As the world of miles and points evolves and airline loyalty programs raise prices while restricting reasonably-priced awards, we’ve seen the relative value of direct redemptions via Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards for air travel increase. But dealing with the American Express Platinum Travel team is often (and frankly usually) an exasperating experience.
American Express Platinum Travel Is Exasperating To Deal With…A Huge Missed Opportunity
I recently outlined my hopes for a new platform Chase will soon debut as it dives deeper into the full-service travel agency business. Its peers at American Express have offered a full range of travel services for years…and have frustrated me for years. Let me tell you a little story.
At Award Expert, many of our clients have vast amounts of points via American Express Platinum or Centurion cards. If you have a Platinum Business Card and redeem points for flights directly with American Express, you receive a 35% rebate, essentially making the points worth 1.54 cents each. For those with tight schedules, this increasingly represents a smart redemption option (even though 2% cash back cards actually represent the better value…but I digress).
But when schedules change, you must deal with the good folks at American Express…and that can be quite painful.
A client booked two round-trip tickets on British Airways from Washington Dulles to Tel Aviv via London on BA. The discounted business class fare was only $2,700 each (270,000 miles each) and with the rebate, it came to under 176K miles each…quite a good deal considering these fares carry no surcharges and will earn miles and elite status.
But BA recently updated it schedule and the early evening Washington – London Heathrow flight is gone. The London – Tel Aviv flight now also departs in the evening instead of the morning. Instead of rebooking them on the later flight to London, the segment just dropped altogether, so their trip suddenly originated in London.
I called to rectify it, thinking the agent could quickly add back the segment. Nope.
She kept me on hold for 25 minutes and when she came back, I literally got this:
“Sir, you schedule has changed. British Airways no longer operates that flight.”
No kidding…
She kept me on hold for 25 minutes to tell me that?
“Sir, we can refund your ticket.”
No, I don’t want that. I want you to fix it. Ticket prices have tripled.
I suggested rebooking via JFK on American Airlines to preserve the original travel duration, since a 13-hour layover would now be necessary at Heathrow. The agent declined to even explore that option because, “American and British, they are different.”
Yes, but they are codeshare and joint venture partners. But fine, fine…just put the British Airways flight back in the reservation.
“We can’t do that. I see no space.”
What are you talking about? There is plenty of space!
“Well what you may see does not reflect what is in my system.”
Ok, can you please call British Airways to resolve this? Please propose the American Airlines option.
“Certainly sir.”
So she put me on hold. 45 minutes later she came back.
“Still waiting, sir.”
Lovely. She finally reached someone at British Airways and apparently they told her they “can’t do anything.”
Like really? I strongly doubt it. In fact, I question whether she even reached them. Do you really think British Airways would just tell a customer to go pound sound in this sitution? Of course not.
In any case, I had already wasted 90 minutes on the phone call.
See, a “real” travel agent could re-insert the segment and re-issue the ticket without calling the airline. But these folks at American Express are simply poorly-trained clerks who really have very little grasp of any aspect of airline bookings. And I’m sorry to report that both the stateside agents and agents in the Philippines are equally untrained.
It’s such a missed opportunity and marks another denigration of the benefits you pay very high annual fees for in order to receive.
I called back. This time I got a stateside agent. She also kept me on the line for over 45 minutes and ultimately said she could not do anything. I wasn’t even put on hold…I listened to her talk to herself as she tried to find a solution. Absolutely maddening. Pleasant as could be, but grossly incompetent. As an aside, when I called British Airways, they (properly) said I would need to deal with the travel agent who booked the ticket.
This is not a one-off incident. I can share dozens of similar stories. The bottom line: dealing with American Express travel is fine if you just want to do a quick online redemption for an itinerary that will not change, but if you have to change, modify, or cancel your reservation…it is just as frustrating as dealing with Expedia or Priceline customer support.
Tip: Book via a Platinum or Centurion travel advisor rather than online, if possible. Those agents are not necessarily better, but sometimes are. At least you won’t have to deal with the language barrier.
CONCLUSION
I am confident that any of you who have booked with American Express Platinum or Centurion travel can share similar tales of frustration. American Express should realize it has no corner on the luxury travel market and that its poorly-trained agents create bitter frustration for clients.
I’ve directed my clients to start using a Spark Business Card from Capital One, which offers 2% cash back on all purchases. Bye, bye AMEX.
As a post script, my clients said screw it and we booked nonstop flights on United at a significant premium. We are still waiting on the refund from British Airways to post…
What’s more amazing about your experience is that American Express actually runs travel services for thousands of multiple major corporates. Though my experience was that when things got difficult they were left wanting.
Yes. I remember booking a flight on a Friday afternoon for Monday morning and they went home without ticketing it and the reservation dropped. Finding someone on the weekend to fix it was very painful and then they had the cheek to charge an “emergency” fee !!
American Express does not charge Emergency Fees. They do charge Platinum card members a ticketing fee. Unusual circumstances such as the one recounted would have allowed for a fee waiver and should have been offered.
Couldn’t agree more. I work for one of those global companies you’re referring to, and Amex GBT is our preferred consolidator/travel booking service. I have struggled to do something as simple as change a JFK to LAX flight with them that actually resulted in me booking a second flight and abandoning the segment with them altogether. Now, I book all my travel via Delta app and reimburse expenses individually which, while a PITA, gives me ability to effectively manage my trip when I need to make changes, which happens often in my line of work. And whenever I get a little slap on the wrist from compliance, I relay that JFK-LAX nightmare and how it ultimately cost them two tickets for one trip because their travel provider was so incompetent.
I would like to suggest the Airlines are the problem with AMEX Platinum. They do not pay commissions to travel agents obviously. Maybe they don’t help anyone BUT themselves these days ….
Yeah but Amex Global Business Travel is no longer the same company. Hasn’t been for years. It was spun out few years ago and now it’s owned by Expedia, Apollo, and Amex. I believe they have right to use Amex name for few more years and then they have to brand it as a new company
AHA! I knew there must be a reason that AmEx is so lame with travel. I can barely get along with them on the credit card side. So they rented our their name (there’s another word to describe this, but I’ll not go there) for money. I switched to Chase years ago because of the lack of decent customer service at AmEx. I’m a points & miles junkie, so when Chase ‘gave’ their travel planning to Expedia, I nearly died. I remember talking to a great Chase Travel agent and she told me that if there were problems with anything I had booked with Ultimate Rewards, it would not be Expedia that I had to contact. That was a relief. I’ve had no issues with airlines or hotels, but I’m glad Chase is taking their travel division back. Their customer service is just excellent.
