Majority of hotels around Europe don't accept it, same with restaurants, small business, shops.. there is not a single reason to own one in Europe, even with cashback (cashback to what actually, since i cannot use it anywhere)
I've travelled around the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy and almost exclusively used my Amex over the last 5 or so years.
> Majority of hotels around Europe don't accept it, same with restaurants, small business, shops
I completely disagree. Almost every restaurant, hotel, cafe takes it. All major airlines accept them, the major train operators accept them, the major hotel booking sites and airbnb both accept it.
> there is not a single reason to own one in Europe, even with cashback (cashback to what actually, since i cannot use it anywhere)
Well there is, cashback, and contrary to what you're saying it _is_ usable in europe. You can book a flight with Ryanair, a train on trainline, hire a car via hertz/sixt/europcar, book a stay with airbnb/booking/hotels, and eat out in restaurants and local cafes all with an amex.
I spend on business travels around Europe 1/4 of the year, 2 years ago we were moved from Visa to Amex and the company reversed the move after 1 month back to Visa.
Couple of major hotel chains didn't accept the Amex.
In Dublin specifically I had huge issues with Amex, not to mention Germany and Scandinavia.
It was just bad experience all together