Amex Platinum: Is it still worth it?

[RookieInvestor]

Hello,
There has been multiple long threads on this topic but hard to find a single concise link or post that details all possible cash back options, rebates, credits or incentives of signing up for Amex Platinum paying $695. I found myself needing to go thru 600-700 pages of a thread to read each and every response to get a gist. Gave up trying
Why I ask. I just renewed, keeping in mind some travels we need to do as a family in 2025. 2024 was a waste for me.
$200 hotel credit is useless since it binds you in booking thru Amex travel and for fine resorts/home collections group of hotels ( Pricey, even more than the retail).
The only things that I have found useful are:$200 airline credits, free access to lounges, monthly bills for peacock & Hulu/Disney, $15 uber monthly cash, occasional discounts/rebates on various merchants. Anything else?
I am debating if I keep it on or cancel the renewal.
Thank you

[rich126]

Hello,
There has been multiple long threads on this topic but hard to find a single concise link or post that details all possible cash back options, rebates, credits or incentives of signing up for Amex Platinum paying $695. I found myself needing to go thru 600-700 pages of a thread to read each and every response to get a gist. Gave up trying
Why I ask. I just renewed, keeping in mind some travels we need to do as a family in 2025. 2024 was a waste for me.
$200 hotel credit is useless since it binds you in booking thru Amex travel and for fine resorts/home collections group of hotels ( Pricey, even more than the retail).
The only things that I have found useful are:$200 airline credits, free access to lounges, monthly bills for peacock & Hulu/Disney, $15 uber monthly cash, occasional discounts/rebates on various merchants. Anything else?
I am debating if I keep it on or cancel the renewal.
Thank you

All of the info is on Amex Platinum web page of benefits after you log in. It isn't as hard as you make it. Asking others is kind of pointless since their interests/travel/etc. is likely not to be the same as your.

[giddyup969]

Hello,
There has been multiple long threads on this topic but hard to find a single concise link or post that details all possible cash back options, rebates, credits or incentives of signing up for Amex Platinum paying $695. I found myself needing to go thru 600-700 pages of a thread to read each and every response to get a gist. Gave up trying
Why I ask. I just renewed, keeping in mind some travels we need to do as a family in 2025. 2024 was a waste for me.
$200 hotel credit is useless since it binds you in booking thru Amex travel and for fine resorts/home collections group of hotels ( Pricey, even more than the retail).
The only things that I have found useful are:$200 airline credits, free access to lounges, monthly bills for peacock & Hulu/Disney, $15 uber monthly cash, occasional discounts/rebates on various merchants. Anything else?
I am debating if I keep it on or cancel the renewal.
Thank you

It is a coupon book. I don't use it for regular spending. I will cancel when I am getting less than the annual fees worth in rebates.

[rob]

When I was 100% travel for work and charging company expenses to personal cards and using airports that had newer Amex lounges, it was worth it. Now I'm not traveling every week, it's not worth the cost to me and I'd struggle to see how it would work for most people. The other lounges are terrible in my experience so the affiliated lounge access at airport with no Amex lounge was worse than a lot of general wait areas.

You need to see how it fits your specific spending pattern but also be warned that there are reports of a lot of full waits at Amex lounges now. There are also time restrictions,spending hurdles and stuff like no access on arrival that makes lounges less useful than ever.

[MtnTravel]

Let me address the lounge situation first...

Many Centurion lounges now have waitlists to get in. I''ve read that it can be 20-45 minutes at DEN, and unless you are flying out of the C concourse, it's a hassle to get to. Unless you have a very long layover, and go at a non-peak time (not sure when that is anymore), lounge access isn't worth it.

If you fly Delta a lot it can be nice to get SkyClub access, but they are clamping down on that too due to overcrowding.

I've found Priority Pass to be "so-so" in the US. Since so many cards offer PP benefits now, they too get overcrowded. International lounges tend to be a bit better, but there are cheaper and better cards that offer PP benefits if you really need them.

The coupon book arrangement is a genius way to sell these cards to people. Amex pays bloggers and influencers to promote the card and write articles about offsetting the annual fee, how much value they get out of it, etc. People then spend money they wouldn't otherwise spend to "offset" the $700/year they are paying for the card. Would anyone actually shop at Saks but for the Amex credit?

The Amex Platinum is a very niche product. It's great for a frequent flyer (especially one who flies Delta) that gets to charge all of their flights to the card and gets reimbursed. You can rack up tons of points that way with someone else's money. But for every day spending? There are so many other cards that are better.

