While American Express is perfectly free to tinker with its Priority Pass benefit, its choice to eliminate all restaurants with such short notice represents a foolish and short-sighted move.
Effective August 01, 2019, you will no longer be able to use your American Express-issued Priority Pass card at “non-lounge airport experiences” (i.e. restaurants or bars that currently provide $28 in credit to Priority Pass members):
The Priority Pass Membership benefit offered on American Express Platinum and Centurion Cards and Hilton Ascend, Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ Cards will no longer include complimentary access to non-lounge airport experiences.
Why such a sudden and draconian cut? Why not halve the credit, say from $28 to $14? Why not limit overall annual visits—whether in a “real” lounge or a Priority Pass restaurant—to a set number per year, maybe 20-25?
For many, this represents the removal of a key Priority Pass benefit. If actual compensation, whether in a restaurant or lounge, is about $23, what difference does it make whether it is in a lounge or restaurant?
The answer might be that restaurants were much more utilized. Fine. Limit the overall number of visits per year. Or maybe the problem was that airport employees were using the facility for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for themselves and their friends (and hopefully tipping at least…). The easy way to remedy that would have been to strictly require same-day, outgoing, confirmed (non-standby) boarding passes. That rule is technically in place for many Priority Pass restaurants, but I’ve never actually been asked for my boarding pass.
Put simply, there were less draconian reactions that American Express could have employed to better balance its interest with those of its cardholders.
In defense of American Express, this does not represent “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. I’ll still be keeping my Platinum card and frankly don’t use the restaurant benefit all that much. For example, I prefer the ambiance and food in the American Express Centurion Lounge over the nearby Yankee Pier at SFO. If others are in my boat, then credit to AMEX for making a cut it can get away with.
CONCLUSION
I’m curious, are any of you going to cancel your American Express cards because of this reduction in Priority Pass benefits?
Now we’ll wait and see if Chase and CITI match this. I’m hoping the answer is no.
It was a surprising expansion of the lounge benefit when it started. Priority Pass probably didn’t do their analysis of the cost impact of US credit card holders – most of whom have unrestricted access to the restaurants. I believe European credit cards and PP members who pay for the card, have more limited access in terms of number of visits. I think you’re probably right about airport employees abusing the benefit in the US. It will be interesting to see what more information leaks out and what Chase decides.
I bet that a huge percentage of the people who would cancel their Platinum Card because of this were deeply unprofitable for Amex, and management is hopeful that it will be their reaction.
Agreed. Amex has always sold its cards on the back of customer service and non quantifiable perks. A customer holding on to a $550 Platinum card purely based on airport restaurant spend is also one who is likeliest to be a ‘gamer’, maximizing benefit.
Not to say it’s wrong, just that it’s probably not the most profitable of customers to try and retain.
I was on the fence and will now cancel. This was my favorite benefit of priority pass because sometimes you can’t even get to a lounge because you are not in the correct terminal. The restaurants have always been accessible and just better.
I can see that. This doesnt justify me cancelling but best of luck to you. I think Ive used the restaurant PP bennie 2x in teh last 18 months that Ive had the card. Ive used a lounge though, 26 times so I get my monies worth there and the airline credits and occasional Uber eats when I get the munchies. Losing PP restaurant bennie doesnt really move my needle much. I can understand it being a reason for some to cancel though.
The airport that I use for travel from home (Denver) has no priority pass lounge, but has had the benefit at the Timberline restaurant. So at least I get something for my priority pass membership—otherwise it is almost useless to me, and the rare times I have been at a domestic airport with a priority pass lounge in the past year they have had waiting lists or were not letting priority pass patrons in. So, with this change, the priority pass card benefit will become almost valueless. That being said, Amex is supposedly going to open a Centurion Lounge at DIA sometime in the indefinite future (I was told at the Centurion Lounge in Houston that it would be next year), so that would to some degree make up for it.
The idea that airport employees are using the benefit is absurd.
Absurd as in unlikely or wrong? I can assure you many are using it.
As in, I can’t believe that Amex and Priority Pass created a system to let them get away with it. I would totally do it if I worked at an airport and it was available.
Im in the same boat .. Denver and Chicago Ohare are my main airports. Amex should have held off closing Timberline at Denver until the Centurion was open . Currently they are not even working on it and Ohare only has a Priority Pass lounge in the International termininal.. Priority Pass is currently worthless to me.
Completely agree. We are churners so really only got the plat for the bonus. I have a CSR so we can still use timberline, but it was nice when we could get away with scanning two pp and doubling down if we’re delayed (like we are today, 4 hours, $58 ain’t going to do much). We’ll be using our plat points and cancelling upon renewal.
In other words, you’re the exact type of “customer” that ruined this benefit for everyone else.
Credit card companies can’t crack down on “churners” fast enough.
