topic Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes in Credit Cards

Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

NoMoreE46 — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 00:34:36 GMT

In LA and NYC.

Gold members get $25 off the $100 ticket price for the upcoming special events.

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/newsroom/articles/products-and-services/welcome-to-the-amex--gold-cafe.html

https://blog.resy.com/2024/08/amex-gold-cafe/

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

creditrizz — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 02:14:34 GMT

Amex Gold has become one strange card nowadays.

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

odd_dog — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 11:42:25 GMT

Amex is the new poster child of "boojie" for sure $75 for Dunkin 12 course breakfast....LOL

what happened to that company.........

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

Snook_on_the_Line — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 13:07:54 GMT

Ooohhh.

a $325 af gets you exclusive access to avocado toast, gravy smothered hash browns and an artificially enhanced coffee that stains your teeth gold

Things over at Amex are getting a little weird

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

Aim_High — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 23:10:24 GMT

Seriously??

I still need to have my old GOLD card so I can fly 1500 miles to either NYC or LA for these "special events"???

These odd "perks" and "credits" that AMEX came up with has certainly gotten strange and has probably alienated as much of the population as it has attracted. I've said this over and over again but they need to return to basics, offer a great but uncomplicated value for their cards, raise their standards if they want to be a true "status" symbol, and quit changing their Fee/Card Program details.

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

coldworld — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:40:00 GMT

@Aim_High wrote:
Seriously??

I still need to have my old GOLD card so I can fly 1500 miles to either NYC or LA for these "special events"???

These odd "perks" and "credits" that AMEX came up with has certainly gotten strange and has probably alienated as much of the population as it has attracted. I've said this over and over again but they need to return to basics, offer a great but uncomplicated value for their cards, raise their standards if they want to be a true "status" symbol, and quit changing their Fee/Card Program details.

Agreed.

I think I'm at the point where I wish AMEX would just jack up the AF on the Platinum card to $1095, take away the coupon book and just give us better benefits and spend category multipliers. Funnel the customers that think the AF of the platinum card is too high and funnel them to the gold card.

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

CreditCuriosity — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:51:30 GMT

Talking about niche of a niche benefit . Where are they doing these focus groups at or just throwing darts at the dart board and that is why constant changes happen to all their cards particular charge cards that are now glorified coupon books that you PAY to use. Use cases are becoming harder for me to imagine for any of their cards other than lounge access on platinum if you are a huge traveler. Maybe they are trying to make target market in big Cities like NYC, Chicago and LA type of thing i dunno as doesn't make sense on many of their changes to me personally.

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

Aim_High — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 02:21:03 GMT

@coldworld wrote:

I think I'm at the point where I wishAMEXX would just jack up the AF on the Platinum card to $1095, take away the coupon book and just give us better benefits and spend category multipliers.

Right. They could make the travel benefits and perks way better than the Visa Infinite cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or other competitors, as much as I love my CSR. But if the earning categories were truly exceptional, it would attract more dedicated members who would use the card for everything, sort of what Bank of America is trying to achieve with Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors status earnings on their cards such as the Premium Rewards Elite. I can earn uncapped 2.625% on everything and uncapped 3.5% on dining and travel - both in cash back, with an additional 20% savings (effectively an earnings bump) when redeemed for airfare. (2.625% / 0.8 = 3.28125% and 3.50% / 0.8 = 4.375%.) For someone who wants a simple and straightforward rewards-earning card, and especially for someone willing to redeem for airfare, it's hard to beat the Premium Rewards Elite and it can be a simple one-card wallet. AMEX could do something similar with Platinum but at a higher fee for the enhanced lounge access, etc. Sure, the PRE and CSR have some "coupon credits" but they are much more straight-forward and don't play the silly games that AMEX does with restrictive vendors or redemption time-frames to try to force spoilage. The games are annoying and even insulting since they are so unnecessary. Allowing credits with fewer restrictions encourages members to use their cards more, which would drive up AMEX earnings from swipe fees.

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

Curious_George2 — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 06:59:45 GMT

I don't have any interest in these silly cafes, but let's not kid ourselves. They don't care how those of us on this forum feel about anything. Amex's profits are up recently. Why would they revert to a less profitable way of operating?

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

odd_dog — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 17:13:38 GMT

@Curious_George2 wrote:
I don't have any interest in these silly cafes, but let's not kid ourselves. They don't care how those of us on this forum feel about anything. Amex's profits are up recently. Why would they revert to a less profitable way of operating?

Hummmmm DId something here change recently? I don't post here as a quarum for Credit Card issuers to approve or disapprove of my thoughts.....

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 18:15:46 GMT

@odd_dog wrote:
@Curious_George2 wrote:
I don't have any interest in these silly cafes, but let's not kid ourselves. They don't care how those of us on this forum feel about anything. Amex's profits are up recently. Why would they revert to a less profitable way of operating?
Hummmmm DId something here change recently? I don't post here as a quarum for Credit Card issuers to approve or disapprove of my thoughts.....