Wouldn’t it be a “post script” and not a “prologue”?
Thank you Mr. Justice.
People that feel the need to correct the most insignificant things are a pain in the arse.
Come on, Matt. You made a mistake. Own it like a professional writer. You can’t call for airlines and agents to own up to their mistakes when you don’t own yours.
I did make a mistake and thanked him. What are you talking about?
I think he was simply referencing Justice Joseph Story, the 19th century Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Correct.
Just the kind of snide wanker remarks one expects from this writer rather than admit how bad they are at the job they get paid to do, ‘journalists’ have a worse vocabulary than a 3rd grader.
Sounds more like a prolapse.
Lol
I was under the impression that the Amex travel concierge is (was?) the best in the biz.
Just read the other comments. I guess they’re pretty bad after all
100 percent are. I’ve had the same thing happen and the agent fixed it with no problem. Twice! This guy is obviously paid by spark venture. He mentioned it twice in the article. Amex platinum and capital spark are completely different cards. My amex platinum has given me around 4k in upgraded rooms just on my 2 trips this summer. Let’s see pos venture touch that
lol. Sounds like YOU are the shill for AMEX.
No direct answer to the payola question eh?
Hmmmm…..
Answer: my affiliate bonus for AMEX Plat business is far higher than Spark. Please apply for AMEX using my link.
No, this post is not sponsored by Capital One.
Amex Travel is basically Expedia on the backend. Aside from the FHR and few other programs that Amex negotiates directly with various business partners, the rest is just Expedia. Amex has exited travel business long time ago.
AmEx has been drifting on its ‘image’ for YEARS. I’ve been a cardholder since 1972 and AmEx’ customer service used to be aces. Last time I had an issue, a very simple issue, two AmEx agents couldn’t even grasp what the problem was. Chase Reserve has been eating AmEx’ lunch for a good long time, but AmEx has had ‘top status’ forever, at least in peoples’ minds.
I can’t say enough horrible things about Amex Consumer Travel. AMEX GBT is actually good. Had a trip or flight credit, wanted to book a new flight. How long did it take on the phone (simple domestic itinerary)? 2 hours. I wanted to leap from a tall building. Also when handed off to someone else, have to re-validate my identity each time. The best part? The agent booked the wrong flight and so guess what? Yep, I had to call in again and spend another 60 mins to get their error corrected. This has happened 3x in recent months. I won’t ever bother once I’ve used up the credits, which by the way, you can’t use from multiple credits. Only one payment allowed.
I’ve also had issues where they will not notify you of “schedule changes.” If the flight times change, I’ll get an email indicating as such and it’s no big deal. But if the flight number changes, they just drop the segment. Good thing I check daily otherwise I would never have known. I enjoy taking advantage of the International Airlines Program, but it sure does come at a cost.
I can also share my frustration of booking through Amex Travel. Any time I have a schedule change for the easiest domestic itinerary they always try to charge me a difference in fare. I’ve found that their offshore team is the worst. They don’t know schedule change rules and will often just make things up and freely give out incorrect information. I usually only book through them for discounted AA tickets with my platinum card. However I’ve decided to book through AA direct from now on rather than deal with a constant headache for any minor change. They even told me that if there is a difference in fare and the cost of the ticket goes down, I would forfeit the difference. Just book direct and its much easier!
This is the normal experience I have with anyone on the phone at platinum Amex travel – even the simplest change imaginable takes 20 minutes. Unfortunately Chase travel is exactly the same, but at least there you have some options you can complete online.
I’ve made exactly one reservation with Amex Travel. When I had to change the reservation because I caught Covid and had to isolate, the agent was happy to send a note to the hotel requesting a full refund. She made the mistake of copying me on the email. Not only did she misspell “reservations” in the email line, but she completely made up the email address itself. I had to forward the message directly to the hotel – and they promptly granted the request.
More proof that dealing with a third party online travel agency is potentially disastrous. Since then I’ve eschewed the extra points and just booked direct with the hotels/airlines.
Had booked flights to Japan via LAX with Amex travel. LAX to Japan flights cancelled for weather. Called Amex while waiting at LAX told we can rebook for $7000 more… Found our own flights!!!!Booked hotel thru Amex with points and cash but needed a 4th beddroom -they could not book it so asked to cancel. I had already called the hotel where a 4BR was available-no problem..Amex said there was a penalty to cancel and re-book… Fought them for the deposit took a while…Booked direct to the hotel! A nightmare experience..Amex needs to get with the Progran.
Concur. Also, add to that the wait and lines at airport lounges, and the main values of that card are gone. Cancelled for those two reasons.
It’s not just flights. I booked a cruise through Amex Travel. All was smooth until I need to contact the agent again to check on something. Left multiple emails and phone calls with no response. Needless to say, I’ve moved back to a real TA for such transactions.
There was a time when Amex employed real travel agents who were competent and Platinum holders had the option of a dedicated agent if there was one you liked working with. Of course those days are long gone, yet the Annual Fee has gone from $295 to $695 (with a bunch of coupons for things I neither need or want to justify charging you more than twice as much for a fraction of the services). American Express is a company that has simply lost its way and gone from a consumer oriented company to a mercenary one.
Mak’s comment is accurate. I worked in that division and when I joined Amex our team had over 300 years of collective experience across multiple areas, flights, hotels, cruises, car rentals etc. When I left the focus was on hiring people with call center experience who knew little about travel. Furthermore the platform used to book flights etc has been ‘updated’ to make it user friendly – result: agents don’t know what’s going on under the hood, so to speak., and when something occurs that the system can’t handle – problems /waste of time /customer dissatisfaction….
I had an issue a while back where AMEX Travel never issued the ticket properly and I rang like 6 times and it was never resolved. In the end I had to ring Singapore Airlines and have a 3 way conference call where the Singapore Airlines person had to instruct the AMEX person how to fix the problem.
This experience has made me reconsider using AMEX Travel again.
The combination of high fees and poor service resulted in my company completely dropping Amex corporate cards.
It is not just Amex Travel. The other OTAs are equally hard to deal with for any change in the itinerary. I learned the hard way and just won’t use them anymore. I will sometimes check Amex Travel just to see if they have some special deal when everything is looking expensive, but it would have to be really special to make me one to book through them. And, frankly, though pre-COVID it seemed like Amex Travel sometimes had some good deals, I haven’t seen one since the pandemic started.
