On 15th November, I will be taking my family to see the Star Wars Concert at the Wachovia Center in the City of Philadelphia. An orchestra will be playing music from various episodes and behind them will be a big cinematic screen showing that particular scene where the music was part of the movie. I am really excited about this, but more importantly, I just want to share my experience of booking these tickets with the Amex Concierge.

Booking my Star Wars Concert TicketsYou all very well know that I carry the Platinum Card from American Express. So last Friday, I decided to book those tickets. I called the Amex Concierge and found out that 5pm EST last Friday was the cut off time for getting seats before they were made available to the public on Saturday! Urhh! Did I miss the good seats? (I was actually calling at 9pm EST). But the concierge lady managed to login into the account to get me the early tickets. (For those who are not familiar with this – Amex actually sponsors and supports many theaters and performances and they will actually let Amex cardholders get tickets before the public does). So I managed to get 5 seats for my family. It wasn’t right at the front, but they were floor seats. So I got an email confirmation in my yahoo mail and was pretty pleased with myself. Below is the email.

It was a pleasure speaking with you and assisting you in purchasing tickets to Star Wars. The details of that purchase follow. It sounds like so much fun – I hope you and your guests really enjoy it!

Event: Star Wars in Concert
Venue: Wachovia Arena
Address: 255 Highland Park Boulevard, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702
Date and Time: Tuesday November 17 at 7:30 PM
URL of Seating Chart: http://media.ticketmaster.com/en-us/tmimages/venue/maps/phi/4225s.gif

Seat Location: Fl 1 Row L Seats 1-5
Cost Per Ticket: $75.00
Number of Tickets Purchased: 5
Taxes and Vendor Fees: $10.55 convenience charge and $3.40 order processing
Delivery Cost: n/c
Total Amount: $431.15
Confirmation Number: 13-27602/PHI
Delivery Information: Standard Mail – Your tickets will be mailed to your billing address and delivered no later than 48 hours before the event in a plain unmarked white envelope.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can provide you with any additional conveniences like dining reservations, directions or local information. It is important to note that all purchases are subject to charge card approval and billing address verification. Once tickets are purchased, Concierge cannot be responsible for changes, cancellations, or postponements made to the event.

I discover a booking error!On Saturday afternoon, I decided to check the email and to my horror, I discovered that the tickets were booked incorrectly! It was supposed to be in the Wachoiva Center in Philadelphia City (a 25 minutes drive for me) not Wachovia Arena at Wilkes Barra (a 2 hour drive!). I called Amex and told concierge of the situation. The new concierge lady got off the phone and tried to correct the situation. She called back 30 minutes later and told me they could cancel the tickets and rebook them. I would be getting roughly similar seats. The only snag she said was that Ticketmaster (whom they book through) said they will refund the tickets, but are only willing to refund the processing fees when they listen to the recording between me and the previous lady handling my booking to see if it was “my fault” for giving incorrect information. But she said even if they did not refund it, they’ll get Amex to refund the rest using the “Ticket Protection Feature” that came with the Platinum Card. I was told to expect a call on Tuesday.

Also Booked 2 tickets for the Vienna Boys Choir for 4th December 2009 at the Kimmel CenterWhile I was on the line with concierge, I also asked her to book 2 tickets (for Mrs Credit Card and myself) for a performance by the Vienna Choir Boys who will be performing in the Kimmel Center on 4th December. This one was a breeze. I managed to get second row seats (which is great).

How do you want the tickets delivered?Before I hung up, I had to decide how I wanted the tickets delivered. I had 3 choices. And all of them cost money!

Email – or etickets – The safest way cos you will never lose them!

Snail Mail – You’ll get a nice ticket, but you have to be careful not to lose them.

Pick up at the venue – No way to losing it, but you need to bring your ID and arrive 90 minutes before the start of show.

I chose to get the etickets.

New Confirmation EmailSo I got the new confirmation email. See below.

It was such a pleasure assisting you this evening with your ticket request. I have wonderful news to share with you! I have successfully secured tickets to Star Wars in Concert on Sunday November 15, 2009 in Philadelphia and Vienna Boys Choir on Friday December 4, 2009 in Philadelphia as well. I am thrilled to have been able to accommodate your request. I hope you and your family have a great time! Please see ticket confirmation details below:

Event: Star Wars in Concert
Venue: Wachovia Center
Address: 3601 S Broad St # 1
Philadelphia, PA 19148-5290
Date and Time: Sunday November 15, 2009 at 6:00pm
URL of Seating Chart:http://www.wachoviacenter.com/seating-charts/350×263/seatingChart-Center-endstage.jpg

Seat Location: Floor 5, Row 12, Seats (deleted)
Cost Per Ticket: $72.00 + $15.25 convenience charge
Number of Tickets Purchased: 5
Taxes and Vendor Fees: $3.50
Delivery Cost: $2.50 (E-Ticket: Print at Home)
Total Amount: $442.25
Confirmation Number: (deleted for obvious reasons)
Delivery Information: Print at Home
Tracking Link: N/A

Event: Vienna Boys Choir
Venue: Kimmel Center-Verizon Hall
Address: 260 South Broad Street on the Avenue of the Arts · Suite 901 · Philadelphia, PA 19102
Date/Time: Friday December 4, 2009 at 7:00pm
URL of Seating Chart: http://www.kimmelcenter.org/about/seating/images/ver-orchestra.gif

Section: Orchestra, Row C, Seats (deleted) (rep at Kimmel Center box office stated these seats were closer to the center than seats 110-111
Cost per Ticket: $70.00 + $6.00 service fee
# of Tickets Purchased: 2
Total Amount: $152.00
Delivery Information: Amex Billing Address (this is only delivery method)
Confirmation #: (deleted for obvious reasons)
You should receive tickets by: Tickets will be mailed to the billing address provided. Please allow 5-7 business days for them to arrive.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if we can provide you with any additional conveniences like dining reservations, directions or local information. It is important to note that all purchases are subject to charge card approval and billing address verification. Once tickets are purchased, Concierge cannot be responsible for changes, cancellations, or postponements made to the event. Have a great night!

Check the email and everything was OK except that for the Vienna Choir Boys, the tickets will be sent to me! (hey – no big deal).

Tuesday – Call me Amex Concierge SupervisorOn Tuesday (yesterday), I got a call from Amex concierge. It was the supervisor. He apologized for the error in the booking and said ticketmaster will refund everything except $3.40 in processing fee! But he said Amex Concierge will refund that and take care of it. He also gave me his name and direct number if I have any issues in the future.

A Happy ExperienceI must say that I am extremely happy with the way Amex Concierge handled themselves. They were always polite and resolved the situation pretty quickly. I will always be using them to book stuff because I simply cannot imagine the hassle of me actually calling ticketmaster and trying to get the refund myself. Sure I could do it, but why bother? It is moments like these that remind me what a great card the Amex Platinum Card is.