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AMEX will be making changes to their consumer Platinum Card effective 3/30.
New benefits exclusive to the consumer card include:
$15 in monthly Uber credits:
Starting 3/30 a monthly $15 Uber credit will be added to your account. The monthly credit must be used by the last day of the month at 11:59pm local time.
You must have your AMEX Platinum consumer card listed as a payment method in your Uber account, but you don’t need to use the card in order to use the credit.
Every December you’ll get a $35 credit, making this benefit worth up to $200 per calendar year.
All AMEX cards that earn Membership Rewards points already earn double points on Uber spending.
Uber credits typically work for food delivery from Uber Eats, so I’d imagine that this credit will work for Uber Eats as well, but we’ll have to wait until 3/30 to confirm if it will work for that.
The Uber credits are only valid for use in the US.
Uber VIP status:
AMEX Platinum consumer cardholders will be upgraded to VIP status, which prioritizes your rides to better cars and drivers with more experience and higher ratings in select locations.
5 points per dollar on hotel and airfare:
In October AMEX added 5 points per dollar for airfare spending on their consumer Platinum Card.
Effective 3/30 you’ll also earn 5 points per dollar on hotels, but with a caveat. You’ll only get the bonus points if you book hotels at AMEXTravel.com
Metal card design:
Until now AMEX has only provided their Centurion “Black card” cardholders with a metal card, but AMEX will now provide Platinum cardholders with a metal card.
Existing cardmembers can request a metal card effective 3/30.
Free additional Gold cardholders:
Previously additional Gold cards have been charged at a rate of $45/year, but effective 3/30 those will be free.
Annual fee increase:
Effective for new Platinum Card applications made on 3/30, the annual fee will go up from $450/year to $550/year.
If you apply before 3/30 you will pay only $450 for your first year, but you’ll still get the new benefits on 3/30.
If you are already a cardholder and your annual fee is due before 9/1 then your fee for 2017 will be $450. If your fee is due on 9/1 or later than you will be charged $550 for your next renewal.
Fee for additional Platinum cardholders will remain the same:
You will continue to be able to add up to 3 additional Platinum cardholders at a rate of 3 cards for a flat $175 per year. They will each receive their own lounge access capabilities, elite status, and Global Entry fee refunds, but won’t get annual airline fee or monthly Uber credits.
The Business Platinum Card will remain at $450/year.
Benefits exclusive to the business card include:
-A game changing 50% rebate when you redeem coach airfare with your choice of an airline and a 50% rebate when you redeem for business or first class airfare with any airline on amextravel.com.. Having the Business Platinum Card effectively turns all of your AMEX points earned on all Membership Rewards cards into “Hybrid” points by allowing you to redeem points for a value of 2 cents or more each for paid tickets or transferring them into real airline miles. The 50% rebate posts to your account within a day of redemption. You can get the 50% rebate whether you pay for the whole ticket or just part of the ticket with points.
-1.5 points per dollar on large purchases of $5,000 or more on the Business Platinum Card. You can earn up to 1 million points annually with this bonus. For example a $5K+ IRS tax payment will cost 1.87% (tax deductible for businesses) and will earn 1.5 points per dollar that are worth at least 3% towards travel with this card.
-Gogo In-Flight Wi-Fi:
With the Business Platinum Card only, you get 10 annual Gogo flight passes to use on any flight with Gogo internet. You can enroll here for your free passes.
Read about the benefits that both cards offer and a comparison between the 2 cards after the jump:
Benefits offered on both Platinum cards:
Airline fee credits:
$200 in airline fee credits every calendar year. If you apply now then in your first cardmembership you can get a $200 credit in 2017 and a $200 credit in 2018.
You need to register with a specific airline before spending. After you register for an airline you can officially only change your airline in January. However if you haven’t yet used your credit that year you should be able to change it by calling or chatting with AMEX.
You can view sample items that qualify for a airline fee refund here.
Note that the airline you choose will also be the airline that you get back 50% of your points back when redeeming for coach travel if you have the business Platinum card. You may want to hold off on spending the $200 until the end of the year if you want to be able to change the airline more easily during the year. You also get back 50% of your points on all airlines in business and first class redemptions without having to register for an airline.
Charge card benefits:
Rather than being limited to a fixed credit line, these cards offer flexibility to spend far more, with the caveat that it needs to be paid back in full on the due date.
Gold elite status with 3 hotel chains:
Both Platinum cards offer Starwood Gold, Hilton Gold, and Marriott Gold elite status.
You can enroll online here for Hilton Gold status. You can also enroll additional cardholders for Gold status, but that needs to be done over the phone.
