Is AMEX having problems and they need cash? Is this a new tactic to get good paying customers to pay faster? I’ve always liked using AMEX, but this call really bothered me. I am not going to pay a bill before its due. Has anyone had this happen? I’m not sure if I should call and complain or just stop using the card, and paying the high Platinum fee, and change over to an airline VISA.

Having clicked “purchase cruise now” and paying in full, I assumed all was well. Subsequently, I received a bounceback email from amex cruise stating that i should call an agent as the purchase was evidently only a “request”, not a purchase (although I had a confirmation and a printout stating that my card was being charged).

Several conversations up and down the American Express Travel Services agent food chain left me without reserved cabins. And now no availability at the cabin class that I wanted or the price.

Abysmal website, abysmal service, and now to see about getting a refund…..

However, a word to the wise: Always check the hotel’s actual rates on the Internet before booking with AMEX Platinum. In some case, the hotel will jack up rates by 20% or more, so that the AMEX Platinum “benefit” disappears. A case in point is the Mandarin Oriental in Singapore. When in Singapore, I generally stay at the Intercontinental which doesn’t figure in the AMEX Platinum list. I’ve had a few bad experiences with some five-star Singapore hotels who seem to think that misleading customers and mis-charging credit cards is OK. In the end, AMEX comes through and reverses the mis-charges, but it is a hassle. Caveat emptor!

And the pt is taken that if they don’t have a special relation w the venue sometimes its worthwhile to just call and do it yourself, unfortunately. If they were really that great/smart/etc they wouldn’t be call center employees now would they. Thats why I usually have them reconfirm (or sometimes i call myself) some of the more important requests I put in.

1. Unfortunately, I don’t think the Concierge can get blood from a stone. If AMEX does not in fact have anything other than an arms-length relationship with the Franklin Institute, then I would expect them to be up-front about that and not raise customer’s expectations. In this case, it would have been nice if AMEX had reserved a block of tickets for Platinum customers, and indeed when those were taken, that Conscierge would know about it and appraise you of that fact.

2. I would hope that you’d be able to telephone the Concierge with your desire for tickets, and then ring off and have them do the legwork you described in steps 8-14. What is the point of the Concierge if you end up on the phone for 2 hours anyway?

3. If the point of the Concierge is to add value to the transaction, they certainly have not done so in this case, and the whole Concierge thing is basically a scam that interposes yet another party into a transaction. I noted in a comment a few weeks ago that my experience with Platinum online booking was better than trying to book through the Platinum “travel agency”. I got better rates than they quoted, and didn’t have to pay a $40.00 fee for the booking “service”.

There is a lot of sillyness about the Platinum Card anyway…I just got their “catalog” of membership award “amenities” which included a year lease for a Masarati at 900,000 points, and way too much about private jet timeshares. What business travelers and people in the real world need are some help navigating the chaos of the whole “travel industry”, help in emergencies, and some more modest real perks that can save us time and aggravation. If Platinum can deliver those things, as I was lead to believe when I signed up, then fine, it will be worth the cost. If not…it is back to AMEX Gold for me.