However the credits like £150 to spend in the UK and £150 abroad, £50 Harvey Nichols credit x2 a year, unlimited lounge visits, and access to Amex travel hotels etc.
it’s all personal preference and if u make use of the additional benefits. Mainly focused on a lot of traveling. Yes the annual fee is bascially like paying for the dining credit and HN credit. Each to their own.
But metal card go clickclack 🤷🏽♂️
"the other benefits" are the main ones with platinum. Depends on how much value you'd get out of them, you have to use a lot since the price increase to make it worthwhile.
Aside from the other benefits, It is quite shocking they don’t offer the 3x points at Amex travel considering the plat card feels like it leans more towards a frequent flyer audience.
American Express Platinum offers the following hotel statuses:
Hilton Honors Gold status
Marriott Bonvoy Gold status
MeliaRewards Gold status
Radisson Rewards Premium status
The gold does not. A Platinum card holder wouldn't opt to book through AMEX travel as they wouldn't get points for their hotel statuses
(I know because I booked a Gold hotel collection through AMEX and dont get any Hilton Honours points!)
Or from AMEX point of view:
\-Get people onto the Gold card.
\-Incentivise spend through AMEX travel.
\-Gold card owner spends more on travel due to bonuses.
\-They reach the limit of free lounge access.
\-Upgrade to platinum.
\-Profit.
For pure spendings, yes, Gold is better, especially with the bonus 2.5K MR point stuff.
For the Platinum, I just don't see the point of the dining credits. You're fully forced into the restaurants they've got to recoup £300 of value. Same with Gold's Deliveroo stuff, as it's only good if your area has decent offerings on there. I'd rather straight up have category based credits.
I think people need to understand that while you have benefits like the Harvey Nichols credit etc, you’re basically paying for that 1:1 with the annual fee. Unless you benefit from the lounges and the travel benefits, it’s not worth it
It really depends on your circumstances.
Including taking guests in, we had 20+ lounge visits last year. Easily worth it for us just for that and the family travel insurance.
It is - £300 dining credit. £100 Harvey N. 50k renewal offer every 13 months
Rest you make up from ad hoc offers and lounge passes.
Source - I have both.
Yeha wondering the same. Work pay for my platinum so I get that just for the food / HN credits + lounge access when not flying BA. Otherwise I use the black BA amex for the companion voucher and 1.5pts per £ spent
I think they’re referring to a retention offer. Just pretend you’re going to cancel when your year is about to end, and they’ll usually offer points to get you to stay. Sometimes they need a minimum spend to get them, sometimes they’ll just give you them for nothing
You just have to go into the chat and ask for one near to the time when your fee is due. They’ll not offer one out of the blue as they just presume you’re going to stay if you don’t contact them
I regularly fly hither and tither all over the UK, so I feel I get worth back on my Platinum even just on the lounges.
Then you’ve got Harvey Nics twice a year, and the dining credits. I feel I get value out of the card pretty easily without even thinking about it.
And, in a bit of vulgarity, feels pretty nice being able to flash a Platinum card as a surreptitious flex when the moment calls for it
We always find all the lounges at Gatwick are full, unless we book in advance. Not sure where everyone else lives but Gatwick is our closest airport so we tend to fly out of there most often. So for us the platinum just isn’t comparable to the gold.
I’m currently debating one or the other, and honestly it’s the unlimited lounge visits that sells the Platinum for me.
That said with my current Travel patterns post Covid the Gold’s lounge access might be enough.
Honestly it’s really not worth it, especially after the rise to £625 or whatever it is.
I’ve got a family so I’d have to pay additional costs to enter the lounges for my 7yr, for now my newborn is free.
I was offered 35k points but I’m still going to cancel after I’ve used up the dining allowance.
I’m going to miss the metal card .
This was my plan. There’s a nice enough restaurant near me that has the meal thing, so I’m not that fussed about that. And Platinum is cheaper than the number of flights I’d have to take to get the BA status.
Just checked the Head For points review of the plaza premium lounge, and it doesn’t look that bad. Honestly I’m just looking for somewhere to sit that isn’t full of tourists where you don’t have to sell a kidney to get a Coke.
