2025 Amex Membership Rewards Devaluation

[straitman]

Every enhancement from the airlines has made me more and more of a free agent flyer and every enhancement from the banks gets me closer to the tipping point where I'll be better off switching to a low-fee credit card without foreign exchange fees and quitting these games.

With Amazon gone, the Accor membership being "enhanced", the dining credit (that was already a nice-to-have but hardly a "wow I really adore this" for me) due to expire as well this year, and now this --- I'm definitely getting there. If I weren't fortunate enough to have held the Plat long enough to still get the additional $400 TC that came with the free Plat Reserve card before they enhanced that away too, I'd probably already be there...

And all that before you even consider the potential degradation in some of the other benefits, e.g., I find the Accor Plus rates not as good as they were a few years ago, the genuine deals that could be come by on the Fine Hotels/Hotel Collection are fewer and farer between, ditto discounts for premium airfare booked via AMEX Travel.

As for "where else will people go?" -- I imagine things are going to get worse across the board, but AMEX's Plat/Centurion fees are multiples higher than other products focussed primarily on points earning and the additional benefits meant to justify AMEX's multiples are being enhanced down/away too.

Between this, QF's devaluation and VA's devaluation + obliteration of status-earning for most status-holders, 2025 has been quite the doozy for Australian frequent flyers. Nowhere to hide.

I agree totally here. It's pretty much only the free Platinum Reserve card and it's $400 TC that keeps this as a definite going forward. I already struggle with their serious drop in support service if/when there are issues.

 

[Daver6]

What am I even keeping the plat for them vs the explorer or QF ult?

Seems like this will also cannibalise their own offerings re: explorer now being a Qantas transfer partner? Unless they bump earn rate up / add multipliers on travel spend, or remove the forex fee, the plat charge is looking increasing uncompelling. I’ve submitted these suggestions to them multiple times too.

I even value some of the intangibles, but not at a 1k difference in annual fee. Intangibles such as being able to call an onshore call centre and speak to someone within 30 seconds adds value, the nature of a charge card also is valuable to me, and yeah, the metal card is actually kinda nice, but what else actually differentiates it from their own other offerings?

What used to be of great value (to me at least) was the concierge. Truly differentiated the charge card.

 

[HisHoliness]

The points earning caps, from memory, made it difficult to justify keeping it

Need to spend on average $5000 each month to keep Gold but the soft cap for the max earn rate each month is $3000. Make it make sense.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Need to spend on average $5000 each month to keep Gold but the soft cap for the max earn rate each month is $3000. Make it make sense.

Tis a feature, not a bug. Sigh.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

So QF not affected?

Not yet it would appear. QF is busy devaluing their frequent shopper points without any help from Amex, with the effective disappearance of Classic rewards, the devaluation of the value of points for Classic Plus rewards and the continual reduction in the value of points for Points + Pay,

"But we've made many more reward seats available" a Qantas spokesperson said, answering a question no one was asking.

 

[ms1]

Just got the email. What a bitter disappointment. I stopped transferring to SQ when it changed from 2:1 to 3:1. Emirates now 4:1. Times have certainly changed.

 

[kamchatsky]

Given the devaluation, is there still any point to sign up to Amex? I mean most airline partners will have transfer rate to 3:1, which is the same as the bank Visa/MC. Of course, this is before banks starts do devaluation themselves in time for the 2026 surcharge ban.

Even Amex sign up bonus points are getting devalued at the same time. It is getting to a point that the bonus points may not be worth it.

 

[Jack_OC]

Given the devaluation, is there still any point to sign up to Amex? I mean most airline partners will have transfer rate to 3:1, which is the same as the bank Visa/MC. Of course, this is before banks starts do devaluation themselves in time for the 2026 surcharge ban.

Even Amex sign up bonus points are getting devalued at the same time. It is getting to a point that the bonus points may not be worth it.

I agree. The main reason I signed up for Amex Platinum originally was to transfer to SQ. I got a good chunk of bonus points on signing up and an initial effective earn rate of 1.125 pts/$. Obviously bonus points are irrelevant as an existing holder, and the effective earn rate is only 0.75 pts/$. Plus SQ have devalued KF miles as well, so the value proposition has changed dramatically.

I'm not sure that you really can quite match that earn rate with a MC or Visa though, can you? The HSBC card earns 0.8 pts/$ but only on the first $3k of spend per month, then it halves. So if you're spending a lot, your earn rate would be lower than 0.75 overall. St George/Bank of Melbourne earns only 0.5 pts/$, Altitude Black and ANZ Rewards Black are both only 0.66. Am I missing something better?

In any case, it's unlikely to be possible to justify the Amex Platinum fee just to increase earn rate by 0.14 pts/$, so as discussed above, unless you are getting enough other value from the card to negate the fee, it's really not worth it anymore.

