Your Complete Guide To The American Express Platinum Changes For Both Personal & Business Cards

It’s now March 30th, meaning that the planned changes for the American Express Platinum Personal & Business cards has now gone into effect. I know that readers will have many questions about these changes, so this post will be your reference post. I’ll be splitting this post into two sections: one section will be relating to the personal cards and it’s different variations and the other will be relating to the business card.

Personal Platinum

Before we get started it’s important to remember that there is more than one Personal Platinum variation, these changes apply to all variations of this card.

Quick Overview of Changes

• Annual fee has been increased from $450 to $550 per year.
• 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
• New card design and metal card
• Complimentary additional gold cards for no annual fee
• Up to two guests can access Priority Pass lounges
• Limited to two guests that can access Centurion lounges
• Change in sign up bonus

Annual Fee Increase

For existing cardholders the change will be implemented as follows:

• 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

For some reason the Mercedes-Benz card is still showing a $475 annual fee. I was previously told this would also be increased to $550 as well. Wait & see… Showing the correct annual fee now

Uber Credits

These credits are now live and you have only two days (March 30th and March 31st) to use this months $15 credit. We’ve created a dedicated page that answers F.A.Q. about these credits (one piece of good news is that it’s currently working for UberEats).

If you live in an area that Uber doesn’t service, you’re out of luck. I directly asked American Express about this and received a less than satisfactory response (our cardholders travel).

Metal Card

You can now request a metal card online (Account services > Card management > Replace Cards (Damaged, Lost, Stolen, or Name Change)). At the moment cards are showing as deliverable in one days time (March 31st).

5x Membership Rewards Points On AmexTravel.com Hotel Bookings

As mentioned previously, this benefit is entirely worthless. You can read my thoughts on why here.

Gold Cards For No Annual Fee

My understanding is that these cards also get a PreCheck/Global Entry credit as well as earning 2x points on dining (a category the Platinum doesn’t earn a bonus in).

Lounge Access Changes

This is actually in two parts:

• You’re now allowed to bring two guests into Priority Pass lounges for free. No need to enroll or do any other changes. Previously you received free access and had to pay $27 per guest.
• You’re now limited to bringing two guests into Centurion lounges. Previously you could bring in two guests and immediate family members. This is a huge negative for travelling families, but might bring some relief to overcrowded lounges (I’ll reserve judgement until we see whether this actually happens or not).

Change In Sign Up Bonus

Here’s a detailed post on these changes.

Business Platinum

Quick Overview of Changes

• Annual fee will be staying at $450 per year
• No Uber credits
• Up to two guests can access Priority Pass lounges
• 5x Membership Rewards points for hotel bookings booked on amextravel.com

Lounge Access Changes

This is actually in two parts:

• You’re now allowed to bring two guests into Priority Pass lounges for free. No need to enroll or do any other changes. Previously you received free access and had to pay $27 per guest.
• You’re now limited to bringing two guests into Centurion lounges. Previously you could bring in two guests and immediate family members. This is a huge negative for travelling families, but might bring some relief to overcrowded lounges (I’ll reserve judgement until we see whether this actually happens or not).

5x Membership Rewards Points On AmexTravel.com Hotel & Airfare Bookings

As mentioned previously, the hotel benefit is entirely worthless. You can read my thoughts on why here. Airfare is useful though.

Final Thoughts

I will add to this page if readers have specific questions that they would like answered. My overall thoughts are that these changes are lackluster and for the majority of people they don’t change the value proposition of keeping the card long term. I say that with two major exceptions:

• Families of 4 or more that travel together with only one Platinum card basically no longer have access to the Centurion lounges for their full family. I don’t have kids, but the idea of some of a family going into a lounge and others being stuck outside isn’t going to fly. For a lot of families (especially with a Centurion lounge at their home airport that travel frequently) this could be a reason to cancel the card.
• Cardholders that will use the Uber $200 credit. If you value Uber credit at 90% of face value then you’re basically reducing the annual fee on the card by $80 per year. Obviously the more/less you value Uber credit the more/less it’ll adjust the annual fee.
• Cardholders that live in an area Uber doesn’t service. Sorry, your annual fee just went up by $100 and you get no tangible benefits from it.

In my opinion American Express have completely missed the mark (and market) with these changes. I understand the inclination to increase the annual fee and bring in benefits with high ‘breakage’ (e.g Uber credits not being redeemed) but you’re left with a lot of confused cardholders/potential cardholders that can’t easily grasp why the card is actually great. I’ll write further thoughts/ramblings on this later.