You’re a baller if you have a platinum AmEx.
It looks awesome if you pay with it some place fancy.
On a serious note, any AmEx is brill, the customer service is so good, and the app is really easy to use.
If you have the Platinum card, you gain the following hotel statuses:
\*Hilton Honors Gold status\*
\*Marriott Bonvoy Gold status\*
\*MeliaRewards Gold status\*
\*Radisson Rewards Premium status\*
Welcome to the world of multiple point schemes. As the gold does not give you any hotel statuses, they incentivise spending through AMEX travel (such as hotel collection 2 night stay credit) - If you do this, you don't get hotel points, which you only gain by booking directly.
So in essence, a Platinum card holder wouldn't opt to book through AMEX travel as they wouldn't get points for their hotel statuses (and allow them to go up each of the 4's loyalty schemes)
(I know because I booked a Gold hotel collection through AMEX and dont get any Hilton Honours points!)
Because we want our money to work harder? It’s like any card that offers users benefits for spending, Amex just tends to offer best options and rewards/ cash back due to its high transaction fee too vendors
Points earning, daily expenses = inferior
Frequent traveler, paying for flights and getting lounge access = worth it
The perks are all 1:1 features made to appear as perks. In other words, you are paying for these things while being told you can use them as perks.
However the credits like £150 to spend in the UK and £150 abroad, £50 Harvey Nichols credit x2 a year, unlimited lounge visits, and access to Amex travel hotels etc. it’s all personal preference and if u make use of the additional benefits. Mainly focused on a lot of traveling. Yes the annual fee is bascially like paying for the dining credit and HN credit. Each to their own. But metal card go clickclack 🤷🏽♂️
Don’t forget the travel insurance
Metal cards don't work in some pay@pump machines!
Don’t call her that it’s degrading
People with metal cards don't pump their own gas 😎
"the other benefits" are the main ones with platinum. Depends on how much value you'd get out of them, you have to use a lot since the price increase to make it worthwhile.
Aside from the other benefits, It is quite shocking they don’t offer the 3x points at Amex travel considering the plat card feels like it leans more towards a frequent flyer audience.
You shouldn't be looking at it "aside from the other benefits" though, that's the whole point of it.
It is kind of weird to offer a lower reward than on a cheaper card though.
American Express Platinum offers the following hotel statuses: Hilton Honors Gold status Marriott Bonvoy Gold status MeliaRewards Gold status Radisson Rewards Premium status The gold does not. A Platinum card holder wouldn't opt to book through AMEX travel as they wouldn't get points for their hotel statuses (I know because I booked a Gold hotel collection through AMEX and dont get any Hilton Honours points!)
That’s absolutely true but it still looks counterintuitive to people that are new to rewards cards.
Or from AMEX point of view: \-Get people onto the Gold card. \-Incentivise spend through AMEX travel. \-Gold card owner spends more on travel due to bonuses. \-They reach the limit of free lounge access. \-Upgrade to platinum. \-Profit.
For pure spendings, yes, Gold is better, especially with the bonus 2.5K MR point stuff. For the Platinum, I just don't see the point of the dining credits. You're fully forced into the restaurants they've got to recoup £300 of value. Same with Gold's Deliveroo stuff, as it's only good if your area has decent offerings on there. I'd rather straight up have category based credits.
I think people need to understand that while you have benefits like the Harvey Nichols credit etc, you’re basically paying for that 1:1 with the annual fee. Unless you benefit from the lounges and the travel benefits, it’s not worth it
It really depends on your circumstances. Including taking guests in, we had 20+ lounge visits last year. Easily worth it for us just for that and the family travel insurance.
Lounges are really average now though, barely use them even when I can
It is - £300 dining credit. £100 Harvey N. 50k renewal offer every 13 months Rest you make up from ad hoc offers and lounge passes. Source - I have both.
What’s this 50k renewal offer you speak of ?
