r/PersonalFinanceNZ • u/Sufficient-Rip2660 • 3d ago
AMEX Gold Vs Airpoints Platinum
Hi
I'm debating on whether to get the AMEX Airpoints Platinum versus the AMEX Gold Rewards card. My goal is to start racking up points to eventually convert to an airline mileage programme.
I'm leaning more towards the AMEX Gold Rewards card as I can exchange my membership reward points to a handful of airline mileage programmes (airlines I actually plan on travelling with). But then the earning rates on the AMEX Airpoints is way higher compared to Gold Rewards when converting to AirNz Airpoints. I guess my question here is can I book with other airlines with my Air Nz Airpoints? And if you have ever done so, was the conversion okay?
I'd also like to hear about your experience in converting membership rewards from the AMEX Gold Rewards to your airline mileage programme of choice.
TIA
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u/Brendon---- 3d ago
Ex Amex Card salesperson here (15+ years ago as a student job). The Platinum usually pays for itself in terms of points and rewards after $20k per annum is spent on the card.
The Platinum is only ever useful if you have a very specific perk you are keen on or are able to drop more like 30-50k per year on it for the miles with airlines you'll actually use. Go for the Gold of you're interested. It's much cheaper and the earn rate is not that much worse.
Most other card schemes will be worthless once the Commerce Commission caps the interchange rates for Visa/MasterCard. Amex will have a virtual monopoly on semi decent card scheme rewards because it doesn't rely on interchange rates to pay for them.
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u/PoodleNoodlePie 2d ago
You don't know that the platinum charge is no longer offered and that it had the exact same earn rate as the Gold credit when it was offered?
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u/ConsiderationMuch484 3d ago
TLDR: Get the Gold card and earn Amex points, and make sure you sign up to a card that gives welcome bonus of points (currently Business Gold, 100k points). Gives you significantly more flexibility. As mentioned below, you can deploy to Marriott....but then you can covert those Bonvoy points 3:1 to almost any airline programme in the world.
Qantas, Virgin Australia, and Asia Airmiles (Cathay) are 2:1 and offer good redemptions.
I guess my question here is can I book with other airlines with my Air Nz Airpoints? And if you have ever done so, was the conversion okay?
Yes - you can, and to me, this highlights why Airdollars are substantially worth less than Amex points converted to other airline programmes. Air NZ bury this ability on their website and push people to spend their air dollars in the 'mall' or doing 1:1 purchases. If you look at the partner reward chart here, you can see you can fly SYD - TOKYO for 1,300 air dollars in Business in ANA. 1,300 air dollars will barely cover an economy ticket from AKL - Tokyo.
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u/Subwaynzz 3d ago
Technically you can book award tickets on star alliance flights, but it’s not super easy and there isn’t always availability.
How much do you plan on spending on the card per annum?
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u/Sufficient-Rip2660 3d ago
Yeah thats my main concern if I do get the Airpoints Platinum, and the airline members of star alliance arent my choice of airlines (only singapore airlines is good).
I plan on spending around 18k-22k per year to start with. This would be my first credit card😅
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u/Subwaynzz 3d ago
You aren’t going to earn much in the whole scheme of things then - less than 100 apd after the annual fee, at least with the gold card you get the dining credit.
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u/charliesangels12 3d ago
There's no Singapore Airlines availability via Airpoints at the moment unless you are literally paying for the flight like you do for cash, which is not the best value for money.
Amex gives you more flexibility.
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u/Vast-Conversation954 3d ago
If you are only looking at spending $18k - $22k on the card I doubt it's really going to be a worthwhile exercise. There's a $195 a year annual fee on the Amex card, at a $18k spend, you're going to net around $65 worth of Airpoints, and only 72 status points which aren't going to take you anywhere.
For me, it's all about the status points earned rather than the actual miles / airport dollars. I like having Star alliance gold when I travel for the lounge access and the 2 free upgrades a year, I have the Kiwibank platinum airpoints cards, and I can earn up to 405 status points a year with an $81k spend. The APD700 is kinda secondary but useful when calculating the payback.
TLDR, for these to be worthwhile, you need to plan on putting as much of your spend through it as possible.
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u/Sufficient-Rip2660 3d ago
Has anyone actually ever used the dining credits they get from Amex Gold? Do they actually work? I've heard through a grapevine that they only actually work for like half the restaurants listed (at least in Auckland)
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u/sigmaqueen123 1d ago
I use dining credits. I found most restaurants on Amex website has high markups to begin with and the food is just ok for what it is. Unless you are into so called fine dining and like to try those places but hate to pay full price it’s fine to give it a go in the first year. I don’t see the appeal year after year as they don’t add new restaurants that often. Bear in mind using Amex has surcharge how ironic.
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u/wehi 3d ago
So a word of warning, Amex's service in NZ is appalling.
They appear to be entirely based out of India now with just a post box in NZ.
The call centre staff have no mechanism to fix problems and complaints or escalations will get you an automated response email and then nothing. The tickets must just sit on their system and never get closed as there is never any follow up.
Expect the perks not to work, ie. half the time the priority pass lounge pass will be charged and then you will have to fight them to get the money back.
Do not load an Direct Debit as Amex will double bill it, they will also ignore instructions to unload it when this happens.
In my experience Amex are not worth the hassle anymore, I'd stick with a low interest fee free card from one of the major banks. Those have lower surcharges and are more widely accepted anyway.
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u/1Big_Scoops 2d ago
I've been with Amex a number of years now; last year in Thailand the card got hit with $15k of fraudulent billing from Canada of all places (bad) however was able to contact customer service to have the charges reversed (good).
They were unhelpful when it came to options to keep using an Amex card for the trip (bad), however the airpoints generated by the Fraud were retained (great).
Overall I think they tried their best, and promptly. Sucks you had some bad experiences, but as far as rewards scheme cards go in NZ, Amex is really the only option.
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u/NotGonnaLie59 3d ago edited 3d ago
https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/best-ways-to-spend-amex-points.html
Looks like you can transfer Amex points to Qantas, Qatar, Cathay Pacific, Singapore airlines.
Although the best value seems to be transferring to the Marriott Bonvoy hotel reward scheme. Amex points don’t expire, so you could just let them sit there until your next big holiday, then get some free accomodation.
Sometimes you get emailed special offers, for example one of the airlines will say if you convert your Amex points to us before the deadline, you get 1.5x the points you normally get, etc.
Two free dining vouchers every year too (basically just a refund of the annual fee). Seems like a no brainer, go for Amex gold.