[slyfox1357]

$20/month <-> $240/year - Entertainment Credit: Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, and The Wall Street Journal
$200/year - Airline Fee Credit: You can use this to bank flight dollars at a few different airlines (IYKYK). Have done this for 10 years
$200/year - Uber / Uber Eats Credit
$50 Bi-Yearly <-> $100 year - Saks credit
$14.08/month - Walmart Plus Membership

Membership value easily returned with just these five universally applicable benefits.

Not a coupon book (Saks credit is the only thing that resembles a 'coupon book' credit', but that's a stretch since you just buy two items for $50 each which you'll need ANYWAY... using the credits, EASILY done).

Many other benefits are not mentioned - $200 Hotel Credit, AMEX Lounges, $199 Clear Credit, Global Entry/TSA Credit, several times a year they offer credits for insurance payment, phone / cable bill payments, etc....upwards of a $100 a year.

....and the list goes on and on

[afan]

Schwab has a program that will pay you annually if you have enough assets there. If you have a large enough balance, then the payment can be more than the annual fee on the card. Of course, people who can meet the balance requirements may not care that much about squeezing every discount out of the coupon book.

As others have said, the card works best for people who do a lot of travel.

[McDougal]

Schwab has a program that will pay you annually if you have enough assets there. If you have a large enough balance, then the payment can be more than the annual fee on the card. Of course, people who can meet the balance requirements may not care that much about squeezing every discount out of the coupon book.

As others have said, the card works best for people who do a lot of travel.

I have the Schwab Amex Plat. I thought you’d receive a $100 annual statement credit if Schwab holdings are $250,000 or more, or $200 if they're $1 million or more. Is there really a tier that covers the whole annual fee?

[EnjoyIt]

I travel about 10-15 times a year. I have the Amex Platinum from Schwab which costs me $495 because I have some cash there.

$200 travel credit works great if you can use it. I have found ways to use it so it is worth it.
$200 Hotel Credit is a total waste. I never am able to find a reasonable way to use it that makes it worth it.
$50 x2 Sak's credit is a waste. Just buying crap I don't really need.
I don't care about Hulu, wall street journal, Disney or whatever.
Uber Credit I get some use out of. Not 100% of the months but probably get about $80-$85 worth.
Lounge Access is nice, but waiting on line does happen and is kind of annoying.
Clear Credit is a waste also as I often find the pre-check line faster than the clear line. The times Clear wins, it doesn't by very much. I sure as heck would not pay $200 for that.

A nice benefit I get from the card is 5x on airline purchases which I value at about 1.3 cents per point when I send them over to my airline of choice. I know I can do better, but that takes an effort I am not willing to put in. Compared to a fee free card, I am probably getting an additional 2-3 cents cash back using this card. I spend about $10k a year on flights every year. Making that worth $200-$300 a year.

If I add it up, it looks like I get $480-$580 in value from this card, plus lounge access for a card I am paying $450 for. Seams worth it. I will be honest though, since I now almost exclusively fly delta and have the delta reserve card as well, the Amex card is losing its luster. If I ever move my cash out of Schwab, it will definitely have me canceling the card as well.

OP, how does your math pan out?

[EnjoyIt]

Schwab has a program that will pay you annually if you have enough assets there. If you have a large enough balance, then the payment can be more than the annual fee on the card. Of course, people who can meet the balance requirements may not care that much about squeezing every discount out of the coupon book.

As others have said, the card works best for people who do a lot of travel.

I have the Schwab Amex Plat. I thought you’d receive a $100 annual statement credit if Schwab holdings are $250,000 or more, or $200 if they're $1 million or more. Is there really a tier that covers the whole annual fee?

I have $1 million+ at Schwab. If there is another tier, I want to know as well.

Edit: So I looked it up and here is the benefits to a Schwab investor from their website.

