topic Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche? in Credit Cards

Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

IowaGuy — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:42:16 GMT

Anyone else wish this card existed? I do travel but just cannot justify a platinum card when compared to gold premier rewards. Annual fee of like 500 or so...

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

Creditaddict — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:20:09 GMT

I'm sorry what was your question?

I'm in CA, Amex is in EVERYONES wallet... I'm not impressed unless you throw down a Black Card. If you don't do an extensive amount of travel over seas I think you are paying the $450 annual fee just for the status, which is fine but lets just call it what it is!

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

Walt_K — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:33:04 GMT

I think OP is saying they wish there were a Platinum card that earned points like the PR Gold. I do too. I have thought about getting Platinum for myself and instead of getting a second card for my wife, which would be $175, just having her carry the PR Gold, get me a second PR Gold card on her account, and have us use the PR Gold for all of our spend. That would work for us because she rarely travels without me and wouldn't really need her own Platinum card. But if you both want to carry a Platinum, that doesn't work.

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

Creditaddict — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:42:13 GMT

@Walt_K wrote:
I think OP is saying they wish there were a Platinum card that earned points like the PR Gold. I do too. I have thought about getting Platinum for myself and instead of getting a second card for my wife, which would be $175, just having her carry the PR Gold, get me a second PR Gold card on her account, and have us use the PR Gold for all of our spend. That would work for us because she rarely travels without me and wouldn't really need her own Platinum card. But if you both want to carry a Platinum, that doesn't work.

I don't think they do but When you have Gold or Platinum Business Charge cards when I add on users I can opt for Gold or Green Cards for them and set limits... does personal Platinum offer that?

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

Walt_K — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:54:23 GMT

@Creditaddict wrote:
@Walt_K wrote:
I think OP is saying they wish there were a Platinum card that earned points like the PR Gold. I do too. I have thought about getting Platinum for myself and instead of getting a second card for my wife, which would be $175, just having her carry the PR Gold, get me a second PR Gold card on her account, and have us use the PR Gold for all of our spend. That would work for us because she rarely travels without me and wouldn't really need her own Platinum card. But if you both want to carry a Platinum, that doesn't work.
I don't think they do but When you have Gold or Platinum Business Charge cards when I add on users I can opt for Gold or Green Cards for them and set limits... does personal Platinum offer that?

I think personal Platinum does offer that, although I don't have the card and couldn't be sure. But it doesn't solve the problem because regular Gold still only earns 1 point per dollar. If you want to get the 3x airfare and 2x gas/groceries, you just have to carry both cards, Plat and PR Gold. But you can carry both for the same price as adding an AU on your Plat, which was what I was suggesting.

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

IowaGuy — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 05:39:42 GMT

Right, I was indeed talking about the lower reward gain rate on the plat. I would want to use a plat card for things like airfare (airline fee credits) but Gold PR easily gives more points 3 per dollar vs 1 per dollar.

Good point about the auth user thing, but one could get the same results by having the gold pr and plat, no need for wife to have one. and thats still 675 dollars a year. Also, it doesnt help with the whole 200 dollar airline fees issue.

If they had a plat with the gold pr rewards structure, I'd be all over it.

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

anderl — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:09:59 GMT

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

Walt_K — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 19:27:08 GMT

@IowaGuy wrote:
Right, I was indeed talking about the lower reward gain rate on the plat. I would want to use a plat card for things like airfare (airline fee credits) but Gold PR easily gives more points 3 per dollar vs 1 per dollar.

Good point about the auth user thing, but one could get the same results by having the gold pr and plat, no need for wife to have one. and thats still 675 dollars a year. Also, it doesnt help with the whole 200 dollar airline fees issue.

If they had a plat with the gold pr rewards structure, I'd be all over it.

Right. My point was that a couple that would be getting two cards could pay the same amount in annual fees by carrying PR Gold an Plat as opposed to two Platinum cards. And if they do most of their travel together, or at least if one spouse raretly travels without the other even if the other does travel alone, the couple can get most of the benefits of the Platinum card as well as the higher point earning potential of the PR Gold card.

Not sure what you mean by the $200 airline fee credit. I think that credit only applies to the primary account holder so adding an authorized user to Plat doesn't give you another $200 credit in airline incidentals. Could be wrong on that though.

