Page 1 of 1
help with choosing card

Posted:
04 Sep 2006, 10:43
by rupsingh
Hey there guys, need your collective help on this one
The 2 cards i am considering are the amex platinum and amex VS card!
With the amex platinum for my yearly spend of £120K i am looking at getting approx £1500 cashback from it, and if i go with the VS card approx 120K fc miles. The question im asking is how easy is it to get reward availability, and is it just better for me to get the cashback card and use the cash to buy flights instead of the fc miles
any help or advice would be much appreciated. Ps have rung up platinum amex and they have accepted me with a 25k limit, although i have not accepted it
thanks
Rups[8D]

Posted:
04 Sep 2006, 11:18
by v8gaz
Rups,
Why would yo go for the 1 mile per poind card and not thee 2? that would give you 240k miles a year, which will get you a lot further than 1500 quid. You do get a lot of other things with the plat amex, such as the insurance and the lounge access - that's why I carry both.

Posted:
04 Sep 2006, 11:27
by Littlejohn
Not sure about the benefit of the insurace and lounge access in all cases. An annual policy worldwide with columbus (the one with the St Bernard) for me and the Minister of the Interior cost £65 and I got priority pass thrown in for free (the membership with the £15 charge). I could have had the higher membership with an equivelent discount, but as I tend to travel business, what's the point?

Posted:
04 Sep 2006, 11:36
by rupsingh
i do realise the miles will get me alot further, BUT how easy is it to get reward availablity. I was speaking to a friend who advised me it was pretty hard hard getting a seat unless you booked 12 months in advance? also do you have to pay taxes on reward flights?

Posted:
04 Sep 2006, 12:02
by HighFlyer
Originally posted by rupsingh
i do realise the miles will get me alot further, BUT how easy is it to get reward availablity. I was speaking to a friend who advised me it was pretty hard hard getting a seat unless you booked 12 months in advance? also do you have to pay taxes on reward flights?
Depends greatly on the route and time of travel. Obviously the more flexible you can be the greater your chance of getting reward seats. Normally i have never had an issue. The last reward seats i booked were a bit of a nightmare, not having any G's on Saturdays in the month i wanted to travel, although there was availability on Fridays. We did book about 6 weeks before departure though.
Some routes are difficult to get reward seats on at short notice, some routes have silly numbers of reward seats. It really is hard to quantify. What sort of routes would you be wanting to fly?
Yes you have to pay the taxes on the reward flights.
Thanks,
Sarah

Posted:
04 Sep 2006, 13:06
by rupsingh
The routes i would most likley be trying to get reward seats are, to DEL,NYC,SFO. Whats availability like on these routes?

Posted:
09 Sep 2006, 12:12
by rupsingh
ok just to give you guys an update, i went for the amex platinum, black vs card and classic bmi for the non amex places. Thanks for your help people
Rups