You can receive: (1) a $100 Card statement credit if your qualifying Schwab holdings are equal to or greater than $250,000 and less than $1,000,000; (2) a $200 Card statement credit if your qualifying Schwab holdings are equal to or greater than $1,000,000 and less than $10,000,000; or (3) a $1,000 Card statement credit if your qualifying Schwab holdings are equal to or greater than $10,000,000, in each case when measured following Card account approval and annually thereafter. Terms and limitations apply.‡

[EnjoyIt]

One more thought. In my opinion, if you travel a lot and value lounge service, consider getting the card associated with the airline you use. Centurion lounges are usually a hike from your gate making it at times annoying and time consuming to use. While airline specific lounges are usually within a reasonable distance from the gate. It get's even worse if you are trying to use a priority pass. Also, if you want to bring a guest, you will have to pay at a Centurion lounge. That may not be the case depending on which airline lounge you use/fly with. Those lounges may or may not be as good as the Centurion. It all depends who you fly with and where you are flying.

[MtnTravel]

Membership value easily returned with just these five universally applicable benefits.

I don't think they are necessarily universally applicable.

Some of the credits require work. Uber is fine if you are already taking Ubers monthly, but how many people are really doing that? Sure, you can use it for food pickup, but prices are often higher and it's a bit more of a hassle. The $200 airline credit requires some work and there's no guarantee it'll code correctly.

I have Max and Netflix and do the $1 for 4 weeks NYT deals they constantly offer, so that digital subscription credit would be useless to me.

So aside from just getting back money you may already plan to spend, what other benefits are there to having the card over a standard cash back card or the Venture X or the Sapphire cards? Lounge access isn't great when you have long waits to get in and can't find a place to sit, and the CLEAR lines at the airport are often longer than regular PreCheck because everyone has it now.

Unless you spend a LOT on airfare, and can actually use MR points, I don't see what the benefit is of having the Platinum. The insurance isn't as good, the credits require more work to use, the transfer partners are limited, etc. There are seemingly much better options for travel cards from Cap One and Chase.

[HooCares]

IMO it’s really only worth it if you book a lot of paid flights. Otherwise there are better options out there that don’t cost $695 and require you to do backflips to recoup it.

If you want lounge access it makes the most sense to get the airline affinity card that offers lounge membership as most frequent flyers fly the same airline and you’re almost always going to have access in your terminal to the United/American/Delta clubs.

[Cruise]

OP, as I’ve detailed before, if you use FHR hotels (and find equivalent rates) and use IAP benefits (lesser rates), the card pays for itself many times over.

[rob]

Membership value easily returned with just these five universally applicable benefits.

I don't think they are necessarily universally applicable.

Some of the credits require work. Uber is fine if you are already taking Ubers monthly, but how many people are really doing that? Sure, you can use it for food pickup, but prices are often higher and it's a bit more of a hassle. The $200 airline credit requires some work and there's no guarantee it'll code correctly.

I have Max and Netflix and do the $1 for 4 weeks NYT deals they constantly offer, so that digital subscription credit would be useless to me.

So aside from just getting back money you may already plan to spend, what other benefits are there to having the card over a standard cash back card or the Venture X or the Sapphire cards? Lounge access isn't great when you have long waits to get in and can't find a place to sit, and the CLEAR lines at the airport are often longer than regular PreCheck because everyone has it now.

Unless you spend a LOT on airfare, and can actually use MR points, I don't see what the benefit is of having the Platinum. The insurance isn't as good, the credits require more work to use, the transfer partners are limited, etc. There are seemingly much better options for travel cards from Cap One and Chase.

Agreed - I have little use for those 5 also. It's structured to make it harder for most people... eg. I would easily use $200/yr in uber BUT IIRC it's actually $15/month with no carry over. When traveling every week, it was easy to use that per month (and in paid back corporate expenses, so it came straight off my annual cost rather than an expense cut for personal travel).

The final straw for me was them flipping from American to Delta club access... The mix of Amex & Admiral clubs was workable but I didn't also have Delta status, so just gave up.

Edit: You now also need your spouse to have an additional card or else pay the extra cost, so that adds a few hundred or more if you pay per visit on the cost (you might be able to avoid that fee if you spend a crap load on the card each year).

[Mayacallie]

I’ve had the Platinum through Schwab for a year. Here are the options I’ve used:
$200 Hotel credit for Marriott. Including upgraded stay each time including breakfast and late check out.
WSJ subscription - up to $200
Uber credits $200/year
United flight credits $200/year
Saks $100 credit
At least 20 meals and twice as many beers and wines
On top of it all, Schwab refunds me $1000/ year to have their card.
My mistake was not getting it sooner when my Schwab rep. Mentioned it.

[blaugranamd]

I am giving it up. We loved the lounges but over the last year or two Centriuon and Delta lounges have started charging $50-60/per kid to come in. Bummer cause Centurion has nice little rooms for kids but I'm not paying $120 for my kids to eat cheese and crackers and watch Disney+ on a TV for a few hours.