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:15:40 GMT

To answer your question, yes, I'd love it if this card existed. I would happily pay for it. However, I don't think it'll happen. AmEx, much more so than any other card issuer, is heavily invested in its prestigious image. They know that people covet their cards and they want it that way. AmEx has the Blue Preferred Cashback, etc. to reach out to the general market, but the Platinum and Centurion cards are geared toward the super wealthy. If we all had the Platinum Card, two things would happen:

1. The status of Platinum would take a hit. Dilution of prestige is what prompted AmEx to introduce the Gold Card, then the Platinum Card, then eventually Centurion-- each rolled out more than a decade after the previous. However, the problem is that if AmEx keeps introducing a more exclusive product because the exclusivity of their top shelf card has been too compromised, they'll end up with a portfolio of 10 charge cards, which becomes too big to manage the image of and too hard to communicate the standing of each of these products to the general public. (I believe this was their impetus behind making Centurion invitation-only again, charging substantially higher initiation/annual fees, etc.)

2. AmEx would go broke. Okay, not really broke, but AmEx doesn't encourage the use of the fringe benefits of Platinum that cost them a lot of money. When you first receive the Platinum card, there's a good reason (several, actually) that AmEx doesn't automatically set up your complementary memberships in Hertz Gold, Starwood Gold, Premium Lounge Access, etc. They're hoping you won't sign up and they won't have to pay the fee to the program. (In some cases, AmEx has even made verification of Platinum Card status difficult, thus prompting cardmembers to have to submit copies of recent Card statements to their reward program affiliates, all to make the sign up process just difficult enough to deter some.)

AmEx doesn't introduce a value version of Platinum because it doesn't have to. The majority of people who will pay $450 a year for a card when free cards are practically shoved into their prime little hands, don't care that they don't get triple points on airfare.

And for the value-minded, semi-affluent consumer (who are a formidable market), they created PR Gold. This way, they collect a premium annual fee (which, by the way, you'd have to spend $5,833.33 a year on airfare to break even on), they provide the illusion of value to people ($30,000 a year in spending to get 15K bonus MR points is a great deal, of course, but $30k/year in spending on a card is beyond the reach of many and besides, they'd have easily recouped the bonus MR points in merchant fees) and they create a situation in which you put everything on that card to get the scattered bonus points in various categories and hit $30K a year in spending. Of all their cards, I think it's conceptually the best revenue generator-- it ties you in all over the place.

So worst case scenario, they've neglected consumers like you and me who wish they could justify the fee to upgrade, but are a little too value-minded to do so. (I promise you, if there were a TON of us, AmEx might reconsider, but right now, I doubt we're a sizable demographic.) But even we will either eventually upgrade to Platinum and forsake the bonus point offers (net win for AmEx) or get a PRG AND Platinum, maybe with a spouse with additional cards, (net win for AmEx) or keep our charging on a card that doesn't cost them much to offer and is very profitable for them (net wins for AmEx).

(On a semi-related note, it's not an accident that AmEx credit cards do not resemble in any way, shape or form, its charge cards. They're meant to be two distinct categories and appeal to two distinct types of consumers. Zync is designed as an entry-level card for college students (or people their age) to get them on the AmEx upgrade path.)

Personally, I can make money off of PRG by recouping the annual fee in MR points and from a strict fiscal standpoint, it would make zero sense for me to upgrade to Platinum. From the shallow, image-obsessed perspective, however, I'd probably sell out my value-minded self for an invite to upgrade with 25K bonus MR points.

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:36:56 GMT

What would Amex do if everyone went all retro and decided Green was the cool card to have?

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:04:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
To answer your question, yes, I'd love it if this card existed. I would happily pay for it. However, I don't think it'll happen. AmEx, much more so than any other card issuer, is heavily invested in its prestigious image. They know that people covet their cards and they want it that way. AmEx has the Blue Preferred Cashback, etc. to reach out to the general market, but the Platinum and Centurion cards are geared toward the super wealthy. If we all had the Platinum Card, two things would happen:

1. The status of Platinum would take a hit. Dilution of prestige is what prompted AmEx to introduce the Gold Card, then the Platinum Card, then eventually Centurion-- each rolled out more than a decade after the previous. However, the problem is that if AmEx keeps introducing a more exclusive product because the exclusivity of their top shelf card has been too compromised, they'll end up with a portfolio of 10 charge cards, which becomes too big to manage the image of and too hard to communicate the standing of each of these products to the general public. (I believe this was their impetus behind making Centurion invitation-only again, charging substantially higher initiation/annual fees, etc.)

