As with anything - it depends! I had it last year but decided last month not to renew. I had upgraded my Gold because there was a 15k bonus for doing so (probably still is), and a 50k bonus for adding 5 additional cardholders (10k each) at the time, so ended up with a lot of Points. My intention was to cancel/downgrade back to gold soon after and get a rebate, but I was traveling quite a lot and was getting a lot of value from the lounge access and insurance so kept it. I think I'll probably get it again next year, but probably share the cost with a friend. The first supplementary cardholder you nominate gets full benefits (hotel status, lounge access+guest, travel insurance), which are almost definitely worth £225 to me. Up to 4 other supplementary cardholders and their families get the insurance too, which is nice. If you don't have hotel status but would get value from it (I think the Plat still offers Club Carlson Gold, SPG Gold and Accor Platinum?), or would benefit from the Fine Hotels and Resorts programme, and travel enough for lounge access to be important, £450 isn't too bad once you factor in the signup bonus. Ideally, I would suggest getting a partner/friend to refer you (they get 18k for the referral) and splitting the cost with someone who would benefit from being the main supplementary cardholder if possible. Renewing didn't make sense for me, because I wouldn't get any signup bonus obviously, and I've got hotel status with pretty much all the chains for at least another year anyway. Insurance doesn't cost me all that much, and my long haul flights (when I really value lounge access) tend to be in Business/First using Miles anyway. Lounge access is nice to have on weekend trips when flying ryanair or similar, but not a big deal - I'm just going to have to get used to paying for drinks again!
This post seems to have posted twice. Here's my response on the other thread of it, which (I'm pleased to note) is very similar to Joe's: In my view unlikely, but very much down to your personal circumstances. The hotel statuses (SPG Gold, Club Carlson Gold, Le Club Plat, with Hilton Gold on it's way), and lounge entry could in themselves justify the £450 fee. Then there's the 30,000 (35K with referral) bonus points, which compares favourably to the 20,000 bonus points (22K with referral) for the Gold card. However, given that the statuses above are of little use to me (as I already hold them or better), the Plat card is of very limited extra value to me compared to the Gold card, which is free for the first year and £140 thereafter (or free forever if you hold it for a year, cancel, wait 6 months and then reapply...) Personally, I am a Gold churner on the basis that I like to hang on to the card for the full year, for free. I would not hold on to the Plat card when paying £450 a year. The Gold also comes with a bonus 10K points if you spend £15k in a year on it. The above said, I have a friend who does a "smash and grab" on the bonus points for the Plat every year - signs up, gets the massive haul of bonus points then cancels for a refund of the £450 fee. Then signs up again 6 months later. Personally, as someone who likes to keep the card for the full year, I find the Gold card preferable, although I should reiterate that I never pay £140 for it. I sign up, get the bonus, hold it for a year then cancel. Then six months later I reapply. I hope that makes some sense! It's quite a "technical" area, not least because everyone is different in their existing statuses, priorities etc. Feel free to send me a private message if you want to discuss further. If you want a short answer, it's no - get the Gold
The Hilton's HHonors Gold status, as well as well as Shangri-La Jade and Melia Gold are now active. We've lost Accor Platinum from 15 April but if you haven't used the offer, or if your current status expires by 30 April, you can still do the match and get a full year. All the three new partners are effectively offering mid-tier status so there are some offers that might be money savers, but nothing spectacular I am afraid.
