In this week’s Just the Tip, we’re breaking down whether the Amex Platinum Card is actually worth its $895 annual fee. We walk through the benefits, credits, points-earning potential, and personalized welcome offers, including how we’ve used real credits for flights, luxury hotels, lounges, and everyday perks. By the end of this episode, you’ll know exactly who this card is (and isn’t) for, how to check your own offer without hurting your credit, and whether the Amex Platinum fits your travel style and spending habits.

If you are considering applying for the Amex Platinum Card, we’d love for you to use our Amex Platinum referral link when you do so. We’ll get a little kick back and we’ll use that to bring you more travel inspiration and advice in a future episode!

Amex Platinum Review – Episode Transcript

0:35

Today you have me, Brittany, as your host and we’re going to dive into the American Express Platinum Card and the hard hitting question, is the American Express Platinum Card worth the $895 annual fee?

0:55

So I actually just got a personalized offer back in November for the American Express Platinum Card.

And I decided that the offer that I received was too good of a deal to pass up.

So I want to break down and explain the benefits, the credits, the points, and the offer.

And hopefully this is a way to help you decide if this card is free.

1:13

So let’s start with the $895 question.

So the American Express Platinum card annual fee is $895.

It actually went up $200 in the latest card revamp.

And so a lot of people are wondering, is it too expensive or can you still find value in having it?

1:29

And I think this is a very personalized answer.

Think it really depends on the person on if they’re going to find value in it or if they should pass on this card.

I think what plays into it a lot is going to be the sign up bonus.

So I would see first how many points American Express is offering you because these are personalized offers and you can do a soft check to see how many points you’ll be receiving before committing to the card.

1:53

And just as an example, Jamal and I both have American Express Gold card, so we both really like that card.

Jamal didn’t get an offer for this card in the mail like I did.

And when you go into Jamal’s American Express portal, you can see that his personal offer for the American Express Platinum, if you were to upgrade to this card, is only 50,000 points.

2:15

Whereas for me, they were offering me 175,000 points.

And 175,000 points is equivalent to a minimum of $1750.

So when you compare that to the annual fee of $895, I’m already covering the cost of that and then having some extra.

2:34

And that’s just with the sign up bonus.

That’s not me even doing any points earnings.

So I thought for me that this card was worth it and I was super interested in trying it.

So my hope is that by the end of this episode, you’ll know if this card fits your travel style or not and if it’s worth getting for you.

2:52

I do think this card is really good for frequent Flyers, travelers who like comfort lounges and hotel perks, and people who are willing to track credits quarterly or monthly.

This isn’t a swipe and forget card.

You’re not going to get the value in it if you don’t track all of your perks and benefits.

3:09

And it’s not ideal for someone that just travels probably just like once or twice a year.

Probably want to be a pretty frequent traveler to find value in this card and one of the reasons why I say that it’s good for frequent travelers because that’s where you make most of your membership rewards points.

3:25

You’re going to earn 5 times membership rewards points on flights that are booked directly with airlines or through American Express travel.

I really like that American Express allows you to book directly with airlines because I don’t like to book flights through portals because if you book a flight through a portal and something happens to your flight, it gets cancelled or gets delayed and caused disruptions in your travel plans.

3:49

It’s really hard to settle all of that versus.

But if you book direct, I mean, it’s already hard enough to do it if you’ve booked direct.

So booking through a third party makes it even more complicated.

And I like that American Express gives you 5 times the points because to get that kind of point value, if you were to book flights through, let’s say, Chase or Capital One, you would have to do it through the portal, which again, said was like a third party booking.

4:13

So I do really appreciate that you also do get 5 times points on prepaid hotels when you book through the American Express travel portal.

So yes, this is a third party booking, but I actually haven’t had many issues booking third party hotels through like other sites or portals or Expedia, things like that.

4:30

So, so I’m OK with booking through a travel portal for hotels.

You do only earn a one times points on everything else though.

So again, you’re going to find the most value in this card and you’re going to get the most points earning with the five times points on flights and prepaid hotels.

4:47

You’re going to get one times points on everything else.

The points are super valuable.

So pairing what you spend on flights and hotels and your sign up bonus, these points are really valuable because these membership rewards points transfer to airlines like Delta, Air France, KLM, British Airways and a whole bunch of other transfer partners.

5:06

And redeeming these points for flights is going to be your best bang for your buck.

So I have a few quick examples for you guys.

So if you buy $1000 flight, that’s going to earn 5000 points, which can easily be worth 75 to $100 in travel when you transfer it.