2. AmEx would go broke. Okay, not really broke, but AmEx doesn't encourage the use of the fringe benefits of Platinum that cost them a lot of money. When you first receive the Platinum card, there's a good reason (several, actually) that AmEx doesn't automatically set up your complementary memberships in Hertz Gold, Starwood Gold, Premium Lounge Access, etc. They're hoping you won't sign up and they won't have to pay the fee to the program. (In some cases, AmEx has even made verification of Platinum Card status difficult, thus prompting cardmembers to have to submit copies of recent Card statements to their reward program affiliates, all to make the sign up process just difficult enough to deter some.)

AmEx doesn't introduce a value version of Platinum because it doesn't have to. The majority of people who will pay $450 a year for a card when free cards are practically shoved into their prime little hands, don't care that they don't get triple points on airfare.

And for the value-minded, semi-affluent consumer (who are a formidable market), they created PR Gold. This way, they collect a premium annual fee (which, by the way, you'd have to spend $5,833.33 a year on airfare to break even on), they provide the illusion of value to people ($30,000 a year in spending to get 15K bonus MR points is a great deal, of course, but $30k/year in spending on a card is beyond the reach of many and besides, they'd have easily recouped the bonus MR points in merchant fees) and they create a situation in which you put everything on that card to get the scattered bonus points in various categories and hit $30K a year in spending. Of all their cards, I think it's conceptually the best revenue generator-- it ties you in all over the place.

So worst case scenario, they've neglected consumers like you and me who wish they could justify the fee to upgrade, but are a little too value-minded to do so. (I promise you, if there were a TON of us, AmEx might reconsider, but right now, I doubt we're a sizable demographic.) But even we will either eventually upgrade to Platinum and forsake the bonus point offers (net win for AmEx) or get a PRG AND Platinum, maybe with a spouse with additional cards, (net win for AmEx) or keep our charging on a card that doesn't cost them much to offer and is very profitable for them (net wins for AmEx).

(On a semi-related note, it's not an accident that AmEx credit cards do not resemble in any way, shape or form, its charge cards. They're meant to be two distinct categories and appeal to two distinct types of consumers. Zync is designed as an entry-level card for college students (or people their age) to get them on the AmEx upgrade path.)

Personally, I can make money off of PRG by recouping the annual fee in MR points and from a strict fiscal standpoint, it would make zero sense for me to upgrade to Platinum. From the shallow, image-obsessed perspective, however, I'd probably sell out my value-minded self for an invite to upgrade with 25K bonus MR points.

+1 Plenty of good points here. Personally, I'd love to have the Platinum but cannot justify the AF. A Platinum "Lite" would be appealing, but some of the benefits like lounge access would be great. Conversely, the concierge service I'd never use.

I use the Green for my disposable income expenses like dining out a lot and my monthly cell phone bill. I consider daily the upgrade to PRG, but my spending isn't at the level where rewards justify the AF. Perhaps if I had it in hand, I'd make better use of it and would definiteyl upgrade if there was a MR bonus to do so.

The Green is retro and very recognizable in a world of cards that are all platinum...

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

Walt_K — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:28:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

2. AmEx would go broke. Okay, not really broke, but AmEx doesn't encourage the use of the fringe benefits of Platinum that cost them a lot of money. When you first receive the Platinum card, there's a good reason (several, actually) that AmEx doesn't automatically set up your complementary memberships in Hertz Gold, Starwood Gold, Premium Lounge Access, etc. They're hoping you won't sign up and they won't have to pay the fee to the program. (In some cases, AmEx has even made verification of Platinum Card status difficult, thus prompting cardmembers to have to submit copies of recent Card statements to their reward program affiliates, all to make the sign up process just difficult enough to deter some.)

If this is a reference to the process for getting Gold status with Starwood Preferred Guest program, I wouldn't put the blame at Amex's door. People shared the ID code to upgrade your SPG account to Gold status and all kinds of people without the Platinum card were getting elite benefits with SPG. SPG started requiring proof of having the Platinum card because of customer abuse.

Re: Amex Platinum Premier Rewards, is there a niche?

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:04:08 GMT

I'd love to get the 2x points on gas and groceries...

I think the plat should have a little bit better MR system. Although they do offer the bonus when cashing them in from travel.