Well, I don't know if you do or don't (your employers would probably tell you to deny it) but I think @Curious_George2 point is good: however much people here complain about thinks like coupon book rewards, Amex is apparently doing quite well. So when we say "X should change (because I would prefer it) but that would also be good for the issuer" we may not really know about the latter. In the wider world, people may be very happy with the current reward structure, either finding great value in the coupon book, or not really using it but thinking they are getting great value (or prestige!) from other features

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

NoHardLimits — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 19:52:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@odd_dog wrote:
@Curious_George2 wrote:
I don't have any interest in these silly cafes, but let's not kid ourselves. They don't care how those of us on this forum feel about anything. Amex's profits are up recently. Why would they revert to a less profitable way of operating?
Hummmmm DId something here change recently? I don't post here as a quarum for Credit Card issuers to approve or disapprove of my thoughts.....
Well, I don't know if you do or don't (your employers would probably tell you to deny it) but I think @Curious_George2 point is good: however much people here complain about thinks like coupon book rewards, Amex is apparently doing quite well. So when we say "X should change (because I would prefer it) but that would also be good for the issuer" we may not really know about the latter. In the wider world, people may be very happy with the current reward structure, either finding great value in the coupon book, or not really using it but thinking they are getting great value (or prestige!) from other features

I agree with @Anonymous . Unless one is an Amex insider, the rest of us on these forums are left to simply guessing about how decisions are reached at Amex. We have to evaluate the information we have and make the best estimate of personal value. I'm one of the people who can really make the Platinum coupon book work to my advantage. However, I'm not happy about not having access to these Gold Cafes. Shouldn't Platinum cardholders be allowed entry too? I need an Amex insider to shed some light.

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

NoMoreE46 — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 13:00:21 GMT

I don't think the Amex Gold Card Cafes exclude anyone. One doesn't need to be an Amex holder to enjoy them but would think they only take AMEX cards for payment.
These cafés are trying to create a certain image or exclusivity...

This article touches upon a focus on Millenials/GenZ and the Coupon clipping.

https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/amex-bets-on-millennials-gen-z-for-growth/644789/#:~:text=Amex%20has%20about%2070%20million,%25%20of%20that%2C%20Nash%20estimated.

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

NoHardLimits — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 16:55:21 GMT

@NoMoreE46 wrote:
I don't think the Amex Gold Card Cafes exclude anyone. One doesn't need to be an Amex holder to enjoy them but would think they only take AMEX cards for payment.
These cafés are trying to create a certain image or exclusivity...

This article touches upon a focus on Millenials/GenZ and the Coupon clipping.

https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/amex-bets-on-millennials-gen-z-for-growth/644789/#:~:text=Amex%20has%20about%2070%20million,%25%20of%20that%2C%20Nash%20estimated.

Thanks for posting that link @NoMoreE46 . It made for some interesting reading.

Thanks, also, for correcting my misinterpretation of the Gold Cafe entrance requirements. When I initially read the fine print in Amex's announcement, I thought it said that only basic cardmembers and authorized account managers of the Gold card had access to this benefit. Going back to re-read the announcement, I see that this disclaimer was referring to the Dunkin' Donuts credits. My mistake.

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

Aim_High — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 22:18:41 GMT

@NoHardLimits wrote:
@NoMoreE46 wrote:
This article touches upon a focus on Millenials/GenZ and the Coupon clipping..
Thanks for posting that link @NoMoreE46 . It made for some interesting reading.

Yes, thanks for that link, @NoMoreE46. Definitely an interesting article that confirms what we've seen about AMEX strategy on the forums. Still, as a younger boomer, I'm disappointed in how the AMEX push for the younger cardholders has changed their products in ways that are not universally-appealing. It almost makes it sound like that the Millenials and Gen Z **LIKE** the silly "coupon credits." That is just weird to me. It's all an annoying game that is so unnecessary.

And while it confirmed what I expected about where all of this is going, I was dismayed to read it in print

In targeting double-digit revenue growth for the next decade, Amex likely expects to raise card fees $75 to $100 every three to five years, Nash said. ... “We have a strong bit of historical experience that tells us we can keep moving prices up,” Campbell said.

With shifting value-added with each remake of their cards, I could see myself no longer wanting to carry any AF AMEX card at some point, and their no-AF cards don't impress relative to competitors IMO. Right now, I think very highly of my Bonvoy Brilliant and just hope they don't do anything to diminish the value for me. If I no longer found the Brilliant worthwhile, I would probably park the credit limits on some no-AF card and give it keep-alive spend. What a shame.

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 23:21:58 GMT

@Aim_High wrote:
.
And while it confirmed what I expected about where all of this is going, I was dismayed to read it in print

In targeting double-digit revenue growth for the next decade, Amex likely expects to raise card fees $75 to $100 every three to five years, Nash said. ... “We have a strong bit of historical experience that tells us we can keep moving prices up,” Campbell said.

With shifting value-added with each remake of their cards, I could see myself no longer wanting to carry any AF AMEX card at some point, and their no-AF cards don't impress relative to competitors IMO. Right now, I think very highly of my Bonvoy Brilliant and just hope they don't do anything to diminish the value for me. If I no longer found the Brilliant worthwhile, I would probably park the credit limits on some no-AF card and give it keep-alive spend. What a shame.

Yes. I guess either Amex is wrong (and there is some point where increasing fees will decrease overall profit as people drop out) or there are "enough" people who will pay increased fees for whatever reason; they are getting more than enough value despite the increased fee (sensible) or "prestige" (not soo much).

It IS a bit off-putting to see the basically "we can squeeze them as much as want" put into print, you would think high-level executives would use more public-friendly language (even something as banal as "we have the history to show that as long as we continue to add value, our loyal customers recognize this and are willing to pay increased fees')

Re: Amex Gold "Perk" Cafes

NoMoreE46 — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 13:58:32 GMT

I am ok with my $325 fee currently for my Gold and waived 1st year fee

for my BCP.

Come Year 2 the combined $475 AF will be a sit down and math it out for me.

Interesting insight from the article:

Amex has about 70 million proprietary cards in circulation, of which 70% are fee-bearing cards. Platinum and gold make up less than 10% of that, Nash estimated.

To breakdown AMEX's cicrulation of ~ 70 MM cards:

~ 49 MM are AF cards

< 4.9 MM of the AF cards are the Gold and Platinum

~ 21 MM are not AF cards