Amex Officially Confirms Death of Bonus Points Mall/ Earn Shopping Portal

less and less need for Platinum. Have had it a few times. At this point it will take at least 50k MR for me to want another.

TPG – They also officially cancelled their Equinox partnership. You should blog about this.

Honestly, at $450 per year, the Platinum AMEX is killed by the value of Sapphire Preferred. Yeah, you get Global Entry and access to Preferred Hotels and Resorts, but with GE only costing $100 out of pocket and Visa Signature Hotels coming to prominence, is there really any reason now to hold a Platinum card? I’ll get one if the 100,000 points bonus comes up again, for sure, but not quite sure if it’s worth half a grand a year after that.

Oops- fixed thx

they are overdue for an airline transfer bonus

Bummer. Just got my very first Membership Rewards card and was looking forward to adding on top of my first 50,000 points. I agree, instead of shutting it down, how about improving it.

How would you be using the VS miles if so?

I’m a little disappointed in Amex. I’ve been a “member” since 1988 when I was in school. Recently upgraded to the Platinum for airport lounges but not sure it’s worth it since flight connections are usually so tight.

Their partnership seems to be virtually with Delta only. Just blew over 600,000 points to fly with family to Europe in Business class. Initially happy with my “lie flat” seats but just noticed that Delta has changed the flight to a plane with the old “sleeper seats”. Took a look at reviews which were not good.

Not happy.

After they first “suspended” the portal, I was able to contact AmEx via secure message with details of transaction, describe how I used to get 5x or whatever from that merchant, and they would give me the points as a “goodwill” adjustment.

I just whined and moaned, explaining how I’d be switching spend to Chase, hoping they’d offer a retention of sorts. Absolutely nothing, they just a copied-and-pasted a message from on high and told me to have a Coke and a smile.

I had already switched my business spend to Ink Bold. Here I come CSP.

This is really disappointing. Now there’s now way to earn multiple MR per dollar except via the PRG card or Gold Biz card. I used to earn hundreds of thousands of MR per year via the mall, and quite honestly I would think 2% is a pretty high participation rate–I’ll bet Chase’s rate isn’t any higher… and certainly no more than 2% of AAdvantage members, for instance, use the AA mall, I bet.

The advantages of MR over Chase are becoming few and far between. Transfer bonuses are more infrequent and the only value for me right now is the ability to redeem for SQ Suites or ANA miles for distance based *A awards, EY and QR.

IMO this is another step in the shift Amex is making away from traditional points toward social media syncing, discounts, gift cards, and paying with points at places like Amazon. They’re trying to get younger, but they’re leaving the serious travel hackers behind–customers who may not even be profitable to Amex, so perhaps an understandable decision.

While this is disappointing, it’s not surprising considering how long it’s been gone. And if usage was less than 2% of cardholders, it may not have made financial sense to revamp it, or even continue it.

I got the AXBP specifically for the lounge perks, but found that moreso than not, it wasn’t honored. Especially at the International level.

When I phoned AX concierge, they just said to “buy a daypass and they would reimburse me”, however most lounges didn’t sell daypasses, so that was a bust.

To compensate, AX enrolled me in Priority Pass Lounge, but gotta be honest, their smart phone app barely works, and their access lounges aren’t so abundant. Especially in the major hubs like JFK and LAX.