American Express Platinum Card Review

American Express Platinum is one of the most recognized premium credit card in the market. American Express Platinum is known for its amazing concierge services and the travel perks it comes with.

American Express Platinum with the valuable transfer partners and the high sign-up bonus has been arguably the crown jewel of the premium card market. Amex Platinum comes with a hefty annual fee of $695. There are ways through which you can offset this annual fee but it does require quite much legwork and it may not be an ideal card for many. Amex Platinum gets you to access to American Express Centurion lounges often considered some of the best airport lounges out there.

In this post, we will dive into the details of the American Express Platinum Card. Platinum by American Express comes with car rental and hotel elite status, various credits and one of the most underrated benefits of American Express cards is the Amex Offers which can save you a lot of money at times. With the hefty annual fee, this card does require a lot of work to offset the fees but Amex advertises that the card provides you with $1500 in savings but a lot of those savings may not provide any value to a lot of cardholders. Your Mileage May Vary for this one. Let’s get into details.

If you want to find out more about similar cards in this category, the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Capital One Venture X, you can click on their links.

The Basics

In this section, we cover the basic information like bonus categories, credits, and annual fees related to this card.

Points Earning:

• 5X Membership Rewards points flights booked directly with the airlines

• 5X Membership Rewards points on prepaid flights and hotels booked through AmexTravel.com

• 1X Membership Rewards points on everything else

Credits:

• $300 Equinox Credit

  • Enroll your card for this benefit using the Amex Website or Amex Mobile app and then use your Platinum Card to pay for monthly Equinox in-store All Access, Destination, or E by Equinox membership fees, or for digital-only Equinox+ app subscription to receive a $25 statement credit per month.

• $300 SoulCycle At-Home Bike Credit

  • Use your Amex Platinum card to purchase the Soulcycle bike and receive up to $300 credit each time you purchases a bike up to 15 times a year. Equinox+ membership is required to purchase the bike.

• $100 TSA PreCheck and Global Entry Credit

  • Every 4 years, you are eligible to receive statement credit of up to $100 for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck Application.

• More Credits in a Separate Section Below

Benefits:

• No Foreign Transaction Fees

• Lounge Access (More details below)

• Elite Status with Car Rental Companies and Hotels (More details below)

• Fine Hotels and Resorts Program

• Shoprunner Membership

• Additional Authorized Card members:

  • You can add up to 3 total authorized users on your American Express Platinum Card

  • You can add an Authorized Gold Card User for free with American Express Platinum

  • You can add an Authorized Platinum Card User with a $175 additional annual fee per Platinum authorized user.

Annual Fee: $695

• American Express Platinum has one of the highest annual fees in the publicly available premium cards market. The other options include Chase Sapphire Reserve and Capital One Venture X having lower annual fees than Platinum. The platinum card does come with a plethora of credits but a lot of them may not provide any value to a lot of the users.

Major Credits

$200 Uber Credits

• American Express provides you with $15 each month from January through November and $20 in December in Uber Cash, totaling up to $200 each year.

• These credits can be used for Uber AND Uber Eats. You need to add your American Express Platinum card to your uber wallet to be able to receive these credits.

$240 Entertainment Credit

• Get up to $20 each month when you pay your monthly subscription fees for select streaming and subscription services with your Amex Platinum Card.

• The select services include the following:

  • Disney+: Purchases made directly on disneyplus.com (includes Disney+ bundle)

  • Hulu: Purchases made directly on hulu.com (includes add ons like ShowTime, HBO Max etc. as long as they are added through Hulu subscription)

  • ESPN+: Purchases made directly on plus.espn.com

  • Peacock: Purchase made directly on peacocktv.com

  • The New York Times: Purchase made directly on nytimes.com/subscription

  • Audible: Purchase made directly on audible.com

  • SiriusXM: Purchase made directly on siriusxm.com, their phone order or direct mail service

• You MUST enroll your card through App or Website to be able to receive these credits

$200 Hotel Credits

• Get $200 each year upon booking hotels participating in American Express’s Fine Hotels and Resorts or The Hotel Collection program through AmexTravel.com and make payment with your Platinum card.

• For the Hotel Collection, in order to get these credits, the minimum length of stay has to be 2 nights or more.

$200 Airline Incidentals Credits

• Each year, you have to select one airline to get the credits for, and after that, you can receive up to $200 every year when incidental fees are charged by your selected airline.

• Once you select the airline, it cannot be changed for the rest of the year.

• This is incidental fee credit, airfare does not qualify for this credit. Purchases like lounge access, checked bag fees, in-flight food-beverage-wifi purchases, etc. qualify.

$155 Walmart+ Credit

• American Express Platinum provides you with monthly statement credit when you pay for your Walmart+ subscription monthly with your Platinum card.

• Walmart+ subscription charges have to be monthly in order to get these credits, annual subscription does not qualify.

• Walmart+ is an answer from Walmart to Amazon Prime. It comes with discounted Gas prices at Walmart, Murphy, and Exxon-Mobil gas stations.

$189 CLEAR Credit

• Get $189 as a statement credit after you pay for the annual membership for CLEAR with your Platinum card.

• CLEAR provides expedited access to security checks at select airports and stadiums by using their biometric technology to assign you a Touchless ID

• You get discounted CLEAR membership with your United and Delta membership and add an extra user to fully utilize the $189 credit if you decide to get the discounted rate.

$100 Saks Credit

• Get up to $100 annually in statement credits when you make a purchase at Saks Fifth Ave or saks.com. You get $50 in credit from January to June and the other $50 from July to December.