We did once because we had a huge delay in Dallas and the place was so crowded we couldn't sit anywhere. I'd rather just pay for food and have my own table at a restaurant.

[yatesd]

I travel about 10-15 times a year. I have the Amex Platinum from Schwab which costs me $495 because I have some cash there.

$200 travel credit works great if you can use it. I have found ways to use it so it is worth it.
$200 Hotel Credit is a total waste. I never am able to find a reasonable way to use it that makes it worth it.
$50 x2 Sak's credit is a waste. Just buying crap I don't really need.
I don't care about Hulu, wall street journal, Disney or whatever.
Uber Credit I get some use out of. Not 100% of the months but probably get about $80-$85 worth.
Lounge Access is nice, but waiting on line does happen and is kind of annoying.
Clear Credit is a waste also as I often find the pre-check line faster than the clear line. The times Clear wins, it doesn't by very much. I sure as heck would not pay $200 for that.

A nice benefit I get from the card is 5x on airline purchases which I value at about 1.3 cents per point when I send them over to my airline of choice. I know I can do better, but that takes an effort I am not willing to put in. Compared to a fee free card, I am probably getting an additional 2-3 cents cash back using this card. I spend about $10k a year on flights every year. Making that worth $200-$300 a year.

If I add it up, it looks like I get $480-$580 in value from this card, plus lounge access for a card I am paying $450 for. Seams worth it. I will be honest though, since I now almost exclusively fly delta and have the delta reserve card as well, the Amex card is losing its luster. If I ever move my cash out of Schwab, it will definitely have me canceling the card as well.

OP, how does your math pan out?

This closely aligns with my experience.
$200 credit back from Schwab
$200 airline credit (only hassle is choosing airline in January)
I personally enjoy the $200 hotel credit (unique hotels, best for a 1 night getaway, did DC last year),
Saks credit isn't quite as good as it once was now that they raised the free shipping threshold, however I select sale items between $50 - $150 in value, I usually end up with a great deal on fancy wine or bourbon glassware.
Streaming- Disney, Paramount, WSJ, I save $240 per year
Clear credit
Used the global entry this year, $120
Uber- Tip, use it for Uber Eats. I generally use it for Chipotle since they don't mark it up. I get free Chipotle at least once a month thanks to Amex.
I am already Lifetime Platinum on Marriott, but I like having Gold status on Hilton and status with most of the car rentals.
Walmart+ great benefit, save about $150 a year, and they offer their own coupons (had discounted Panera and Paramount, etc.)
Amex Offers, I add their coupons and save a few hundred dollars a year.

[smitcat]

I’ve had the Platinum through Schwab for a year. Here are the options I’ve used:
$200 Hotel credit for Marriott. Including upgraded stay each time including breakfast and late check out.
WSJ subscription - up to $200
Uber credits $200/year
United flight credits $200/year
Saks $100 credit
At least 20 meals and twice as many beers and wines
On top of it all, Schwab refunds me $1000/ year to have their card.
My mistake was not getting it sooner when my Schwab rep. Mentioned it.

Interesting - what is the Schwab requirement (total amount of funds) for a $1,000 annual bonus on the Amex Platinum card?

[Mayacallie]

10 m in total accounts gets the maximum- a $1000 credit

[smitcat]

10 m in total accounts gets the maximum- a $1000 credit

Thanks - really not applicable to most.

[8foot7]

Between the $200 airline credit — easily converts into gift cards or flight bank dollars with most programs even if it’s not explicitly advertised — and the $240 entertainment credit for Hulu it’s simple to knock $440 off the $695. The remaining $255 is either an unimaginably extravagant annual fee for a credit card or extremely reasonable if you travel and use the lounges or FHR. (If you Uber or a Uber eats once a month, that’s another $160 off.) There is unlikely to be a middle ground.

With our travels I easily get enough value just out of FHR to justify the $695. Everything else is gravy. Not difficult to make it work if you want to, but some people just immediately get turned off. Not sure why but it takes all kinds.

[smitcat]

Between the $200 airline credit — easily converts into gift cards or flight bank dollars with most programs even if it’s not explicitly advertised — and the $240 entertainment credit for Hulu it’s simple to knock $440 off the $695. The remaining $255 is either an unimaginably extravagant annual fee for a credit card or extremely reasonable if you travel and use the lounges or FHR. (If you Uber or a Uber eats once a month, that’s another $160 off.) There is unlikely to be a middle ground.

