Starting this Thursday American Express Platinum cardholders will receive 5 membership rewards points for every $1 spent directly with any airline or on American Express’ travel portal. Earlier today the @AskAmEx twitter account mistakeningly tweeted out about this change, before saying they were referencing an old promotion. That tweet has since been deleted.
In addition to this the OPEN Business Platinum card will earn 1.5 points per dollar spent on single purchases of $5,000 or more. American Express also denied that these changes were in response to the Chase Sapphire Reserve. I hope that’s true, because these changes fail to make American Express Platinum card truly competitive with the other premium cards on the market (apart form the superior Platinum lounge access). You can read our comparisons of the the three major premium cards here.I’m hoping that this isn’t all American Express has in store for cardholders.
Additional update:
- 5x on airfare will apply to all personal variations of the Platinum card (e.g Mercedes Benz, Ameriprise, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab)
- 5x on airfare will NOT apply to business versions of the card, they will instead receive the 1.5x on single purchases of $5,000 or more
Hat tip to OMAAT
Think the 5x will work through the MPX app? Including the airline credit…this could get interesting
Dont see the big deal on this. The PRG already gets 4x MRs for the same thing http://thepointsguy.com/2015/04/premier-rewards-gold-4x-points-on-airfare-via-amex-travel/
no dude. that 4x with Amex travel site…
WTF, we already waited such a long time, but this is the result?
First, the SPG,
Now the Pla card, I think this is the final result, we thought that the AMEX should fight back, but now it seems that AMEX doesn’t care. SO I RESPOND AMEX that I DON’T CARE AMEX EITHER!!!!!!!!
Now I am totally a Chase fans. At least they know CSP is bad so issue CSR.
well, the only thing i would ask is “what if Amex is going back to its core roots?” would be interesting…
Sigh. What a disappointment. 5x on airfare is the least useful category bonus imaginable. Make it 5x on travel and they’d have a winner.
I bet card apps will increase by 0.1% and usage increase a similar amount. This is no where near good enough to dust off my Plat…
There’s more coming. Both good and bad. But prepare to be underwhelmed.
Amex dies not have the capital and banking income that chase had. They can’t compete.
5x on airfare AND hotels would make Platinum the go to travel spend card for me. I find it much harder to bank hotel points than airline miles, and therefore tend to pay cash much more often.
Yawn.
Good try Amex. But I’ll be sticking with the Reserve if this is the best you have to offer.
When I saw this on twitter, I thought “how exciting!” Now that I’m reading more on it from this post and others, I’m just feeling disappointed. I thought for a moment there it’s time for me to finally get the card. Hah!
Is this 5X MR offer for airfare purchase valid only on Amex Plat? Will Amex Plat MB also qualify?
How long will the offer last? This part isnt clear to me
I assume it’ll apply to all the platinum cards and I think it’s a new category bonus that is permanent
thank you DoC!
I was really looking forward to Amex doing something great! This was the most lame refresh I could imagine.