Air NZ American Express Platinum Cards

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Air NZ American Express Platinum Cards

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4066 posts

Uber Geek

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Snowflake

#626250 16-May-2012 15:53

khull: The attractive thing about this over the GP/Kiwibank ones is the domestic travel insurance. I'll probably take a stab for the first year and see how it works out

your contents are typically covered by your regular contents insurance in NZ, so you should only need it for cancellations , delays, rental car excess cover etc (if offered)

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Snowflake
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zhuyan

177 posts

Master Geek

#626279 16-May-2012 16:41

Well really interesting to see this post.

As part of my efforts to tidy up my finances (got too many credit/finance cards), I was thinking of cancelling my American Express Gold Credit Card, on which I pay $90 annual fee. When I got home last night I got a letter from Amex introducing their new Amex Platinum Edge credit card; guess what? it will cost me $145 dollar a year to use it.

However, with this new card they are also offering one complimentary direct domestic return flight each membership year!!! I think this is worth that $145 annual fee, at least??? And the free return ticket is for seat and bag. The condition is that you have book tickets through AMEX 15 days prior to your travel

Other benefits include: 1) get 3 points for $1 spent at major supermarkets; 2points for $1 spent at major petrol station and 1 points for all other expenses; what they call 3+2+1. This is pretty cool isn't it? and the membership rewards program is automatically on once you sign up for the card

2) Free Travel insurance for both domestic and international travel (once you use Amex card to pay for the tickets), including Overseas Medical Emergency Cover, Repatriation Cover and also baggage cover

3) 2.99% interest rate for the first 6month; plus once approved and spend up to $500 on the new card, you also get 20,000 bonus reward points

4) 4 supplementary cards with no annual card fee

All these for $145 a year, I think it is pretty good offer or have I missed something?

I will cancel my Amex Gold and get this new card. As for usage of Amex card in NZ, I haven't noticed any inconvenience at all since I started to use it in 2006. I have also used the card in Australia, Singapore, Hk and China with no trouble at all.

I thought some of you might be interested in this new card, particularly if you travel frequently.

Regs

4066 posts

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Snowflake

#626282 16-May-2012 16:44

zhuyan: Well really interesting to see this post.

As part of my efforts to tidy up my finances (got too many credit/finance cards), I was thinking of cancelling my American Express Gold Credit Card, on which I pay $90 annual fee. When I got home last night I got a letter from Amex introducing their new Amex Platinum Edge credit card; guess what? it will cost me $145 dollar a year to use it.

I got the same letter for my dad, who is overseas. His letter said that he had to keep his existing card in order to get the 'edge' card. That pushed the annual fees up a bit higher than the $145..... still, the free domestic flights they were throwing in sounded good.

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Snowflake
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zhuyan

177 posts

Master Geek

#626285 16-May-2012 16:48

Hi Regs, the letter didn't mention anything about having to keep the old card at all. In fact I was speaking to AMEX today and confirmed that once I receive the new card I could ring them to arrange my existing balance as well as reward points all over to the the new card and cancel the old one. They even agreed to credit me the proportion of the annual fee I have already paid for my current Gold card as I "have been a member since 2006" :)

PenultimateHop

637 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#626286 16-May-2012 16:49

Regs: one thing my spreadsheets didn't take into account was the surcharges. they are becoming more common these days and they basically start to wipe out any benefits you would have received by earning points. Its no point paying a $5 surcharge to get $3 worth of reward points...

While anyone would have to look at the cost/benefit for their individual circumstances, the rewards can be very valuable - even with a surcharge.

Hint: Airpoints is bad, bad, value - but due to the Airpoints program, not credit card earning.

khull

1245 posts

Uber Geek

#626331 16-May-2012 17:38

zhuyan: curious, are most of your purchases within the 3 points = $1 category? for me this is about 20% of my spending

zhuyan

177 posts

Master Geek

#626343 16-May-2012 17:51

khull: the 3points reward only applies to grocery shopping at most major Supermarkets within NZ; so for $200 per week grocery shopping that's $800 a month so to get 2400 points for that only is not too bad is it?

Th thing is I could try to rearrange my spending to suit this and I guess this is probably what Amex is aiming at achieving - to use more of their cards.

Anyway I will have to wait and see whether that is actually the way it is supposed to work :)

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khull

1245 posts

Uber Geek

#626888 17-May-2012 15:43

cool keep us posted as I think I get better value in air points (next to cash back).

khull

1245 posts

Uber Geek

#629818 24-May-2012 12:01

my Air NZ card arrived couple days ago - I keep a budget and I hit nowhere near $200 a week on groceries (about $50 is my current budget for groceries - Yes I dine in and do takeouts because I don't have the time to cook)

