Signlighters

I own a small business; almost all of our purchases go through an Amex card- this works out to around $30,000 per month- $360k per year. I assume that we are somewhere in the top few percent of spenders with Amex. A number of other small business owners I speak to also spend large amounts on Amex. Mrs. Signlighters and I don’t travel on business, so we have a gold card. We get platinum solicitations constantly, but it seems that most of the benefits of Plat and Cent relate to customers that travel for business, so it’s not worth it to upgrade. The only way we spend our miles is on an annual or biennial business class trip to South Africa. My observations are:

•As a top spender who does not travel, my loyalty to Amex is thus tenuous; I get very little recognition for this business.
•Amex miles are very difficult to redeem, much more so than One World Miles which we both collected in millions in previous lives. When they are essentially the only benefit you accrue, it really is a disincentive and is very negative. I am trying to book my latest SA trip- I started 9 months in advance, and still cannot get satisfactory seats or dates, 5 months on.
•It seems to me that Amex- and other companies- are really missing the boat; many non-traveling small business owners would welcome a package tailored to them, one that offered benefits other than upgrades at hotels that we would never use.

Thanks for listening to my rant!

Kagehitokiri

welcome to FT

not a good assumption. not sure what would give you that impression.

and what carriers are you using to redeem? NH, AC, SQ all have no availability for the SA you want? they are the 3 star alliance options. there are 4 skyteam options. there are also Virgin, Southwest, and some others. you can use Mexicana for AA flights. what oneworld carrier is good to South Africa?? SA (nonstop) is star alliance. and LH F (via FRA) is also very good, and star alliance.

additionally, something to remember - many people on FT book 11 months ahead.

if you have a business gold card, you would have OPEN network benefits, in addition to things like gold card events and travel emergency assistance.

all amex small business cards have OPEN benefits.

amex also has plenty of cashback cards, which are targetted at those who do not travel.

TAHKUCT

I agree with Kagehitokiri. Amex has plenty of different products with various benefits. Check out their website for more info: http://www201.americanexpress.com/sb...Flash&us_nu=dd

Signlighters

Quote:
$360k per year. I assume that we are somewhere in the top few percent of spenders with Amex.

not a good assumption. not sure what would give you that impression.

Just the fact that Centurion is limited to a couple of percent of the total Amex population, and that the qualifying spend on that is 250k; we spend more than that.

I stand by my comment that redeeming Amex miles is neither easy nor intuitive unless oneis going to book 11 months in advance.. what business owner is able to do that??

TAHKUCT

Do you mean membership rewards points? You can redeem membership rewards points for a lot of rewards including, but not limited to transfer to airline miles, buying a ticket using points and getting a gift card. If I am understanding you correctly, you have problems with airlines that do not have seat availability on a route you need. I don't think it has anything to do with membership rewards points.

Please correct me if I am wrong and welcome to FT

mia

Many of the benefits do pertain to travel, but it could just as well be leisure travel.

You might do better with Diners Club Mastercard. This is a charge card, there should be no problem accomodating your transaction volume, and it is accepted by all Mastercard merchants. Diners Club Rewards has a more balanced set of redemption partners including two OneWorld carriers (AA, BA) and also South African Airways.

Here is a (slightly dated) comparison between Membership Rewards and Club Rewards...

http://dinersclubus.com/dce_content/...ewardscompared

Here is general information about Diners Club...

http://dinersclubus.com/dce_content/...mparisonmatrix

Kagehitokiri

signlighters, which airlines would you like to fly to South Africa?

business class in July/August?

Signlighters

Any one would do; late August to mid Sept (need to be there for the 9th); 3 seats going out BOS-JNB together, 1 seat returning in mid September and 2 returning later (Mrs and jr will stay a while longer). btw, in desperation I signed up for Awardplanner 3 months ago; they've come up blank as well to date.

Kagehitokiri

and awardplanner knows you have US membership rewards?

you need 3 tickets and have how many miles?

nonstops
-SA (JFK/IAD/ATL) (AC, NH, SQ, VS)
-DL (ATL) (AF, CO, DL, AZ)

star alliance with 1 stop
-LH (FRA/MUC) (AC, NH, SQ, Mexicana)
-LX (ZRH) (AC, NH, SQ)
-SA (a bunch if multi-carrier) (AC, NH, SQ)

skyteam with 1 stop
-AF (CDG) (AF, CO, DL, AZ)
-KL (AMS) (AF, CO, DL, AZ)
-NW (AMS) (AF, CO, DL, AZ)

other with 1 stop
-VS (LHR) (VS, CO, SQ)
-EK (DXB) (CO)

Signlighters

yes, they know. About 280k UA, 360k Continental, 400k Amex; we all want to travel together though.

Kagehitokiri

SA nonstop J (JFK, IAD, ATL)
- AC 185K (BOS)
- NH 100K (JFK) 120K (BOS)
- SQ 100K (BOS)
- VS 150K (JFK)

DL nonstop J (ATL)
- AF 120K (BOS)
- AZ 100K (BOS)
- CO 120K / 200K or 250K (BOS) (saver, regular)
- DL 120K / 280K (BOS) (saver, regular)