New Amex offer - 40K points when you take out Plat card

[Nottingham Nick]

Found over on FT.

Link to Amex site.

£1500 spend in first three months required.

Bugger... wish I had waited.

IIRC, the Plat card has excellent car hire insurance, as well as Priority Pass.

Wonder if you can upgrade after you have the 20K points for the gold card offer?

Nick

and don't forget quidco cashback.

Priority Pass is a great benefit. E.g. If you don't have clubhouse access at JFK, the other 3 lounges you can get into are a lot better than wandering round T4.

Bugger... wish I had waited.

Nick

Was thinking the same but looking back over last couple of months spend I don't think I would have got the £1.5k spend so 20k miles better than none !

[Neil]

That is a good offe, especially as you can convert to FC miles at 1:1 ratio.

The Plat cards benefits really do outweigh the £300, priority pass is useful, but the travel and car insurance benefits are excellent, and we have had some excellent savings and benefits thanks to FHR.

[buns]

Of course, if your desire to earn miles is the pressing issue then the VS Amex Card does bring higher mileages

buns

As Locutus mentions don't forget Quido cashback....£60

[Nottingham Nick]

Of course, if your desire to earn miles is the pressing issue then the VS Amex Card does bring higher mileages

buns

Totally agree, Andy.

But, whilst the pseudo Amex card is fabulous for earning miles, I do miss the benefits that the Plat card offered when I had it, I am certainly tempted to upgrade, but will wait until I get my 20K bonus miles from the gold card.

Nick

[Neil]

Of course, if your desire to earn miles is the pressing issue then the VS Amex Card does bring higher mileages

buns

Totally agree. Our spend on the Plat card is tiny, nearly everything goes on the VS AmEx so we earn the miles, but the benefits of the Plat card make it worthwhile.

Has anyone actually got the cashback from Amex into their Quidco acc?

Just rec'd a ticket update declining see below:

Quid-bot wrote 02 Jul 10 at 06:45

Response from Merchant. Order not found (Applicable only for untracked sales)

Julie wrote 02 Jul 10 at 17:05

Hi Andrew,

Your American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card enquiry has been declined for incorrect reason. We are currently working with the merchant to have your enquiry reinvestigated and resolved as soon as possible. We apologise for any frustration caused by this and we will update your enquiry with any progress on this.

Very frustrating - beginning to wish I'd not bothered.

Andrew

Has anyone actually got the cashback from Amex into their Quidco acc?

Andrew

Not got the cash yet (for the Gold card) but I've been told it's all approved and on the way.

Paul

Has anyone actually got the cashback from Amex into their Quidco acc?

Andrew

Not got the cash yet (for the Gold card) but I've been told it's all approved and on the way.

Paul

Mine is showing as validated too .
DL

Very happy in our household as finally got the 20K MR points off the Gold card offer and duly transferred to VS FC. Then the Platinum card arrived (in a rather posh pack) yesterday, so another 40K miles very soon! As Neil says the benefits surrounding travel insurance & all the other perks effectively pay for the Platinum card. We'll definitely be cancelling our annual travel insurance policies when renewal comes up shortly & that alone goes a long way to paying the annual fee . Also looking forward to having business lounges every time we fly anywhere!

[Bazz]

When did this promo start? I only ask because I downgraded from Centurion to Plat a while back and have got the required spend for the 40k MRPs.

Loving this nice little offer... just applied, so hopefull all should go through shortly.

Extremely pleased with this offer, just been approved card should be with me in the next 10 day and it has almost paid for itself with the travel insurance which was due next month anyway.

Although i am hilton gold already, does the starwood membership of which im already a member but with no points, get me status similar to hilton gold?

cheers

alex

[Neil]

SPG gold is okay, but not as good at HH Gold in my experiences. We got a couple of nice room upgrades on our recent trip to the states, bonus miles and late check out, so it certainly is worth having.

It does take quite a while for the partner cards to come through and pestering them is certainly advisable as they do drag their feet. The Priority Passes on the other hand are very easy and quick to get.

Neil

Has anyone actually got the cashback from Amex into their Quidco acc?

Just rec'd a ticket update declining see below:

Quid-bot wrote 02 Jul 10 at 06:45

Response from Merchant. Order not found (Applicable only for untracked sales)

Julie wrote 02 Jul 10 at 17:05

Hi Andrew,

Your American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card enquiry has been declined for incorrect reason. We are currently working with the merchant to have your enquiry reinvestigated and resolved as soon as possible. We apologise for any frustration caused by this and we will update your enquiry with any progress on this.

