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@Anonymous wrote:My major spending is ~8k on airfare. I do love the design of Amex card, but neither gold, nor platinum make any financial sense to my situation. That "credit" being "accidental fee" is a major part of it.
I do imagine different people may find it useful, its just not fit my situation.
You spend 8K on airfare and dont see the Platinum as "useful' !? Maybe you should try it out, you would be suprised.
Spending that much on airfare a year you could just ignore the entire airline credit altogether and see come out ahead. If youre really flying that much you cant figure out a way to use the credits ?
@NRB525 wrote:
I also think it unlikely AMEX will change this. There are many cards it applies to, Gold, Platinum, and Aspire are ones I am aware of. Requires changing the T&C for those and other cards.
The airline fee credit is also one of several credits on those cards. So if they change Airline fee they have to drop things like Uber monthly credit, $10 monthly dining credit, $250 Hilton Resort Credit. Each of those credits likely has partner contracts to help absorb the costs.
The SPG Lux card is an example of skipping the airline fee credit to go for a simpler Marriott $300 credit, a larger share of the AF with almost no restrictions.
+1 Obviously we're not aware of the inner workings of American Express, but I'm sure that there is some agreement with the limited number of airline partners that can be selected as well. I think for most of us that the Platinum card is targeted to for long-term membership, the card genrally makes sense with or without the airline incidental fee, although being able to use it does give it even more value. That said, there are numerous things that trigger the credit depending on the airline and exactly how and what you are buying. Delta eGift Certificates, lounge access for one of the kids, baggage fees for an AU who was not flying with me, and even one airfare ($142) have triggered the credit although the middle two are of course included in the official list of things that are covered.
@Shadowfactor wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:My major spending is ~8k on airfare. I do love the design of Amex card, but neither gold, nor platinum make any financial sense to my situation. That "credit" being "accidental fee" is a major part of it.
I do imagine different people may find it useful, its just not fit my situation.
You spend 8K on airfare and dont see the Platinum as "useful' !? Maybe you should try it out, you would be suprised.
Spending that much on airfare a year you could just ignore the entire airline credit altogether and see come out ahead. If youre really flying that much you cant figure out a way to use the credits ?
it simply doesn't.
5x points give me 8000x5=40000 points, transfer to delta, value is right about $400. This is not even enough to cover the annual fee. Since I never do uber nor did I ever incur incidental fee, I don't know how can that math possibly work for me....
@NRB525 wrote:
So, which card do you use to pay the $8k in airfare?
Are you earning a status with an airline that gets you the perks like lounge access with that airline?
I was planning to use CSP, but now I will be using WF Propel. This give me 4.5% so I get $360 worth of airfare out of it each year.
I am a gold member with Delta, so I do got some free flight there too, plus a few upgrade here and there.
I truly don't care about lounge access. My flight usually have relatively short connections anyway. I'm also not a business traveler, I just do cheapest flights I can find, 150 landings a year, lol
If you're doing that many segments on cheap flights, have you considered picking up a Delta Platinum SkyMiles or Reserve card to get the MQD waiver for Platinum status (and Diamond if you ever did manage to get $15k in MQDs)?
With the 70k bonus on the Reserve that's been going around and say you spent $8k on airfare and $22k on other things throughout the year, you could achieve Platinum Medallion (much better chances of F upgrades), get an extra mile per dollar spent on airfare (9 vs 8), get an extra 25k MQMs to help you along with lifetime (and following year) status, and a bonus 15k miles. At the end of year 1, using that 8/22 spend you would have earned 195,000 SkyMiles, which at the bare minimum value of 1.2 cents works out to be $2,340 minimum in free airfare - plus you'd get a free First Class companion fare on top of that. A little skewed due to the SUB, but that works out to around 10% back your first year.