TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published. For more details please see the advertising disclosure found at the bottom of every page.
I don’t believe in paying any more for my credit card collection than I absolutely have to so, every time an annual fee becomes due on one of my cards, I go though a process of evaluating exactly what the card offers me, what I’ve got out of the card in the past year and what I see myself getting out of the card in the future.
I’m reasonably good at being realistic with my evaluations (I don’t have an emotional attachment to any of my cards) so I’m pretty good at cutting out cards that have ceased to offer me enough to warrant their cost (that’s why I no longer hold the Citi AAdvantage Executive Mastercard).
Right now I can see a very scary-looking $550 fee sitting in my Platinum Card account and I’ve been considering what to do about it for almost a month.
I’ve already written about my thoughts on the Platinum Card and why I’ve been considering getting rid of it so I’ll just focus on my call to Amex and what I’ve decided to do.
My Amex Retention Call
As soon as a representative answered my call I asked to be transferred to the “retentions department” because “I’m considering cancelling my Platinum Card”.
I have no idea if that’s what Amex actually calls its department that incentivizes customers not to give up their card(s) but using that terminology has always seen me transferred to the department I want to talk to and this time was no different.
I explained to the retentions representative (I think she mentioned that she was a manager) that I was struggling to justify the hefty $550 annual fee that Amex now charges for its shiniest card and I explained that the card had lost a lot of its value (to me) ever since Citi upped the earnings on its Prestige Card to offer 5 points/dollar on airfare.
The representative then started to list all the benefits of the Platinum Card and I attempted to bat each one away as politely as possible….
Centurion Lounge Access – “I hardly use Centurion Lounges any more and, when I do, they’re often overcrowded”
Priority Pass membership – “I hold two other credit card which also offer me Priority Pass membership so I don’t really need a third”
Airline Fee credit – “I have trouble using this effectively as I don’t often incur airline fees”
Uber credits – “I’ve had so many issue with Uber recently I prefer to use other ride sharing services” (the representative could see that I haven’t been using the credits)
Marriott Gold status – “I hold Lifetime Marriott Platinum Premier elite status so this doesn’t really help me at all”
Hilton Gold status – “I rarely stay at Hilton properties so this isn’t really an incentive for me to keep the card”
Saks 5th Avenue credit – “I’m not really a Saks shopper and I had trouble making the most of the credit in the second half of last year so this isn’t really something that interests me“.
At this point the agent gave up and didn’t bother to mention the Global Entry credit, the rental car elite status or any of the other remaining benefits of the Platinum Card.
There was a pause and I wasn’t convinced that the representative was going to offer me an incentive to keep the Platinum Card….so I put it out there.
“Do you have any incentives that may help me offset some of the $550 annual fee and make it easier for me to justify holding on to the card another year?”
The representative said she’d “take a look” and, in a matter of seconds, confirmed that she could offer me two options:
- 20,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $3,000 in 3 months or
- A $200 statement credit after spending $3,000 in 3 months
I value Membership Rewards points at 1.5 cents each so the first offer is worth $300 to me and would be the offer to take out of the options presented to me.
I decided to think about the offers, thanked the representative (who made a note that I would call back to choose an offer or to cancel my card) and I ended the call.
My Decision
I’m taking the 20,000 bonus points and I’m keeping the Platinum Card for one more year – here’s why:
- My annual fee effectively goes down to $350 for the year once I net off the value of the 20,000 point incentive
- I’ll buy a couple of $100 American Airlines gift cards to ensure I get the full $200 airline credit this year – that will effectively reduce my annual fee to $150
This $150 will get me….
- $100 of Saks credits which I’ll do my best to use economically.
- Access to the LAX Centurion Lounge when it opens this year (so I can review it for the blog).
- Access to the London Heathrow Centurion Lounge when it opens this year (so I can review it for the blog).
- Access to the Plaza Premium Lounge at Heathrow T5 (the best non-BA lounge in the terminal and it doesn’t take Priority Pass)
- Hilton Honors Gold status
- Elite status with Hertz and Avis (I already hold status with National)
It will also ensure that if Amex makes any moves to improve the Platinum Card’s offering in an attempt to keep up with the competition I’ll be in a very good position to make the most of any changes.