It feels like a change this major would have made more sense to announce more than two months before the effective date. Assuming it couldn’t be done on a person by person basis, the right thing to do would have been to calculate an expiry sufficiently far out so that no cardholder lost value in the middle of their fee year. And if the hemorrhage was so great that they couldn’t wait, a better and more thorough explanation is owed.
Agree. It then does become a bait and switch.
It was a nice to have when in an airport that offered it, but I have only used it once since I do not usually fly through the airports that its available. I hope they come up with something to take its place though, I know many used it frequently….
If Chase follows, I’m hoping they just limit the number of visits per month/year. There has to be the top 1-2% of users that are driving a huge share of the costs, and to cancel it entirely for everyone seems harsh.
I also fly out of DEN and – time willing – will go get lunch/dinner at Timberline Grill beforehand since there are no other options there.
AMEX is changing and not for the better. I used to have the Platinum Card; then they started removing benefits. Admiral Club Access was the first one. Then, they inaugurated their own Lounges; however, most of the time were useless due to overcrowding. Later, increased price to 550.00 but wait they have Uber credits but I do not use Uber so downgraded to Gold. So far, so good but then, price increase on the Gold because credits on some eateries that I do not use. Boom, yesterday downgraded to Green. I have not cancelled because I have been an AMEX Cardmember since 1990. I dislike that AMEX takes the freedom from the user by focusing the credits on specific items.
In addition to Amex Platinum, I’ve also got the Chase Sapphire Reserve and thus the Priority Pass with them as well. I’ll use the Chase pass for restaurants when necessary instead.
If I had only the Amex Priority Pass, I think I’d be quite annoyed at the loss of the valuable restaurant benefit.
I totally missed this until this morning when I tried to use the benefit at Washington Dulles. Though it didn’t stop me from eating (or now paying) at the restaurant. It did erk me again about AMEX. Not only are the Centurion clubs packed to gills now but he alternative benefit is no more. Typical bait and switch. Get us to join AMEX Plat then whittle down the offering until jump to another card.
As of this afternoon and according to the Points Guy blog, Chase, Citi, and U.S. Bank have all gone on record stating that they are going to keep the benefit. Hopefully, in the aftermath, AMEX will reverse course, or at the very least, implement some of your excellent suggestions.
https://thepointsguy.com/news/chase-citi-and-us-bank-commit-to-keeping-priority-pass-restaurant-access/
I agree with what you are saying but order grubhub. They must have restaurants in the area you live or work once a month. You probably do order in at least once a month.
I am not sure how I feel about another cut with Amex Platinum card. I travel quite a bit for work and use this benefit. Now with BOINGO wifi cut announced in April and now this, I may start to think what’s next?.
But at this time, no I wouldn’t cancel the card.
I just signed up for the Marriott bonvoy Amex for PP and my home airport is Denver where there is no lounge so that is very disappointing that we lose restaurant access.
May be they could give centurion lounge access where there is no PP lounges…
I came to think of this as a benefit that sounded better than it really was. The couple of times I used it, the service was really slow, so felt pressed for time and concluded that it was not really usable unless you had at least an hour to sit at the restaurant. Also a number of times I wanted to use it, but the line at the restaurant was long. So I can’t say I will miss it much. (If airline employees were using it, then I could see the problem, but then why not just limit the visits.)
This doesn’t really affect me much as I have never had the opportunity to use priority pass at all. Either there were no lounges at the airport / terminal I was flying out of or the lounge was closed to platinum members at the time. I’d be happier if the annual 200 airline credit was not locked to a single airline each year. Then I can just get a day pass for whatever airline I’m flying at the time.
Just called and cancelled
AMEX should cut its annual card fee’s if they are going to take away card benefits and not add anything in return.
I don’t have an Amex platinum and don’t see myself getting one if they continue to jerk their customers around this way. I do have a Chase Sapphire Reserve the value of which has become extremely marginal lately and if they cancel this benefit I will cancel my card. Chase I hope you’re reading this. By the way I’ll not only cancel this card I’ll cancel the whole family.
Well if we talk about card benefits, it gives 5x points on travel, $200 airline fee credit, $220 uber credit, upto $100 TSA pre check, Hilton gold status which is complimentary, priority pass which comes for $99 itself.. so,it suffices the annual fee and just because Amex is about to stop non lounge access, does not make any sense of cancelling the card. Due to benefits it is almost fee free.. I will keep my amex card and also canceling your entire family card will not affect Amex
It definitely won’t affect Amex. He’s taking about his Chase card.
Given the low quality, and not existence of Priority Pass lounges in general the restaurant availability was a God send for many travelers. AMEX is really going to end up pushing many customers to CHASE, myself included which is an unforced error on their part.
This is very disappointing, however not surprising. Credit card companies took a gamble offering big incentives with their credit cards but are now figuring out that there is a whole cadre of people who take advantage of the system while bringing limited benefit back to the card issuers. We are long passed the “peak” of sign-up bonuses, and such benefits as these are the next to go.
