Platinum. Restaurant bookings and concierge experience?

[Jonno34]

Hi,

I have never used the concierge on Platinum but I seem to remember there is some benefit when booking restaurants. Can anyone advise please.

Thanks

[Comrade Chag]

Don’t bother.

[meta]

You get extra 500 MR points for the first booking, but you can do it yourself via the app or online. No need to contact concierge.

[OGP]

They used to be quite good – you would get better/the best tables at some restaurants in London and 2-3 times the agents were able to get me tables when there were otherwise none available, however my recent (post COVID) experiences have been incredibly disappointing in comparison.

There was also two ‘formal’ schemes operating, the Global Dining Collection, where you would receive a small treat for booking through Amex e.g. a welcome drink or complimentary appetiser, and also a UK/London based programme that offered dining discounts and similar treats on a different list of restaurants, however I’m not really sure what has happened to either of these sadly.

[shilly]

We found they have been very useful as when we had Sunday lunch at the Savoy and the concierge booked it for a table of 6 we all had a glass of champagne which was well worth it at the prices they charge. This has happened a few times and they were also useful in booking us a table in the bar which can be hard to get.

[George K]

I got a fair bit of value during pre-covid times. I think the most impressive bit was that the Amex app used to have a restaurant booking option built in to it, which was essentially OpenTable-lite. This allowed you to book any restaurant really, not just those part of their Dining Collection or whatever. I found myself getting random perks on restaurants that weren’t on any Amex dining list that I ever saw.

Fast forward to today, where you need to call to do any booking, and most of the time it’s not even instant (they need to call the restaurant themselves, call back and confirm with you etc). Furthermore, I actually made a booking at a restaurant in their Dining Collection list, but was categorically told there are no additional benefits with it anymore (despite Amex’s list saying free champagne).

I was once told that Amex will be bringing the booking feature back in the app. All I’ve seen is that they’ve teamed up with Resy in the US for their bookings, where Amex Plats have their own profile within the app to identify them as such (and therefore get certain perks). Nothing in the UK yet…

[Rob]

Amex bought Resy outright ….