italdesign
Level 2 Member
Today I had the pleasure of losing my car key. Didn't realize until after work and I was ready to go home. Car was parked in company garage. I thought of credit card benefits after 30 minutes of failing to find the key. Amex will be happy to know that Platinum was the first card that came to mind - I didn't even think of Prestige until the whole thing ended. Here's a mini review of my experience.
Of course, since I have like 500 cards to meet minimum spend on, I didn't have room for Plat (or any Amex card) in my wallet. I googled for the Plat phone # and dialed it. I chose the Concierge option. I waited 5 minutes and impatiently hung up. I called back and chose the Card Services option. I explained that I lost my car key and would like to know if any of my cards offers free roadside assistance (RA). The agent immediately transferred me to the RA dept, likely an external service provider, who didn't have a way to look up my card #. Eventually he was able to get an Amex agent on the line to verify my card type. At this point the Amex agent was simply reading all the cards I had with them ("you have a LOT of cards with us"). I interrupt to suggest that we look up the RA benefit for Plat, since that likely has the best. Indeed it did. After taking some standard information, the RA agent asked what's the clearance for the garage. Hell if I know, but I ran to the garage (BTW at this point my phone was on 15% battery life - the one day out of the year when my phone didn't fully charge overnight) and read him the 7'6" clearance sign. He informed me the first 10 miles of towing would be free, and $3 per mile after that. My home was 13 miles away and I was charged $9. Very glad to pay that, if it got me home...
Yes, IF it got me home. RA agent said he would now find a tow truck and call me back in 2-3 minutes. 15 minutes later, nothing. At this point one of my friends happened to pass by and I explained my misfortune. He offered his AAA membership to unlock the car and offer me a ride home (and I would get spare car key from home and return to fetch car next day). So I called RA to see why it was taking so long. I got a different agent, who checked with my agent and reported that he was still trying to find a tower for me. A few minutes later the original agent called me and expressed his disappointment that he found no tower for me. Apparently the low clearance was a problem. Meanwhile, my friend was starting to call AAA. I thanked the agent for his effort and shifted hope to my friend. AAA confirmed tower will be here in 25 min. Great. We chitchat for a while and before we know it it's already 40 minutes and nothing. We call AAA, whose automated recording says "we use your cell tower to locate you to provide best service..." low and behold, it connected to us to a AAA in a different state (!), who failed multiple times to connect us to the AAA in our area. So much for the automated location detection. We call the local # but as we are dialing, he gets a call from the tower saying he's almost here. Great. As a sidenote the driver was quite a character. I don't know how to describe it other than to say he is from a world I rarely interact with. Not necessarily a bad thing, just different. He arrives, is able to get into the garage, and after a few minutes the door was pried open. Low and behold, the key is in my jacket in the car! I wore it when I was sitting in the car but left it in the car since the day would get hotter. Car wasn't smart enough to detect that the key was in the car - not sure if new cars would. At this point it was 3 hours after I first started looking for the key. I was very glad to have found it after all.
In summary, the RA benefits of Amex Plat are nice on paper - free towing up to 10 miles and only $3/mile after that, plus free unlocking and other possibilities (note, each activity counts against the FOUR cap per year). However, after half an hour of them starting to look for a tow truck, they could not find one ("we can probably find you one tomorrow" - really?). Probably not for lack of trying, and maybe it had everything to do with the low clearance of the garage (I don't know), but they failed me. On the other hand, AAA was also delayed by about 20 minutes, but it did come and get the job done in the end.
In short, don't get stuck in a multi-story garage.
I wonder how Citi Prestige would have fared.
Of course, since I have like 500 cards to meet minimum spend on, I didn't have room for Plat (or any Amex card) in my wallet. I googled for the Plat phone # and dialed it. I chose the Concierge option. I waited 5 minutes and impatiently hung up. I called back and chose the Card Services option. I explained that I lost my car key and would like to know if any of my cards offers free roadside assistance (RA). The agent immediately transferred me to the RA dept, likely an external service provider, who didn't have a way to look up my card #. Eventually he was able to get an Amex agent on the line to verify my card type. At this point the Amex agent was simply reading all the cards I had with them ("you have a LOT of cards with us"). I interrupt to suggest that we look up the RA benefit for Plat, since that likely has the best. Indeed it did. After taking some standard information, the RA agent asked what's the clearance for the garage. Hell if I know, but I ran to the garage (BTW at this point my phone was on 15% battery life - the one day out of the year when my phone didn't fully charge overnight) and read him the 7'6" clearance sign. He informed me the first 10 miles of towing would be free, and $3 per mile after that. My home was 13 miles away and I was charged $9. Very glad to pay that, if it got me home...
Yes, IF it got me home. RA agent said he would now find a tow truck and call me back in 2-3 minutes. 15 minutes later, nothing. At this point one of my friends happened to pass by and I explained my misfortune. He offered his AAA membership to unlock the car and offer me a ride home (and I would get spare car key from home and return to fetch car next day). So I called RA to see why it was taking so long. I got a different agent, who checked with my agent and reported that he was still trying to find a tower for me. A few minutes later the original agent called me and expressed his disappointment that he found no tower for me. Apparently the low clearance was a problem. Meanwhile, my friend was starting to call AAA. I thanked the agent for his effort and shifted hope to my friend. AAA confirmed tower will be here in 25 min. Great. We chitchat for a while and before we know it it's already 40 minutes and nothing. We call AAA, whose automated recording says "we use your cell tower to locate you to provide best service..." low and behold, it connected to us to a AAA in a different state (!), who failed multiple times to connect us to the AAA in our area. So much for the automated location detection. We call the local # but as we are dialing, he gets a call from the tower saying he's almost here. Great. As a sidenote the driver was quite a character. I don't know how to describe it other than to say he is from a world I rarely interact with. Not necessarily a bad thing, just different. He arrives, is able to get into the garage, and after a few minutes the door was pried open. Low and behold, the key is in my jacket in the car! I wore it when I was sitting in the car but left it in the car since the day would get hotter. Car wasn't smart enough to detect that the key was in the car - not sure if new cars would. At this point it was 3 hours after I first started looking for the key. I was very glad to have found it after all.
In summary, the RA benefits of Amex Plat are nice on paper - free towing up to 10 miles and only $3/mile after that, plus free unlocking and other possibilities (note, each activity counts against the FOUR cap per year). However, after half an hour of them starting to look for a tow truck, they could not find one ("we can probably find you one tomorrow" - really?). Probably not for lack of trying, and maybe it had everything to do with the low clearance of the garage (I don't know), but they failed me. On the other hand, AAA was also delayed by about 20 minutes, but it did come and get the job done in the end.
In short, don't get stuck in a multi-story garage.
I wonder how Citi Prestige would have fared.