American Express Gold member...

Dhrucku

Hi all,

As a gold card member at the moment (started in February) so a while until the free year is up.

I've got 25,332 points in just 6 months and was looking through their rewards, which to be fair are no real different to the types I was getting through the Credit Card from Lloyds - Duo Avios (Amex card and Mastercard) in terms of holidays.

Anyone else encounter the fact that the pro's to owning this card

• Airport lounge access for one person (partner has to pay extra),
• Customer Service that I never use
• Access to events before they go out - non-existent really, fashion show has been as good as I've got so far

really carry no weight at all?

I'm definitely considering changing it up to something primarily geared to cashback or Avios.

Getting compliments on it are about as much notice I give it, which is NOT the reason I bought it in the first place.

What are your thoughts?

Deadbeat

Depends on what your interests are, really. I'm not that interested in the event invites either. They are all in London and I live 400 miles away...!

If you want to keep the MR points, consider downgrading to the Green card after the 1st year is up as the annual fee is less. If you're not interested in remaining a cardmember and want to use your points for something more useful, consider a transfer to Avios. This is usually on a 1:1 basis but there may be occasional bonus promotions.

Dhrucku

Deadbeat wrote: »

If you're not interested in remaining a cardmember and want to use your points for something more useful, consider a transfer to Avios. This is usually on a 1:1 basis but there may be occasional bonus promotions.

What do you mean by this? There is a 1:1 for Avios for BA Avios, occasional bonus promotions for transfer? Seems static.

Seems like my option (since holidays and free flights is where I'm aiming at) will be the this

Anyone have experience of this one? It seems like it's the only one I should look at with no cost and focusing on air miles. My fiance has this card as well so would there be scope to combine points spending seperately?

dj1471

The gold card is one of the best for Avios thanks to the bonus points you get in year 1, after that I agree it isn't worth keeping.

According to the lounge terms the vouchers are valid for the cardholder plus one guest:

You will be entitled to two complimentary lounge visits at participating lounges each year you hold a valid Preferred Rewards Gold Card, which may be used by the primary Cardmember or by the primary Cardmember and one guest.

As stated you can normally transfer the Amex points to Avios at 1-1, but sometimes they have conversion offers that give a better rate of exchange or a bonus.

The-Truth

Do you shop at Tesco? Their credit card pays 5 clubcard points for every £4 spent in their stores including fuel. 250 clubcard points buys 600 Avios.

InsideInsurance

The-Truth wrote: »

Do you shop at Tesco? Their credit card pays 5 clubcard points for every £4 spent in their stores including fuel. 250 clubcard points buys 600 Avios.

But with a standard clubcard and an AmEx gold card you'd get 4 clubcard points plus 2 MR points so for £1,000 spend you get 3,000 Avios with a Tesco Credit card or 4,400 Avios with Amex Gold and normal club card


The advantage of the gold card is the flexibility as to which scheme you use the MR points with. So when we were going to Dubai BA had no availability for points based flights but Virgin Atlantic did so transferred the MR there and went Upper Class.

If you are committed to BA then you can probably do better with a card dedicated to them but if you want flexibility then MR comes in