Basically, I have not seen anything on Amex Travel that was not easier and cheaper to book transferring points and getting a saver award on the airline website.
I spent 3 hours of my life trying to work with Amex Plat Travel. The WORST travel experience EVER. One small segment of our flight home from Greece was cancelled and they could NOT fix it. A complete nightmare. The 4th phone call I said cancel the entire flight (with a full refund) keep in mind our outbound flight was fine and even great. They canceled and I rebooked with the tour company we are using. Never again
I could not agree more. I have booked through Amex travel on American Airlines for a discounted domestic first class fare (saved ~$70 per ticket or so) and I had a hard time changing tickets with their agent. For Delta tickets, I have actually been able to change them myself on the Delta website.
I don’t know about that. I worked for Amex Platinum travel for 14yrs and we were the epitome of professional and went above and beyond for our clients. I left them in 2010 though, so I can’t speak for the new agents, especially if they outsource.
I, myself had a horrid experience with Capital One X travel.
I booked Lufthansa to Europe, this past April for next month, to take advantage of the 5X miles. got the flights and routing I wanted. Got a schedule change a week later. I did not like the flight they offered me in place of that….a 9hr layover in SFO. I called and told the agent that I didn’t want that and this is what I did want. He told me my choice wasn’t an option. I told him I’m a travel agent and I do this all day long and yes, I can have this other flight instead. He puts me on hole for 30mins, comes back and tells me he will ‘request’ the change, but it will take 24-48hrs to get back to me.
Ummmm….no. I promptly call the Lufthansa agent line and they concurred with my choice. I get a call the next day telling me they can’t make the change. I spoke to a manager. told him all he had to do was send an email to the Lufthansa key accounts desk and they will give a waiver. He told me he would do that and get back to me within 48hrs. OY
I get my call and he says everything is taken care of..
I go to get my seats and something isn’t right. I call LH again and was told when Cap one did the exchange, they didn’t ‘release’ my boyfriends ticket…so he was still on the canceled flight.
I was LIVID. Called back and canceled my trip e=with them and booked it. on my own
Imagane if I hadn’t caught it…what a nightmare that would have been at the airport
Chase Travel (Expedia) is just as bad. I used points to book an Avianca ticket. Subsequently, Avianca changed the itinerary by days, not hours. I requested a refund of points with Chase. Too bad for me they ceded control of the ticket to Avianca. Spent literally hours on the phone with Chase so that they could tell me how to request a refund on the Avianca site. Did that. Avianca reaches out to me. We’ll be glad to to give you a refund just provide us with the purchase receipt (yes I can) and a copy of the card ending in the 4 numbers XXXX. I explained the problem that it wasn’t my card. That the card belongs to Chase, not me because I purchased the flight in points. They didn’taccept that even though should know how point purchases work. Back to Chase Travel. Another hour and a half conversation. I told Chase that the money that they spent on this with their people’s time was way more than the cost of the flight then to have made me whole right away. That didn’t seem to register with them as being a lousy business proposition on their part. Ended with “don’t worry, you’ll get your points back. Our team of managers will work with Avianca”. You’ll hear back from us within 72 hours (this will be the second time of them reaching out to me) Yeah, uh huh. The saga continues.
My experience is the opposite. I have had an American Express Card for 50 years. I have had only one mistake on their end on a cruise. They took ownership of the mistake and made a substantial refund. I have always received notifications when there is a schedule change either by phone or email or both. They have found lower fares for the same itinerary, compared to what I see online. The situation the OP described is an airline problem. When an airline changes or drops a flight, the passenger is entitled to a refund, not new tickets on another airline. I have a Centurion card but had a Platinum card before that.
Thank you! I was a platinum agent at Amex, years ago and took much pride in my job
“Years ago.” Things change.
Exactly
Agree with you, Byron, BACK THEN. I was so proud of that green AmEx card! AmEx was a delight to deal with for years and years. No more, but AmEx has more ‘status’ than Chase/Visa, so people are reluctant to switch to the Chase Reserve.
I worked for Amex Travel 1984-2009. Started out back when Amex actually had travel stores. Worked leisure for 7 years then moved to corporate travel in 1991. Stayed there till 1999 – changed to Amex Envoy Travel (the beginning of Platinum Travel – no Centurion card yet). Then we started doing Platinum and Centurion travel. I had a blast, treated our card members like royalty and wouldn’t take “no” for an answer from ANY vendor I called – air, car or hotel. Yes, I might have placed you on hold for a while, but the outcome was ALWAYS positive for you. In 2005 started working from
Home – we still had good agents, but when Amex made our monthly goals so unattainable, good agents like me started “abandoning ship.” I left and went to Amex GBT who had just been taken over by Certares and didn’t like them. I then moved to my current travel management company and couldn’t be happier. I can tell you if you book Amex online – that’s just an overlay for either Expedia or Travelocity (can’t remember which company now) but we had horrible complaints about them way back when. I know they tried but most of the time they couldn’t help with a “crisis” situation. They’d transfer the call to Platinum/Centurion and we’d usually get it fixed. I can tell you when I was at Platinum/Centurion travel we worked our butts off to please the card members. I’m saddened to see such a great company (as it once was) just fall apart at the seams. IF you find a great Platinum/Centurion agent – hang onto them for dear life because there are just a few good ones left at a once great company.
Chase travel portal is not any better.
“Keep in mind the inventory you see may not be available to me” or some variation on this theme (not sure I have the exact wording) has come up on nearly every single call I’ve had when there is a problem. It must be part of their script. Once you’re calling them, strap in because it’s guaranteed to be a bumpy ride.
Great essay, and so true. I pay over $500 per year for what? This aggravation? “But I’m important! I have a Platinum card…treat me with deference and respect!” Fuhgetabout it!
“
They are the absolute worst ever. Especially on the phone. Use the chat option if you must. Only good if you have a very straightforward itinerary
Just to add to the conversation, this is almost the exact situation I experienced using Skylux Travel. Our paid business class seats for two from SFO-MEL via SYD and return had the SYD-SFO legs cancelled. We were rebooked from LAX instead of SFO and ultimately neither Qantas not Skylux could do anything other than reroute us the wrong direction adding over 10 hours to our already long travel time after hours of calls and emails. Eventually purchased our own separate tickets to get to LAX and the check-in agent at LAX let us know we were confirmed but not ticketed, however they resolved it on the spot. On the way home even worse, we were rescheduled for the MEL-SYD segment halfway through the SYD-LAX segment. Eventually were able to resolve by calling Qantas directly and pointing out that once the itinerary had commenced, it was their responsibility to fix any scheduling issues, not the travel agents. After 45 minutes of argument, and ultimately threatening to file complaints against the Qantas representative for not following Qantas policy, the Qantas representative agreed to make the changes and 5 minutes after they agreed it was resolved.
