Consumer complaint received 2023-02-16
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Problem with rewards from credit card
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (VA)

I am writing to express my general dissatisfaction about the XXXX card. I have had the card for several years. The annual fee has always been set at {$550.00} a year. To my surprised, when I looked at my credit card statement from XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered that the fees has gone up to {$690.00}. I did not even notice that until the amount was debited out of my account. A notice might have been sent to me, but clearly not one that is easily noticeable. I did try to contact customer service to discuss about it but I was told the increase in fees is justified because there are now additional {$240.00} digital subscription benefits. However, it only covers XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Guess what, the two most popular digital subscription services XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX are NOT included!! This is a very insincere attempt to offset the increase in annual fees as Amex is just intentionally including services that are not that popular and hoping people will not utilize them. 

In addition, I would like to complain about the quality of the lounge service. Multiple times now, I tried to go the Amex XXXX lounge at the XXXX airport and the XXXX airport. I was informed that there would be a wait time of over 30 min or longer before one can get in. The same situation has also occurred at the XXXX airport to me. Thats generally the amount of time people has after going through security prior to boarding. That effectively means your lounge is NOT accessible to your customers! Amex has clearly oversold this card and now the lounges can not catch up with the demand. 3 Affiliated lounges at the XXXX  XXXX airport ( XXXX ), XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX lounge, XXXX XXXX XXXX Lounge XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX Lounge have all now stopped accepting Amex customers due to overcrowding concerns, but Amex still advertises them as " accessible lounges '' and I have been turned away by these lounges at XXXX. I consider that misleading advertising! The only lounge that is open to Amex customers at XXXX now is the XXXX XXXX XXXX, but it is frequently very difficult to access because of overcrowding! This so card " lounge access '' benefit now almost amount to nothing almost anywhere! 

I have been an Amex card member since XXXX and have always held 1 or more Amex cards, but I can definitely say I have never been more disappointed, dissatisfied and dumbfounded with Amex than now. Amex raised the fees, and yet fail to provide the promised service ( lounge access ). You pretended to add extra digital entertainment benefits but in reality, forcing customers to subscribe to services that have little or no values to them and not providing them with the choice! I am also a XXXX XXXX member and a XXXXXXXX XXXX and I already received XXXX benefits from them, so the XXXX membership credits will also be of no values to me, but no alternatives are being offered. All in all, Amex is attempting to dump some useless services on customers and use that as an excuse to raise the annual fees. This is completely unacceptable. and reflect extremely poorly on Amex. I am afraid to say AMEX is certainly very successful in alienating and XXXX off your long-term customers!!