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Thinking of getting the amex platinum for the benefits but I was wondering for those that do have one, is the International Airline Program worth it? Are the fares much cheaper than you can get regularly?
No, it’s not really a thing. Incidentally we just saved ~£20 on our upcoming Qantas booking on Amex vs direct, but they’re almost always 6-12% more expensive than going direct.
IAP doesn’t give any guarantee of lower fares being available.
That makes it hard to say it’s ‘worth it’, given the uncertainty of if/when there’s any significant IAP discount. If you use any of the partner airlines a lot, or are flexible on dates, you’re more likely to find some savings.
It’s probably more likely in premium cabins and higher priced fare codes, but afaik it’s ultimately determined by what tickets the airlines make available for Amex to sell at discount.
If you have the benefit, you can see IAP fares in the Amex travel site, but you still need to check against the airlines’ sites to see what, if any, real discount there is in practice.
The only benefit we have found recently is when booking ex-EU fares, we would get charged in the local currency so would get a 3% FX charge if we used one of our Amex cards. The price on Amex Travel was in £, with a fair exchange rate, so we could buy without FX fees and get the extra Membership Rewards points. A small benefit, but better than nothing!
The FX fee point is fair. The decision then becomes do you value the ease of not involving a travel agent at more than 3% of the transaction cost. I’ve been ok in the past with Amex Travel and flight disruption but I did have to get stuck in myself in a way other directly-booked passengers didn’t.
I still don’t understand why AMEX charges FX fees for a card that appears to be aimed at travellers. The US version doesn’t charge FX fees.
I still don’t understand why AMEX charges FX fees for a card that appears to be aimed at travellers. The US version doesn’t charge FX fees.
Avoid reading US blogs when it comes to cards! There is good competition and larger fees, hence Amex can afford to offer fx fee free cards. Here it can get away with it as there’s no competition.
Glad someone has asked this, because I was wondering the same thing –
For example, looking at this article, I have never seen any fares come up with the “International Airline Platinum Benefit” box
Is this just another thing that is just available to US cardholders?
Glad someone has asked this, because I was wondering the same thing –
For example, looking at this article, I have never seen any fares come up with the “International Airline Platinum Benefit” box
Is this just another thing that is just available to US cardholders?
It is there for UK cards too, fwiw I just did a search for London-DXB F/J flights departing late June…
Amex shows IAP on EK F with c. 375 GBP saving vs. the same flights on emirates.com, but IAP saving on J is only c. 35 GBP.
@cats_are_best, thanks, although I still cannot see the “International Airline Platinum Benefit” box – would you mind sharing your search parameters, please?
@cats_are_best, thanks, although I still cannot see the “International Airline Platinum Benefit” box – would you mind sharing your search parameters, please?
The equivalent UK checkbox is on the left…
Cardmember Benefits
American Express FareFrom memory I searched London (all airports) to DXB for days +/-3 days around 26 June if F.
Random example:
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