At least they never crash (Rain Man).
Doesn’t matter if you can’t get on the (safe) plane…..
I think it all depends on the agent. I had to cancel a Delta flight due to Delta’s schedule change. Since the difference is only 1 hours 50 mins, less than the 2 hours allowed by Delta’s refund policy, I wouldn’t be getting money back, only eCredit. But that 19 mins is so handy for Delta (isn’t it?), I decided to try my luck. The first agent I talked to wasted me an afternoon and couldn’t do anything. The second one I talked to, put me on hold for 45 mins as she called Delta (I don’t blame her, ’cause when I tried calling Delta myself, I waited for 3 hours). And she managed to get my cash back. A friend of mine who was supposed to go with me on the same trip booked thru Citi. No luck for her, Citi just kept saying that they couldn’t get her cash back
I’ve had similar poor experiences with AMEX in the past for business travel, as well as Chase/Expedia for personal. Now my company books our business travel with FCM and service is soooo much better. For leisure travel, I book direct if it’s something simple. For more complex booking I use an independent agent through a small local agency and she’s amazing.
We just had this same experience using amex travel. Booked round trip first class on American. Return flight lay over in DC and the second leg got canceled. Tried to call amex travel, on with one agent for 2 hours, they said they didn’t what to do and transferred me. The next lady just said “your flight has been canceled. ”
No kidding, that’s why I’m on the phone with you. They could do nothing. Couldn’t book me, couldn’t find another flight, nothing.
I ended up having to spend 5 hours on the phone with American and they couldn’t get me out for 4 days. Booked on delta.
I’m still fighting with American express to get my points back, evidently since I didn’t book through them, I forfeited them. Of course they told me they couldn’t help and suggested I figured it out myself.
Horrible, but I believe you. Keep us updated on how it turns out.
I can give you Two examples similar to your problem but worse I am now going to eat 2 other credits over 700 total as just can’t deal with Amex Travel. Do not buy from them unless 100% sure you will not have changes in anyway. So frustrating- over 5 hrs of phone calls with no resolution.
I just booked a trip thru amex platinum and it took 3 days. There were 1sr class tickets on the flight I wanted on delta available and amex said they weren’t. Planes that were on delta that just didn’t show up. Problems just booking a hotel where it gave some random “error” and would not complete the trip booking. Such BS. Terrible.
Matthew —
You wrote: “If you have a Platinum Business Card and redeem points for flights directly with American Express, you receive a 35% rebate, essentially making the points worth 1.54 cents each. For those with tight schedules, this increasingly represents a smart redemption option (even though 2% cash back cards actually represent the better value…but I digress).”
Your digression about the earning value of a 2% cash back card seems to be confusing apples and oranges. For example, the Amex Blue Business Plus card earns 2x Amex points on the first $50,000 in spend per year. If you use that card for your unbonused spend, you get 2x Amex points per dollar, which then can be redeemed on the Amex travel portal by a Business Platinum cardholder for a value of 3.08 cents — so the 2% cash back card wouldn’t be the better value in that scenario.
To be sure, a 2% cash back card may be a better value for many cardholders. But just because an Amex travel redemption may be valued at 1.54 cents per point doesn’t mean that someone redeeming points that way would necessarily have been better off with the cash back card.
I agree, but for people who only do portal redemptions I think a cash back card offers the best value proposition. Certainly not for me when I transfer to partners for premium cabin redemptions and am generally flexible on my timing.
It’s awful. Last time I even three-wayed in my Centurion manager with the Amex Travel Filipino agent, 45 minutes in she was shouting at the agent while apologizing profusely to me for the lack of service.
Pound sand, not sound. Lol
It is painful to deal
With them. Had a situation with them and Finnair. Amex travel is the worst when it comes to dealing with a person. Now I think twice about redeeming points for travel.
This is exactly why I always book travel directly with my chosen airline or hotel. Involving a third party portal is just asking for trouble that erases any perceived financial benefit it may provide at times.
Hi Matthew, when you book a ticket with BA, and BA drops the flight, doesn’t BA have to rebook you? isn’t the contract of carriage with them? I am confused here.
I have purchased with aeroplan miles an ANA biz class ticket for next April. It’s still 8 months out but I suddenly noticed that this segment (SJC-HND) was suddenly not for sale anymore, but my ticket says “flight is confirmed”. I called ANA and they said they suspended the route but haven’t canceled it yet. I asked if they can rebook me via SFO-HND but they declined stating that my ticket hasn’t been canceled. Now if Japan reopens, they may resume that route, or they may cancel it. Now if it gets canceled, doesn’t ANA need to rebook me? Or do I have to deal with Aeroplan who will then say – sorry, there is no open Award space. Can you clarify how that works?
Prior to the day of travel, you work with the travel agency or airline (in your case Air Canada / Aeroplan) that issued the ticket. Only on the day of travel so you work directly with the operating carrier, if different. Even then, sometimes it can be very frustrating when they try to send you back to travel agent or issuing carrier.
Ah, first world problems.
Matthew has warned you: Amex sucks at travel.
Stay away!
I’m sure he will guide you to better cards
(Capitol One!)
because he has a good heart…..
Please sign up for all of them, and perhaps a couple Chase cards too. Can I send you the referral links directly? Thanks for your support. Gracias.
You all have this problem because when you book through AMEX travel it’s just an Expedia booking which is why nothing can be done for you. Airlines (and hotels) have zero control over or ability to change an OTA reservation. Similarly, an Amex TA cannot do anything about it either. You can solve all your problems by transferring your Amex points to your preferred airline partner (Aeroplan , Avios etc.) and then book directly through the airline. Or book through the airline directly, charge the flight to your Amex and then apply the points after. Not quite as cost effective but worth it when you need the airline to help you out and change your itinerary.
Thank you!! I’ve been scrolling through comments hoping that someone made this point. I never use Amex travel – always transfer to airline programs and book through / communicate directly with the airline. Great value. Round trip JFK to Mykonos (via Heathrow) at summer high season on BA’s new business class was 120k points. Flight times changed and I worked directly with BA to rebook with no drama – that was 2021. Similarly, 2022 summer high season on Air France business, round trip JFK – Santorini (via CDG) was 110k points booked again directly with airline. With multiple apps / websites that help you find deals and walk you through booking process (e.g., whether to book on BA’s site or codeshare partner’s for best deal) this is definitely the best way to book flights with Amex points.
