Thumper
11-06-2023, 08:11 PM
I'll start with a fresh post and try to duplicate what I wrote this morning to address your question about AmEx points. First and foremost, we use our AmEx for EVERYTHING. If Lynn goes through the McD's drive-thru for a $1 order of French Fries, it goes on the AmEx. Any monthly auto-billing that does not charge a fee to use, gets charged to AmEx. We don't carry cash. I do have a (no-fee) Visa card, that accrues travel points, and use it anyplace that does not accept AmEx. I started with a green (AmEx) card in 1983. When I had a job involving a lot of travel, I bumped it up to a gold card. When I started my business years ago, I opted for the platinum card and charged all my business expenses, supplies, equipment, fuel, chemicals, office supplies ... you name it, it went on the card. Of course it's a travel rewards card, which accrues points. TBH, I don't think I've paid cash for an airline ticket in 20 years or more ... I always pay with points. I don't know which card you use, but each level gives different incentives. You'd have to study the website as I don't recall the differences. Any reference here will be what I get with my platinum card because I've had it for many years and I'm aware of the perks associated with it. One thing to keep in mind, I NEVER use my points for anything but air travel. You can use them to pay bills, pay for hotels, cruises, etc, but it's a LOUSY exchange rate and the airlines give you the biggest bang for your buck ... errrr, points.
I will say, a couple years ago, since my lifestyle has changed and I charge much less than I did when I was working, I called AmEx to downgrade back to a gold or green, but the account retention specialist got involved and gave me a free year of membership (no fee) to give me a chance to "think about it". I took him up on the offer. This year, when my renewal date came up, our personal lives had changed again since Lynn retired. I called to discuss downgrading again and they offered me 60,000 points to stick with them. Now, I honestly don't know if the fact I've been with AmEx for 40 years carries any weight or not, but their Account Retention Specialists are good at what they do! I'm still a Platinum Card holder. ;)
You asked about all the rewards I listed in my cruise info, so I'll steer toward that. Probably the easiest thing for you to do is go to the AmEx website and click on the link at the top of the page that says, "Rewards & Benefits". Study the offerings and sign up for whatever interests you (kind of like a registration). I really don't know why they do it that way, I wish it were just automatic (some are). I'll list a few examples of what we use the most. If you book trips through the AmEx travel department, they start throwing perks at you from all angles. On a cruise, for example, they'll throw in a bowl of chocolate dipped strawberries, which will be waiting for you in your cabin. They'll give you $100-$300 (depending on cabin category) on-board spending credit. They gave us an additional $200 credit to use as we want and it can be converted to cash if we don't use it. This particular cruise, I also had a $100 credit from that Visa card I mentioned above. The cruise line threw in another $100 credit AND (this is a big one) ... they threw in free gratuities.
On cruises, you pay for the cabin, but they add on gratuities (tips for the staff and crew) which usually runs $15-$20 per day PER PERSON! In our case, it amounted to a $450 credit. The cruise line also gave us another $100 as a "loyalty" thing since we've cruised with them before AND they gave me another $100 Veteran Discount! It all adds up! We love cruising and if you're in the right position, you can play the incentives game. Cruise lines start throwing out all sorts of discounts the closer they get to their departure time. Ours was the gratuities on this particular cruise. They may run that for a couple weeks, then maybe change to an offer of $500 toward airfare to entice those who have to fly to catch the cruise (we're catching it in Rome for example). They'll offer free cabin upgrades or packages for fine dining, excursions, laundry service and drinks. If you're flexible. you can wait for these bargains. BUT ... waiting can also bite you in the ass since the cruise lines lower prices, to fill empty cabins, as they approach cruise time, but airlines INCREASE their prices the nearer you get to flight time, so if you have to fly, you have to find a happy medium. But I digress, back to AmEx.