You need to call 800-525-3355 and select option 3 for Starwood Gold status.
Once you have Starwood Gold status you can match that online instantly to Marriott Gold status.
Hilton Gold status gets you upgrades, bonus points, 5th night free on awards, late checkout, breakfast, and bottled water. Free breakfast doesn’t usually do much for me as a kosher traveler, but we had the pleasure of staying at the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem last year where we were treated to a fantastic daily breakfast, which is free for Hilton Gold and Diamond members. There is a mind-boggling quantity of awesome kosher food there, from dozens of daily hot dishes to hard cheeses, fresh fruits and pastries to fresh squeezed juices, as well as on-demand dishes like french toast, pancakes, waffles, and eggs. Unlimited wine, hot or cold chocolate drinks, and espresso drinks are included as well.
Starwood Gold status gets you late checkout, more points per dollar spent at SPG hotels, and a 250 point amenity on stays, even when redeeming points. Starwood elites can also register here to earn Starpoints on Delta flights on top of the regular Delta miles in addition to other benefits while Delta elites can get benefits at SPG hotels.
-Centurion lounge access:
American Express has operated Centurion lounges in Argentina, Brazil, India, and Mexico for some time. Now they are expanding in the US market with lounges operating in Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, LaGuardia, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, and more to come such as Chicago, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
Originally the US lounges were designed for free access only for Centurion cardholders, you know them as those black cards that cost a ridiculous $2,500 per year with a $7,500 initiation fee that used to give elite status on airlines like Continental and USAirways but now is down to just Delta.
But once the Platinum card started losing airline lounges due to exclusivity with other banks AMEX opened it up to Platinum cardholders for free as well.
Primary and additional cardholders can access the lounge and they can each bring their spouse and kids into the lounge for free. Or they can bring in any 2 other people with them for free.
The lounges offer varying amenities like premium drinks, showers, and massages. And as they are staffed by AMEX you can even get help with account issues and access the lounge even if you forget your Platinum card.
-Priority Pass membership.
You can enroll here for a Priority Pass membership.
Unfortunately this membership doesn’t include any free guests, but additional Platinum cardholders can get their own free Priority Pass membership.
Lounges include the Art & Lounge in Newark which is the lounge that El Al provides for their business and first class passengers. It’s located before security and doesn’t require a boarding pass, so you can stop in for free kosher food and wine at any time! In Tel Aviv you can access the Dan lounge.
See the Priority Pass site for their complete list of lounges.
Priority Pass gives access Alaska Airlines lounges and to the full network of “The Club” with 8 domestic lounges and growing.
Airspace lounges:
Currently there are Airspace lounges in Cleveland, JFK (JetBlue T5 terminal), and San Diego.
Primary and additional cardholders can access the lounge and they can each bring their spouse and kids into the lounge for free. Or they can bring in any 2 other people with them for free.
These are modern lounges with free premium coffee, bottles water, and self service soft drinks. Additionally you and every guest also gets a gift card valid towards purchasing premium alcohol, local craft beers, cocktails, and meals.
Delta SkyClub:
You can access Delta lounges for free with a Platinum card when flying on Delta. You don’t get any free guests, but additional Platinum cardholders can access Delta lounges for free as well.
The Delta SkyClub in JFK even sells kosher meals if you need one!
Global Entry/Pre-Check Fee Refund
It costs $85 to apply for a 5 year TSA Pre-Check membership which makes flying pleasant again. Shorter lines, no need to remove your shoes, belt, jacket, or hat. You can keep your laptop and freedom baggie with liquids in your carry-on. And you go through a good old fashioned metal detector instead of assuming the position in a nude-o-scope. If you charge it on your Platinum card the fee will be refunded.
It costs $100 to apply for a 5 year Global Entry membership which lets you bypass the customs line. If you have Global Entry you also get TSA Pre-Check. If you charge it on your Platinum card the fee will be refunded.
You can read more more about the differences in this post.
Additional cardholders qualify for a Pre-Check or Global Entry fee refund as well.
My whole family has Global Entry and it sure makes traveling a whole lot easier!
Unlimited worldwide Boingo WiFi:
With either Platinum card you now get free unlimited Boingo Wi-Fi worldwide, perfect for avoiding confiscatory rates at airports when traveling. Search from over 1 million hot-spots here.
Enroll for free Boingo access here.
Lost Item Protection:
If you buy something on your Platinum card up to $10,000 and lose it within 90 days of purchase it will be fully covered. Many cards offer stolen item protection, but that requires a police report to be filed and often has a cap of just $1,000.