Of course that is the superior redemption option in theory, but it is capacity controlled and the benefit to booking via AMEX is to apply the Membership Rewards points and receive a 35% rebate.
AMEX in Canada appears to be better. As you noted I book using AMEX points so that my flights qualify for elite status. Had 2 recent schedule changes (one with an AC / LH connection with a -3 hour connection!) and AMEX was able to rebook with different routing fairly quickly. Is it possible the airlines are partially the barrier?
This is why miles or using points via a travel portal doesn’t make sense anymore. If there is a problem on either side (sickness in the family, weather, or strike) it’s much harder to be accommodated when using an award redemption or booking with a portal as opposed to directly with the airline using cash. 2% back is better than 1.54. Decent higher value redemptions come up but you are risking your trip. If you are on a direct route that has a lot of daily flights, you might be ok. It’s easier if you are traveling alone. I wouldn’t risk it if traveling with family. You do this for a living. Others travel once a year and to risk it when they have 2 weeks a year to travel is becoming a poor choice more and more post Covid.
People complain about TrueBlue but you know exactly what you are getting and can book at a fixed value with the occasional discount.
I rather just cash out the points and forgo the miles or points. Delta at least let’s you buy Delta gift cards with their miles which you can sell for .8.
I suspect this is mostly a US issue. Amex travel UK have been surprisingly good on the few occasions that I have had to use them during the past year or so. Admittedly, there hasn’t been any serious disruption to flights booked through them, but changing dates etc over the phone was easier than I thought it was going to be, and there wasn’t any fee for issuing or changing tickets.
Recently I had to cancel a simple hotel booking. Wasn’t allowed to do it online. Took 30 minutes on hold and then another 30 minutes after I started talking to agent. Should have been a 5 minute call max, but the agent kept randomly putting me on hold. Everything worked just fine but it dissuaded me from using Amex Travel for air bookings.
FHR has also been disappointing. Marriott Lux Collection hotel refused to honor Plat benefits saying booking was from Expedia.
Had similar terrible experiences with AMEX PT travel. You must book through them in order to get you credits but the prices are significantly higher than booking directly. Almost a scam. I’m done with Pt.
I try to use chat as much as possible these days. It was fairly useful with United when all the flights in colorado were getting cancelled in December last year.
Expedia chat is not bad either. I’ve had an Amex plat for a couple of years and have ammased points but not used them yet. I guess if cash fares are low enough it makes sense rather than transferring them to the airline.
Speaking of which I once made a booking to London using chase points and I thought it was awesome. Looking back now I got such a bad redemption rate 🙂
Thank you, Mr. Klint. For the second time in as many months, you have saved me significant heartache. I am a loyal AAdvantage member with upper level status. My business partner had me convinced I needed an Amex Platinum card. I will now opt for the AAdvantage Citi card instead. Thanks for the work you do. It is very helpful.
Even though Mr. Klint highlighted his feelings regarding Amex he failed to put the blame on the Airline as they were the ones creating the issue and the only one’s who could fix it. He should know that.
Mr. Klint also expected the Amex rep to add a flight back into the computer that BA eliminated. The rationale behind that is troubling.
Lastly, it doesn’t matter which travel service you decide to engage with… they are all having Exactly the same staffing Issues. I am someone who knows. Good Luck!
No, I would much rather deal directly with the airline but airlines won’t deal with a travel agency booking. I should expect some level of competence from the travel agent. AMEX shows that it doesn’t train its agents. My rationale is spot on and excuses are like…well you know.
British Airways (the largest airline in the United Kingdom and worth Billions) had completely removed a flight from their schedule and you asked the Amex rep (who makes less than 40k a year and works for a bank in America) to add the flight back with her magic powers. If you have issues with their training fine but please let your readers know you weren’t really expecting her to add a cancelled flight back into service. It sounds very entitled and not very rationale.
*whoosh*
BA still operates a later flight. I didn’t ask for the agent to resurrect a flight that no longer exists, but to rebook the passengers on the later flight.
I have had three experiences with American Express travel that mirror yours exactly. Nicest people in the world, but totally incompetent and unable to do anything. I am a platinum cardholder, but will never use Amex travel again.
The business has just changed. A decade or more ago, OTAs like Orbitz and Expedia provided a valuable service of showing you all the flight options on all airlines, with the convenience of then booking with a few clicks. Google flights now does that better, and will take you directly to the airline site to book it. OTAs are no longer value add, they subtract value.
I had the EXACT same experience!!! I thought it was a one-off but I guess not. I won’t use them again because of how terrible they are at coordinating travel. Who knew AMEX had fallen so far?!
Think about what is going on. Amex, Chase, etc. are giving you incentives to book through them. And obviously those incentives cost them money, and they recover it by using poorly trained and probably poorly paid employees (or maybe even some kind of cheap out sourced 3rd party people).
I have to agree with some others in that points are increasingly becoming worth less and less. A 2% cash back in the long run might work best. You may not get some of the elite awards but then again you won’t waste hours trying to resolve things on the phone, nor waste tons of hours trying to find that award.
Fortunately I don’t think I’ve ever used Expedia or any OTA.
Chase is about to have the same issues that AMEX does. It’s called human error. Do you think everyone about to be hired at Chase has decades of travel agency experience? No. AMEX pays their agents slightly above minimum wage. What do you think you’re getting? I would know, I work there.
You underestimate what even a rudimentary training course can do.But yes, the current Chase agents are horrible too.
AMEX has an extensive training course, again, I’ve done it. As an agent, I’m begging you to encourage travelers to have some personal responsibility. When you book a ticket with us, pull it up on the airlines website once you get your confirmation. You have great points and honestly you’re not wrong, but I would encourage you to look deeper at what AMEX pays and how it incentives their agents to actually care.
I’ve also had long wait times on the phone, and switched all my interactions to the amextravel website. Been fine for me… International and domestic.
Same exact experience as Matthew. Very poorly trained clerks and unable to understand what the customer really wants. It was a very bad experience with Amex Travel. Caribbean airline cancelled the flight for the day we were supposed to travel. We called Amex travel as we had booked through them…And the agent simply wouldn’t understand what we are trying to tell them. Had no patience and had to cancel flight and rebook at triple the price. Didnt expect this from Amex
Many similar experiences here. One of which has cost me $2000. Happy to share if you run another article on a similar topic.
