Reduced AMEX earn rates from April 2019

[SOPOOR]

Why?


Those not interested in points will stay.

Those interested in points will find other alternatives will earn less points.

The turnover part may drop from those manufacturing points. If the enablers can find ways to reduce their fees that may not occur.

Personally I suspect Amex will have run the numbers and know that for many that they will still earn more points than their competitors. VISA/MC earn has been slashed and so in this competitive world Amex did not need to be as generous as they once were.

Amex may lose some, but offsetting this their cost in buying points from airlines will plummet.

Well, you are entitled to your opinion,

There is no doubt that benefits of amex will reduce significantly,
Some may stil think its the best earning card out which i dont disgaree with, but my personal belief is that overall members, new sign ups and turnover will decrease noticeably as to how much, i have no idea

My best case scenario for amex is to keep both cards with a reduction of 50% spend,whilst the worst will be cancelling of all cards.

However, like you said, i may not represent the typical amex customer

 

[Jacques Vert]

I've been following the discussion and there are many interesting and valuable contributions. What will I do going forward?

Plan A: Back in October I decided to close all my Amex cards (except the Platinum Edge) and that +1 should apply for a Plat Edge. Once her card was approved I would cancel the Plat & wait out the 18 months; then apply for some new cards and get/maximise my sign-on bonus.

Then the Amex enhancement was announced; so I decided to take my time and rethink whether this was still my best option.

Decided to press on and +1 applied for a Plat Edge.....and was rejected

Plan B: Maybe I should keep my Plat Edge and get +1 to cancel all hers; she can wait out the 18 months, reapply and get the sign-on bonus But what if she gets rejected again at that time

Plan C: +1 still has a DJ Amex which as noted in previous posts still earns 3 pts per $ at supermarkets and servos, 1 pt elsewhere (we don't have a DJs where we live so that's not relevant). The Plat Edge also earns 3 points per $ at supermarkets (and at servos from April 15).

After April, both cards will transfer to Kris at 2:1, but the DJ's card also has the option to transfer to QF at 1:0.75 (or 2:1.5) Annual fees for the DJ is $99; the Plat Edge is $195 which is offset by the $200 travel credit.

So maybe I keep my Plat Edge until April and maximise my spend, then transfer all points out to Kris and/or Asia Miles. I will then have no Amex but I can use +1's DJ card (and my Visa). Wait 18 months and then reapply for whatever has the best sign-on bonus at that time. And meanwhile apply for my own DJ card and/or bank issued Amex cards after sitting out the appropriate time-bars.

Meanwhile I've just been approved for the St Geo Amplify so I need to lock in the spend for the sign-on bonus in the next couple of months.

First world problems

All comments welcome.

 

[oz_mark]

There is no doubt that benefits of amex will reduce significantly,
Some may stil think its the best earning card out which i dont disgaree with, but my personal belief is that overall members, new sign ups and turnover will decrease noticeably as to how much, i have no idea

Amex were in a difficult position. On the one hand, people liked the rewards, but this was funded by charging higher fees to merchants.
Higher fees. however, resulted in Amex cards copping larger surcharges at a lot of merchants.

Unfortunately, these are somewhat opposite problems, so Amex have decided to wind back on the rewards side, and reduce fees to merchants to try to remove the surcharging issue.

There were other things they could have tried (or not changed at all), but this is the path they have decided is best for their business in the current environment. You could argue that either way, they would lose business...

 

[Must...Fly!]

Amex were in a difficult position. On the one hand, people liked the rewards, but this was funded by charging higher fees to merchants.
Higher fees. however, resulted in Amex cards copping larger surcharges at a lot of merchants.

Unfortunately, these are somewhat opposite problems, so Amex have decided to wind back on the rewards side, and reduce fees to merchants to try to remove the surcharging issue.

There were other things they could have tried (or not changed at all), but this is the path they have decided is best for their business in the current environment. You could argue that either way, they would lose business...

I agree with your post, but I wonder with the path they have chosen, what is their competitive advantage?

