American Express Platinum and Centurion lose free companion tickets

A great feature of the premium American Express Platinum and Centurion cards -- with annual fees in the hundreds and thousands of dollars -- was the ability to buy one domestic airplane ticket, and receive a second one free. The only catch was you had to buy at a minimum fare level, and sometimes that ended up being more expensive than buying two of the cheapest available tickets. Despite that, many cardmembers thought this was a valuable benefit.

Apparently it was too valuable, as American Express is discontinuing the benefit effective November 15. Many frequent flyers are irate, as seen by the posts on this board:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=873621


However, if you want a card that still has a 2 for 1 travel benefit, you may want to consider the Citi PremierPass Elite MasterCard. It carries only a $75 annual fee, but still has a relatively generous free domestic companion ticket program, among other features.

You can learn about it by clicking here.