I’ve been a long-time American Express customer but am making some changes in 2017 to the cards in my wallet.
First, a disclaimer. I don’t have referral links and am not trying to sell you any cards.
For the last five years I have had two cards in my wallet that I used frequently — a personal American Express Platinum card and a business AMEX Gold card for Award Expert.
Up until late 2016, the Platinum card was rarely used. I would buy big-ticket items like computers or home appliances with it because of the extended warranty benefit, but it was not a very valuable card for daily use. Still, I paid the annual $450 fee each year for the $200 airline credit plus lounge access. I love American Express lounges and used the Centurion Lounge in San Francisco often. The Platinum card also comes with Priority Pass Select, which I use all over the world to access lounges.
I crunched the numbers and here is why the $450 was worth it for me. Subtract the $200 airline credit I would have spent anyway, and the annual fee drops to $250. Divide that by the number of lounge visits per year in one of the Centurion Lounges or Priority Pass lounges. For me, that was 42 visits in 2016. $250 / 42 works out to $5.95 per visit!
But in response to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, AMEX was forced to make the Platinum Card even better. Travel on the personal Plat card now earns 5 points per dollar. All of a sudden I am putting all my airline spending on this card.
What should I do with my AMEX Gold card?
I kept the AMEX Gold card in my wallet for many years and used it frequently because it gave me 3 points per dollar on travel. Now I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card that also gives me 3 points per dollar and a Plat card that give 5 points per dollar. Since I have the business variant of the Gold card, I do not receive a $100 airline credit, meaning the whole $185 annual fee offset the ~100K miles I earned through the card last year. That’s a fair trade, but I see no reason to keep this card.
Two choices: cancel the card or upgrade to a business platinum. While I don’t really welcome a third $450 annual fee (because I pay $450 for the Sapphire Reserve and $450 for the Personal Platinum), the AMEX Business Plat gives you half the miles back when you use the AMEX Travel Portal for premium cabin purchases. It also gives you half back in economy class for one selected airline.
With paid premium cabin fares dropping and mileage prices increasing (see this glaring Delta example), this is compelling. Of course if that is my metric of value, perhaps getting a 1.5% cash back card is the better option.
The annual fee is due soon, so I do not have long to make a decision. Am I missing anything? I think I will just cancel this card and hopefully move the line into my Starwood Business card.
CONCLUSION
If you haven’t read on 40 other Boarding Area blogs, the Chase Sapphire Reserve sign-up bonus is dropping from 100K to 50K on January 12, 2017 (though not until March 12, 2017 in-branch). That is still my top-recommended card. But American Express Platinum has become much more valuable and Membership Rewards points are valuable. As I weigh my choice for 2017, one thing is clear: all my AMEX cards will be silver.
I’d cancel the personal platinum and either a) apply for the business platinum if you haven’t had it before and cancel the fold or b) upgrade the gold
Wouldn’t you rather have the business platinum than the personal going forward, since it has better benefits?
Problem with the Business Plat is that it doesn’t have 5x per dollar for travel — only the 50% back on travel portal purchases in business or first.
or 50% back on travel portal purchases in economy if it is the airline you’ve selected for your annual credit.
I was in a very similar situation (including living in LA), except that I don’t have a Chase CSR. I have Business Platinum and recently got Personal as well because of 5x. I also have BGR and EDP. I called to cancel BGR but they gave me 5,000 MR to stay so I decided to go for another year. Logic being that there is a chance they might introduce another 3x category that I might be able to utilize.
The two EDPs gives more close to 100,000 MR every year. Personal Platinum gives me another 30,000 MR. And the Business Platinum gets me 2 cents on Alaska. As I am MVG 75K, I don’t care much about buying first class on AS. Also, it gives me 10 GoGo passes, which I value at least at $100. So essentially for $700 (not counting BGR) in annual fee, I am getting at least 130,000 MR worth $2,600. If you count the value of 10 GoGo passes and lounge visits, My net cost is around $450 for $2,600 worth of benefits.
Great evaluation.
I have a similar setup. I have the Personal American Express Platinum for Centurion Lounge access and the Chase Sapphire Reserve for spend. It’s a pretty good setup.
For nearly 20 years (literally since hitting 18) I’ve used almost exclusively American Express for everything, only rarely using anything else when AmEx is not accepted somewhere. I love the Platinum benefits and find it to be a well rounded card.
I like the small change they made with giving more points for flight purchases, but would really like to see better value levels for Platinum members. It really stinks that I get one point for a regular purchase, but in many cases, much lower end AmEx cards get 2, 3, or even more for some purchases (such as gas stations, grocery stores, etc). I could live with that if the value of the points were different by card level. So that if Platinum members’ points were worth twice as much for travel for example. The same concept that they are now doing for Business Platinum members could be expanded to personal Platinum members.
It comes down to a penny a point when using for airfare. I’ve looked at hotels and it’s worth around half that much. Chase on the other hand is substantially higher in value. Granted, the card and total experience is no where near in totality what AmEx offers, but I think I’ll be using my Chase Sapphire card almost exclusively from now on. I really do wish AmEx would change their points structure and continue to adapt by card level the value of those points. The highest paying customers really should be getting higher value from those points, and I bet that a lot of people would drastically increase their spend if they did. I know for myself, I’d much rather use only my AmEx for every day purchases. The ability to tag purchases, the year end summary, and simplicity of no limits is a much better experience.
Ditched my gold at the end of 2016 for everyday preffered. I have Amex plat for airfare and chase SR for travel/restaurants. I use the everyday preffered for everything else to get 1.5x MR points on any purchase. You should have something better than 1 point for unbonused spending. There’s a chase card that gives 1.5x points as well on all charges.
5x isn’t that valuable to me since I MS for my flights. It’s rare that I pay for a flight – and if I do, it’s often only to use up some of the many airline gcs I’ve accumulated. Plat Priority Select lounge access doesn’t include friends/family and there are few Centurion lounges. I am based in SF but have never used the Centurion lounge since I typically fly J or F internationally (so get access to premium lounges). The Centurion lounge is in the domestic terminal so not practical, even if I didn’t have premium lounge access elsewhere.
The Biz Plat makes a lot of sense for the 50% rebate and 1.5x for >$5K purchases. Coupled with the PRG (2x grocery), the combo is powerful for MS and justifies the fees.
Personal Plat needs significant additional perks for me to ever put it back in my wallet. Sad to see Amex losing it’s way on their flagship offering.
What Amex needs to do is make MRs as useful/transferable as soon-to-disappear Starpoints.
I first obtained an Amex card with Costco. No charge. No longer travel much. It quickly became my best card because of service. No questions, concerns were trivial to the person I talked with at Amex. All were curteous, friendly, responsive to any concern, question, needs.
Costco and Amex separation were quiet devastating to me. Although I did get Costco’s Citi Visa, I use it little. The service is poor. I obtained an Amex blue card for free. Same excellent service. As far as I am concerned Amex offers all the best. Any time I question any charge, it is removed until validity is determined with no charge is made. When I arrived home from a cruise, I received an email concerning a charge made on my card in a store and city I had never been. I had not made the charge. On checking further, and I had my card on the cruise, there were $12,000.00 in fraudulent charges on my card all over the US. Never was I charged. Amex researched the entire problem.
Although I will never have the platinum or other paid card, my blue Amex card will be my primary card. Amex is pure platinum to me, A number 1.
i agree with ChadMC got amex plat 30 years ago with no bonus on initial offering… still no real bonus points uless u got it in the last few years!!!