The Offer
- American Express is offering 150,000 points after $8,000 in purchases within the first six months of being a cardmember.
Offer valid through June 11, 2025.
Card Details
- Annual fee of $695 is not waived the first year
- Morgan Stanley version of the Platinum card offers one free Platinum authorized user, then $195 for each one thereafter
- Authorized Gold cards are free
- Full details here
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 5x points per $1 spent on purchases made with airlines or with American Express Travel
- 5x points per $1 spent on hotel & airline bookings made directly from the American Express travel website
- 1x points on all other purchases
- $200 airline incidental credit per calendar year
- $200 Uber credit ($15 per month and additional $20 in December)
- Lounge access:
- Centurion lounge access
- International American Express lounge access
- Delta SkyClub lounge access
- Priority pass select membership
- Airspace lounge access
- $240 digital entertainment credit. This is a credit of $20 per month and can be used on Peacock, Audible, SiriusXM and The New York Times.
- $200 hotel credit. This can be used on select prepaid bookings (Fine Hotels + Resorts® and The Hotel Collection) when using American Express Travel
- $179 Clear credit
- $300 Equinox credit. This is a $25 credit each month
- Global Dining Access by Resy
- The Global Lounge Collection
- Walmart+ monthly credit. Cardholders will receive a $12.95 credit (covers the full cost of membership).
Our Verdict
You need to be a Morgan Stanley customer to be eligible for this card and you can no longer use the access investing work around unfortunately. It’s rare we see increased offers on these co-branded versions of the Platinum card, so it’s worth signing up if you are eligible and can make use of all the various credits. Of course you can consider the other Amex Platinum versions as well, if eligible. We will add this to our list of the best credit card bonuses.
Hat tip to DDG
Hope this higher SUB is offered for for the Charles Schwab version soon.
How does one open a AAA account with Preferred Savings? Would love to know if the $25k min can sit in Preferred Savings with the main AAA at $0 to avoid the annual brokerage fee. It’s incredibly difficult to find anything online explaining this with any level of specificity.
You need to have a Financial Advisor open it for you, and the AAA account fee isn’t waived period unless you have more than $1mm in holdings. The CashPlus account fee is what you’re thinking of and the balance needs to be in the CashPlus account, earning no interest to waive the $55 fee every month.
It’s a not a “loophole” kind of game.
Preferred Savings balance does not count toward $25k requirement.
Is the equinox credit being monthly a quirk of the Morgan Stanley version of the platinum? I thought the normal plat was lump sum (I just pay the yearly fee of 300 dollars for equinox + membership).
It’s $300 annual lump sum. Depending on your state you may be out of tax. In CA there was no tax. The massage loophole is basically closed (few reports that it may work depending on location) so I just go for the digital equinox+ for some extra spend and MR points.
now do it for the schwab version
They did but the SUB is only increased to 125K MR points on the Schwab Platinum.