Couldn’t agree more! Whenever a ticket is booked online – you are instantly transferred to the customer service center in the Philippines with questions regarding your ticket – and as you are rightly put it – they are very poorly trained.
Horrible experience – we booked with Amex Travel from Joburg to Houston via London BA F Class. Our flight from LHR to IAH was cancelled and we were rebooked on a later flight but one member in the party was downgraded to Club World and BA advised us to call the travel agent for any refunds. After finally reaching IAH we called Amex Travel who insisted we had all actually travelled F so there was nothing they could do to get any refund for the downgrade. The flight was ticketed on AA ticket number and the agent told me I had to call AA. AA told me I had to call BA and BA said I had to call the agent. Hopeless.
I had the most frustrating experience with Amex Fine Hotels and resorts. During my stay at a Four Seasons, I checked my charges mid-stay. I discovered so many billing errors (which Amex blamed on the hotel) but the most egregious was that I was supposed to get a “4th Night Free” which was not reflected in my final bill. After many attempts and long hold times with Amex I was told that even though I thought I was booking with Amex, Customer Care could not help me as Amex Fine Hotels is “separate” from my Platinum card. For my troubles, after I threatened to cancel my card as we were talking $thousands$ in dispute, they offered me 50K in rewards points if i spent $4k on the card in the next month. I told them that Chase Sapphire offered me 100K in points if I spent that same amount over 3 months. I continued my dispute to then learn that my real problem wasn’t with Amex (Platinum. Travel Services, Fine Hotels), it was with Expedia who actually booked the trip with Fine Hotels. Huh? How was I supposed to know that? And, Expedia was even worse as all they did was accuse me of not following cancellation policies—but, I didn’t cancel anything. Bottom line, even though I got back half of of what I disputed plus 50K in points, Amex refused to stand by a purchase made under their brand. I have significantly cut back on my usage of my Platinum card.
Those 4th night free deals just reduce your nightly rate, you don’t actually get the 4th night “free”. Did they explain that to you?
Similar experiences Amex platinum travel.
Nine out of 10 times, the same conversations and outcomes.
Surprised to hear so many avid travelers use the Chase portal or Amex travel. Is it simply because most don’t want to use transfer partners, and this is the only way to redeem as a form of cash?
Personally I would avoid UR and MR if I was solely interested in cash back. All of the value is tied up in the transfer partners. Not to mention then you get to work directly with the airlines, for better or worse. At least it cuts out the middle man which in most cases is an incompetent agent.
CSR + UR is very beneficial for its 1.5x multiplier, which if booking economy, is better points value than transfer partners. Maybe hard to believe but not everyone with a premium travel card is hunting for a F/J fare while perusing TPG/OMAAT for the latest points vaulations article.
The thing is that MR points can be converted to miles for whatever alliance happens to have availability for award tickets where/when you need them, and that can come in super handy when odd/expensive routings are involved. Live example: an international one-way ticket for a journey within Africa is being sold by the airline for €800 while the same flights can be had as an award for 15,000 miles (in both cases Economy class including luggage). I only have 10k in my account with that FFP, so the marginal value of the 5k MR points I need to transfer in order to make the redemption would work out to somewhere between 5.3 and 16(!) eurocents per point!
OMG… I thought it was just me that experienced the most frustrating travel “support”(?) EVER so much so that I don’t want to relive it here. So I’ll spare the details and will never ever go through that again. In fact, why back to Chase.
While I haven’t used Amex travel yet, I can see that all the CC companies’ travel department sucks. My wife and I both recently cancelled both our Chase Sapphire Rewards due to 2 separate incidents with airlines. Airlines are canceling flights with no recourse and everyone is left in a mad scramble.
You have to respond to the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and file a complaint. If it is the airline’s fault, you can file it with the FAA (if it is stateside). Lost luggage, late flights, long layovers, etc. I had to file a complaint since my first class flight was canceled and received a gift card set to expire in one year rather than a full refund. I opted for another flight out of pocket. More flight cancellations are due to the pilot shortage and revenge vacations are in full swing. The list: http://www.usa.gov/travel-complaint
Every time I call Amex Travel, I have to plan for a 3 to 4 hour call. I had 11 covid canceled flights, and using the credit is excruciating with them. They either can’t find it, or they don’t know how to apply it. Their website shows what credits are available, but the agents can’t even see what’s on the Amex website. Moreover, there are different numbers to call depending on how the ticket was booked with Amex, and I inevitably call the wrong one (since its a mystery). Still have some left over credit and it will probably expire because my time is more valuable than the couple thousand I’m out. That said, they are not as bad as Expedia, where its almost impossible to talk to anyone. Try using covid credit from hotels booked with them – impossible.
Similar story here with Amex Travel. Cancelled a hote booking online, but it apparently didn’t go through to the hotel. Called the hotel and they said we booked the room via Expedia so they couldn’t help us. Expedia? What? Makes me think Amex outsources to Expedia now, and Expedia has notoriously bad service. Finally got our refund after 5 calls and 3 different tickets.
Just tried to book a flight to London from Dulles and wanted the premium discount and extra points using the Platinum card. Found a great fare but, when I tried to book it I received a reply saying it was unavailable as the carrier had increased the price. I tried again with the same result. Called an agent, very polite, who informed me that someone must have just booked the last ticket at that price. New price was over $2.5k vs the $1k originally quoted.
Too much for me. However, I looked on Expedia and found the same flights at the original price. Hit book and to my amazement, was successful. I now had a flight to London at the original price but without the 5x points and the $40 premium economy discount amex would have given me.
I booked 2 hotel rooms last Christmas for myself and a family member. One was direct with Hilton and the other through AMEX Travel to take advantage of a platinum promotion. When we got to the hotel they only had one reservation. AMEX never actually booked the room! Thankfully the hotel 1) had a room available and 2) honored the rate shown on my AMEX Travel confirmation email from 6 months prior (I didn’t even have to ask). It took 3 painful calls to AMEX to get a refund.
That’s surprising. Did AMEX give you any compensation?
I don’t think any of what I am about to say is ‘new’ news. Covid 19 still has the travel industry reeling. The article is a narrowed perspective. American Express may very well be struggling right now with an influx of new representatives to fill the gaping staffing hole that every company is facing. That includes all of the airlines, rail service, TSA, Immigration, passport offices, hotels, tour companies, restaurants, and… other credit card companies that offer travel services.