When you pick your favorite airline for the rewards program, some of the benefits only apply to that particular airline. Ours is Delta since we're right between both Orlando and Tampa airports and Delta has a heavy presence there. Delta's hub for us is Atlanta, so it's a no-brainer. The points also apply to all of Delta's partner airlines. AmEx gives us $200/year credit for incidentals. If we buy tickets with points, they automatically pay the taxes on those points. They pay any luggage fees. Internet, food, drink ... whatever extra you pay to the airline (using the AmEx card of course), automatically comes out of that $200. We usually go to L.A. in November for Lynn's mom's birthday or sometimes for Thanksgiving and if we have credit left over and know we won't be flying again by the end of the year, Lynn sweet talks the FA into giving her those little airline bottles of liquor to use up any credit we have left. They're "supposed" to open the bottles before handing them out, but she bats those big brown eyes and they slip her a batch of them when nobody's looking. ;)
AmEx pays for TSA Pre-check, as well as Global Entry and even the new CLEAR program. Car rental perks and insurance coverage, lost baggage insurance, flight delay insurance, all that sort of stuff is covered if you purchase your ticket with AmEx. Whatever I spend through the travel department, I get 5X the points. As for hotel stays, they waive all the qualifying conditions for hotel loyalty programs (Hilton Honors or Marriot Gold Elite, for example). Like the stay we booked in Rome, if the hotel is in the AmEx Hotel Collection, they throw in $200 toward the price of the hotel, plus another $100 spending money. At our particular hotel, the hotel also gave us a $100 voucher that can be used for anything in the hotel (it's a resort with a VERY nice restaurant and bar). We get $200/year for Uber. We also get free airport lounge access (free food/drink ... including alcohol).
There are probably other travel related perks I've forgotten about, but we use a lot of other perks. We get $100/year free stuff from Saks 5th Avenue. Heck, it's tough to find things because a dang box of toothpicks are $50, but I just ordered a pack of men's boxer briefs and a carving knife for Lynn. They give us $240/year for "digital entertainment", we use it for movie channels on the tv. We get a free Walmart+ account ... it's the Walmart version of Amazon Prime, free shipping, etc, plus we get 10-cents off per gallon of gas with the membership, but can still charge the gas to AmEx. Heck, there's a ton of stuff, but you get the idea. Sure, there's a hefty annual fee, but we more than make up for it with all the built-in perks.
As for points accrual, I touched on some of that at the beginning of this novel, but we take advantage of any points programs they throw at us. One we like is since Delta is our chosen airline, they have a "Delta Dining" program. They have a huge list of participating restaurants and if we eat there and charge the meal to our AmEx, we get triple Delta points. We look through there to try new places to eat quite often, especially when we're traveling. In fact, we ate lunch at one today after my dr. appt. in Tampa and scored 90 Delta Sky Miles points (Thai restaurant). You kind of double up on those because you get the points on your AmEx as well as the Delta points. It's also the same when we use Lyft instaed of Uber. We get AmEx points for the total tab, PLUS we get triple Delta points. They just had a promotion at Starbucks and we received 5000 points after buying 6 drinks at Starbucks. (Lynn bought the cheapie, fruity drinks, but really liked them).
Hope this helps.
I will say, a couple years ago, since my lifestyle has changed and I charge much less than I did when I was working, I called AmEx to downgrade back to a gold or green, but the account retention specialist got involved and gave me a free year of membership (no fee) to give me a chance to "think about it". I took him up on the offer. This year, when my renewal date came up, our personal lives had changed again since Lynn retired. I called to discuss downgrading again and they offered me 60,000 points to stick with them. Now, I honestly don't know if the fact I've been with AmEx for 40 years carries any weight or not, but their Account Retention Specialists are good at what they do! I'm still a Platinum Card holder. ;)
You asked about all the rewards I listed in my cruise info, so I'll steer toward that. Probably the easiest thing for you to do is go to the AmEx website and click on the link at the top of the page that says, "Rewards & Benefits". Study the offerings and sign up for whatever interests you (kind of like a registration). I really don't know why they do it that way, I wish it were just automatic (some are). I'll list a few examples of what we use the most. If you book trips through the AmEx travel department, they start throwing perks at you from all angles. On a cruise, for example, they'll throw in a bowl of chocolate dipped strawberries, which will be waiting for you in your cabin. They'll give you $100-$300 (depending on cabin category) on-board spending credit. They gave us an additional $200 credit to use as we want and it can be converted to cash if we don't use it. This particular cruise, I also had a $100 credit from that Visa card I mentioned above. The cruise line threw in another $100 credit AND (this is a big one) ... they threw in free gratuities.
