Amex has always been sticky about annual fees.
Unlike most banks, they are unwilling to waive it.
When you sign up for this card, they give you the option to
1) Have the 1st year annual fee waived
2) Pay the full 1st year annual fee (SGD321) and get a Phillips Air purifier
Additional promo is you get a TUMI travel luggage if you spend SGD7500 within the first 6 months.
Since you're on this site, I assume you're looking for deals.
So obviously we're going to choose Option 1 to have the 1st year fee waived.
And we're not going to even think about spending SGD7500 in 6 months.
That would equate to SGD1250 per month which I will be unable to hit.
As I need to use my UOB one card as explained here.
Not to mention a luggage bag is worth around SGD100, so spending SGD7500 to get SGD100 worth of value is like 1.33% returns.
A TUMI luggage is probably worth more than SGD100 but I don't care. A luggage is still a luggage and I can get one for around SGD100.
Ok enough about that.
What does this card come with.
Official website is here.
As I'm into dining, I'll focus on the dining aspect.
So basically it is something like, 1 diner always dines free.
So if 2 people go to one of the participating restaurants, it's 50% off
3 people go, it's 35% off
4 people go, it's 25% off
4-19 people, its 20% off
If you eat alone, its only 15% off though
Some participating restaurants worthy of mention are
Dancing Crab - Really expensive. I don't intend to go there. But I've heard it's good. I've thought about going but... really too expensive even after discount.
Lawry's the Prime Rib - Another expensive restaurant. We used to go there during our birthdays. At 50% off it's something like SGD120 for both of us for the whole meal. Not too ex for a good steak. And we previously couldn't eat beef when we stayed at our parent's place so we used to dine here. We haven't been here for the past 2 years or so already.
TungLok Group - Not sure if it's all Tunglok restaurants. We typically go to the Tunglok at Vivo City or the one at Changi Citypoint. We go quite often using this promo. We need to order 2 main dishes to be eligible for the 50% off. No issue about that.
We order this crab soup dish, I can't find a picture of it online. It's a crab soup with crab bits with rice in the soup. They also provide this crispy rice like coco pops to throw into the soup before you eat it. So it's kinda like a crab soup teochew porridge with crab bits. Really tasty.
For our second main dish we choose anything which we would like to try. Typically a good value is a crab dish. Like chilli crab. I don't have to describe chilli crab right? Not the best chilli crab but still good enough.
For dessert, we order 1 mango pomelo sago served in coconut with mango ice cream, to share.
Total cost is under SGD50 after promo.
The problem is this promo is not available on weekends cos Tunglok serves up their set menus on weekends. So we typically will go on Friday evenings for this.
Weekend set menu promos are handled differently in terms of the discount. Don't really want to discuss about it cos it's not very worth it.
This AMEX card also comes with the FAR Card (Feed at Raffles Card)
Similar promo as the above. Just that this FAR card is mainly hotel restaurants.
It's not a separate card. Just use the same AMEX card to spend at these places to enjoy the promo.
When you get your Amex card you get a few vouchers.
2 bottles of house wine from the Swiss hotel group restaurants.
Couple of vouchers for 50% off for 8-10 diners at Swiss hotel group restaurants.
(With these vouchers you can get 50% off when you bring your friends to the restaurants instead of the usual 20% off only.)
Places which I've been to or worthy of mention.
Equinox - Buffet lunch or Saturday Semi-Buffet lunch
Both of these are quite worth it when 2 people are dining at 50% off.
Don't really remember how much it is.
But I'll take the Festive International Semi Buffet Lunch (5-30 Dec 2016) as a benchmark which is SGD68++ or SGD80 nett
So it would cost SGD80 for 2 diners since one will dine for free.
Their regular Buffet lunch or Saturday Semi-Buffet lunch is also around this price.
Asian Market Cafe - Also at Raffles City
Quite a cheap buffet if you want to arrange with a bunch of friends.
If you use one of the vouchers I mentioned above you can have a gathering with 8-10 friends and at 50% off, each one pays SGD35-40 if I remember correctly.
Food isn't particularly great. It's not bad. Quite nice actually but not great.
Still a great place to go with a bunch of friends for a low cost buffet dinner and you can sit around and chat. They serve chilli crabs at the buffet on some days. You may want to call to ask.
Mikuni - Super high end Japanese restaurant at Raffles City
Really expensive. I went there once. Don't feel it's value for money even after the discount. Some people still like to go there. So I'll just mention it here. But I won't be going again.
Szechuan Court - Szechuan styled restaurant at Raffles City area.
We like this place. Similar to how we order at Tunglok. We will typically go on weekends as they don't have the set menu problem like at Tunglok. We will order the Crab meat ee-Fu noodles and another main dish. We also top it off with some dim sum. Similar pricing with Tunglok, around SGD50 after the 50% promo for 2 pax.
The Kitchen Table @ W Hotel at Sentosa Cove - We are planning to go to this restaurant for dinner buffet soon. SGD88++ per person or around SGD100 for 2 pax after 50% off. Supposed to be serving up some good stuff. Lobsters and crabs and such. Can't really comment on this as I haven't been there. Looks promising as it is around SGD50 per pax after promo, which is pretty cheap for a hotel buffet.
Ok then there's other promos such as Spa packages and some Golf stuff which I don't really bother with.
Ok. Summary.
Pros
50% off many high end dining outlets
Free 1st year annual fee waiver
Some Spa and Golf promos
Cons
No rebates or anything
Not good for any other purpose
Will need to pay for 2nd year annual fees
So what we usually do is one of us will apply for this card, then we will use it for 1 year with free 1st year annual fee, then after the 1st year, we will cancel the card when they refuse to waive the annual fee. Then the other one of us will apply for the card. So usually one of us will have this card at any point in time. I'm not working now so probably won't be able to do this anymore. There are times when neither of us have this card. We don't really miss it when we don't have it. But it is a card worthy of mention. We enjoy it while we have it. It's used as a specialized card which we only use when dining at the outlets mentioned above.
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