American Express South Africa run by Nedbank - the worst Amex card in the world?

So everywhere you look, American Express is touted as the card to have for travellers. And internationally that may well be the case. In fact, I used to hold a UK Amex platinum card before returning to SA. Here's the list of Amex airline partners overseas (according to valuepenguin): Aer Lingus Aeromexico Air Canada Air France/KLM Alitalia ANA Avianca British Airways Cathay Pacific Delta El Al Emirates Etihad Hawaiian Airlines Iberia JetBlue Qantas Singapore Virgin Atlantic

Now here's the list Nedbank (who operate Amex in SA) give you: British Airways Mango (are they still flying??) South African Airways (bankrupt, haven't flown since forever) Virgin Atlantic (only flies to Joburg)

So: Star Alliance carriers (that are flying): none Skyteam carriers: none One World carriers: one

Go on, log in to the membershiprewards.co.za website sometime. Try looking up car rental partners. One: Avis. And when you click on it you get (for at least the last 5 years!!) this message: "This page has returned no results. Please refine your search or filter."

Try clicking on "business travel" partners. You get the same result. Overseas Amex partners with Hilton, Marriott and others.

Many years ago I contacted them to ask these questions. I was thanked and told they were working on it. Nothing has changed. Amex appears to be a Nedbank afterthought. Here's hoping someone else takes it over soon.

My opinion: Don't waste your time with Amex in SA. They don't live up to the brand, in fact, my view is that they severely damage the Amex brand. One of these days Amex Intl is gonna wake up and notice this, but in the meantime it's not worth the money.