American Express have announced a number of new benefits for their personal Platinum cards (as predicted). The benefits will go into effect on March 30th, 2017 and are as follows:
- Annual Fee will be increased to $550
- Existing cardholders that have their annual fee due before August 31st, 2017 will get billed $450 for this year
- Existing cardholders that have their annual fee due on or after September 1st, 2017 will be billed $550
- Up to $200 in annual Uber credits for rides within the U.S. and VIP status where available
- Card Members will receive $15 in Uber credit per month, with an additional $20 bonus in December, when they add their American Express Platinum Card as a payment method to the Uber app
- 5x Membership Rewards points for hotel bookings booked on amextravel.com (
Fine Hotels & Resorts will also receive this 5xFine Hotels & Resorts will not receive this 5x) - Complimentary additional gold cards for no annual fee (previously you paid $45 for up to 5 cards)
- Expansion of the global lounge collection, cardholders will now have access to over 1,000 lounges in over 120 countries
- Access to a new Global Dining Collection
- Expansion of their By Invitation Only program for special events.
- New metal card & design (see below)
Our Verdict
Biggest benefit I see is the Uber addition, to me that is worth $200 (well slightly less as you can get Uber at a discount, but still probably around $180). If you can’t maximize this benefit though the annual fee has been increased by $100 but there isn’t a lot of extra value to be had.
I don’t see much use in the hotel booking benefit as it needs to be done through amextravel.com and you can usually get better discounts by using other third party providers (e.g Hotels.com) and you won’t earn loyalty points/stay credits. If you could earn 5x points on purchases directly made at hotels then that would be a game changer.
I think the expansion of the global lounge collection isn’t that clear, I think they are really referring to the additional lounges being added by themselves and Priority Pass. Your move, Chase (also Citi, are you even in this fight anymore?).
Oh
Hi William: Noticed a mistake on my question–5X for booking using Amex travel AND 1.5x (total of 6.5X) if my travel purchase is over $5,000?
Yes
Hi William: I just upgraded (per your recommendation) to the Amex Platinum Business card.
Here’s my question. I am planning on booking a vacation through Amex travel using my new business platinum card. Can I double-dip on my travel purchase–in other words, get 2x for booking using Amex travel AND get 1.5x (for a total of 3.5X) if my purchase is over $5,000? Thanks very much–you do a fantastic job.
Does the Uber Credit rollover or must I use that credit on that month?
Must use that month.
Perhaps this is already known, but I chatted with an Amex rep today and learned that there will be no March Uber credit – first one will post in the app on April 1. Also, the credits expire according to Hawaii standard time, so most of us will be able to use the credit after a late night on the last day of the month.
This was posted on the Reddit thread – thought it’s an interesting take.
I just had an idea. I have seen people complain about the absence of dining as a bonus category, but I haven’t seen anyone float this in response, so maybe its stupid.
You can now get 5 free Amex Gold cards. The language of the FAQ says “add Additional Gold Cards on their account” not “add for additional authorized users.” Which seems to indicate you can gift yourself a Gold Card.
Gold Cards have 2x on restaurants.
So although you now have to have space for 2 cards in your wallet, there’s no extra fee and you do have dining as a bonus category.
Interesting take – subscribing to see what others think about this approach.
Nope thata not how amex AU gold cards work. They are just extension of the amex platinum without fee and benefits. So you only get 1x points on everything and 5x on travel IIRC
This is actually a simple decision for me. If uber gift cards are reimbursed by Amex plat then I’ll keep the card. If not, I won’t keep it.
Right now it seems that a 3rd party merchant (CashStar) is selling uber gift cards, not uber directly themselves. Which means the transaction will code as “CASHSTAR*UBER” rather than “UBER xxxx” which most likely means that Amex might not credit you automatically.
What it is coded doesn’t matter. What matters is whether CashStar allows Uber credit as payment method for Uber GC. I doubt so.
Any idea if AUs can use the Uber credits? (I’m assuming there’s only one pot of $200 per primary user, of course.)
Primary cardholder only
Will might wanna add that the updated priority pass actually allows 2 guests now complimentary. Before it was only 2 guests at centurion. For priority pass it was only cardmember.
And geez I can’t believe people who read this blog still read TPG.
Yup, we did a dedicated post on this. This is a different addition to the ones talked about in this post, not sure why amex didn’t do it at the same time.
What if I link my card to multiple Uber accounts. Which account(s) will receive the $15 monthly credit?
Not sure sorry