For those in Perth always looking for a better, faster, cheaper way

Friday, December 23, 2016

AMEX Edge flights replaced with $200 Travel Credit - Where to now?

Many AMEX Platinum Edge card holders would have received the news in the mail this week that they are cancelling the free flight redemptions for our cards and replacing it with a $200 travel credit. For those in Perth, boy are we angry! This is a big blow because our flights to Melbourne / Sydney were usually worth over $700 each during peak season. We are all considering cancelling our cards and looking for alternatives, so what is the lay of the land?

ANZ Travel Adventures - If you are chasing free flights, this is the only card that costs $225 with a free flight redemption and also two free passes into Virgin lounge every year. The flight redemption needs to be done 60 days or more out, and has to be in your name (you can't book a flight for someone else unless you want to risk being arrested like Junaid Thorne). Not sure how long this is going to last given the changes to the platinum edge card. The other advantage of this card is that foreign transaction fees are waived which is a saving of 3% on overseas purchases.

ANZ Frequent Flyer Black - If you want points, this card comes with 75000 points and the $425 annual fee is waived for the first year. That's $500 worth of points for nothing! Oh and you get the two Qantas lounge entries when you fly with Qantas.

Keeping your card  Let's not forget that one option is to keep your Edge card. $200 can be spent in various ways booking a flight anywhere via AMEX and you still get 3x points for supermarket purchases (or even Woolies gift cards). Also there are many AMEX-issued offers that you will miss if you go with a bank isssued AMEX.

There are many other cards but I'd like to kick it back out to our readers to give your best shot in response to these changes to the AMEX Edge card.

Know someone who doesn't have an AMEX Edge? Save $195 and get 15,000 points If AMEX platinum edge appeals to you, you can use the following link to have the first year's annual fee waived (saving you $195) and get 15,000 points, plus for the first year you will still receive $200 travel credit when you sign up for the Platinum Edge card here