American Express has added some changes to the personal version of its famed Platinum card, so while I am enthusiastically and bitterly dropping the version, I am still excited about the Business version I added last week. Here’s why.
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Why I Am Dropping The Personal Version
The American Express Platinum Credit Card has long been called an expensive coupon book because it continues to add benefits that require additional spending and only apply to some retailers. My need for the card has diminished over the years and I am letting it go, but here’s why.
Adding Cardholders Costs More
Rather than $175 for up to three cardholders (who do not get all of the benefits bestowed upon primary cardholders), the cost has increased to $195 per added member. I had been considering adding a family member to this card but that’s not going to happen now.
Centurion Lounge
I will never spend enough on the card to allow me to bring my daughter into the Centurion airport lounges. A thousand drink-swilling bachelors just toasted this news I am sure. And I’m also not going to pay $30 to bring her in. If she was 12, I could just add her as a card member, and while I don’t think they will ask for ID from a minor, I wouldn’t put it past them.
The lounges still hold value for me, and I use them when I am traveling alone, but even that has gotten more difficult. And would it kill them to add more than a single shower?
$240 Digital Entertainment Credit
A couple of years ago, AMEX Platinum personal cardholders got an entertainment credit of up to $20/month for specific brands. Audible was a bill I was paying anyway, so that actually added the full $20/month and helped make a dent in the annual fee. However, Audible has been dropped, and as much as I like the Wall Street Journal and Hulu, I’m not able to fully get the value I was from this before. It’s not really worth $240 unless that’s what you were spending or would spend on it without the credit.
$695 Annual Fee
I don’t want to age myself too much but… was it really that long ago that the card was $450/year? It seems like it went to $595 somewhere in COVID, now it’s $695 because why not? It’s not an insignificant amount and I think it’s just gotten a little out of hand. The Global Entry credit looks great at sign-up, but the reality is that it saves me $1.66/month so it seems bigger than it actually is. Besides, I still get the benefit from other cards like my Chase Sapphire Reserve.
$200 Discount at Fine Hotels and Resorts Or The Hotel Collection
In something close to 30 months of card membership where this has been an option, I have never once found a use case for this that was better than other options available to me. I am sure many have, but for me personally, either the hotels included are so expensive that the $200 quickly evaporates against market price or other competitive options, or the availability isn’t there for my timing. It’s not worth $200 if you can’t use it.
Delta Sky Clubs
This is a great way to add extra lounges to the repertoire for American Express without building them. The only issue is that I nearly never fly Delta even though I sometimes find myself in Atlanta. Rather than a lounge I can utilize or many SkyClubs, I have no such options.
$200 Uber Credit
In yet another way to give clients a benefit solely if they perform stupid human tricks for the brand’s amusement, the Uber credit (which looks big and impressive on paper) isn’t dispersed as a $200 credit but rather $15/month and an extra $20 in December. If you own a car and or rent them when arriving into a new city, this is an Uber Eats offer only. And as Uber Eats adds fees and higher prices to items, it’s really not nearly as valuable as they suppose. For the $42 Uber ride I randomly had last week, just $15 from my account is applied. Yet in months where I don’t use it at all, it’s simply lost.
$300 Equinox Membership Credit
There are no Equinox gyms in my area and it would hardly be worth the signup costs on the off-chance I might find one near me for an upcoming trip.
Yet I Am Excited About The Business Version I Just Picked Up
I just picked up the business version of the Platinum Card from American Express and it wasn’t really about the sign-up bonus (I’d earn 80,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $6,000 on the card.) I find the other perks far more useful. On both versions I was able to use the $200 airline fee credit routinely, that was a genuine saving and will be with the business version of the AMEX Platinum card.
I also think the $400/year Dell credit is far more valuable than the $100 Saks credit. I’d lose out on some of the perks above, and others I didn’t mention like earning 5x points on American Express Travel services, but I have a travel agency so I don’t buy through them anyway.
Between just those two credits, the card nearly pays for itself. In truth, I will be far more likely to use the Adobe $150 annual credit and I am far more likely to achieve the $75,000 spend required to bring my children into the lounge (men at bar snarl.)
Conclusion
It’s with mixed feelings that I will downgrade my Platinum card to a Gold Card or Green Card all the while taking a new one for my business. But that said, the consumer side has gotten too expensive all the while making it more difficult to use credits. I shouldn’t have to set calendar reminders to use my benefits and I won’t anymore. If AMEX changes its tune, I could be back. But I doubt it.
