@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...
@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.
Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)