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American Express recently increased the annual fee for its Platinum Travel Reward Card from $ 550 to a whopping $ 695. It’s certainly an illuminating number, but it could actually be worth it – provided you take advantage of the generous bank statement credits, which can easily wipe out the fee. Here’s a look at the credits and rewards the card offers and how you can find out if they’ll work for you.
Amex Platinum is best suited for frequent travelers
The rewards and perks this card offers are only worthwhile if you are already spending a lot of money on travel expenses and appreciate perks that make you feel like a big hit when you travel. If the scope of your annual travel is a domestic flight for the holidays, the card is not for you. However, in terms of reward multipliers, it’s pretty solid:
- Deserve 5 Membership Rewards points (valued at about 0.5 to 1 cent each) for every dollar spent on flights and hotels
- Deserve 1 point per dollar with all other purchases.
- Deserve 10 points per dollar Spend up to $ 25,000 in the first 6 months with Eligible Small Businesses.
You can also get a very good welcome bonus totaling 100,000 points (up from 75,000 a few weeks ago) if you use the card to spend $ 6,000 – a value of $ 1,000 – within the first six months of receiving the card. But that’s a lot of expenses that are not always achievable, so we won’t include them in our assessment.
The perks are worth the annual fee, but only if you take advantage of them
While the annual fee is high even for a premium card, Amex has introduced additional credits in addition to the price increase:
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- $ 200 Hotel credit for Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection Immobilien when booking via the American Express portal.
- $ 179 credit For a Delete membership (a fast-track program for airports).
- $ 240 Credit ($ 20 per month) for purchases or subscriptions to Audible, The New York Times, SiriusXM, and Peacock.
- $ 300 Credit for Equinox Fitness Memberships, including the On Demand Fitness App.
This is in addition to the existing credits and perks:
- $ 200 Credit from the airline
- $ 200 annually in Uber Cash
- $ 100 Credit towards a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee
- $ 100 Saks Fifth Avenue credit
- Access to global lounges such as the Amex Centurion Lounge and Delta SkyClubs (on Delta flights on the same day).
- Automatic upgrades in selected hotels
The dollar value of all of these credits is over $ 1,500, which means you can cover the annual fee with relative ease, even if you don’t use all of them.
Bottom line
The AmEx Platinum card can be worth the fee, but you’ll want to wonder what perks you really need. Not everyone is looking for a gym membership or subscription to the New York Times, and the travel credits aren’t worth much if you only spend a few hundred dollars on travel each year.
Also, before going for this card, make sure you do your research. Check out other, cheaper reward cards, as the combination of rewards and statements may better suit your spending. To help you with your shopping, check out this CNN article about good alternatives to the Amex Platinum card.