Very frustrating - beginning to wish I'd not bothered.

Andrew

I'm having problems too and am not happy v( . They are saying that as mine wasn't completed fully online I cannot get the £60 quidco offer.
Basically I completed the application online via the Quidco site and it said my application was pending as they could not give me an answer there and then. A couple of days later I recieved a phone call saying that my credit rating was excellent and that my card was in the post. The Amex staff member said that it wasn't authorised immediatly as I had both moved house in the past 3 years and I was self employed so they had to do additional checks.

Can't see why this is my fault and I still believe I should be given the credit.

-Steve

Yes I experienced similar, it referred and did not appear in Quidco. However, one morning a few days later I got a "Validated" email and about an hour later someone phoned me to confirm I had been accepted. One assumes that it should auto-validate as soon as you are accepted.

I'm having problems too and am not happy v( . They are saying that as mine wasn't completed fully online I cannot get the £60 quidco offer.
Basically I completed the application online via the Quidco site and it said my application was pending as they could not give me an answer there and then. A couple of days later I recieved a phone call saying that my credit rating was excellent and that my card was in the post. The Amex staff member said that it wasn't authorised immediatly as I had both moved house in the past 3 years and I was self employed so they had to do additional checks.

That shouldn't be an impairment to your receiving the cashback. I was in the same situation in that the online application said they would be making extra checks (I suspect because I hold a company Amex) and then I received a phone call saying my card was on the way. I did, however, have to raise an Earnings Enquiry (which it sounds like you have done) to get the validation.

My AMEX application wasn't accepted immediatly either (probbaly due to a recent change in job as I've lived in the same flat for 18 years and am on the electoral roll).

I think I applied on a Sunday but the following Friday I had a phone call from them but as I was in a lift I just shut it off. When I dialled the number it said it was for ourbound calls only but it WAS Amex. They never tried to call again. My card turned up the following week.

It did not track on Quidco (though none of my purchases has ever tracked automatically so I have to do manual claims which is irritating) so I put in a query as soon as their system allowed me to which after a few weeks turned into 'validated' so at least I'm in the system!

Just thinking about how best to spend my 40k points, i would appreciate if someone could confirm that i can send the 40k points to my baec and that its still 25k points per person to upgrade from wt+ to club world because if so i have had 8k ba points going to waste for years that i never thought i would use.

cheers

alex

[RichardMannion]

SPG gold is okay, but not as good at HH Gold in my experiences. We got a couple of nice room upgrades on our recent trip to the states, bonus miles and late check out, so it certainly is worth having.

It does take quite a while for the partner cards to come through and pestering them is certainly advisable as they do drag their feet. The Priority Passes on the other hand are very easy and quick to get.

Neil

That is interesting - I'd always rank SPG Gold above HH Gold, just like SPG Plat is above HH Diamond. Hilton seem insistent on giving HH Gold out at every opportunity; it wouldn't surprise me if there are more HH Gold members than there are Silver members.

I seem to recall that SPG and Hilton Gold are both for one year only on AmEx Platinum (Charge).

Thanks,
Richard

[Neil]

That is interesting - I'd always rank SPG Gold above HH Gold, just like SPG Plat is above HH Diamond. Hilton seem insistent on giving HH Gold out at every opportunity; it wouldn't surprise me if there are more HH Gold members than there are Silver members.

I seem to recall that SPG and Hilton Gold are both for one year only on AmEx Platinum (Charge).

Thanks,
Richard

Just my personal experiences with each programme, but I feel HH Gold has been more beneficial.

I'm not sure about how long SPG Gold is meant to last for through the Plat card, but HH Gold is certainly only meant to be one year. Saying that, I am now in my 3rd membership year, always been Gold and earlier in the year I got upgraded to HH Diamond, even though my number of stays/point was very small y)

Neil

I seem to recall that SPG and Hilton Gold are both for one year only on AmEx Platinum (Charge).
Thanks,
Richard

As per website:

Hilton HHonors® Gold VIP membership retention for 1 year without having to earn status (normally 16 paid stays, 36 nights or 60,000 base points in a year).
Starwood Preferred Guest Gold membership retained as long as you remain an American Express Platinum Cardmember
goldpoints plus™ from Radisson Silver Elite membership retention for 1 year without having to earn status (normally 10 stays or 15nts at a Radisson hotel in the previous calendar year)

If we lose, we sack the card, then reapply under mrs NH? Simples!

[Nottingham Nick]

My SPG Gold keeps on being renewed, even though it is years since I have stayed in Starwood hotels more than a couple of times a year, and even longer since I had an Amex Plat card.

Nick