Now, to be clear – it’s not the lounges that are a waste of money, it’s the marketing.
For those that aren’t aware, American Express operates luxury lounges in LGA, DFW, SFO, LAS and soon to be MIA. They offer a full bar, full food service, and more premium services that most other lounges cannot compete with. They’re accessible with the Amex Platinum card, and that’s how I enter.
Over the past several months I’ve received various marketing materials from Amex encouraging me to use my Amex Platinum lounge benefit. Yesterday, as I opened the mail, they included a full color book, convincing me of all the great features on offer. To be clear, I’ve visited the DFW lounge about 15 times, the SFO lounge once, and the LAS lounge twice. I’ve had my fair share of lounge visits, and at one point, the representative at the DFW lounge recognized me and greeted me by name prior to ever showing my card.
So, why is Amex spending all this money marketing to me a benefit that I already use?
You’d think that they’d be able to track visit, and accordingly, adjust their mailers, however that doesn’t appear to be the case. I’m just surprised at all the heavy advertising for something that I probably abuse way more than they intended it to be.
I thought this was quite odd, though maybe there was a valid explanation that one of you could offer up. Or, perhaps you’re able to comment with your similar situation.
So, what do you think?
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
Eh, who cares? I get this all the time for various products and services I already have and I don’t really think about it. I have been sent two or three reminders of the updates to the Barclay’s Dividend Miles Mastercard and Citi has mailed me something about the new look of the AAdvantage card… Probably a waste of printing and postage but I don’t really care. Speaking of Citi, what happened to your post about the new Citi product? All I get is a 404 page when I try to access it.
With the Amex platinum losing many benefits over the last year, they’re trying to remind you that the product is still valuable and offers numerous benefits. I often get a bunch of these mailers right before my annual fee is due. It’s also a way for them to remind you that you have this card in the back of your wallet (as you’re only likely to remember you even have the card when the annual fee comes due or when you’re in Terminal D at DFW) in hopes that you’ll think, “oh yeah, I should spend some money on this card.”