Amex Platinum Card Review: Luxury Travel Perks

The Amex Platinum Card comes with a lot of perks but also a hefty $695 annual fee. While the card may not be for everyone it’s still worth considering if you can make use of credits and lucrative transfer partners.

Sign-up Bonus and Fees

The current public welcome offer for the Amex Platinum Card is 80,000 Membership Rewards (MR) points after spending $8,000 in the first 8 months.

The annual fee is NOT cheap at $695. On top of that, Amex recently increased their fees for authorized users (AU) to $195 per AU. Alternatively, you could add a Platinum Companion Card for $0 although the perks are much more limited than the standard AU.

There is no foreign transaction fee so you can use the Amex Platinum Card anywhere in the world where Amex is accepted.

Bonus Category Spending

The Amex Platinum Card earns the following rewards:

• 5X MR points on flights and prepaid hotels on Amex Travel
• 1X MR points on everything else

These aren’t the best multipliers but I do try to put most of my airline spending on this card if it makes sense. I don’t normally use this card for hotel stays since it needs to be booked through Amex’s travel portal to get the 5X points. The only time I consider booking hotels is when I have to utilize the $200 hotel credit (more on that below).

Access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection

Frequently flying from SEA and SFO, I tend to utilize The Centurion Lounge and Priority Pass Select benefits the most. The Centurion Lounge is the reason I pay $195 to keep my husband as an AU. Unless you spend $75,000 annually on your Platinum Card, you don’t get complimentary access for guests. The only way to bring another person inside the lounge is to either make sure they have their own card or pay $50 per visit (or $30 for kids).

While I wouldn’t value each visit as $50 per person, it is nice to refresh before boarding. We frequent airports with these lounges enough to make the $195 AU fee worth it (for now). As with all of the other credits, you should be evaluating your use and prospective spending habits every year before your card renews to make sure it’s still worth keeping around.

Credits

The Amex Platinum Card has become somewhat of a travel coupon book with the available following credits:

• $240 digital entertainment credit as a monthly statement credit on select services (Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, SiriusXM, and The Wall Street Journal)
• $200 airline incidental fee credit on one qualifying airline
• Walmart+ monthly membership credit ($12.95 + sales tax) – includes Paramount+
• $200 hotel credit on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts^® or The Hotel Collection reservations booked through Amex Travel
• $200 Uber Cash distributed directly into your Uber account monthly – for Uber ride and Uber Eats
• $100 Saks Fifth Avenue yearly credit ($50 credit on a semi-annual basis)
• $189 CLEAR Plus membership credit
• $100 TSA PreCheck / Global Entry fee credit every 4.5 years – even for AUs and Platinum Companion Cards

This is where I get most of my value from the Platinum Card. Based on the monetary value of the credits ($1309) alone, I offset the AF ($695) by $614!

How I Use The Credits

For the airlines incidental fee credit, you need to choose one domestic airlines carrier. I chose Alaska Airlines despite having elite airline status because I still find value in using the incidental fee credit. I use the credit for things like pet fees (usually $100 per flight) or for my husband’s in-flight alcoholic beverages. If you’re not elite with any particular airlines, this credit may be helpful for things like checked baggage fees. Make sure you select your preferred airline by January each year, you cannot change this until the clock resets the following year.

The $200 hotel credit is what makes me use the travel portal instead of booking directly with the hotel for some stays. Most of the time, booking through a travel portal does not provide you with extra benefits and precludes the hotel from honoring your loyalty status to their brand. This is not the case with (most) Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings, where you have many additional benefits when you book a 1-2 night stay. Through this, I’ve utilized late check out, free breakfast, complimentary upgrades, and dining credits. My Marriott loyalty status was also honored at select hotels (usually the higher end ones).

While AUs can help the primary card holder spend towards a specific bonus or credit, there are no duplicate credits for each AU except for the TSA PreCheck / Global Entry fee credit. I added my husband as an AU primarily for access to the Centurion Lounge, otherwise it would be an extra $50 per visit to the lounge visit. Before doing this, consider your travel habits and if it makes sense to pay an extra $195 each year. Platinum Companion Card members still get the TSA PreCheck / Global Entry fee credit.

Other Benefits

• ShopRunner membership (free 2-day shipping with select merchants)
• Purchase and Return Protections – provides peace of mind for large purchases
• Trip and Baggage Insurances
• Premium car rental privileges

Additionally, there’s the $300 Equinox credit, Marriott and Hilton Gold Status (I’m already a Marriott Platinum member), cell phone protection, secondary car rental insurance, and global dining access by Resy.

Amex Offers

Amex Offers is available for all Amex cards and is a great way to earn additional cash back or MR points. These offers provide  cash back as a statement credit or additional MR points when you spend within the offer parameters. Like everything with credit cards, make sure to read the terms and conditions of the offer as some of them can be somewhat specific.

Online Shopping Portal

This is another perk for anyone that has an Amex card earning MR points. Rakuten is an online shopping portal where you can receive cash back on your online (and select in-store) purchases. You must shop either from the link on Rakuten‘s website or install the browser extension which needs to be activated before making your purchase. You can redeem your cash back for Amex MR points which is automatically deposited into your account on a quarterly basis.

How I Redeem MR Points

There are many ways to redeem MR points but the only one that I would truly consider. The best way to use your hard-earned points is to transfer them out to one of Amex’s impressive list of travel partners for flights and hotels. Be aware that some transfers are instantaneous, but some may take up to 3 days. For example, my first point transfer was to Singapore Airlines which took less than 24 hours. If you’re getting at least 2 cents per point (cpp) on your redemptions, that is a deal worth taking. Note that this is different from redeeming points directly on Amex Travel. While there are occasionally good deals on Amex Travel, I suggest paying cash using the Platinum Card so that you get 5X MR points along with the included travel insurances and protections.

Bottom Line

The Amex Platinum Card has easily become my favorite travel card for luxurious travel. I’m able to utilize a majority of the credits on purchases I would have been making. I highly value the lounge benefits as well. And while it’s not an everyday-use card, it could be lucrative depending on your lifestyle, spending, and travel habits. Carefully evaluate whether the credits and benefits would be useful in the upcoming year and repeat this on an annual basis. What are your thoughts on the benefits compared to the annual fee of the Amex Platinum Card?