• You need to enroll to get this benefit on the AMEX website or app.

Elite Status

Car Rental Companies:

• American Express Platinum gets you elite status at various car rental companies. The car rental elite status gets you nice perks like upgrades, discounted rates, etc. To optimize your experience, check out more details on the rental car website through the links provided below.

  • Avis: Avis Preferred

  • Hertz: Hertz Gold Plus Rewards

  • National: National Car Rental® Emerald Club

Hotels:

• American Express Platinum also provides you with elite status with 2 of the leading hotel chains which can help elevate the experience for your future stay when booked directly with those hotels. Enrollment is required.

  • Marriott Gold Status

  • Hilton Gold Status

Lounge Access

• American Express Platinum is considered one the best card providing you with comprehensive lounge access at various airports across the globe.

• The Platinum card provides you access to American Express Centurion Lounges at airports

• The American Express Platinum also gets you access to Delta Sky Club Lounges when you are flying Delta.

• Amex Platinum provides you with Priority Pass Select Membership getting you access to lounges across the globe. The membership with Platinum excludes restaurants participating in Priority Pass program.

• You get access to the Plaza Premium Lounge network

• Amex Platinum also gets you access to the Escape lounges

• Platinum card gets you access to Airspace Lounges

• Lufthansa has partnered with American Express to get you access to select Lufthansa lounges when you fly an airline owned by the Lufthansa group.

• You can check lounges accessible to you through the American Express mobile application and plan accordingly and avoid surprises.

Other Benefits

Travel Protection:

• Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance:

  • Up to $10,000 per covered trip for covered reasons when you purchase your travel using an American Express Platinum card and up to $20,000 total in a 12-months consecutive period per card.

• Trip Delay Reimbursement:

  • Up to $500.00 for each covered trip, for reasonable additional expenses incurred when a Covered Trip You purchased with Your eligible Account and/or rewards program associated with Your covered Account, is delayed for more than 6 hours, or requires an overnight stay.

• Primary Rental Car Collision Damage Waiver:

  • Up to $75,000 secondary coverage for your rental car in the event of it being damaged in a collision or getting stolen when you pay for the rental with Capital One Venture X

• Lost Luggage Reimbursement:

  • Up to $3,000.00 per Covered Trip (for New York residents, coverage is limited to $2,000.00 per bag), provided the Checked Luggage and/or Carry-on Baggage and/or its contents were lost due to theft or misdirection by the Common Carrier.

Purchase Protection:

• Purchase Protection:

  • Up to $10,000 per claim and Up to $50,000 per account when an item purchased with Venture X is damaged or stolen within 90 days.

• Extended Warranty:

  • Additional 1-year warranty for items having manufacturer warranty of 3 years or less

• Return Protection:

  • If unsatisfied with an item purchased within 90 days from the date of purchase, and the retailer will not accept a return, You can be reimbursed for the purchase price, up to $300.00 per item of personal property, and an annual maximum of $1,000.00, per Account.

• Cell Phone Protection:

  • Every time you pay your bill with your Platinum card. If your cellphone is stolen or damaged, you’ll get reimbursed up to $800.

Point Redemption

• Membership rewards points can be redeemed for travel through AmexTravel

• You can redeem points on Amazon

• You can redeem points on Apple, Bose, and other participating retailers

• You can redeem points on statement credits for eligible purchases

• Membership Rewards points can also be used to purchase gift cards.

• You get the maximum value by transferring your points to partners.

  • Aer Lingus: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Aeromexico: 1,000 points = 1,600 miles

  • Air Canada Aeroplan: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Air France-KLM Flying Blue: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Alitalia: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • ANA Mileage Club: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Asia Miles: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Avianca: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • British Airways: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Delta SkyMiles: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Emirates: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Etihad Airways: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Hawaiian Airlines: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Iberia: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • JetBlue: 250 points = 200 miles

  • Qantas: 500 points = 500 miles

  • Singapore Airlines: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Virgin Atlantic: 1,000 points = 1,000 miles

  • Choice Privileges: 1,000 points = 1,000 hotel points

  • Hilton Honors: 1,000 points = 2,000 hotel points

  • Marriott Bonvoy: 1,000 points = 1,000 hotel points

Bottom Line

American Express Platinum is a card that comes with a host of benefits and perks which can truly elevate your travel experience and this card would be ideal for you if you travel a lot and purchase your tickets mostly directly with airlines with its 5X mileage multiplier. The card also usually provided one of the highest signup bonuses.

Given the hefty annual fee and extreme length one may need to go to, to offset the annual fees, this card may not be the right card for a lot of folks. American Express is also changing the Centurion Lounge guest policy in near future. The card is basically like a coupon book where you need to get your annual fees by performing certain activities at various places and it may not be taken at the face value of those credits as those credits may not mean much to you.

For example, I would value Equinox and SoulCycle credits at 0 as I am never going to use them while giving CLEAR the value of about $75 as it is not available at all airports and as I do already have TSA PreCheck, it doesn’t add that much value. With Platinum, some credits may work for you while the others do not and the card does require quite a commitment.

Personally, I do have this card but I do not see myself keeping this one for too long as it has been becoming harder and harder to justify the large annual fees and the work I need to do to get the value back. Centurion Lounges lately have become extremely crowded and worse than a fish market hence resulting in reducing their appeal for me personally.

Amex Platinum is the most expensive of 2 other similar cards in this category, the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Capital One Venture X card.

You can read more about my credit card strategy for Summer 2022 here.