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Amex should respond to the Chase Sapphire Reserve with vigor

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Amex should respond to the Chase Sapphire Reserve with vigor.

ICYMI, Chase announced that they would debut their new premium card, The Chase Sapphire Reserve, next week. I wrote an article a while back that Amex should view the 5/24 as a huge opportunity. The Chase Sapphire Reserve is yet another example that the market is getting away from Amex. It used to be a given that the American Express Platinum card was THE premium card to carry in your wallet. Boy, things have changed and I believe that Amex should respond to the Chase Sapphire Reserve with vigor!!!

I have an Amex Platinum Business aka ‘bidness’.

As I look across the credit card universe, there are so many premium options to choose from now: The Citi Prestige, the new Chase Sapphire Reserve, Citi Aadvantage Executive, Chase Ritz Carlton Card, The Barclay Aviator Silver, and the Chase United Club card. Most of these cards offer very similar benefits.

Business Platinum

I had a personal platinum a few years ago and let go of it. I didn’t need all of the benefits and the $450 value wasn’t worth keeping. Now, I still have an old Amex fidelity gold card that keeps my points alive and I have been lobbing most of my spend through Chase and their Ultimate Rewards program. I ended up re-acquiring an Amex Platinum Business when I was targeted for a 100k sign up. I do love the Centurion lounges, but it’s a real pain to make use of the $200 airline credit compared to the Citi Prestige and the new Chase Sapphire Reserve, and I haven’t made that much use of the FHR program. Yes, there are a slew of other benefits, but they don’t offset the fee in my opinion. I’ve resorted to now using Virtuoso or booking hotels through Citi Prestige to capitalize on the buy3get1. Why wouldn’t Amex match or beat some of these benefits, at least in the short term?

How do the 3 leading cards compare?

Citi PrestigeChase Sapphire ReserveAmex Plat
Annual Fee
$450 ( $350 Citigold)$450$450
Travel Credit$250 annually$300 Annually$200 on air incidentals
Global Entry Fee creditfee creditfee credit
Priority PassYes, plus 2 guestsYes, guests?Yes, cardholder
Other Lounge AccessAdmirals plus 2 guestsCenturion lounges
Loyalty programsnonenoneHilton Gold
SPG Gold
Luxury Hotel programsMastercard World Elite Hotel programVisa Signature HotelsAmex Fine Hotel & Resorts
Other perksbuy3get1 hotel nights
3 free rounds of golf
Rental Car coverage ( Primary outside US, secondary inside US)
Primary Rental Car Coverage US and AbroadBusiness and First buy1get1.
Boingo free internet
Rental Car Coverage not primary
Bonus points on dining2x3xnone
Bonus points on travel3x3xnon
Transfer Partners101120

How does Amex respond to the Chase Sapphire Reserve with vvvigor?

  1. Get rid of the Once in a Lifetime Clause for sign up bonuses

    • Currently Amex only allows sign up bonuses once in a lifetime.
    • Why on earth would they want to exclude consumers who have had the card in the past from applying again because they wouldn’t get a sign up bonus? Neither Chase nor Citi have such stringent rules. Makes no sense at all.
  2. Match the public offer of 100,000 points with 4k spend

    • why would anyone choose Amex over Chase with this large a disparity. When airlines drop fares, the competition responds with a matched price almost instantly.
  3. Increase retention offers based off the original sign up bonus – no matter how long ago it was

    • Got 50k for sign up…then get 50k with 4k spend for retention
  4. Make it a flat $200 for travel

    • none of this airline incidental mumbo jumbo – just make it flat
  5. Make Centurion lounge access optional; access or an additional $100 for travel credit

    • Lounges are already crowded
    • choice is power and many cardholders don’t travel enough to make use of the lounges and would rather have the $100 credit. Others would value the lounge access in excess of $100 and would choose it.
  6. Match the Priority pass guest policy and provide memberships with 2 guests

  7. Make the 4th night free when booking through their Fine Hotels and Resorts program

  8. Match 3x for Dining and Travel

Overall:

I think the Amex Platinum program is still valuable. Competition is what provides value to consumers and the marketplace is excitingly competitive now. I’m not the only one that thinks they need to respond. In fact, I started writing this a few days ago and yesterday The Points Guy published a very similar article, although Zach Honig had some different suggestions, I agree with a lot of what was published. I just don’t think it’s enough. I have a more aggressive plan because I think that Amex is getting shoved around the space and is losing the battle.  In the past 18 months they’ve lost Costco, and two new premium cards have entered the market place that beat Amex Plat.  They now are far from having the most desired, prestigious, and benefit heavy card on the market. Amex needs to respond to the Chase Sapphire Reserve with vigor or face attrition at the hands of both Chase and Citi.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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9 Comments

  • c00mtg September 28, 2016

    Hi Miles, I have an update that I think everyone will love!!!!

