Reduction in Amex lounge benefits?

[playbargain]

It does affect them. To maintain market share they will need to maintain competitiveness in interchange rates or see sliding in AMEX acceptance by merchants. Essentially this is case of RBA regulating "the market" and the market then influencing AMEX.

So is interbank charge ending completely or is the ban only to end the practice of businesses adding the surchage at the point of payment?

News articles are not very clear on this. If it's the former then I get how this can impact Amex. But some comments are saying it's the latter, which means businesses will just increase the cost to cover and banks still get their fees.

 

[DAC1]

So is interbank charge ending completely or is the ban only to end the practice of businesses adding the surchage at the point of payment?

News articles are not very clear on this. If it's the former then I get how this can impact Amex. But some comments are saying it's the latter, which means businesses will just increase the cost to cover and banks still get their fees.

Surcharges Banned, Lower Interchange Fees: The 2026 RBA Changes Explained

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will ban card payment surcharges and lower interchange fees on credit card payments from 1 October 2026. It knows this will reduce credit card rewards, and it doesn't care.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Superhappykid]

That is based on the local rules for each lounge. Typically they refer to kids under 2 as free.
The PP App has the age in the App under conditions

Ahh ok, i'll have to do more digging to see if it effects my lounges then. That's annoying.

 

[daft009]

my platinum is affected.
my centurion, no change

 

[Superhappykid]

So is interbank charge ending completely or is the ban only to end the practice of businesses adding the surchage at the point of payment?

News articles are not very clear on this. If it's the former then I get how this can impact Amex. But some comments are saying it's the latter, which means businesses will just increase the cost to cover and banks still get their fees.

I just want to chime in on how silly this is.

From what I understand, interchange fees aren’t being removed they’re just being reduced. If that’s the case, businesses will almost certainly just increase their prices by a few percentage points (whatever rounds up nicely) to make up the difference.

So in reality, the public still ends up paying the fee. It’s just slightly lower and better hidden.

I was actually replying to someone on Reddit the other day about an “interest free” phone plan. She was paying $11 a month in “membership fees,” and I tried to explain that it’s essentially just interest under a different name.

Feels like the Australian people like to end up paying the same thing as long as it's rebranded in a way that makes it seem more appealing.

 

[burneracc]

Stupid changes overall, and I’m going to update my spend strategy from here unless they refresh the plat this year to something more sensible. I have until October for my annual fee to hit, so I’ll keep it until then at least. Nickel and diming us for an extra half percent on forex, as well as with different (complex) lounge rules, is in really bad taste on their part.

Likely going to downgrade to a gold / green (it’s still extremely useful having a charge card and Amex have a monopoly in this market, plus I have a lot of recurring transactions charging to my plat), and pick up a qf ultimate as my new daily. Less messing around with dining credits and similar, and my one experience using the centurion lounge overseas was poor anyway.

These changes on top of the points devaluation last year leaves me wondering why I should be paying the same annual fee for a product that’s arguably halved in value. I did used to eat the forex fee when travelling as a cost of insurance / points, but I see no point in being milked further for worse benefits.

I will say that there’s a chance they do really well with the potential refresh this year resulting in me renewing, but there’s an equal chance that they simply renew the dining benefits for another year, in which case I’m out.

Just a reminder of the changes over the last year or so:

• Huge points devaluation
• Accor+ devaluation
• Removal of prime credit
• (Upcoming) ending of dining credit
• This weeks changes around lounge access / forex fees / priority pass

We are frogs getting slowly boiled.

What I’ll miss the most if I cancel will be FHR. It was a good run so far and I really got multiples of value out of my AF (I have 3 supps, use the second priority pass, lots of FHR, etc) but I think downgrading to the gold will be the optimal move for me.

Final thing is that I will also mention that I’d happily take an upgrade offer back to the plat every other year while holding the gold. I’ve seen some pretty large offers mentioned on here every so often.