 

[burmans]

yep, its not as if the head of some department of amex are saying, oh lets screw over that particular user or that group of people,

they made a calculated decision fo the most part, yes sometimes the decisions seem ludicrous,

but the best way is to have a big whinge, and take your business elsewhere
if they make a stupid decision and lose millions due to it, thats their fault

i suspect amex will lose a lot of customers and turnover from this,
whether they care or not, who knows

Nothing personal but I think they have done the numbers and worked out which customers make them money and which don't. And if you don't of course they don't care, they are correct that losing your business isn't such a big deal.

Of course there are also plenty of people who whinge but don't actually leave and am sure they have counted on a few of these too.

 

[SOPOOR]

Amex were in a difficult position. On the one hand, people liked the rewards, but this was funded by charging higher fees to merchants.
Higher fees. however, resulted in Amex cards copping larger surcharges at a lot of merchants.

Unfortunately, these are somewhat opposite problems, so Amex have decided to wind back on the rewards side, and reduce fees to merchants to try to remove the surcharging issue.

There were other things they could have tried (or not changed at all), but this is the path they have decided is best for their business in the current environment. You could argue that either way, they would lose business...

Well said, its good to put things into perspective, the devaluation seriously sux but im just hoping that eventually the points/rewards game wont become uneconomical for consumers

 

[SOPOOR]

Nothing personal but I think they have done the numbers and worked out which customers make them money and which don't. And if you don't of course they don't care, they are correct that losing your business isn't such a big deal.

Of course there are also plenty of people who whinge but don't actually leave and am sure they have counted on a few of these too.

That wouldnt surprise me at all too.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I agree with your post, but I wonder with the path they have chosen, what is their competitive advantage?

1/ They still in general offer more reward points than anyone else.

2/ They still have more transfer options than most of their competitors

 

[michael65]

I spoke to AMEX today. She was quite clear that unless I had an expensive platinum charge card (cost over $1000 per annum), then I would not get doubling of points full stop. She indicated that if you only have a Platinum Edge card, then no doubling of points even if you have been a aMEX card holder for years and have spend a bit of money on it.

Therefore, the decision has been made for me. I will keep the Edge card until April. I will transfer out the points to Krisflyer and Velocity. I will have spend the $200 travel credit. I will then decide whether to keep the card to just buy groceries and fuel as everything else is real just 0.5 FF per $. I am leaning towards cancelling it. My wife has an AMEX Qantas Ultimate (1.5 Qantas point per $ although reducing to 1.25) so we may put all our spend on that card including groceries. My wife may consider getting the Edge if there are bonus points on offer. I will wait 18 months to see if I wish to get an AMEX again, based on bonus points. I have recently got an Amplify Signature with lots of bonus points. I will play the bonus point game with all credit cards at least for the 18 months if not longer

 

[cvmceg]

I spoke to AMEX today. She was quite clear that unless I had an expensive platinum charge card (cost over $1000 per annum), then I would not get doubling of points full stop. She indicated that if you only have a Platinum Edge card, then no doubling of points even if you have been a aMEX card holder for years and have spend a bit of money on it.

Therefore, the decision has been made for me. I will keep the Edge card until April. I will transfer out the points to Krisflyer and Velocity. I will have spend the $200 travel credit. I will then decide whether to keep the card to just buy groceries and fuel as everything else is real just 0.5 FF per $. I am leaning towards cancelling it. My wife has an AMEX Qantas Ultimate (1.5 Qantas point per $ although reducing to 1.25) so we may put all our spend on that card including groceries. My wife may consider getting the Edge if there are bonus points on offer. I will wait 18 months to see if I wish to get an AMEX again, based on bonus points. I have recently got an Amplify Signature with lots of bonus points. I will play the bonus point game with all credit cards at least for the 18 months if not longer

note that the amex ultimate for QF drops to 1.25 per $

 

[Daver6]

Moving forward after April, if QF points are you're goal, the QF Ultimate Amex card is by far the best option as far as I can tell.

