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I tried my own comparison a few months ago. There is a specific beer, Heady Topper from the Alchemist Brewing Company in Waterbury, VT. Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Irene last year the brewery was pretty much wiped off the map. A few days later, though, their cannery that they had been working on opened, and they only produced the Heady Topper in limited quantities.
I live in NYC, and was fortunate enough to have several at bars. To say it's the best iPA you've ever had would be an understatement. Needless to say, I had to have some for myself, but couldn't find it ANYWHERE. While neither concierge was able to get me any, the lengths they went to were different. The request was for a four pack of cans to take home. Visa got the request correct, and did a TON of research, found a store that had had it, but since had sold out (in about an hour!).
Amex also had a difficult time finding it, did not mention this particular store that Visa did at all, BUT FOUND IT AT A BAR!!! I didn't ask to go to the bar and have it, I asked to be given the name of a local store that I could find it at! Fail. And this took much more time than Visa did.
Similarly, I needed a St. Louis Cardinals jersey ASAP in June. So I e-mailed Amex asking the question, got an auto-reply back, and never heard anything more. Opened a request with Visa online, within an hour or two I had a phone call telling me where I could go buy one.
Visa wins (which is sad, I pay no AF for my Siggy).
I too have my own comparison!
Last week, I was on my honeymoon in Scottsdale (AZ) and we were at a 5 star resort. Well, my bride really wanted to go horseback riding and after a little pouting and some light arguing I took a walk down to the lobby only to find the resort's concierge left at 7 PM. I figure either I'm really in for it now or I can call American Express Platinum concierge to get me out of this pickle.
I used to tout the wonders of calling the Platinum number and having someone pick up on the first ring and because my phone number is tracked, there is very little need for entering much identifying information. Perhaps I caught them on an 'off' night; it was Tuesday after all, but I went in circles via the IVR until I just kept yelling CONCIERGE like a fool wandering the resort's grounds. Finally woke some one up over there and when I explained I wanted to go trail riding, the rep acted as if I was requesting something new and alien. She told me it was late (about 830PM in Arizona) and she'd work on locating and reserving and she'd call me back in about 90 minutes.
That simply wouldn't work considering the immediate need to ride some horses!
I then turned to my JPM Select and the Visa concierge number on it's backside. Got someone on the line with very little button pushing. The nice rep was able to find a place about 10 miles away and make an online reservation. No worries. It took about 10 minutes of phone time. Funny, but when the reservation was complete, AMEX was calling the same time. I never answered.
If I didn't make use of the other benefits AMEX Platinum offered, I'd really be upset about the $450 I pay to carry that card.
ummmm you...get...perks with certain cards??? CONCIERGE service??? like a personal shopper for your needs? I gotta get my credit score up in the 7s *faints*
Does anyone have any experience with MasterCard's concierge? I haven't given it a whirl yet, don't know what to expect.
Wow. Baller status in this thread...
I'm late to this party, but I just had to give kudos to the OP for posting his research on a very interesting topic. I have always ignored the concierge option on both my Visa Sig and AMEX, but this sheds new light. Fascinating, thank you!