What do you think?
Always bring an ID for a minor. My 14 year old son was asked for his ID at the Centurion lounge in Seattle. We were going on a cruise so thankfully had his passport. The attendant was surprised when I said this was the first time he has ever been asked for it, and she responded that she has turned away minors because they don’t have one available. I guess it’s a moot point because I won’t continue paying for the AUs the next time the fee hits my account.
Doesnt your kid need ID to get on an airplane? I dont see the issue here – especially if, God forbid there’s some sort of emergency, and people need to be accounted for.
Just did the same thing in June …
I downgraded to gold about 2 years ago and just received a 100k point offer to upgrade. So I’m back. Around and around we go!
I was not aware of the change for additional cards. $175 for 3 cards is a great deal in my case. If they change it I will cancel them all. This is what it says on their website so I think it is case by case:
“ For Basic Card Accounts opened on or after August 17, 2023: Each Additional Platinum Card is $195 annually.
For Basic Card Accounts opened prior to August 17, 2023:
If you were notified of a change to the Annual Fee for Additional Platinum Cards, each Additional Platinum Card is $195 annually beginning on the effective date specified in the notification.
If you were not notified of a change to the Annual Fee for Additional Platinum Cards, we charge $175 annually for up to three Additional Platinum Cards, and $175 annually for each Additional Platinum Card after the first three. We will notify you if there will be a change to the Annual Fee for Additional Platinum Cards on your account in the future.”
Well written, I feel the same as you in all examples.
Americans really had it too easy on this card. In other parts of the world there is a 200 grand a year earning bottom line that needs to be met before you qualify to pay a 1500 bucks annual fee for the plat, the card is really only for the affluent not the joneses.finally Amex is realising this error.
Good salient points. In your opinion is AMEX upping the additional card cost to thin the Lounge crowding? My issue with the lounges is not the families, which in my experience are far better behaved than the entitled adults who scarf food and drinks like college freshmen.
As a business traveler that frequents LAS anything to cut down on the lines. Doesn’t matter if it’s a family of 4 or 4 business travelers, a body is a body when the lounge dragons are counting each head that goes in. As someone that spends a lot on AMEX cards this change will hopefully thin the herd. My business spends enough to the point where they constantly send me SUB for AMEX platinum and Gold cards when I already have 3 of the Plats and couple Golds. I just got another offer for 200k MR if I get another plat and sign up for checking account for only $10k spend and 90K for adding another gold for $6k spend. I guess I’m helping them bump their user count.
The business card DOES get 5x on Amex Travel, the difference between the two cards is that the personal version also gets 5x on airfare purchased directly from airlines. That’s a significant disadvantage for the business version. Even airfare booked through external agencies often codes as direct airline purchases, and you no longer get 5x for that spend.
There’s no difference between the 2 cards if they both earn 5x. Don’t understand your point.
She means that for the business platinum, you have to use amex travel to book tickets in order to get 5X, for the personal version you can use any travel agency. Some of us have really bad experiences using amex travel to hook flights.. In my opinion the only differentiator with amex plat business was the 35% points credit back on travel purchase through amex travel. However, the constant site system errors, in person booking screw ups etc, do not warranty to have this card anymore..
For similar reasons I have just dumped my Amex Platinum, the cost/benefit balance has changed over the course of the last year and it just no longer represents good value and in particular here in the UK, their insistance on convering any overseas transactions first to US dollars before converting them to GBP is just a money making racket which is getting ever more costly. There are plenty of cards in the UK market that charge nothing for transactions in other countries and that’s where I’ve gone when I don’t pay in GBP or EUR.
My now 17 yo son was always asked for ID over the past several years. Most of our travel is international so we had his passport. For domestic, I would take his passport card.
I have greater doubts than you about the value of Platinum Business, but Platinum Personal is certainly the worst deal in the game and I think remains in most people’s pockets only due to inertia . . . but they could never justify the expense in contrast to its mostly ephemeral benefits in a rational way. They did me a great favor by raising the price a few years ago and forcing me to consider whether it really offered me value as it did in the past and I’ve saved probably $1500 in annual fees since that I will happily spend on what I like, rather than what Amex forces me to buy to rationalize carrying their card.
After a horrible experience being denied access to the Centurion Lounge at LAS I swore never again to use an AMEX product. I cancelled my personal Platinum card that very same day and never looked back.