Car Rental Perks:
A 4 hour late return fee-free grace period at Hertz and fee-waived Gold Plus membership and National Executive guarantee upgrades and faster free award rentals.
The card also comes with free checked baggage insurance and it has no foreign exchange fees. And of course it comes with all of the amazing purchase protections that other American Express cards have as well.
Business vs Consumer Platinum card:
Not long ago you only needed one of these cards as they offered very similar benefits.
Things have gotten trickier as AMEX continues to differentiate these cards.
-The consumer card’s advantages are the 5 points per dollar on airfare and hotels, the $200 in annual Uber credits, and the bargain additional Platinum user fees. This card will soon cost $550/year, but if you max out the Airline and Uber credits the effective annual fee goes down to $150/year and that includes the benefits like lounge access, hotel elite status, 5 points per dollar on airfare/hotels, Global Entry/Pre-Check credit, and more.
-The business card’s advantages are the 50% bonus points for spending $5,000+, the GoGo WiFi passes, Open Savings rebates on purchases from Fedex, HP, Hertz, and more. But the main advantage is the game changing 50% rebate for using points for airfare and the lower $450 annual fee.
Another business card benefit is that AMEX business cards don’t appear on your credit report. That’s good for several reasons.
First of all they won’t count against your 5/24 count for opening new Chase cards. Only cards on your report that have been opened within the past 24 months count for that.
Second, when you spend money on personal cards your credit score will be hurt even if you pay your bill on time. A whopping 30% of your credit score is based on credit utilization. You can pay off your card bill before your statement is generated to avoid that, but that takes effort and laying out money well before you have to. Additionally it’s good to have the statement close with a couple dollars to show the card is active and being paid every month. On an AMEX business card it’s just not reported, so you can wait until the money is due without it having a negative effect on your score.
Third, if you close a business card it won’t ever have an effect on your score.
You may already have a business that needs a card to keep track of expenses. For example if your name is Joe Smith and you sell items online, or if you have any other side business and want a credit card to better keep track of business expenditures you can just open a business credit card for “Joe Smith Sole Proprietorship” as the business. You don’t need to file any messy government paperwork to be allowed to do that.
Just be sure to select “Sole Proprietorship” as the business type and just use your social security number in the Tax Identification Number field.
Do these new consumer Platinum card changes outweigh the higher annual fee for you? Sound off in the comments!
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53 Comments On "Here Are The Changes Coming This Month To The AMEX Platinum Card; Comparison Of Consumer Vs. Business Card Benefits"
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Does this apply for Amex Platinum Delta as well?
@ML:
No.
Would the Uber credit work with Platinum on Apple Pay?
does the uber credit and new benefits work on Business Platinum as well?
They have finally came back at the Chase reserve card, not too bad for a change, looks like i am keeping the platinum and the reserve card.
Dan good morning, your the best. very exciting to to wake up in the morning and see the new benefits on the plat. not to mention all those awesome credit card posts that I savor when reading your blog. would love to make a connection with you via the limmud of Tanya maybe you can start a shuir in it or we can have a private chavrushashaft? that would be awesome very motivated to learn Tanya but it would be a lasting commitment if I heard a once a week shuir or chavrusa from you. anyway have a great day.
Uber credit for March or only starts in April?
@Sam Finkelstein:
Why not?
@D:
No, the post says exactly which benefits are exclusive to each card.
“New benefits exclusive to the consumer card include:”
“Benefits exclusive to the business card include:”
@Ryan:
Business Platinum is a pretty great card as well.
Tough decisions!
@paul:
Umm…where do you live?
@Anonymous:
Starts 3/30.
You would only have until 11:59pm on 3/31 to finish the March $15 credit though.
@D: NO
When I enter the art lounge in Newark won’t they ask for a boarding pass? Not bad to make a stop when I’m in the area.
Does business platinum get uber credit or only consumer card?
FYI, AmexTravel.com’s hotels are prepaid. Is 5 points worth paying on advance ?!
Smart move by Amex to start differentiating the cards. Curious that they raised the fee in exchange for the Uber benefit. I assume most cardholders don’t use Uber frequently enough to get that full benefit since 8t only comes in monthly,and I assume most non big-city people only really use Uber when travelling.
MERCEDZ BENZ ASSUMING IT WILL WORK AS WELL?
@Meyer:
That’s what the post says 🙂
@james:
Read the post and previous comments please.
@Mikey:
Most rates should be refundable, read the terms.
@Shaul Yaakov:
If you use half the Uber credit then it’s breakeven.
@Anonymous:
Yes.
