Continental is no longer partnering with Amex on either Membership Rewards points or Presidents’ Club access, starting in one year.
From the site:
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Continental Airlines withdrawing from participation in the American Express Membership Rewards and Airport Club Access programs?
Continental’s agreements to participate in these programs expire Sept. 30, 2011 and we have decided not to renew the agreements. Continental continues to offer many options for OnePass mileage earning and redemption opportunities as well as Presidents Club access.
Note that this is not actually an answer.
Is this decision the result of Continental’s merger with United Airlines?
The decision to end Continental’s participation in the American Express Airport Club Access and Membership Rewards programs is not related to Continental’s merger with United Airlines.
Note that this answer is almost certainly a lie. You can tell in part because answers to simple yes or no questions that do not begin with “yes” or “no,” and that go one for this many words, are almost all lies. By reading further, it’s also easy to see how brazenly mendacious the CO people are being.
I’ve already started doing most of my flying on Southwest for other reasons. My guess is that this will seal that deal even further, though my AX points are useless there, too. (The moral there is “all airlines hate you,” by the way.)
BTW, Amex is trying to make it less painful, but it’s still going to suck:
Amex is also trying to hang on to some Continental and other airline fans with a new benefit for Platinum and Centurion (a k a, “Black Card”) customers. Starting Dec. 1, you can register your favored airline with Amex and it will waive up to $200 in fees (like those for baggage checking, in-flight food purchases, airport club day passes and flight changes) with that airline each year.
The remaining domestic airlines partnered with Amex are AirTran, Delta, Frontier, and JetBlue. Of those, the latter may be useful to us, but the rest are less interesting. Time to schedule a bigass CO trip with my AX points, methinks.
The idea of being one of the folks in “Corporate Communications” that has to write this stuff gives me pleurisy, dropsy, and tetter.
Can you imagine? I mean, Christ, it’s telling lies for a living.
Which is basically what “corporate communications” and “public relations” mean anyway.
So, is there any reason for an AMEX? G and I were just about to get one but if miles aren’t an option then what good are they?
A regular Amex — the kind you pay off every month — is still the best kind of card to have for lots of reasons, not the least of which being they’re the only issuer I actually trust to take your side in a dispute. Customer satisfaction with Amex is way higher than for any other major bank.
My issue isn’t with Amex. It’s with United. Of course, I was just about done with those chuckleheads anyway.
The AX Membership Rewards program still works for 19 other affinity programs (hotels, airlines, etc), including a couple that DO fly here (AirTran and JetBlue, but also Delta). True, I can’t use my AX points with Southwest, either, but they get a pass because, generally speaking, they’re so much easier to deal with, and so cheap, and because they’re the only competitive choice for many of the places I go.
I don’t know where else to post this, so I’ll post it here. It is my understanding that MH still takes requests, so for today’s mid-day rock block, I would like to request, from 1981, “Swords and Tequila” by Riot. Thank you. That is all.
I just flew Continental to Amsterdam this week. Their business class is about 2 generations behind Spore Airlines, and about 1 generation behind KLM. I only flew them to exhaust my collection of miles which I am sure will get raped when the merger is final. Continental used to be my favorite airline. As soon as I burn my miles I will never fly them again. Perhaps the new owner can bring back the shine, but I won’t be holding my breath.