Translating to the Edge card, that would be about 4*50*3=600 points which is worth about $3 back - so I would think compared to my other spending the Air NZ is working out well

ruderger

53 posts

Master Geek

#934655 15-Nov-2013 21:50

I've just applied for the American Express Platinum Edge, I shop mostly at Countdown, have Vodafone internet, power with Mercury, they all take it (can only choose Visa\MC on Mercury account page, but they said they take it, so will change if they don't). I fly Wellington to Dunedin at least once a year to the included flight more than pays off the $149 fee (also joint cards are free, not $30 like Kiwibank Go Fly Gold). If I spend about $100 at Countdown (or NW and get flybuys) that's about 14400 points just there, 7200 points = $50 Countdown voucher, or 10000 = $75 on webjet.co.nz. If I spent the same on my current Airpoints Platinum (just replaced Go Fly Gold) I'd earn 64 Airpoints, so Amex is better there, the free Koru passes have been nice though, but AmEx joining offer is 12 movie tickets, so that's nice. Any more opinions on American Express a year and a half later? Cheers

porche20002

72 posts

Master Geek

#934719 16-Nov-2013 00:45

My parents use the Amex Platinum Credit Card and we found that the 'Byer's Advantage Cover' to be really useful. Basically for most of the bigger purchases that comes with a warranty, Amex would up to an extra year (e.g. a macbook comes with a year's warranty but Amex extended it to two). It worked out great when my sister's macbook air battery got ruptured and we got a brand new replacement model.

Also as mentioned before the fees start to feel less step if you use the additional complementary cards and the travel insurance often, which makes the 2 points/dollar a better value than the Bank issued Visa with around 1 point/6 dollars spent.

What I don't get is why the annual fee for the Platinum Charge Card is $1,250 vs. the Platinum Credit Card at $325 pa. I only see the concierge and travel lounge access as additional benefits.

ScuL

487 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#934723 16-Nov-2013 03:57

I think this table is relevant
http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/airpoints-direct-earn-credit-card-comparison-table

I've been a loyal user of a British Airways AMEX card for the last 2 years and have managed to spend quite a bit of it (largely due to having to pay for a wedding). I'd say I can use it in 80~90% of places in Europe but there's always the odd one where you can't.
The great thing about the BA-scheme is that when hitting a certain target (£20K/year on normal or £10K/year on Platinum) you will achieve a free "2-4-1" ticket. Which means that if you buy a flight from the UK to any destination abroad on airpoints (avios) you can have your partner/wife travel for FREE. This is excellent, because of our wedding last year we now have a free ticket to Los Angeles in Business class for next year :D

Also I would like to add that AMEX are by far the best card supplier in refunding your money when things go wrong. We bought some bridesmaids dresses from a webshop which my wife believed to be in the US but they were actually operating out of China. When our orders arrived they didn't look anything and didn't match description nor sizes, so we had to return them and they became very obstructive. AMEX were amazing and got all of our money back!!

I have looked at the table posted above simply to plan ahead of what the logical step will be when moving to NZ but have not concluded which option is the best.

Haere taka mua, taka muri; kaua e wha.

khull

1245 posts

Uber Geek

#934808 16-Nov-2013 10:31

Since this topic was revived, I thought I would share my experience so far ....

I still have the AMEX platinum cc but the frustrating bit is there is no concierge service and there is no attempt by AMEX to differentiate with competitors. The almost all Visa Plat cards have concierge assistance which I use on multiple occasions when travelling. Heck I even sorted out requests which I was too lazy to find out for family members.

Having said that I think there is room for improvement for AMEX in value add services to overcome the lack of merchant support.

rayonline

1734 posts

Uber Geek

#934814 16-Nov-2013 10:44

What turns me away from the AMEX issued AMEX cards are the fees. Some cards have an extra fee to enrol into their loyalty program and also the annual fee is higher than a NZ bank issued AMEX. I don't buy that many stuff and in NZ there is the CGA but things are so expensive i tend to get many things overseas anyway however many stuff that I have own lasted many yrs anyway way past their warranty date. The GlobalPlus AMEX also offers a higher APD earn rate of all the cards.

I don't spend $50k or $100k PA or whatever the figure is to get certain fees waived.
Some cards may give you a return NZ fare or some lounge access - well grabaset domestics are cheap enough and lounge access for those who fly often enough overseas airline programmes can get Gold easier way easier than AirNZ Silver, haha and you get so much more stuff also than just the 2 or so passes.

For that reason I just stick to the GP Gold Amex. Didn't go GP Visa Plat. Don't need conincerge. GP Plat APD rate is alower a bit lower too.. You do get status points but then again like I said if I flew often I would just join a overseas airline programme and get Gold outright so much easier than just chase and chase in NZ with AirNZ and it's card partners but to do any of that I need to rank up my spending ...

ruderger

53 posts

Master Geek

#934825 16-Nov-2013 11:44

ScuL: I think this table is relevant
http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/airpoints-direct-earn-credit-card-comparison-table

That table is ok, but other cards earn points that can be spent on travel too, like the AmEx Platinum Edge, I think it's about $45 spent (at a supermarket $1=3points) will earn $1 that can be spent at webjet.co.nz or AmEx travel, that's pretty good. $3333 spent at supermarkets will earn 10000 that is $75 at webjet, if I spent the same amount on GP AmEX I'd earn about $50 airpoints $. + the free flight is worth maybe 288 airpoints (Wel-Dun return, for most expensive GrabASeat fare).

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