 

[HMcM]

I have a Qantas Amex Ultimate, and so far have only been advised of the increase in the foreign currency fee.

Nothing on any reduction on Centurion lounge access

That's because you get passes to the Amex lounge not outright access like you would on the Plat Charge card. So there would be no changes.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Disappointing changes but I'll hold my fire until I see how Amex compares to the rest of the market. I imagine the banks will start cutting benefits on their top tier cards as well (complimentary visits etc).

Like many here I've used the companion Priority Pass to help my family get into lounges. Looks like VA lounge access is unaffected at this point which is a small win, at least.

Not really relevant to my circumstances, but I wonder if the changes also affect Centurion cards...

They don’t affect Cent cards.
Only the increase on the foreign exchange fees. No change to lounge access for the black cards.

 

[Berlin]

So essentially yet another case of higher fees but less benefits. They used their chance on the curtails of that RBA decision but I agree with previous posts, the email sounded particularly rude and one sided. They did not even try to hide the simple fact that all changes are negative for the customers.

Saying that- the lounge issues don’t affect me much personally. We usually fly in J anyway and have status with One World on top of that so the lounge access benefits are of very low priority to us. And even in the rare case that we need it once or twice a year, my hubby still gets in with me. I can see how that would be a real bummer for families, especially if flying in the cheap part of the plane.

 

[Doctore1003]

This has nothing to do with the RBA decision. Today’s Amex announcement date was set before the RBA piped up.

 

[Doctore1003]

In terms of switching Amex cards, we still don’t know how all the different cards will change post RBA announcement. Might be best to wait a few months.

 

[bits]

It does affect them. To maintain market share they will need to maintain competitiveness in interchange rates or see sliding in AMEX acceptance by merchants. Essentially this is case of RBA regulating "the market" and the market then influencing AMEX.

Amex, as a three-party card network provider (and other non Visa/MC providers) will be the subject of the next RBA inquiry due to kick off in mid 2026:

Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging – Conclusions Paper | Media Releases

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has today published a Conclusions Paper which sets out the final decisions of the Payments System Board (PSB) on the Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging.

www.rba.gov.au

"The RBA plans to start a public consultation in mid-2026 to assess the public interest case for regulating areas of the retail payments system that were not covered under this Review, including mobile wallets, three-party card networks, ‘buy-now, pay-later’ services and e-commerce platforms."

If they get regulated, expect more devaluation to come.

 

[justinbrett]

Amex, as a three-party card network provider (and other non Visa/MC providers) will be the subject of the next RBA inquiry due to kick off in mid 2026:

Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging – Conclusions Paper | Media Releases

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has today published a Conclusions Paper which sets out the final decisions of the Payments System Board (PSB) on the Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging.

www.rba.gov.au

"The RBA plans to start a public consultation in mid-2026 to assess the public interest case for regulating areas of the retail payments system that were not covered under this Review, including mobile wallets, three-party card networks, ‘buy-now, pay-later’ services and e-commerce platforms."

If they get regulated, expect more devaluation to come.

Amex is excluded from the UK caps

 

[playbargain]

All these changes really make holding the Platinum not worth it for me now. Might just stick with HSBC debit with 2% cashback and collect reward points by churning instead.

My card renews in January and I still get the extra $400 travel credit for now that came with the Reserve, so will see how things pan out with others until end of the year before realigning for 2027.

 

[burneracc]

My card renews in January and I still get the extra $400 travel credit for now that came with the Reserve

Very nice, this is the one scenario that I'd almost never cancel. Irreversible choice if you cancel that one.

 

[playbargain]

Very nice, this is the one scenario that I'd almost never cancel. Irreversible choice if you cancel that one.

Yes that'll be the final straw. At the moment the card still somewhat breaks even, I'm just prepaying for things that I'd be spending on. But it's harder and harder to justify now with each benefit downgrade, wouldn't surprise me if they removes the $400 in the future for existing holders.

The years of Amex Plat & half price Citi Prestige, those were the good days.