My 6 month Platinum intro bonus of 10X on grocery stores is running out at the end of the month so I decided to go for the Gold.
So far my experience with AmEx has been sub-par with respect to their concierge service and a giant fiasco with my first Hotel Collection booking in Vegas earlier this month. However, I'm not going to judge the total package on one (very) bad experience and my plan was always to commit to an AmEx system for airlines and use my Chase setup for hotels.
Approved for the gold with 6 months of history with my Platinum.
The only notable data point I can offer since I'm out of Credit Jail from foreclosure/student loan default is that AmEx DID HARD PULL for a pre-approved offer. They hit up Experian (which I expected) even though a number of DPs say existing customers usually get soft pulled when expanding their product line.
One more thing- when I got the Platinum there was an option to instantly add it to my iPhone's Wallet and that was not offered for the Gold. I was kind of hoping it would, but that was not the case.
Congrats!
In regard to your plan of Hotels = Chase, could you describe a little how you vision that (or how it) works?
I'm guessing you're hotel agnostic since I don't see any hotel cards?
Congrats on the approval! Yikes on the HP for a preapproved offer =/. I would've had a panic attack.
10.16.24 | 10.19.24 |
10.24.25 |
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I'm also pretty much airline agnostic, but since I live at a Delta hub, I can fly nonstop with them anywhere in the US. United, American, et al usually make me transfer at ORD or CLT. Those flights are also 3 hours longer and usually cost about $200 more.
The plan is pretty simple- Since I'm at a Delta hub, Amex is pretty much the solid choice since it's a direct transfer to Delta SkyPesos if that's a value proposition that makes sense. Hotels, on the other hand, I just prefer Chase's transfer partners a little more.
Thanks for the info!
So your spend with chase feeds UR points to Hyatt, IHG and Marriott loyalty programs? ..or is it good/extra value spending the UR on the partner hotels via the chase travel portal?
I'm only interested since I've not really created a plan for hotel spending. I've just been using face value services from amextravel for FHR and some of the hotel collection for simplicity and 5x MR gathering. Errr.. guess I've just adopted the plan amex presents.