On cruises, you pay for the cabin, but they add on gratuities (tips for the staff and crew) which usually runs $15-$20 per day PER PERSON! In our case, it amounted to a $450 credit. The cruise line also gave us another $100 as a "loyalty" thing since we've cruised with them before AND they gave me another $100 Veteran Discount! It all adds up! We love cruising and if you're in the right position, you can play the incentives game. Cruise lines start throwing out all sorts of discounts the closer they get to their departure time. Ours was the gratuities on this particular cruise. They may run that for a couple weeks, then maybe change to an offer of $500 toward airfare to entice those who have to fly to catch the cruise (we're catching it in Rome for example). They'll offer free cabin upgrades or packages for fine dining, excursions, laundry service and drinks. If you're flexible. you can wait for these bargains. BUT ... waiting can also bite you in the ass since the cruise lines lower prices, to fill empty cabins, as they approach cruise time, but airlines INCREASE their prices the nearer you get to flight time, so if you have to fly, you have to find a happy medium. But I digress, back to AmEx.
When you pick your favorite airline for the rewards program, some of the benefits only apply to that particular airline. Ours is Delta since we're right between both Orlando and Tampa airports and Delta has a heavy presence there. Delta's hub for us is Atlanta, so it's a no-brainer. The points also apply to all of Delta's partner airlines. AmEx gives us $200/year credit for incidentals. If we buy tickets with points, they automatically pay the taxes on those points. They pay any luggage fees. Internet, food, drink ... whatever extra you pay to the airline (using the AmEx card of course), automatically comes out of that $200. We usually go to L.A. in November for Lynn's mom's birthday or sometimes for Thanksgiving and if we have credit left over and know we won't be flying again by the end of the year, Lynn sweet talks the FA into giving her those little airline bottles of liquor to use up any credit we have left. They're "supposed" to open the bottles before handing them out, but she bats those big brown eyes and they slip her a batch of them when nobody's looking. ;)
AmEx pays for TSA Pre-check, as well as Global Entry and even the new CLEAR program. Car rental perks and insurance coverage, lost baggage insurance, flight delay insurance, all that sort of stuff is covered if you purchase your ticket with AmEx. Whatever I spend through the travel department, I get 5X the points. As for hotel stays, they waive all the qualifying conditions for hotel loyalty programs (Hilton Honors or Marriot Gold Elite, for example). Like the stay we booked in Rome, if the hotel is in the AmEx Hotel Collection, they throw in $200 toward the price of the hotel, plus another $100 spending money. At our particular hotel, the hotel also gave us a $100 voucher that can be used for anything in the hotel (it's a resort with a VERY nice restaurant and bar). We get $200/year for Uber. We also get free airport lounge access (free food/drink ... including alcohol).
There are probably other travel related perks I've forgotten about, but we use a lot of other perks. We get $100/year free stuff from Saks 5th Avenue. Heck, it's tough to find things because a dang box of toothpicks are $50, but I just ordered a pack of men's boxer briefs and a carving knife for Lynn. They give us $240/year for "digital entertainment", we use it for movie channels on the tv. We get a free Walmart+ account ... it's the Walmart version of Amazon Prime, free shipping, etc, plus we get 10-cents off per gallon of gas with the membership, but can still charge the gas to AmEx. Heck, there's a ton of stuff, but you get the idea. Sure, there's a hefty annual fee, but we more than make up for it with all the built-in perks.
As for points accrual, I touched on some of that at the beginning of this novel, but we take advantage of any points programs they throw at us. One we like is since Delta is our chosen airline, they have a "Delta Dining" program. They have a huge list of participating restaurants and if we eat there and charge the meal to our AmEx, we get triple Delta points. We look through there to try new places to eat quite often, especially when we're traveling. In fact, we ate lunch at one today after my dr. appt. in Tampa and scored 90 Delta Sky Miles points (Thai restaurant). You kind of double up on those because you get the points on your AmEx as well as the Delta points. It's also the same when we use Lyft instaed of Uber. We get AmEx points for the total tab, PLUS we get triple Delta points. They just had a promotion at Starbucks and we received 5000 points after buying 6 drinks at Starbucks. (Lynn bought the cheapie, fruity drinks, but really liked them).
Hope this helps.