With our travels I easily get enough value just out of FHR to justify the $695. Everything else is gravy. Not difficult to make it work if you want to, but some people just immediately get turned off. Not sure why but it takes all kinds.

Our expereinces for the 2024 year were similar, something like this....
$200 airline
$200 Uber
$240 streaming
$277 "offers" mostly for pet food and cruises
$200 Hotel room
$575 "experiences" hotels ...food,spa,breakfast
$50 SAKS
Additional discounts/benifts come from a number of things like lounges and Walmart +. The one time we had to wait for a lounge they gave us a $50 credit instead.

[TheRoundHeadedKid]

Not worth it, even though I was traveling a lot for business and often used its airport lounges. I tried it for one year as a reward for paying off my mortgage. I cancelled it before the second year.

[mcraepat9]

Depends on how you view credit cards. I view Amex platinum as a plug and play card for a specific few limited uses.
I spend tens of thousands of dollars on flights every year and the points derived therefrom is pretty excellent.
I also already purchase most of the services that Amex platinum gives statement credit for, making the card free to me.
Lounge access is hit or miss, but I like the option.

Other than the specified credits and paid flights, I don't use my Amex platinum. But it is still profitable for me to have it in my wallet.

[Valhalla7]

On my first year with a vanilla platinum and love it. I didn’t know about the Schwab version when I took a SUB offer for the vanilla plat but will be switching at the end of this year so I can A) take advantage of the annual fee discount due to pre-existing holdings with Schwab but more importantly (to me) B) the option to transfer MR points to cash in my Roth IRA at a 1.1:1 rate.

I easily use all of the plat benefits with the exception of the fine hotel credit. But DW and I are hatching a plan to use it for our anniversary this year. I find that kind of stuff fun, hardly burdensome. Have also expanded my use of the AmEx family to the Biz Gold for a huge SUB. Will likely downgrade my vanilla plat to personal gold, take out Schwab plat and maybe get a Blue Business Preferred to maximize MR point generation across all spending categories.

[Mayacallie]

10 m in total accounts gets the maximum- a $1000 credit

Thanks - really not applicable to most.

There are account credits at various levels. I think $100 for $250000. $250 for a mil.

[smitcat]

Thanks - really not applicable to most.

There are account credits at various levels. I think $100 for $250000. $250 for a mil.

Yes - thank you. We were aware of that.

[goos_news]

We have benefitted from all that is mentioned above, for the most part, and usually come ahead. For us, it is not difficult using a couple of core benefits that are low effort. Some of it is just gravy (like Clear -- not always useful, as noted, but Global Entry I believe now guarantees Pre Check, and I've found a combo line is very effective at some airports).

A couple of things not mentioned:
* The International Air Fare program sometimes can return very good business fares, better than the airline offer and Google Flights. This is especially true on highly trafficked routes. The conditions are often more flexible as well.
* The Walmart+ sub does include Paramount+ plus the option to upgrade to At Home for $7. That provides tip-free delivery and the prices online are usually decent. I've tried the other programs and they weren't nearly as good.

What I don't like is the fact that offers have enrollment steps that can take several clicks and screens to complete. I've only used FHR once, but the rate was competitive and the extras outstanding.

[MtnTravel]

We have benefitted from all that is mentioned above, for the most part, and usually come ahead.

Even if you use the coupons to offset the annual fee, what's the point of just coming out ahead? Unless you're getting a lot of value out of MR points (which means you're spending lots on airfare), it seems like a 2% cash back card would more than come out ahead.

I'm certainly not saying that this card isn't great for the target demographic, but it seems that most people who have the platinum aren't really getting any benefit out of it.

[EnjoyIt]

We have benefitted from all that is mentioned above, for the most part, and usually come ahead.

Even if you use the coupons to offset the annual fee, what's the point of just coming out ahead? Unless you're getting a lot of value out of MR points (which means you're spending lots on airfare), it seems like a 2% cash back card would more than come out ahead.

I'm certainly not saying that this card isn't great for the target demographic, but it seems that most people who have the platinum aren't really getting any benefit out of it.

Some people believe that if the card is close to breaking even and they get lounge access, it is worth it.