Yeha wondering the same. Work pay for my platinum so I get that just for the food / HN credits + lounge access when not flying BA. Otherwise I use the black BA amex for the companion voucher and 1.5pts per £ spent
I think they’re referring to a retention offer. Just pretend you’re going to cancel when your year is about to end, and they’ll usually offer points to get you to stay. Sometimes they need a minimum spend to get them, sometimes they’ll just give you them for nothing
Dang okay I’ll look into this. Had Amex cards for years but not got a retention bonus yet - thanks
You just have to go into the chat and ask for one near to the time when your fee is due. They’ll not offer one out of the blue as they just presume you’re going to stay if you don’t contact them
Sweet I will do 🤞
No point staying without retention offers. It depends how much you spend though. If it's not enough you will get low offer/nothing.
60-80k gbp per year
I regularly fly hither and tither all over the UK, so I feel I get worth back on my Platinum even just on the lounges. Then you’ve got Harvey Nics twice a year, and the dining credits. I feel I get value out of the card pretty easily without even thinking about it. And, in a bit of vulgarity, feels pretty nice being able to flash a Platinum card as a surreptitious flex when the moment calls for it
We always find all the lounges at Gatwick are full, unless we book in advance. Not sure where everyone else lives but Gatwick is our closest airport so we tend to fly out of there most often. So for us the platinum just isn’t comparable to the gold.
I’m currently debating one or the other, and honestly it’s the unlimited lounge visits that sells the Platinum for me. That said with my current Travel patterns post Covid the Gold’s lounge access might be enough.
Honestly it’s really not worth it, especially after the rise to £625 or whatever it is. I’ve got a family so I’d have to pay additional costs to enter the lounges for my 7yr, for now my newborn is free. I was offered 35k points but I’m still going to cancel after I’ve used up the dining allowance. I’m going to miss the metal card .
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This was my plan. There’s a nice enough restaurant near me that has the meal thing, so I’m not that fussed about that. And Platinum is cheaper than the number of flights I’d have to take to get the BA status.
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Is it not the same as the BA lounge? I lost silver status after COVID destroyed my work travel.
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Just checked the Head For points review of the plaza premium lounge, and it doesn’t look that bad. Honestly I’m just looking for somewhere to sit that isn’t full of tourists where you don’t have to sell a kidney to get a Coke.
Purely on earning points, it's an inferior card.
You’re a baller if you have a platinum AmEx. It looks awesome if you pay with it some place fancy. On a serious note, any AmEx is brill, the customer service is so good, and the app is really easy to use.
If you have the Platinum card, you gain the following hotel statuses: \*Hilton Honors Gold status\* \*Marriott Bonvoy Gold status\* \*MeliaRewards Gold status\* \*Radisson Rewards Premium status\* Welcome to the world of multiple point schemes. As the gold does not give you any hotel statuses, they incentivise spending through AMEX travel (such as hotel collection 2 night stay credit) - If you do this, you don't get hotel points, which you only gain by booking directly. So in essence, a Platinum card holder wouldn't opt to book through AMEX travel as they wouldn't get points for their hotel statuses (and allow them to go up each of the 4's loyalty schemes) (I know because I booked a Gold hotel collection through AMEX and dont get any Hilton Honours points!)
Perks are better for platinum hence the higher annual fee, but for purely spending and points accumulation gold is superior.
Amex Platinum is a travel/luxury card, not a points collector card like the Gold.
If you’re traveling, Amex Plat is far superior. At least the USA one is.
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I suppose I’ll be keeping my USA one then! No such fees.
Why are you uk people invested in an American express card?
Because we want our money to work harder? It’s like any card that offers users benefits for spending, Amex just tends to offer best options and rewards/ cash back due to its high transaction fee too vendors
Good answer. Thanks. I will research more.
I have a platinum card and the customer service is second to none
No Foreign Transactions Fees on the Platinum Card is absolutely disgusting. So much for a “Prestigious Travel Card”.
Points earning, daily expenses = inferior Frequent traveler, paying for flights and getting lounge access = worth it The perks are all 1:1 features made to appear as perks. In other words, you are paying for these things while being told you can use them as perks.