Do I still need my Amex Platinum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I keep wanted to get into this game, but it sounds like such a huge pain. Is it really worth it?

No. Marketing is better than the reality. Time consuming, expensive card fees, and still requires a fair bit of luck.

We instead have a minimal fee (below $100) hotel chain CC which includes 1 free night (which we would use anyway - which we do use each year). That is our everyday CC and gives bonuses for anything travel related, including airline tickets, other brand hotels, rental cars, and any restaurants. We basically get our vacation hotel stays either for free or nearly free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep wanted to get into this game, but it sounds like such a huge pain. Is it really worth it?

That's up to you.

It isn't very hard. Read a couple websites and your off to the races.

I started 2 years ago. Spent a Saturday afternoon reading about how to do it and then all of a sudden I had 2 million points. My normal monthly credit card spend is probably about 2000.

The most time consuming part is making the travel arrangements. That can take a long time. But there are paid services that will do the leg work for you. Places like points.me, roame, seats.aero and others.

2M? s0me details. I am stockiling now with Amex Gold. Saving f0r business class to Australia or China for 4.

+1

Australia in biz for 4 is very unlikely unless you are watching availability like a hawk. China probably easier as more flights restart. But still hard, especially for.more than 2 people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best perks (IMO) for Amex Platinum:

1) Centurion Lounge access (and if you spend $75K+ in a year, for a guest as well)
2) Travel---Great rates on luxury hotels, with guaranteed 4pm checkout, possible early checkin, room upgrade if available, a $100-150 credit per stay and FREE breakfast ($75-90 credit typically).

Spouse has AmexPlatinum, I have Sapphire reserve. I think AmexPlatinum is a better deal.
You get enough perks (Airline credit of $200 I think, $15 off Uber monthly, TSAPre free every 5 years) that the cost is not that much

This is very much a YMMV situation. I can see someone else valuing as described above, but it does not work for us, Just as a comparison, and btw we are not clever about this “game”:

We do not value Centurion lounges highly. Usually, they are not near our airline’s gates, often in a completely different terminal behind a different security checkpoint, and they always always are very crowded. Further, we do not spend enough for DS to get in, let alone the kids. Same limitations are mostly true for the new Chase and Capitol One lounges, to be fair. On domestic flights, we do not really care about lounges. For international travel, DS has lifetime gold status with United, so we have free lounge access for whole family at any Star Alliance lounge.

We get free nights at a widely available hotel chain, using their low cost CC (less than $100/yr) rather than pay for hotels, and we get free breakfast, free early check-in, and free late checkout anyway from our hotel status. Hotel status is easy to maintain with a little work travel at the same hotel chain plus the annual stay credits from the hotel CC and earned stay credits from hotel CC spend.

Each person should do what makes sense for their situation…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where did you get lounge access with a shower? That's pretty rare for the Priority Pass lounges most Plat holders will use. Usually it's only the premium airline lounges for international business class tickets that have those.

It was Changi. Had an 8h layover and used 2 different lounges, at least one had a shower. I didnt look for the second lounge.

Singapore Airport is wonderful, but that quality of PP lounge is unusual most places.

[Anonymous]

It comes down for me to whether you cover the annual fee with the perks, or not. If you do, and you travel a fair bit, yes. If not, probably the Gold is better bc it’s much cheaper and gives you 4xpts on restaurants and groceries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

I just got a Sapphire Reserve.
Then I switched the 3 additional cards I had on Amex Platinum to companion cards, which has no fee. My husband lost his Priority Pass on Amex but regained it on the Sapphire Reserve. I have another 4 months before my Platinum fees are due. Not sure if I'll keep it or not but we'll start transitioning all our spending on the Sapphire card.

What I plan to use on Sapphire Reserve right away:
- $300 travel credit. I'm about to book a flight. Will book it on their portal to get the 10x points.
- The Chase Lounge at Dulles.