@Dan: Lawrence it would be over the phone anyway.. I learn in bmg can get a whole kevutza of guys to make a Tanya shuir once a week over one of those call in conference numbers.
Do AMEX credit cards appear on your credit report?
Regarding the 50% points rebate on travel, I was told by Amex that if you have an Amex Business Centurion Card, you get the 50% points rebate on any airline (not just the one you selected) even if you only book coach. This is great as you can’t select ELAL as your choice of airline. Dan, do you know if this is true?
please be advised if you would agree it would be Tanya only and no credit card/points/rebates/deals questions the purpose would be to connect through learning and soley through that
@paul:
I’d recommend locating a local shliach. I’m not a phone guy 😉
@Isaac:
Read the whole post please.
@SteveO:
Correct. A very valuable benefit indeed, though it still doesn’t justify the annual fee IMHO…
is the 50% rebate also effective march 30 for the business card?
@bracha:
No, the business card benefits are currently in effect.
You wrote one of the benefits of the Amex business platinum is the 50% back of Amex rewards points for booking first class or business class through their portal. Would this apply for jetblue mint as well? Thank you.
@brad:
Yes.
@Dan: You’re not a phone guy? HUCA!
Hi Dan,
These Global Entry/Pre-Check credits, how it works, can I do it every year if I want to have both Global Entry and Pre-Check? In JFK they don’t let you go to Pre-Check with Global Entry only.
thank you! one more question, does this apply for the platinum mercedes benz card, I can’t find this offer in my benefits?
Hi @dan thanks so much for all of your constant guidance! I currently have the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Starwood Preferred Guest. What do you think about downgrading SPG and getting the AMEX Platinum? How do those two cards compare? I travel about 2-3 times/year.
Thanks!
@Motti:
Learning is something best done in person IMHO.
@Shimon:
Of course they do.
Just enter your Global Entry known traveler number in your reservation. I’ve used it at JFK and many airports without issue.
@bracha:
It will.
It’s not 3/30 yet.
@DJ:
They’re very different cards at very different price points with very different points and benefits.
Either way you can’t change a SPG card into a Platinum card or vice versa. You would need to make a new application.
Can I add my amex platinum to my girlfriend’s uber since she takes uber more than I do to reap the benefits?
@George:
Should work.
will this work for the business mercedes benz platinum card ( the 50% benefit for coach tickets on one airline) this is what I don’t see on my benefits?
@bracha:
Mercedes is a consumer card. There is no business version.
Sounds like priority pass also includes 2 free guests now
Does this apply to the Canadian card as well?
You missed the change in Priority Pass. It will include 2 free guests for Personal Platinum, not sure Business Platinum will also change for the better.
@dan thanks for the response. Understood different price points and benefits but assuming i downgrade the SPG to free card and apply for a new Platinum, would you recommend the switch? The way i view it, SPG is 95/yr. Platinum is 550 less 200 in uber credits and 200 in airline fees so comes out to 150. 150 vs 95, what do you think is the winner?
There is another change, Priority Pass will now include two guests.
The Newark ART lounge has Kosher wine? Don’t recall that list time I was there
@Miz:
Yup, still waiting for a response on if that is just for the consumer card or also for business.
@DJ:
There’s no clear winner, they are very different cards, each with their own pros and cons.
@emak:
Yes. Ask them next time?
dan my email stated for mercedez benz plat it will be $20 uber credit in december not $35
Can a secondary cardholder use the Uber credits if the primary cardholder is not?
The $15 Uber credit is to counter the CapitolOne QuickSilver credit card that gives $15 monthly credit with Uber.
i have now 2 gold additional. will i be refunded the 55$ what i paid already?
RE: Free additional Gold cardholders:
Previously additional Gold cards have been charged at a rate of $45/year, but effective 3/30 those will be free.
Is there more details in the Uber VIP? I’m assuming if you use Uber Pool more often than Uber X or above, you won’t get the VIP experience.
You can add gold cards on a platinum?
What if one adds the card to two or more Uber accounts? Which account(s) will get monthly Uber credit?
@Motti: huh? thats not true-
@Miz: prob first come first serve
Dan,
Is it true that amex platinum card holders will be allowed to let two guests in for free with them to any priority pass lounge?
Will business business Platinum cards be upgraded to stainless?
Both Personal and Business Platinum cards – Can you have 2 different airlines on each card. Both could give you the annual credit and on the business card you’d get the 50% bonus rebate?
I would like to open an amex platim=num would it be worth the annual fee?
I would like to have constant updates for any benefit during the year so i can make it worth it