need to be on AFF or even Einstein to work out that it is a poor deal.

Maybe I should have got the no annual fee Qantas Amex card when it was available earlier At $149 there is no way I will get that card, way too expensive for what it is.

Was the Amex Qantas card ever promoted as fee free for life? I don't think it was and everyone will now have to pay the annual fee.

Now the question is when will they cut the ties with Citibank Visa/MC? I hope CB will do us all an additional favour by making 1:1 point transfer to Krisflyer (maybe too much to ask) or at least bring another partner into it, like VS or CX (Citibank HongKong already have gold card allowable for transfer to CX/SQ/TG/NW programs).

You can now transfer from Citibank credit cards in Australia to KrisFlyer but does not mention the transfer rate.

KrisFlyer members in Australia can now earn KrisFlyer miles with their Citibank credit cards

 

[oz_mark]

You can now transfer from Citibank credit cards in Australia to KrisFlyer but does not mention the transfer rate.

KrisFlyer members in Australia can now earn KrisFlyer miles with their Citibank credit cards

1.5 Citibank Reward Points = 1 KF point
http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...mption-partner-citibank-13767.html#post178626

 

[JohnK]

I must have missed that thread. OK, not quite 1:1 but 3:2 is better than nothing. I wonder why the link I posted does not mention the transfer rate? I did get it from the latest KrisFlyer email....

 

[medhead]

Was the Amex Qantas card ever promoted as fee free for life? I don't think it was and everyone will now have to pay the annual fee.

No it wasn't promoted as fee free for life. But when that the fee free version was available and I noticed that they charged me the annual fee, for the same card that I got when there was a fee, I called up to query the fee. (Not that I thought I shouldn't pay the fee just that I wanted the fee free version)

The CSR told me that I signed up on the old deal and hence that is why I got charged the fee and why the CSR couldn't transfer me to the fee free version. If that amex policy will continue to apply then anyone who signed up for the fee free version should continue to get it fee free.

BTW they swapped me over when I told the CSR I wanted to cancel.

 

[JohnK]

BTW they swapped me over when I told the CSR I wanted to cancel.

Thanks for that information as I wasn't aware there was an Amex Qantas card fee free for life. I think Amex has good customer service and it is situations like this that prove it. They recently reversed an overlimit charge on my account when I booked a lot of flights and the BPay payment did not make it to the account in time.

I have an Amex Qantas Premium credit card and I will more than likely cancel it when the $249 annual fee is due in March 2009. I wonder if they will offer to waive the fee for me as well. Worth a try....

 

[medhead]

Thanks for that information as I wasn't aware there was an Amex Qantas card fee free for life. I think Amex has good customer service and it is situations like this that prove it. They recently reversed an overlimit charge on my account when I booked a lot of flights and the BPay payment did not make it to the account in time.

I am not quite ready to claim it's fee free for life. I'm drawing a conclusion from a policy that worked against me and I'm hoping that it'll work in my favour. I won't know for sure until next year at fee time.

However, I would have to totally agree about the customer service. I had a similar experience with a late payment charge due me not allowing enough time over a long weekend for a BPay. I called to check that the payment did eventually get there and they just offered to reverse the charge :shock:

Good luck with your card next year.

 

[mick]

I have an Amex Qantas Premium credit card and I will more than likely cancel it when the $249 annual fee is due in March 2009. I wonder if they will offer to waive the fee for me as well. Worth a try....

I have one of these cards and they waived the whole fee for me just last week when I called to cancel it. No ifs or buts about it. They said it was because I've been a member since 1996.

 

[Febs]

I have one of these cards and they waived the whole fee for me just last week when I called to cancel it. No ifs or buts about it. They said it was because I've been a member since 1996.

I had my fee refunded for the third year in a row recently. I've only been a member since 2006, but always pay my bills in full.

I'm curious about this new $249 fee though. The way AMEX have always refunded my fee is to give me a credit, then charge me the actual fee about 2 months later. The credit I received (two months ago) was for $195...if the fee hits and it's $249, I'll be on the phone straight away.

(Actually considering cancelling it soon anyway, as I'm after something that I can link to my current Ascent account for transfer to SPG.)

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[JohnK]

I have one of these cards and they waived the whole fee for me just last week when I called to cancel it. No ifs or buts about it. They said it was because I've been a member since 1996.

I have only been a member since 2000 but that sounds encouraging. Anyway if they do not waive the fee I am not losing that much by cancelling and solely using the Amex Gold card accumulating Ascent MR points.