 

[burmans]

I spoke to AMEX today. She was quite clear that unless I had an expensive platinum charge card (cost over $1000 per annum), then I would not get doubling of points full stop. She indicated that if you only have a Platinum Edge card, then no doubling of points even if you have been a aMEX card holder for years and have spend a bit of money on it.

Therefore, the decision has been made for me. I will keep the Edge card until April. I will transfer out the points to Krisflyer and Velocity. I will have spend the $200 travel credit. I will then decide whether to keep the card to just buy groceries and fuel as everything else is real just 0.5 FF per $. I am leaning towards cancelling it. My wife has an AMEX Qantas Ultimate (1.5 Qantas point per $ although reducing to 1.25) so we may put all our spend on that card including groceries. My wife may consider getting the Edge if there are bonus points on offer. I will wait 18 months to see if I wish to get an AMEX again, based on bonus points. I have recently got an Amplify Signature with lots of bonus points. I will play the bonus point game with all credit cards at least for the 18 months if not longer

I'm a bit unsure why people are making such a big deal of the doubling of points. To me there are two seperate decision points, what you do before the April end date with points already accumulated and what you do after. And for me the answer to the first part is clear, I can mitigate the potential halving of value of existing points by moving them out before the deadline. Simples.

Sure it would be nice to be able to warehouse but meantime I'm spending my energy working out where I move them to not trying to get my points doubled (and/or whinging about not being able to).

 

[SOPOOR]

I'm a bit unsure why people are making such a big deal of the doubling of points. To me there are two seperate decision points, what you do before the April end date with points already accumulated and what you do after. And for me the answer to the first part is clear, I can mitigate the potential halving of value of existing points by moving them out before the deadline. Simples.

Sure it would be nice to be able to warehouse but meantime I'm spending my energy working out where I move them to not trying to get my points doubled (and/or whinging about not being able to).

the situation for some, and a little for me is that many have heaps of points saved, so that essentially means for programs like Kris, you have 3 years to spend it,

for me to spend my points within 3 years isnt easy but not impossible, if you had 10,000,000 points and used kris, thats a heck of a lot of flying to do within 3 years

 

[SteveLL]

Will

There wasn’t that much assessment.
Existing Platinum Charge got doubling of points.
Everyone else didn’t except some one offs who managed to get it on an exception basis by calling up.
New Platinum Charge have holders get a longer period before changes kick in.

Will new platinum charge holders get double points too?

 

[pauly7]

I spoke to AMEX today. She was quite clear that unless I had an expensive platinum charge card (cost over $1000 per annum), then I would not get doubling of points full stop. She indicated that if you only have a Platinum Edge card, then no doubling of points even if you have been a aMEX card holder for years and have spend a bit of money on it.

Therefore, the decision has been made for me.

I wonder if you took out a platinum charge, then tried to transfer your edge points across to ascent premium whether they would get doubled...

 

[daft009]

I wonder if you took out a platinum charge, then tried to transfer your edge points across to ascent premium whether they would get doubled...

I asked and was told no

 

[pauly7]

I asked and was told no

No no no Worth the ask. Thanks for reporting back. So frustrating my neighbour has had a plat charge for 6 months - getting it doubled, my father has held a Corp green, gold and edge for about 13 years (not all for 13 years obviously) and no doubled.

 

[maccaisking]

I wonder if you took out a platinum charge, then tried to transfer your edge points across to ascent premium whether they would get doubled...

I asked and was told no

Agree with daft009. You had to hold the Plat Charge at the time they announced the devaluation

 

[piratematerial]

1/ They still in general offer more reward points than anyone else.

2/ They still have more transfer options than most of their competitors

Transfer options is a big one. I can’t think of another hotel partner I can transfer to with my non AMEX cards, except by going Kris Flyer > Shangri La Golden Circle at a fairly eyewatering 12:1 ratio.

 

[daft009]

Agree with daft009. You had to hold the Plat Charge at the time they announced the devaluation

Pity as personally I had been sitting on the fence since Sept to get the platinum or not. If only I had baah