[Invictus002]

I am shy by a million $, asset level at Schwab where they pay $1,000 credit, once I hit that level, I will definitely get this card, else there are so many cards with better value and no annual fee available for consumers. Easy decision.

[TheEternalVortex]

I might get it if I had $10 million at Schwab (although at that asset level I'd probably not microoptimize for $1,000/yr and Schwab isn't my favorite brokerage).

If I have to pay the annual fee it's certainly not worth it for me. The 'coupon book' aspect means it would add a lot of hassle to my life and the rewards have no significant benefit over a card like WF Autograph Journey which also has 5X on flights with effectively a $45 AF (plus other better reward categories). If you want lounge access the Chase/Cap1 cards are better for most people. The only reason I could see getting the Platinum is if you have a Centurion lounge at your home airport *and* it happens to not be very crowded (are there any)?

But it is still profitable for me to have it in my wallet.

You have to compare to other cards though, not just to "nothing". It might be the most profitable card but it seems unlikely for most people. BTW, I like this site where you can enter your spending and compare different cards: http://richwithpoints.com/ (I have no affiliation)

[oilrig]

Ive had the AMEX Platinum for 10 years or so, and thought about canceling many times. IMO, its only worth it if you travel regularly (like once a month), have a home airport with a Centurion lounge or various priority pass lounges (in case centurion is too full), drink and eat a lot at the lounges, able to make use of all the coupon book credits like hotel, uber, hulu etc, and able to utilize the transfer partners for AMEX.

My home airport has a nice centurion lounge and various priority pass lounges. In my case I feel like the Platinum is worth it because I love going to the lounge early, having drinks and food before the flight and relaxing a bit beforehand.

[Coato]

Do some research on the “extras” and your own situation.

1. The Uber credit only makes sense to us if we pick up ourselves, otherwise the whole benefit gets swallowed up. We thought we’d probably pay 80% of the $200.

2. We subscribe to the New York Times and Peacock anyway so we counted the full 100% of $240.

3. It looks like the buying credits in an airline still works which is basically a gift card. We thought we’d pay 80% for this one too. It’s rare that one airline is consistently the cheapest.

4. Saks is worthless to us because it’s overpriced and shipping is expensive. We bought carbon steel pans from them which the $50 credit basically exceeded their overcharge, but it was close.

5. The lounges are very much dependent on your home airport. If your home airport is SEA it’s worth a lot more than SFO and LAX. The DFW one was nice but we haven’t been there in years. Most of the time we don’t end up going inside a Centurion lounge even if there is one. The one in Buenos Aires is glorious.

6. The best benefit is the air transfer if hospitalized. It’s good because all you have to do is have the card to use. I had a colleague need an air transport from a hospital in Mexico back to his US hospital and it crushed them. That being said it’s only about $250 for a policy that will include $250k air transport with medical included. We basically arrive at this coverage by using her Ritz Carlton and my Chase Sapphire Reserve for seat upgrades to get the dental and medical coverage and having the Amex for the airlift. This doesn’t pencil out but it’s close enough.

7. If you are a traveler, the real issue is that you are going to need at least one other travel card—you just cannot count on them taking AMEX everywhere.

8. On the other hand, we needed AMEX to step up when we were stranded and had no cash in a remote part of Argentina that didn’t have many places that took cards (thanks to our bank canceling our debit cards mid trip) and they did. We basically got a big cash advance from them at the TransferWise rate. In another situation where Citi messed up our booking and we were in trouble, Citi wasn’t particularly helpful or even willing to try. So one of us will probably always carry a Platinum for this reason. I feel reasonably confident in Amex and Chase, or really in the way they serve the customers of their high-end cards, and things go wrong all the time when you have all of these parties involved in a booking like they are these days.

[goos_news]

We have benefitted from all that is mentioned above, for the most part, and usually come ahead.

Even if you use the coupons to offset the annual fee, what's the point of just coming out ahead? Unless you're getting a lot of value out of MR points (which means you're spending lots on airfare), it seems like a 2% cash back card would more than come out ahead.

I'm certainly not saying that this card isn't great for the target demographic, but it seems that most people who have the platinum aren't really getting any benefit out of it.

I don't really use the coupons to come out ahead, the other benefits generally cover the fee (with Schwab). The lounge and shopping benefits, plus the air fare, are all upside. Last year we came out thousands ahead, mostly due to the airfare program. We fly business only internationally, and will be increasing our travel by about 4x the next decade or so. We have Centurion and Escape lounges in our two most frequently used airports. It is not going to be worth it for everyone, but for us, it is more worthwhile than the other two leading premium cards, so much so, we pay for two full cards.