When I listed out the benefits that I genuinely believe I’ll use in 2019 keeping the Platinum Card for another year was an easy decision to make.
I can see that I’ll get back more than the value of the annual fee by accepting the Amex incentive and holding on to the card so that’s what I’m happy to do….but the Platinum card will be back in the spotlight this time next year.
in the past, have you been given a retention offer and if so when? Not sure a retention offer is made every year so curious if you were given one last year.
I definitely didn’t have a retention offer last year (rather embarrassingly I forgot to ask!) but I think I had a 15,000 point offer in 2017.
One more data point… Last week I got offered 30,000 points or $300 for $4k spend. Took the points, of course!
Nice offer…I wish I’d got that one
Of course you kept the card just scammed as much as you could. If one travels the 550 is cheap the PP restaurants alone pays for it
Wow. You really are a truly sanctimonious know-nothing aren’t you? Careful you don’t fall as it’s a long way down from that high-horse you’re sitting on.
On Monday you accuse me of reviewing a property I haven’t visited despite the fact anyone who actually engaged their brain could see that the post was a critique based purely on the decor.
Now you claim I’m “scamming” Amex when I’m clearly not (I was more than happy to cancel the Platinum card if I hadn’t got what I wanted) and you close with the point that the Priority Pass restaurants pay for the Platinum Card when you have absolutely no idea what my travel patterns are like, how often I pass through airports with PP restaurants or how often I even have time to eat at those restaurants even if they’re there.
Do you make a habit of making ill-informed, baseless points or are you making a special exception just for me?
So look my monthly burn is 35/50K all business lot of travel If you travel using the PP from Amex that would pay the price of admission easily. On my way home, two cities three days used the PP at airport restaurants three times @$28.00 a pop allowance. I average 100K annually business do the math it pays for itself but then my Chase Sapphire has it as well use that when my wife is traveling with me.
Sanctimonious no just a businessman that actually earns it “the old fashion way” Old EF Hutton ad
1) You haven’t explained how I “scammed” Amex
2) You appear to be explaining how the Platinum Card pays for itself for you and then assume that this should apply to me. Why? Do you think that everyone shares your travel patterns?
3) In the post I point out that I have two other credit cards that offer Priority Pass so are you suggesting that the PP restaurants actually pay for all 3 of my cards or are you suggesting I should ignore those two other cards completely and just rig the math to make the Platinum Card look like better value to me than it actually is?
Your arguments don’t stand up to the tiniest bit of scrutiny.
Thanks for the details of the retention call. Last July I got $75 off and $75 after $1500/3months spend. So def not as good as yours but I took it. I ask every July bc it is so high and I don’t use the Uber. But I got a lot out of the lounge benefit (PP/Centurion) on a multi-stop/leg trip to SE Asia. And for Saks, easy. You can find on-sale (men’s) clothing (underwear, socks, wool cap), deodorant, dry skin lotion, or kitchen ware. And as ghostrider5408- the PP restaurants. Lots of other benefits.
[…] little over a week ago I called Amex with the specific intention to either secure a retention bonus or to cancel my Platinu… while on this call I was focused on just getting the card […]
[…] didn’t have particularly high hopes for the call but, after explaining to the Amex agent exactly what my issues were with the Platinum Card, I was offered a choice of 20,000 points or a $200 statement credit if I kept the Platinum Card and […]
I’m a Canadian customer and just called to see if they’d extend a similar offer to me. The best they offered was 5,000 miles ($50 CAD value), which is pretty shit. Better than nothing, but man, where’s your US representative? Maybe I will hold off on accepting the offer and call back closer to my renewal date and just ask again if there’s any better incentive they can give me. But perhaps the issue is that I’ve only been a customer for 1 year.
I just called and they said I don’t have any offers. They said since I received a retention offer last May 29th, when I received $75 off and $75 after $1500/3months spend, i did not have any offers. They said to try back after 1 year to see if I have any new offers.
Is that normal that they do not give two retention offers in the same 365 day period?
I think it varies from person to person (and probably depends on how much business you give Amex) but, from personal experience, I’d say that what Amex told you isn’t unusual.