One thing I'll miss on the Amex platinum is the $20 digital entertainment credit.
The Uber cash has been nice, but we don't use uber much so our credits usually expire.
We haven't used any of the Luxury hotel credits-- I just don't like to pay more than $400 a night for a hotel, even with the credit, it's still too much.
What else will I miss?

Recommend against booking the flight through the Chase portal. You will still get 3x points if you book directly through the airline, and if there are any flight changes or issues, you really want to be able to go directly to the airline to deal with it, versus having to start with the Chase travel agency, and then have them bring in the airline. Lots of horror stories online about ticketing issues in those sorts of situations

In terms of the Amex Plat, the new Centurion Lounge at DCA looks set to open in the next 2 months. Probably won't move the needle on renewal, but something to go check out if you have a flight out of DCA soon

Dulles Chase lounge is nice and has good food, but is small and I am sure will get crowded quickly with how many Sapphire Reserve holders there must be in the DCA area, and they get started using it now that it's opened. Just be prepared to deal with waits to use it- really common with popular lounges now.

I work in the industry (not for Chase travel, although I know many of the people running it) and this is wrong. Chase is a huge company and Sapphire Reserve is one of their flagship products. They have relationships with travel partners that give them way bigger leverage in the event of an issue than you have as a non-elite traveler. Booking through their portal can be very advantageous.

[Anonymous]

I currently don't pay the annual fee, but even if I did, it would be worth it to us for the lounge access alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

I just got a Sapphire Reserve.
Then I switched the 3 additional cards I had on Amex Platinum to companion cards, which has no fee. My husband lost his Priority Pass on Amex but regained it on the Sapphire Reserve. I have another 4 months before my Platinum fees are due. Not sure if I'll keep it or not but we'll start transitioning all our spending on the Sapphire card.

What I plan to use on Sapphire Reserve right away:
- $300 travel credit. I'm about to book a flight. Will book it on their portal to get the 10x points.
- The Chase Lounge at Dulles.

One thing I'll miss on the Amex platinum is the $20 digital entertainment credit.
The Uber cash has been nice, but we don't use uber much so our credits usually expire.
We haven't used any of the Luxury hotel credits-- I just don't like to pay more than $400 a night for a hotel, even with the credit, it's still too much.
What else will I miss?

Recommend against booking the flight through the Chase portal. You will still get 3x points if you book directly through the airline, and if there are any flight changes or issues, you really want to be able to go directly to the airline to deal with it, versus having to start with the Chase travel agency, and then have them bring in the airline. Lots of horror stories online about ticketing issues in those sorts of situations

In terms of the Amex Plat, the new Centurion Lounge at DCA looks set to open in the next 2 months. Probably won't move the needle on renewal, but something to go check out if you have a flight out of DCA soon

Dulles Chase lounge is nice and has good food, but is small and I am sure will get crowded quickly with how many Sapphire Reserve holders there must be in the DCA area, and they get started using it now that it's opened. Just be prepared to deal with waits to use it- really common with popular lounges now.

I work in the industry (not for Chase travel, although I know many of the people running it) and this is wrong. Chase is a huge company and Sapphire Reserve is one of their flagship products. They have relationships with travel partners that give them way bigger leverage in the event of an issue than you have as a non-elite traveler. Booking through their portal can be very advantageous.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/s/auT0geuARb

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChaseSapphire/s/QIDSfJ6soB

All the responses (and elsewhere) are a version of "never book through a travel agent or credit card points portal, always book direct through airline".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

I just got a Sapphire Reserve.
Then I switched the 3 additional cards I had on Amex Platinum to companion cards, which has no fee. My husband lost his Priority Pass on Amex but regained it on the Sapphire Reserve. I have another 4 months before my Platinum fees are due. Not sure if I'll keep it or not but we'll start transitioning all our spending on the Sapphire card.

What I plan to use on Sapphire Reserve right away:
- $300 travel credit. I'm about to book a flight. Will book it on their portal to get the 10x points.
- The Chase Lounge at Dulles.

