Just a few things you should know that may put you off from getting an Amex Platinum card. It’s a personal card, so it will add to your */24 count with Chase, but you’ve been sticking to biz cards and your count was low to begin with (and I think a card or two may have dropped off since you started). The personal Platinum cards also carry a $550 annual fee.
So why do we get this card?!
Well, if you’re completely new to Amex, they tend to target new customers with a 100k Membership Rewards Points offer after spending $5k in 3 months. This is what we call the Platicorn. The only way to get this offer is to be targeted by Amex via their website, mailer, or on Cardmatch. (And since Amex SUBs are generally once per card product per lifetime, you’ll want to always try to apply only for the highest and best offers.) However, don’t try to tempt this offer until you’re ready to apply because if you somehow manage to pull it up and don’t apply right then and there, you may never see the Platicorn offer again.
So what is 100k MR worth? Amex’s Membership Rewards points are a lot harder to understand and place a value on than Chase’s Ultimate Rewards points. A MR point is worth only 0.6 cents as a statement credit, 0.7 cents on
Amazon, about 0.8 cents when booking hotels through Amex Travel, 1 cents when booking flights through Amex Travel and select hotels through the Fine Hotels & Resorts programs, and 1.25 cents if you later get an Amex Charles Schwab Platinum card and cash out to a Charles Schwab account. We never advise spending MR points at less than 1 cent per point value. So, a 100k MR SUB should be worth no less than $1,000.
Amex MR is a transferrable currency like Chase UR. Amex has their own group of airline and hotel transfer partners to which you can transfer MR to the airline or hotel’s miles or points. So diversifying your points with Amex MR, in addition to Chase UR, gives you access to more options in airlines and hotels to get where you want to go. Amex also runs transfer bonuses to many of their partners a lot more frequently than Chase, so a 25% transfer bonus would be if you transferred 1,000 MR to an airline that typically transfers 1:1, the bonus would result in 1,250 miles. Remember I said MRs transfer to VS? Amex MRs also transfer to ANA (although you can’t really combine miles from the two airlines to buy one ticket, but you could transfer MR points from Amex to VS if you’re short UR points from Chase to VS). Partner transfers are where you can get outsized value from your points and Amex has some really good airline partners (not so much with their hotel partners). By comparison, travel portals like the Chase UR portal or Amex Travel will use your points at a fixed redemption rate and you can’t extract more value out of that.
If the AF on the card is $550 and the SUB is worth $1,000, that’s pretty good, but that $1,000 is in the form of points that aren’t easily cashed out and you may not have an immediate redemption in mind. How else can you justify the high AF?
The Amex Platinum includes a $200/calendar year airline credit that can be used for incidental fees, like seat upgrades, baggage fees, in-flight amenities, etc. You need to “select” your airline to use the credit on. It used to pretty easy to spend this credit on gift cards, but Amex put a stop to that a month or two ago. It’s still possible to buy cheap flights on certain airlines and get credited that way. Or you can use the credit like it was intended for on incidental fees. The thing about this $200 airline credit is it’s a calendar year benefit, so you can double dip, and potentially triple dip the credit if you time your application right. This means you can get $400-$600 worth of airline fee credits by paying just one $550 AF.
There’s also a $100 Saks 5th Avenue credit that’s divvied up $50 in January-June and $50 in July-December. I’m not a Saks kinda guy, but you can usually find cosmetics at Saks for the same price you’d find at Macy’s or anywhere else. I bought a nice S’well water bottle with one semi-annual credit, some Christmas presents for my niece and nephew with another credit, and I used this semi-annual credit towards a really nice Miyabi chef’s knife. I always stack the credit with other promo codes and high shopping portal (Ebates/Rakuten) payouts to maximize value.
And there’s the $200 Uber credit, divvied up $15/month and $30 in December. If you use Uber, at home or on vacation, this is a nice savings. If you don’t use Uber, you can use it towards a meal delivered or for pick up via Uber Eats. Always stack with discount codes and pick up if you can to minimize fees.
A lot of people don’t value these credits at exactly face value, since Amex makes them hard to use and you may find yourself spending money you otherwise wouldn’t have spent to get the value out of those credits. It’s up to you how you want to assign value to these benefits and weigh it against the $550 AF.
The Platinum card is definitely a perks card. My favorite perk is access to the Centurion Lounge. We fly out of SFO (moreso now with travel hacking) and often fly United in Terminal 3 (where the Centurion Lounge is), so it’s super convenient for us to grab a hot meal, coffee, tea, water, fruits and cookies on our way out. I only travel with my family these days, so no drinking — but the SFO Lounge has a nice bar and good selection of wine gratis. Thing is, the popularity of travel hacking and general affluence of the Bay Area means a lot of people have the Platinum card and the Centurion Lounge can get pretty crowded depending on time of day. Amex has restricted entry to 3 hours prior to departure, and requires an outbound boarding pass (no dropping in on your return flight). A Platinum cardmember is allowed only 2 guests.
The Platinum also gets you complimentary Gold status with Hilton and Marriott, which may get you some room upgrades and late checkout, and additional bonus points on your stay if you pay for any of it in cash. At Hilton, Gold status gets you free breakfast too.
Beyond MSR, the Platinum has a very poor base rate of earning only 1x MR on most spend. It earns a 5x MR bonus on flights and fees made directly with an airline, and on Fine Hotels & Resorts, but how often are you buying airplane tickets or booking fancy resorts in cash? And that’s the difficulty with this card, because you may have heard about the Amex RAT (Rewards Abuse Team). The prevailing theory is if you open a card and don’t put ongoing and consistent spend on it after meeting MSR and getting the big SUB, then the RATs may flag you as a “gamer” and give you the pop up on subsequent applications for new cards. But the Platinum’s poor bonus structure makes it a hard card to want to keep spending on.
One more thing, and I’ll end on a positive note, all Amex cards including the Platinum, get Amex Offers, and these are usually spend $xxx, get $xx back or xxxx MR. Some of these offers are actually really good for saving money on Disney Gift Cards and other things you may buy or use!