I think the author should consider writing a series of articles based on the deficiencies, in travel, across the board instead of picking on just one. The domino effect is creating miserable problems for everyone.
I love that British Air is involved in this story. Hold times for anyone calling (travel agent or not) have been so long that BA will just disconnect the line. BA notoriously happens to be the least flexible airline of them all. When reading in your article that the Amex rep was unable to reason with BA, it was not surprising. They are extremely unaccommodating. They have the highest penalties on tickets and they do not allow a traveler a grace period to find a new travel date if they want to cancel their flights. Meaning if you are traveling tomorrow and want to cancel your trip you better have your new date picked out now. IF your ticket is refundable they will charge $400pp for the luxury of canceling.
BTW a “real” travel agent cannot re-insert or reissue a segment that doesn’t exist so I’m not sure where you are going with that. You seemed to have realized that BA eliminated the flight but you are expecting the American Express rep to add it back?
Breaking it down a bit more BA must re-accommodate the passenger on another airline. If travel agents had the power to move passengers to any airline there would be a lot of problems. For example; if you bought a new shirt from target and need to change it out, it doesn’t mean you can return it at the Starbucks counter. Yes they do work together but they are still two different companies. BA owns that ticket and even though they may be OneWorld partners it does not mean a travel agent can just pop a passenger onto an AA flight. In this scenario, this has to be done with the BA rep.. if you get one and pray that it’s a good one. It seems your next piece of advice to the client should have been for them to drive themselves to IAD and present the issue to the BA desk. They undoubtedly would have helped re-accommodate. They have the power to do whatever is needed. Because ultimately it is ‘their problem’ they are having. Not Amex. No, this isn’t standard protocol but desperate times call for desperate measures and sometimes we need to do what we need to do.
I completely agree with your frustrations as a colossal level of new workers infiltrate just about any business where money is spent, but I will say this about Amex Travel Services, they have the resources available to help get you through your travel woes, however if the airline they are working with doesn’t have their crap together (and most of them don’t right now) it’s is no longer just a travel arranger problem. To compound the issue BA and London airports are going through a crisis unlike any they ever imagined and aside from melting runways, all of the issues are staffing related. So don’t be so quick to pin one player.
The best solution/advice for the travelers in your story was to get a refund with a waiver and make a new plan if they were not willing to fight it out the JFK option at the airport, however I’m not impressed with the level of knowledge you have demonstrated thus far, so maybe your advice isn’t what they needed.
Under the circumstances I must say American Express is making a valiant effort working through situations with suppliers that are unable to meet the demand. Bravo to them for forging through what is a heck of a time history.
Cut the B…
A ticket is a contract of carriage. Before day of travel the contract parties are the traveler and the OTA. OTA has contractual duty to re-accommodate the traveler, even if doing so requires cancelling the original reservation and booking an entirely new one using another carrier metal, and the OTA should bear all the costs. If the OTA does not like this or don’t have the means to make this happen, then it should not enter the contract. End of story.
Thank you Miz. Correct.
TATL BA and AA have a revenue share agreement, even stronger than a code share.
As a result BA has inventory on AA metal and AA on BAs the inventory is carrier agnostic, if BA has inventory available on that AA flight they book it, when it’s gone it’s gone.
So comparing this to the Starbucks counter at Target is disingenuous at best.
I couldn’t agree more. Very similar situation for me as well as a hotel issue trying to add resort fees when even the hotel’s website advertised ‘no resort fees’. Hotel said I had to work it out with my travel agent which took over an hour as the agent in the Philippines could not comprehend my complaint. Still took 7 days, a letter, and a chat with the hotel manager to resolve AFTER I checked out and I’m the Global Travel Manager for a billion dollar corporation so I don’t know how regular travelers cope through the inefficient AX agency.
“a “real” travel agent could re-insert the segment and re-issue the ticket without calling the airline.”
Complete rubbish. I’ve been a ‘real’ travel agent for 20+ years. Have had to call airlines due to canceled flights hundreds of time. Just because we use a GDS doesn’t mean we can always change/exchange flights without a waiver or class of service override from the airline.
You’ve been doing this for almost as long as I have and should know better. Unless you’re troll/controversy posting like Gary has been .
I’m talking about IAD-LHR. Same route, same fare class – no override/waiver needed?
I totally agree with article. My husband got the AMEX Platinum card and we have had very poor service from the agents. When we call. They state that they can’t look into our account and assist us. Ask to speak to a supervisor and none are available. Steep card price with little to no customer service.
This script was identical to one which played out earlier this year for us. BA cancelled a segment and never informed us. Instead friends who had booked directly with the airline received a communication and we followed up with AMEx. They were inept and eventually after hours on the line We had to rebook at a higher price on a competing airline. BA refused to refund the fare and gave us credit instead for a future flight. AMEX was useless.
Any Amex travel booked online uses the Expedia platform… This is why when you Platinum Travel Services when you have a problem they say they cannot help be audr it was booked online… They don’t use the same platform. PTS has no access to Online’s Res system. The only reason when you call and it asks if you are a platinum card holder is to say thanks for being one. It’s a joke. And the worst part is they refuse (or don’t even know how to) give control of a ticket to the airlines so they can fix the problem.
The perks of Amex points for business are great but I also suggest if you have a Bank of America accou t for your business then get the BoA Travel Rewards card. If you are Platinum Honors with BoA then you get 2.62 points per dollar spent no matter the amount and no limits. Redemption is also 100 points per dollar but unlike Amex this is true for Hotel And Car as well so much better value.
If you still only qualified for a refund, then how could an outstanding agent magically add in your segment and reissue?
Who said I only qualified for a refund?
Similar experience with AMEX Travel last December. The call took several hours.
Fortunately the agent was willing to help and ended up seeking help from a supervisor.
She contacted the airline, which provided a few rebooking options.
This is not true. It has nothing to do with Amex. Segments can’t be removed and replaced if the flight is no longer operational. And yes they need to call the airlines sometimes .
You would have waited even longer had you called the airline your self.
At the end of the day the airlines have control and they play as they wish. Amex doesn’t own the airlines. They only book for us.
You really don’t understand what is going on. There was still a BA flight leaving from IAD-LHR later that would have allowed for the connection. No one was asking AMEX to create a flight out of thin air or rebook on a flight that no longer exists.
how AMEX can market this dumpster fire is beyond me..
