In general, I am a very, very happy cardholder. Just recently, when my EVDO modem died, American Express paid for me to replace it with nearly no questions asked. That saved me about $250, since the modem had just gone out of warranty. That pays for over half my annual membership. They also paid for some MacBook repairs earlier this year, which was a real plus.
Then again, I just got a letter that the "domestic companion airfare program" has been discontinued. This was the program that said that when flying within the country, I could get a free ticket when purchasing one at their normal prices. When going to YAPC in Chicago, this saved us about $400. It's really the reason I decided to upgrade to a platinum card.
Now, instead of being able to travel for less, I have to hope for my electronics to fail to recoup the cost of membership.
It's annoying to lose such a great program, but... I still really like my American Express.
> [...] I have to hope for my electronics to fail to recoup
> the cost of membership.
Darn, hot tea was about to come out my nose when I read that!
...it is, or more to the point, was when I was travelling a lot, the concierge service.
It was very convenient to be able to pick up the phone and get someone to decide where I should eat without having to do anything. "What should I eat" on the first night of arriving in a city prior to having my amex more often than not involved a room service club sandwich. Also the travel insurance on the UK American Express was amazing.
I've not considered the electronics angle before, but perhaps I should now that I'm not benefiting from the travel-related aspects.
Re:For me...
rjbs on 2008-10-20T15:59:04
Tell me more about the concierge! I have often thought it sounded great, but... what else do you get out of it? I assume that it's all free except for actual services rendered?
Re:For me...
james on 2008-10-21T12:19:10
Indeed it is all free except for the service rendered - most often you pay for the service to the provider directly and not to Amex.
As a non-travelling example, one morning I woke up and decided that my wife and I had been working pretty hard, and we needed to chill out and have some fun.
I picked up the phone to the amex concierge and said that I'd like to take my wife to a musical. Within a couple of hours of starting this process I had the show tickets arranged, a chauffeured car to pick her up, a store that was going to do the whole personal shopping thing with her for some clothes for the evening, a table at a good restaurant for the pre-show dinner, a hotel booked, and fresh cut flowers waiting in the room. I merely yayed or nayed the various options provided to me.
Now, I could have done that all myself with the appropriate amount of research, phone calling and time, but the fact that this was arranged on my behalf within a couple of hours of me initially talking to the concierge was amazing.
The big thing I got out of it on that occasion was the ability to be spontaneous without the normal drudgery and tedious mucking about with phones that arranging that sort of thing would normally entail. If you're busy - and who isn't - then the trials and tribulations associated with arranging something like this will more often than not prevent it from happening at all.