BTW, while the ability to transfer to various other airlines, including QF, is great on paper, I've never actually done that! QF points are very easy to earn elsewhere, so I've never felt the need to transfer from Amex. And as others have pointed out, the Everyday Rewards option now offers a backdoor to QF from much lower fee Amex cards.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I'm not sure that you really can quite match that earn rate with a MC or Visa though, can you? The HSBC card earns 0.8 pts/$ but only on the first $3k of spend per month, then it halves. So if you're spending a lot, your earn rate would be lower than 0.75 overall. St George/Bank of Melbourne earns only 0.5 pts/$, Altitude Black and ANZ Rewards Black are both only 0.66. Am I missing something better?

In any case, it's unlikely to be possible to justify the Amex Platinum fee just to increase earn rate by 0.14 pts/$, so as discussed above, unless you are getting enough other value from the card to negate the fee, it's really not worth it anymore.

No -- you're not missing anything better, and your next paragraph completes the picture... AMEX's fee is far higher than those other options. As discussed here, many of us still can justify AMEX's fee, but that value proposition is narrowing (and if the annual fee goes up, even narrower). Everyone eventually has a breaking point.

 

[Bell21]

> ** Airline redemption rate changes are not applicable for Card Members enrolled in the following Membership Rewards Tiers: Business Ascent, Corporate Choices, Corporate Membership Rewards, Spirit and Corporate Spirit

Updates Membership Rewards | American Express Australia

Updates Membership Rewards | American Express Australia

www.americanexpress.com

Thanks for the heads-up on this - for clarity, as I was unsure, Business Ascent does not relate to the Business Plat card - the points earnt through the business plat card are the same points program as per the Personal Plat card (Business Ascent is apparently something 'entirely different')

 

[kamchatsky]

I agree. The main reason I signed up for Amex Platinum originally was to transfer to SQ. I got a good chunk of bonus points on signing up and an initial effective earn rate of 1.125 pts/$. Obviously bonus points are irrelevant as an existing holder, and the effective earn rate is only 0.75 pts/$. Plus SQ have devalued KF miles as well, so the value proposition has changed dramatically.

I'm not sure that you really can quite match that earn rate with a MC or Visa though, can you? The HSBC card earns 0.8 pts/$ but only on the first $3k of spend per month, then it halves. So if you're spending a lot, your earn rate would be lower than 0.75 overall. St George/Bank of Melbourne earns only 0.5 pts/$, Altitude Black and ANZ Rewards Black are both only 0.66. Am I missing something better?

In any case, it's unlikely to be possible to justify the Amex Platinum fee just to increase earn rate by 0.14 pts/$, so as discussed above, unless you are getting enough other value from the card to negate the fee, it's really not worth it anymore.

BTW, while the ability to transfer to various other airlines, including QF, is great on paper, I've never actually done that! QF points are very easy to earn elsewhere, so I've never felt the need to transfer from Amex. And as others have pointed out, the Everyday Rewards option now offers a backdoor to QF from much lower fee Amex cards.

For me I would be comparing to my existing NAB Signature card: 1.5 rewards points/$, or 0.75 VA points/$, or 0.5 SQ/CX points/$, up to $15000 spend per month. Then it is 0.5 Rewards points/$ uncapped:

Earn up to 110,000 bonus NAB Rewards Points

With the NAB Rewards Signature Card you can earn up to 180,000 bonus Rewards Points in the first 12 months. Apply online today.

www.nab.com.au

It has no international transaction fees as part of the card. Monthly card fee is $35/month but waived if you spend >$5000 per statement period (which I always do).

 

[Jacques Vert]

No -- you're not missing anything better, and your next paragraph completes the picture... AMEX's fee is far higher than those other options. As discussed here, many of us still can justify AMEX's fee, but that value proposition is narrowing (and if the annual fee goes up, even narrower). Everyone eventually has a breaking point.

Of course a card like the Explorer or Ultimate that come with a travel credit equal to or exceeding the annual fee is a different proposition. But I agree that the value proposition for all cards is becoming more marginal all the time.

Take me back to the good old days.

 

[random111]

The value prop has seriously declined to me.

For our circumstances our household has two separate cards, a business and personal, albeit with a discounted annual fee

Even after claiming the fees as a tax deduction, it was borderline valuable before, now it's a clear net cost.

The business card doesn't have the same benefits as the personal so was already questionable!

The accor change, coupled with this devaluation and the constant devaluation by the airlines has really changed the landscape and greatly changed the effort v benefit of chasing reward seats.

The nail in the coffin will be an increase to the annual fee!

Come on AMEX - it's been take take take, time to give!

 

[Cruiser Elite]

The business card doesn't have the same benefits as the personal so was already questionable!

But it does have equal best Travel Insurance available and up to 100 additional carholders - I have 20 family members signed on so $1,700 I am happy to pay for that alone. But as always YMWV

 

[random111]

But it does have equal best Travel Insurance available and up to 100 additional carholders - I have 20 family members signed on so $1,700 I am happy to pay for that alone. But as always YMWV

Yes that's fair, I did fail to mention and you are right, the travel insurance is a fantastic part

 

[Bell21]

But it does have equal best Travel Insurance available and up to 100 additional carholders - I have 20 family members signed on so $1,700 I am happy to pay for that alone. But as always YMWV

that IS impressive - can they get AMEX / Plaza Premium lounge access?