    I can confirm that a big change is coming very very soon!

    I called the AMEX number behind my Platinum because I was curious to know.

    I partially described the CSR card to the lady and asked if AMEX would come up with some better rewards/benefits…long story short, she said that a BIG announcement is coming and to NOT get rid of my Platinum card.

    I can’t wait!!!

    • Miles September 28, 2016

      thank you C00mtg!!

  • c00mtg September 21, 2016

    Hi all, I just upgraded my PRG Gold to Platinum and linked it to Hilton Gold status, Starwood and Delta. I purchased 4 $50 delta e-gift cards and was credited two days later.

    I’m wondering if I should upgrade my Sapphire Preferred for the Reserved. I won’t get approved if I apply due to the 5/24 policy. The reason is because a few of my bills won’t take AMEX, and are big bills that I can take advantage of collecting more points.

    Any thoughts?

    • Miles September 21, 2016

      c00mg – thanks for reading! So a couple of things to consider: 1) I think you probably already realize you won’t get any sort of sign up bonus, but mentioning this just to clarify. 2) since you aren’t receiving a sign up bonus, Per the terms of the Chase Sapphire Reserve you wouldn’t negate your opportunity to receive a sign up bonus later ( if you were to downgrade back to preferred once you’re less than 5/24 and then apply) as you wouldn’t have received one in the past 24 months. 3) You would reap the bennies of the Reserve: 3x travel/dining, $300 airline annual credit, etc. It’s a net positive if you’ll spend $600 in travel. ANother thing to consider is using the spend for a business card. I’ve seen that the Amex biz cards arent showing up against 5/24 and I haven’t seen my citi biz cards on my report so you may consider this route to earn bonus for the spend as well. It’s really up to you.

  • Jeremy August 26, 2016

    I totally agree with the above statements. I’ve had an AMEX Platinum in the past with a 100k offer, as has my wife. We live near a great Centurion Lounge, though frequently use the SW Companion Pass instead. (Ours is expiring and we are both beyond 5/24 🙁 . ) Another thing AMEX needs to add is some better hotel partners. Chase easily wins this with Hyatt. Hyatt is a limited brand, so they also offer IHG and Marriott, though those points are less valuable. (Amex offers the Amex Hilton/Suprass, but unless they start offering >=10x on dining/groceries, it’s useless after deval.) I’d love to see AMEX change their SPG ratio to 1:1 instant transfer. Now THAT would be game changing. If they changed the credit to at least airlines (a la Citi Prestige), changed the ratio on SPG, and added some bonus categories (I like dining and travel), I would carry 3 cards. AMEX Platinum, Old Blue Cash, and Fidelity Visa. OK, OK, I’d still carry Freedom and Discover, but the 2 AMEX and Fidelity would be my power cards. AMEX would get travel/dining spend with the revamped Platinum, my essentials would still go on Blue Cash. and everything else would get 2% (Unless it was a 5% category that quarter).

    P.S. When it comes to customer service AMEX wins. No fuss, no muss. You are always treated like a valued customer that they strive to retain. I forgot, Platinum SHOULD really offer primary rental insurance, the $95 Chase Sapphire Preferred does.

  • Pat August 18, 2016

    Every time you whip out an Amex Platinum, or simply see it in your wallet, you feel like a million bucks. The other cards simply don’t provide that intangible.

    This is why I would have a Platinum card even if its benefits lag slightly behind the competition; however, the Platinum card lags far behind the competition. The two things they absolutely need to correct are 1) the lack of bonus categories, and 2) the uneccesarily onerous airline credit.

    Make the bonus category something fun like “any purchase of $100 or more gets 2x points”. That would offer a unique benefit from the competition, increase transaction fees for Amex, and perpetuate its brand as being a card for big-spenders.

    If they fix those two things, I (and many others) would get the card, which would further increase demand in the Amex lounges. They have many options for tinkering with the supply/demand of the lounges, but that’s a story for another day.

    • Miles August 18, 2016

      Thanks Pat. I agree that Amex has done a great job branding their Plat card as a status symbol. Can you imagine a Black card?! WAYO! Great ideas and thanks for reading!

  • lopere August 18, 2016

    Talk about misleading.

    You can definitely can get the AMEX Plat and Citi Prestige again – you just won’t get the signup bonus

    • Miles August 18, 2016

      oh thanks Lopere! no intention of misleading – i meant sign up bonus again. I’ll update!

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