AMEX and Sentient Jet Team Up With The Business of No

I stopped using my American Express Card a few years back when after spending over $140,000 for that callendar year the company refused to offer me a "black" (Centurion) card as the standard was $150,000 in yearly spending (its now over $250,000 reportedly). I informed a Sr. vice president of customer service at AMEX that I was getting married the next year and had a home in Los Angeles that I was fully renovating and that I would gladly pay their $4,000 fee for the card. Even with $100,000's of pending spending in the near future I was denied the card therefor I moved my business to Chase who has both a business and personal card that gives me valuable United Airlines miles. I have racked up nearly 1,000,000 since then and have cancled all but one of my three AMEX cards as I don't want to lose the 590,000 AMEX rewards miles. Overall I am very happy with my decision to cut my AMEX spending down to a mere few $100 per year.

This week I received a glossy printed book about my many options for AMEX miles and over a luxurious, Jared-inspired Subway six inch "club on wheat" I read through the book. I have always thought the best value in credit card miles is to use them for flight upgrades. You can spend $700,000 and get a $4,000 watch if you like but you can also buy a $1,500 coach ticket from Los Angeles to London and upgrade it with 50,000 miles to a $17,000 business class ticket thus getting a lot more value for your miles if your are inclined to fly in Business or First Class.

Towards the back of the brochure was a promotion that caught my attention. An attractive couple were stepping out of what looked to be a Challenger 300 private jet featured on a right-facing page. The copy on the promo said that AMEX has "flight experiences starting at 500,000 miles with partners like Atlantic Aviation, Delta (private) and Sentient Jet. With an upcoming trip from LA to Pebble Beach in December, this got me to put my cardboard-tasting sandwich down and call the 800 number. I just had to know what my 500,000 miles got me. I didn't expect much but anything helps right?

At my new offices I have phones that count off the time you are on the phone. It was 19:45 on hold with AMEX before someone picked up. The person quickly realized I needed to be handed off to the "land and sea" department and waited on the line with me until I got to a woman to help me. The problem is - she couldn't pronounce Sentient Jet let alone explain to me what the program was with the charter and jet membership company. At around 32:00 into the call - she transferred me to Sentient Jet.

A minute later, I had a guy on the phone who knew a LOT more about private jet travel and he needed to have someone get me a quote for my trip on a shorter basis and or see how my 500,000 miles would pay for part of one of their "membership cards" which I assuredly would be adding tens upon tens of thousands of dollars to. This gentleman, who sells one of the world's most fantastically luxurious commodities on the planet Earth, said he would have someone get back to me the next day with a full quote for both options. He took down all of my info - specifically about the trip up to Monterey, the airports, the aircraft I might want to use etc...

Its been five days with no return phone call or follow up from Sentient Jet.

In America, you can outsource your customer service to Bangalore or New Delhi or you can keep it right at home but as long as you don't know how to close and or don't care if you close a qualified client - the results will always be the same and those results are not good. When the economy is booming or during difficult times like now, truly qualified clients are hard to come by and when you get them on the phone - closing them should be a company's top priority. AMEX walked my business because of their ultimate arrogance and Sentient hasn't made much of a statement about how much they want my future business or my up-sell to their $50,000 membership card. Even in the straosphere of luxury, you still can find companies mired in the Business of No.

I am sure there is someone who wants to earn my business for this flight even if its United Airlines. Perhaps I should save the money and buy stock in companies who are in the Business of Yes? How is Berkshire Hathaway stock looking these days?

Last Plane To Clarkesville (actually Charlottesville)

This week I made another one of my quick trips across the country. Leaving from Los Angeles on Wednesday to see my sports psychologist, Dr. Bob Rotella, in Charlottesville, Virginia for a day of discussion about putting and how to putt less frequently. Call me crazy if you will - but Dr. Bob is the king. He works with the best golfers in the world including major winners like Trevor Immelman (Master), Padriag Herrington (British Open) and Rocco Mediate (almost beat Tiger at this recent US Open) along with others like Ernie Els, Davis Love and Tom Kite. Oh yeah, and schmuck amateur golfers like me.

My trip from Los Angeles (LAX) to Washington (Dulles) was pretty uneventful until the landing which was in a thunderstorm. The co-pilot (that's who stereotypically lands) put that United Airlines 757 down pretty hard but no harm no fowl right? Well when we landed the plane was met by NO gated agent and the connecting flight on a commuter turbo prop plane was in an entirely different terminal and 11 passengers from LA had no less than 21 minutes to catch our flight.

We all waited patiently as this boat-like vehicle took us from the domestic United terminal to the commuter terminal only to then run like Orenthal J. Simpson in those old Hertz TV ads (I actually think he might have flown in those ads) to the gate to meet a middle-aged woman at the gate.

We all thought that we were in the clear as the door was open and the small plane was waiting. But NOOOOOOO.... This woman wasn't going to let us make the connection as she "closed out" the flight 30 second earlier and she was unwilling to go out and waive at the pilot as she admitted that there were many empty seats on the plane. The 11 of use pleaded with her to let us on the flight as she acted as if she legitimately didn't speak English while the door closed, the props spun up and the plane left for our connection in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Two very easy fixes could have been had assuming the airline cared to not have the 11 of us miss our flight. First, an agent meeting the LA flight could have called the other gate and held the plan an extra 30 seconds. Secondly, the woman at the gate could have done even a modicum of work to simply waive at the pilot who could have reopened the doors and loaded the plane up. The result was a wait of over four additional hours for which I opted to rent a car and drive myself and one of the other passengers 90 miles to our destination. It saved me about an hour with my golf guru which to me was worth the $350 the rental car cost me.

In a world where United Airlines thinks nothing of charging for a checked bag (not for first class but what are they thinking) - its time they look to actually taking care of their passengers more than their bottom line. Charge more for the tickets if you must but don't screw over your most loyal customers.