Hopefully others who are not getting the benefit will drop out, as the main issue is that certain lounges are getting crowded.

I agree with the others on Saks being a declining benefit. They used to have shoprunner, which eliminated the shipping charge. However, they can have decent prices during sale times, especially on household goods like wine glasses.

[yatesd]

I'll also add that a Gold card is no fee for others with a Platinum card. So in my case, my wife and daughter have a Gold card. We generally travel together so no advantage to adding another Platinum card.

[ResearchMed]

I don't really use the coupons to come out ahead, the other benefits generally cover the fee (with Schwab). The lounge and shopping benefits, plus the air fare, are all upside. Last year we came out thousands ahead, mostly due to the airfare program. We fly business only internationally, and will be increasing our travel by about 4x the next decade or so. We have Centurion and Escape lounges in our two most frequently used airports. It is not going to be worth it for everyone, but for us, it is more worthwhile than the other two leading premium cards, so much so, we pay for two full cards.

Hopefully others who are not getting the benefit will drop out, as the main issue is that certain lounges are getting crowded.

I agree with the others on Saks being a declining benefit. They used to have shoprunner, which eliminated the shipping charge. However, they can have decent prices during sale times, especially on household goods like wine glasses.

[emphasis added]


Interesting.
What benefit do you get from two full cards rather than one full card plus a much less expensive Supplemental/Authorized User card?

We've made occasional use of the Saks benefit when there's a good sale that includes free shipping. I'm not sure how often that happens, but we've seen it/done it.
One nice purchase recently was when I needed new slippers and wanted to replace a particular style of Uggs. Suddenly, there was the ad... half price, free shipping! So that was $60 instead of $120. With the $50 credit, a nice new pair of comfy Uggs that I specifically wanted arrived, for $10, all in.

Nope, there's not usually something that perfect, but there are occasional goodies. Otherwise, just get some regular socks or something.

When we traveled a lot more, we made terrific use of the Fine Hotels program. DH was able to charge all travel expenses on a personal card, and later get reimbursed. So obviously, on benefit included lots and lots of points, given he was traveling a lot then. (It was from the spend - hotels, meals - not the travel miles.) We could get the least expensive room at a nice hotel (sometimes the HQ hotel for the meeting), and get a nice upgrade plus... I got to graze all day for no extra cost, making me a relatively cheap date.


RM

[smitcat]

I'll also add that a Gold card is no fee for others with a Platinum card. So in my case, my wife and daughter have a Gold card. We generally travel together so no advantage to adding another Platinum card.

When traveling together how do you access the lounges?

[goos_news]

my post snipped

Interesting.
What benefit do you get from two full cards rather than one full card plus a much less expensive Supplemental/Authorized User card?

snip

It is definitely more marginal, and a better value when both were working. The main thing is all the credits are repeated in full, from Uber, airline credit, FHR, digital entertainment, Saks, Clear, special rewards and the Schwab credit. Only the global entry credit is given when there is an additional card holder, I understand. The Schwab credit lowers the gap between the two.

[Stormbringer]

I just signed up for one. I'm retiring in a month, and we plan to travel more plus many of the perks seem to mostly pay for the card. Having Hilton and Marriott Gold Elite status will be great, as will access to airport lounges.

I also was pleased to see that they offered me 175,000 points for signing up, which is a pretty fat award.

[ResearchMed]

I just signed up for one. I'm retiring in a month, and we plan to travel more plus many of the perks seem to mostly pay for the card. Having Hilton and Marriott Gold Elite status will be great, as will access to airport lounges.

I also was pleased to see that they offered me 175,000 points for signing up, which is a pretty fat award.

Has anyone here successfully been able to receive any Amex Plat sign up points without cancelling and re-applying?
Our Plat cards pre-date the SUB awards, so we have not "already received a SUB".
If so, is there a special number to call, or...?

Yes, we've asked a few times over the years, but not recently, and the answer was always a very abrupt "No!"

Thanks.

RM

[yatesd]

I'll also add that a Gold card is no fee for others with a Platinum card. So in my case, my wife and daughter have a Gold card. We generally travel together so no advantage to adding another Platinum card.

When traveling together how do you access the lounges?

