What Is a Credit Card Concierge?
A credit card concierge is a service offered to those who own top-tier credit cards. These include cards such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card and The Platinum Card from American Express. Both companies advertise that their concierges are available 24 hours a day and can help out with a variety of tasks in your daily life and as you travel. Along with standard requests such as theater tickets and hard-to-get restaurant reservations, concierges can also help with other needs, such as planning a birthday party, arranging a marriage proposal, and even helping coordinate medical care.
What Does Chase Concierge Offer?
Chase’s top-end credit cards offer concierge services from Visa. As Visa Infinite cards, Chase advertises 24/7 access to help with travel, dining, and entertainment requests. Both of Chase’s popular Sapphire cards—the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred—come with this benefit. In order to connect with the Visa Infinite concierge, you’ll need to call their phone number. Within the U.S., you can reach the concierge service at 1-877-660-0905. Internationally, you’ll need to call 1-312-800-4290. Chase also features Visa Signature cards that offer concierge services, including the Chase Freedom card.
What Does American Express Concierge Offer?
Amex boasts a more robust concierge service experience, at least on paper. You can contact them for dining, travel, show tickets, transportation needs, pet care, and even for help during a medical crisis. American Express also features the Premium Global Assist Hotline, which contains a robust selection of assistance and services related to travel. By calling the hotline, you can have an emergency wire payment sent to you; receive a medical evacuation; stay informed about the weather; have your missing luggage tracked; and get assistance with acquiring a new passport. American Express offers multiple ways to contact its concierge service. You can reach them by heading to the American Express app, navigating to the account tab, and scrolling down to “Contact Us.” Clicking on “Chat With Us” will launch an automated system that can handle dining and travel reservations, although you may also be transferred to a live assistant as needed. Amex Platinum cardholders can also call 1-800-525-3355 to be connected with a concierge. There are a different American Express cards that offer concierge service, including The Platinum Card from American Express, the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, The Business Platinum Card from American Express, the Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express Card, and the Centurion Card (as well as its business version).
The Test: Chase Concierge vs. Amex Concierge
For this test, we asked for city guides, restaurant reservations, and unique activities within Tel Aviv and the country of Israel.
American Express
It’s difficult to express how frustrating the American Express concierge service experience was. First, we spent two hours on hold before the phone line disconnected. We then spent four hours waiting for a response via the app after being placed on hold; unfortunately, the response never materialized. When we tried connecting through the American Express website, the chat customer service agent directed us back to the app. Again, there was no response. A second phone call at midnight involved two incorrect transfers to the flight booking team before waiting on hold again for the concierge service. After 20 minutes, a concierge finally answered.
Chase
After calling the Visa Infinite Concierge service, a representative answered within two minutes.
Interactions
While both teams were friendly, frustration with American Express meant that pleasantries weren’t worth much.
American Express
Before managing to successfully reach the American Express concierge team, we spoke to two separate customer service representatives on the phone and three additional representatives via chat. After all that, we were finally able to reach a concierge. All were friendly and professional. The concierge was able to help with restaurant recommendations but not city guides or things to do. He recommended we call back during business hours—to the same number listed above—and ask the travel team for help with city guides. As far as restaurant recommendations went, he inquired as to dietary preferences and budget, as well as preferred seating time.
Chase
The Visa Infinite concierge was also very professional. However, while the American Express concierge asked standard questions, this concierge went well above with their services. They started by asking detailed questions regarding every aspect of our requests. For restaurant reservations, they inquired as to budget, dietary preferences, preferred time, and geographic location within the city of Tel Aviv. The concierge followed this up by suggesting a west-facing restaurant at around 7 p.m. so that we could catch the sunset in August. They also asked our favorite restaurants—in the world—and researched them to make sure that the general vibe of the restaurant recommendations matched what we enjoyed most. As for city guides and things to do, the concierge inquired as to our preferences for activities and gave recommendations, including sailing, snorkeling, glamping, stargazing, Dead Sea spa services, and falconry. These all matched our general request of “cool, unique activities within greater Israel.” All told, our conversation lasted a full 30 minutes, during which the Chase concierge asked comprehensive questions about everything we could possibly need. Although they were not able to provide city guides upfront, they sent in a request for us rather than asking us to call back at a later date.
Recommendations
Both American Express and Chase responded within a few days, but their recommendations weren’t the same.
American Express
Although it took countless hours on hold and we weren’t able to get any city guides from the American Express concierge, the response time with restaurant recommendations beat Chase by a full two days. In addition to an expeditious response, American Express recommended four different restaurants, gave us a description of the food and atmosphere, and showed reservation availability for each.
Chase
While the concierge experience was much less frustrating than American Express, Chase fell behind a bit when it came time for actual results. Restaurant recommendations took two extra days to receive versus American Express, and although we were given both restaurant descriptions and even anticipated price ranges, we didn’t have any idea of actual reservation availability. The city guides we were promised arrived 14 days after our initial request. While they were helpful, they were fairly standardized and contained nothing of what we had told the concierge. Overall, they were pretty underwhelming, especially given the level of detail that our concierge had requested from us.
Is the Chase Concierge Better Than the Amex Concierge?
It’s likely the current travel situation has led to decreased service when it comes to American Express. The Amex concierge, after all, is part of an in-house team dedicated solely to American Express customers. Chase, meanwhile, relies on the Visa Infinite or Visa Signature concierge service for its customers. As there are a variety of Visa Infinite cards, we would have expected this to be the less ideal option. Whether Chase or American Express is a better fit really depends on your situation. Chase was a more pleasant experience, but the recommendations took far longer to arrive and seemed less customized to our situation. Accessing American Express, meanwhile, was very frustrating—and we weren’t able to get everything we needed. However, recommendations arrived sooner and seemed more in-tune with our requests. Overall, neither American Express nor Chase really excelled here, but the winner would have to be Chase. Although American Express provided better recommendations, we’ll take the semi-standardized options Chase offered over the grueling endeavor to get ahold of the American Express concierge.