Everything is now outsourced to the Expedia in Philippines-this works smoothly until there is a problem and if there is one, watch out!!!
not only is the staff incompetent, they do not except any responsibility for their mistakes – they made major one with me and once i finally got to a “supervisor” – it took 20 minutes on hold, for him to come back and tell me that it was their error but there was nothing that they would do about it
I had this escalated to a US based plat card supervisor and it got resolved but who needs this nonsense
Funny – whenever i contact AMEX about the most mudate issue, i get a “your opinion really matters” questionnaire – not this time
AMEX was…. Years ago, Before We didn’t have Companies aggressive and proactive., but now you can find many other options even my personal travel agency; expensive but accurate. So he managed my trips like a LOVE HISTORY. And ofcourse I pay with amex to recover the amount of the fee
I’ve given up Amex Travel is purely a waste of time I’d say they’ve lost close to a million dollars of travel from our company over the last 5 years … and recently call on a personal booking just to cancel a hotel I booked for Oct 22 … 50 days from now … took 2 persons and 45 min …. Insane ! I have patience in this new travel world but I can’t stand blatant incompetence you get many times at Amex Travel … not throwing everyone under the bus but I guess like calling UA … hang up and try again … and again and again until you get the correct solution
Matthew—thanks for reporting this. I’ve similar experiences recently dealing with Amex Platinum Travel. This didn’t use to be the case. They use to have amazing agents who actually knew what they were doing. Now, as you described I find I have to tell them what to do and have experienced insane on-hold wait times too. If it wasn’t for the Centurion lounges I’d probably kiss the Platinum card good-bye. I just hope someone from AMEX who cares is reading this.
Dealing with United directly hasn’t been much better. Have 3 biz award tickets in December to Europe returning from IST (TK187) booked months ago. The IST-IAD segment dropped this week. The flight wasn’t cancelled, and is still fully bookable. United’s response was that TK “pulled the tickets back, and there’s nothing to be done, even 4 months out.” My options are a refund, downgrade to economy class, or a convoluted routing with multiple stops on another day flying on a United 767-400. I’ve not accepted any of it yet…
Same issue here. Will never use Platinum travel services again. They assisted in the ruination of the start of a vacation, were completely incompetent, and offered no apologies.
Thanks to that experience one airline and their travel services will never be used by us.
Interesting card recommendation. BofA Premium Rewards would get your customers 3.5% cashback on travel and dining. With a simple ish move of $100k of investable assets to a ML brokerage account, or $100k in a savings account but who wants that.
https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/premium-rewards-credit-card/
Called Amex for help and it went exactly like you indicated here.
I found myself on hold for nearly two fully wasted hours.
I spent 9 hours across a total of 4 calls to change my flight. 100% agree with everything in this article. They are NOT travel agents. So frustrating and dilutes the Amex platinum brand. I wrote to Amex to inform them of the gross incompetence, to which I received apologies and 500 points. Now, when I do have to call them, after 45 mins, I ask to speak to a Supervisor. That seems to get you to someone who knows what they’re doing,
I like seeing this. Amex is running an unsustainable model of courting the Boomers and silent generation. I worked in TLS for 90 days before I had enough! The majority of my calls were seat changes, itinerary resends, and schedule questions. People waited on hold for 2 hrs, to change their seats!!!!
I began to encourage self service to callers for thos small things and was advised by a supervisor to stop! “They pay for this service, we need to give it to them”
Then I began to notice that an overwhelming percentage of my callers have had their accounts longer than I have been alive, no small feat considering I was 39 at the time.
When I would finally get a call from someone gen x or newer, it was simply to ask if i could beat the deal they found on amextravel.com
This triggered me to start doing some serious research, enough to the point that the thesis for my MBA was the unsustainability of amexs business model based on legacy elitism, as the generational population dynamics erode away their core, and that capital one and discover had been courting the new guard for decades.
I scored 100%. , and resigned.
Do you think we will go ‘back” to the old fashion Travel Agents that get paid a % by the airline or providers they book on/??
Amex Travel is actually Expedia. What am I missing? Customer service at Expedia has always been very different from Amex customer service. If you call Amex Travel, you are talking with something who is employed with Expedia.
Let me add one more reason never to book hotels through either of Amex’s hotel partners: The Hotel Collection and Fine Hotels and resorts. When booing a 3 night stay in Vancouver at a special rate, I had to prepay for it, but was told that the money would be refunded to me should I need to cancel before the 3 day cancellation fee kicked it. I had to cancel 3 weeks ahead, but was shocked to learn that the refund was only s credit to my platinum card. There would be no cash refund at all even though I had already paid in cash for the booking. So I ended uo with a sizeable credit on my card, hardly what I would consider a “refund.” It is misleading at best, and at worst, fraudulent regardless of what the Amex website says. Additionally, the reservation itself that I do from AmEx did not even specify the room type I had reserved which left a lot to chance for how I might be treated at the hotel. Never again.
You all travel wrong and it shows LOL – Never had any issues you all mentioned, guess you guys gotta hit the books.
What?!
I think I may have discovered how to fix issues like this at Amex. I had a JFK-CGK trip with a minor schedule change, but it turned out to be a hassle, and I incurred many many hours on the phone, but as of today I got it resolved. In fact, I did it to two tickets…
You need to forget logic and everything you know about JVs. You also need to get to a supervisor. To do so, you may have to endure a fruitless call with the first agent you speak with. If you get an incident number, you can get sent straight to a supervisor when you call back.
Every flight on the itinerary needs be marketed by the same airline. In my case, despite JAL having a JV with AA, they wouldn’t even entertain putting me on an AA flight without a JL flight number. You’ll need to feed them dates and flight numbers “Japan Air Lines flight XXX from JFK to Boston.” Once they get everything together, you may need to tell them to “get rid of all the segments and start over.” When they try to keep the existing flights, but just remove/update one segment, it won’t complete.
In your case, you might have had luck if your WAS-JFK flight had a BA flight number and you read it to them as if BA operated that flight. They also probably would have needed to rebuild the whole itinerary, as just adding an IAD-LHR flight on BA (or WAS-JFK-LHR) to the existing LHR-TLV segment wouldn’t have been able to ticket.
If the promise to call you back, it won’t happen, and when they call the airline it’s pointless because the initial agents aren’t educated enough to even convey your issue to the ticketing airline.
And how much is the annual fee for this AMEX credit card?!
Hi there.
Does anyone have any experience with UK Amex Travel?
Many thanks!
I do not. Please report back on your experince.
Omg! Amex travel destroyed a trip of a lifetime for me. I thought it was Qatar Airways but reading this article and the comments, I now realize it was Amex. I will be dropping them