One thing I'll miss on the Amex platinum is the $20 digital entertainment credit.
The Uber cash has been nice, but we don't use uber much so our credits usually expire.
We haven't used any of the Luxury hotel credits-- I just don't like to pay more than $400 a night for a hotel, even with the credit, it's still too much.
What else will I miss?

Recommend against booking the flight through the Chase portal. You will still get 3x points if you book directly through the airline, and if there are any flight changes or issues, you really want to be able to go directly to the airline to deal with it, versus having to start with the Chase travel agency, and then have them bring in the airline. Lots of horror stories online about ticketing issues in those sorts of situations

In terms of the Amex Plat, the new Centurion Lounge at DCA looks set to open in the next 2 months. Probably won't move the needle on renewal, but something to go check out if you have a flight out of DCA soon

Dulles Chase lounge is nice and has good food, but is small and I am sure will get crowded quickly with how many Sapphire Reserve holders there must be in the DCA area, and they get started using it now that it's opened. Just be prepared to deal with waits to use it- really common with popular lounges now.

I work in the industry (not for Chase travel, although I know many of the people running it) and this is wrong. Chase is a huge company and Sapphire Reserve is one of their flagship products. They have relationships with travel partners that give them way bigger leverage in the event of an issue than you have as a non-elite traveler. Booking through their portal can be very advantageous.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/s/auT0geuARb

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChaseSapphire/s/QIDSfJ6soB

All the responses (and elsewhere) are a version of "never book through a travel agent or credit card points portal, always book direct through airline".

Every frequent traveler knows this.

[Anonymous]

OP here.
Thank you for the heads up on the Sapphire Portal.
I've used the Amex portal many times and had no issues. Is Amex better in that regard?

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are people finding that doesn’t accept AmEx (other than Costco)? I can’t remember the last time I was anywhere that wasn’t cash only but didn’t accept AmEx. With the rise of aggregators like Stripe and Square, most small places take every card now.

Platinum is a no brainer if you travel a lot. Air credit plus hotel credit plus streaming credits plus lounge plus Saks. Fine Hotels is a great program for nice hotels, and air transfer partners are great. Transfer to Air Canada for Star Alliance redemptions if needed.

I pay for both Platinum and CSR and still save money from them…

You are probably not traveling a lot outside of the US.
Amex cards are widely accepted it in the US, but not in Europe for example. Many places don’t take Amex.

We used it all over UK and Paris in the last six months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
Thank you for the heads up on the Sapphire Portal.
I've used the Amex portal many times and had no issues. Is Amex better in that regard?

Thank you

No, you may run into similar issues. It's just the addition of a 3rd party in between you and the airline that's the fundamental issue. Now, if you are taking a simple flight say by yourself on a very common route, say to Boston or Chicago, you are unlikely to run into any issues - those schedules don't change much and you should be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are people finding that doesn’t accept AmEx (other than Costco)? I can’t remember the last time I was anywhere that wasn’t cash only but didn’t accept AmEx. With the rise of aggregators like Stripe and Square, most small places take every card now.

Platinum is a no brainer if you travel a lot. Air credit plus hotel credit plus streaming credits plus lounge plus Saks. Fine Hotels is a great program for nice hotels, and air transfer partners are great. Transfer to Air Canada for Star Alliance redemptions if needed.

I pay for both Platinum and CSR and still save money from them…

You are probably not traveling a lot outside of the US.
Amex cards are widely accepted it in the US, but not in Europe for example. Many places don’t take Amex.

We used it all over UK and Paris in the last six months.

In Italy and non-Paris France 2 years ago, only about 25% of places took Amex. Yes in the UK it was widely accepted.

[Anonymous]

With regards to other countries accepting Amex, I used to not have any issues traveling in Asia for the last 20+ years, but in the last 3 years, I've found that there are more and more places not taking Amex.

We're going to Ireland soon and a local on YouTube said Amex isn't accepted in most places.

Heck, I was surprised that even Expedia doesn't take Amex!