Don’t get your panties in a wad.. The latest Loungebuddy aquisition was not for nothing. We will have some good news shortly. You can thank me, your dad.
I spend a lot of time traveling. This cut is really aggravating when adding The cut of Boingo. They keep upping cost and reducing benefits. Nashville is no lounges and no place to use Priority pass either only the admiral club which is cut. The card benefits aren’t. It worth the cost now. I use lyft not Uber four to the treatment of the employees. So the Uber credit is useless. When you call customer service to provide feedback and also options for improvements it falls on deaf ears evidently! Very very unhappy. I have 4 different AMEX cards with different brands. Guess I’ll start looking for alternatives ASAP
Boingo WiFi. Then the loss of Centurion Lounge inbound access. Now the Prioritiy Pass Restaurants. Remind me why the annual fee went up? Don’t bother. I’m seeing enough reduced benefits to cancel instead
I’m not cancelling because of this. I’ll cancelling because of the 3 hour Centurion lounge rule. Yankee Pier was something to do instead when outside that window, but that’s now gone too.
Eventually their strategy of making the card suck will work. At $550, its not worth it for me.
I didn’t even know we had a restaurant benefit.
I don’t think that many Amex cardholders will cancel…this was really a new benefit. Most people have their Amex before restaurants were introduced at PP. Anyways…there is customer abuse and airport employee abuse…but nobody is talking about PP lounge abuse. I had been in many lounges where I wasn’t asked boarding pass. Even know friends that get into the lounges using other person PP card. Lounges just want to collect $…they don’t care about nothing else. That is another part of the problem.
I was just about to apply for the AMEX PP since I got targeted for the 100k but given they made such a big cut to the benfits I’ll stay away. What’s next, right?
P* platinum
I’m not going to cancel my Amex Plat card because of this. I had already canceled it a couple months ago.
I have had the Plat card for years, but just found that the cost/benefit ratio was no longer worth it to me. The trend has been clear for a while: price of the card keeps going up, benefits keep going down. It was an easy call to kill it when my AF came due this year.
there has been a wave of cancellations/planned exits (by not renewing) in the UK- mainly due to higher prices with no additional benefits and significantly reduced referral and sign up bonuses as well. dunno what amex is up to in the UK but I think the gravy boat (it wasn’t even 1/3rd as good as the US in the first place) has stopped!
I am fairly upset about this change and contemplating canceling. I fly out of LAX and surprisingly the lounge options there are limited. As an example, we recently took a 10 PM flight and were frustrated that the KAL lounge would not give access to PP members after 7 PM! Thankfully, we enjoyed a meal at PF Chang’s. I am waiting to see if the LAX Centurion lounge (opening when?!?!does anyone know?) will be worthwhile. I do use the Uber benefit and the Marriott Gold status is OK, but even those benefits declined after the SPG merge. It’s getting more challenging to justify the hefty annual fee….
I will keep my AMEX card, but am a little disgusted with the short notice and the complete cut-off of the restaurants. several other solutions would have worked just fine and cot their costs. Sounds like the bean counters won the battle over customer relations. Although I seldom used the restaurant part of priority pass, I think it had value. I will watch CITI and Chase and determine if moving my account to one of these cards, might be the next step over the next twelve months.
I just don’t understand the passionate love for the Centurion lounges. For one there’s not that many of them, and of the few I’ve visited domestically, they’ve overcrowded and not all that great anyway. They exist in cities that are full of elite members and folks rave about them as if they’re having lobster and steak on these visits. Was recently in the lounge at SEA-TAC that it’s extremely small and no better than the Alaska lounge there in my opinion.
My company provides the Platinum Amex for me but for personal travel, I use my Citi Prestige as it offers much better value all the way around for less than the annual fee of the Platinum. Not to mention, with the Prestige card I don’t have to buy 3rd party travel protection nor about if my card will have acceptance internationally (especially Asia).
The Platinum from Amex may be a perks card (and that’s questionable) but it certainly isn’t a premium travel card.
I think a lot of folks hold the Platinum from Amex because of the “perceived prestige”.
I agree, the Centurion lounges are marginal for the most part, especially SEA.
When I fly through there, I always use the Delta lounge if I’m flying Delta.
But raising the annual fee and decreasing benefits? If only the sheep would stop accepting this and complain en masse, instead of saying, “ duh, I never eat in the restaurants.”
I will be dropping my AMEX Platinum. My home base is DIA and I travel with hubby extensively — DIA doesn’t have a Centurion Lounge or any other PP Lounge other than the Timberline Restaurant. I obtained the Chase Reserve and moved my PP membership over…
I was already on the fence and likely to ditch the amex platinum card this year. This sorta cinches the deal. The restaurant benefit was one of the few things making the card worth the $$ each year.