The lounges are not a big thing for me in my current use case. The last time I used an Amex paid lounge was the Priority lounges which I believe give me a free pass for me and a guest. Now that my daughter is over 18 she would also cost money. If we all used the lounges extensively and also traveled independently, then the $175 for additional Platinum cards might be a good path.

[THY4373]

I just signed up for one. I'm retiring in a month, and we plan to travel more plus many of the perks seem to mostly pay for the card. Having Hilton and Marriott Gold Elite status will be great, as will access to airport lounges.

I also was pleased to see that they offered me 175,000 points for signing up, which is a pretty fat award.

Has anyone here successfully been able to receive any Amex Plat sign up points without cancelling and re-applying?
Our Plat cards pre-date the SUB awards, so we have not "already received a SUB".
If so, is there a special number to call, or...?

Yes, we've asked a few times over the years, but not recently, and the answer was always a very abrupt "No!"

Thanks.

RM

It is possible. Most likely you need to find an offer that is is no lifetime language aka NLL which basically doesn't have the language in the offer about currently holding or previously had the card.

[physics911]

No longer worth it for us. I will not renew ours in April unless they offer a very significant retention bonus.
Two-thirds of the reason we got it was for the lounge, but it just didn't playout like we hoped, i.e., waitlists if you go during the day or evening, not open until 7 a.m. (maybe it was 6 a.m. but I was recently too early), quality is hit or miss, airport availability is hit or miss (total cluster trying to get to the one in ORD if you aren't in the international terminal). Even with the digital credits and Walmart credits, it is no longer worth it. We will go back to relying on our Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

[Prokofiev]

I have considered the AMEX Platinum many times but cannot make it work for my particular spending habits.

I would consider the Chase Sapphire Reserve ($550) or Sapphire Preferred ($95) as an alternative. When you combine either
of these cards with a Chase Freedom ($0) (now Freedom Flex) and a Freedom Unlimited ($0) you can unlock tremendous value.
If you travel a lot, the Reserve is the better deal. If not, the Preferred will work fine.

The key to this value is using Hyatt hotels on points which transfer 1 to 1 from either Sapphire card. Hyatt is NOT a partner with AMEX.
Hyatt points are easy to use and are valued at 2-3 cents per point. And that value is not just for $700-800/night fancy hotels or $1200/night
bungalows in the Maldives. Some of the best deals are on low-end hotels in the $100-$175 range.

Using this transfer can make ALL of your credit card spending worth 3.1%-22%. Chase Freedom has 5X bonus for groceries 1st quarter. That
equals 11% back toward a hotel stay. 2nd quarter will be Amazon. 11% off. The Reserve has 10X bonus on Lyft along with free Pink status for 2 years. This is a 21% to 30% bonus per dollar spent. Use the Freedom Unlimited for non-bonused spend. Gets 1.5X for all purchases and 2X for drug
stores. When transferred to your Sapphire account and then to your Hyatt account that becomes a 3%-4% value. And make sure you use a
2-person mode. One of you gets the Reserve card, if that makes sense. The other can get the Preferred. We have multiple Freedom cards (3)
and 2 Freedom Unlimited. $645 per year for 2 gets you Priority Pass, $300 travel credit, SOTA insurance. $50 hotel credit, 3X travel, 3X dining.
Of course, you can also use the travel portal to get 1.5 cents per point or transfer to United, BA or Iberia airlines, among others. But we have
moved away from airlines because finding available space at good rates has become difficult with so many devaluations. The Hyatt transfer
is a sure thing and we usually stay 75-100 nights each year in a hotel somewhere. The Hyatt footprint is much smaller than Marriott or Hilton, but
for Chicago, NYC, London, San Fran, Houston we have found great Hyatt value.

An alternative to think about.

[WhiteMaxima]

I have the CapOne X Venture Visa. Four lounge passes, one for me, on one for each of my children. Effective $95 fee after $300 travel credit. Primary rental car insurance, foreign fee waiver, and other benefits.

[smitcat]

When traveling together how do you access the lounges?

The lounges are not a big thing for me in my current use case. The last time I used an Amex paid lounge was the Priority lounges which I believe give me a free pass for me and a guest. Now that my daughter is over 18 she would also cost money. If we all used the lounges extensively and also traveled independently, then the $175 for additional Platinum cards might be a good path.

I see, FWIW the centurion lounges are available for platinum only, as well as the Delta and Lufthansa lounges which are included. Just in case your travel plans change over time.