5:22

Well, another example I want to give you is that my personalized offer was for 175,000 points to fly a business class flight from LAX to Singapore.

The last time I booked, it was about 100 and 25,000 points.

And that flight alone, just the one way is $4000.

5:40

So I could potentially be getting a $4000 flight and just pay the taxes.

And that’s going to be a lot less than the annual fee that I just paid.

And so I already find value in that.

And that was actually one of the reasons that I wanted to open up this card because they were offering 175,000 points.

5:58

And Jamal and I do plan to go to Asia in early 2027 and we want to fly business class.

So I’m trying to rack up as many points as I can before then so we can both fly round trip business class.

But beyond the sign up bonus and the points earning, this car does have a lot of perks that I really do like.

6:17

So there are airport and security perks, and I feel like this saves you time and money.

It gives you lounge access.

If you’re an American Express Platinum card holder, you get Centurion lounge access.

Unfortunately you don’t get any guest passes unless you spend $75,000 on your card every year, which I don’t, so not going to hit that.

6:38

But you yourself could get in just as one person.

So this is great for someone single or someone whose travel companion doesn’t care that they’re not getting into a lounge or is willing to pay for a lounge access.

It also gives you priority pass which gets you into lounges and you also get Delta Sky Club lounge access when you’re flying Delta.

6:59

It’s not unlimited, I think you get 10 in a year so just keep that in mind.

You also get Clear Plus credit so each year you’ll get $209 to cover your membership with Clear Plus.

It also gives you $120.00 every 4 to 4 1/2 years for either Global Entry or TSA pre-check, which is completely worth it.

7:21

I don’t quite understand why some people just apply for TSA Pre-check and not just get Global Entry since Global Entry does also include TSA pre-check.

But to each their own.

So it will cover whichever 1 you want I guess.

If you don’t do a lot of international travel and you just do domestic travel, TSA pre-check works fine for you.

7:40

The card also gives you airline and ride credits, so you do get an airline fee credit of up to $200 a year.

You’re supposed to use this for checked bags, seat fees, onboard purchases.

But I’ve discovered a little hack.

It’s not supposed to be used for flights.

7:56

However, I do fly Southwest quite often.

My mom and sister live in Dallas and Southwest is a Dallas based hub.

We’re from Northern California, we fly from San Diego to Sacramento quite often and there’s a bunch of flights to choose from.

So we fly Southwest quite often just because of where we’re going and who we’re seeing.

8:15

But this hack is if you book a Southwest flight for less than $100.00 so I was able to find one for $98 they will reimburse you that $98 as this airline fee credit.

So I did this twice.

I booked 298 dollars flights and I was able to get reimbursed for that.

8:34

So I came in just under the $200 a year.

So basically I got 2 free flights which is amazing for me.

If you aren’t traveling anytime soon but you want the credit with Southwest, you could cancel those flights and then just keep the credit.

And depending on which kind of flight you booked, whether it’s basic or choice or their business, then you’ll have it available for six months or a year, depending on which classification you booked.

8:59

There are some rules around the airline fee credit.

You can only change the airline you have associated on file once a year and I believe it’s in January.

So just keep that in mind.

And so you have to be really strategic in which airline you’re going to pair with your account because you have to use that $200 credit with them.

9:19

You can’t do Delta and then Southwest and then Alaska.

You have to use it all with one airline.

So you have to designate an airline and use the $200 credit with that airline.

You also get $200 a year in Uber cash credits, so that breaks down to $15.00 a month and then an extra $20 in December.

9:38

This also works with Uber Eats to have meals directly delivered to your home if you don’t want to go out.

This next section I’m pretty passionate about, it’s the dining, hotels, and lifestyle credits.

So with the American Express Platinum card, you do get $400.00 a year in Rezi Dining Credit, which breaks down to $100 per quarter at the eligible Rezi restaurants.

10:01

I feel like Rezi has quite a few restaurants in a variety of different cities.

I was comparing the ability to find restaurants on Rezi versus Chase’s Fine Dining through their exclusive tables, and I found that there was a lot more restaurants in many more cities that participate in Rezi.

10:20

So I feel like this is an easy spend.

You also get hotel credit up to $600 a year, so that breaks down to $300 semi annually and you get status.

So with Marriott Bonvoy, you get Gold status.

With Hilton’s you get Hilton’s Honor Gold, and you get the perks of having that status as well.

10:41

Sometimes it’s free breakfast, sometimes it’s room upgrade, sometimes it’s late check out with American Express, the $300 that you can use twice a year you can use on prepaid fine hotels and resorts which require a one night stay or more or the hotel collection which requires 2 nights or more.

10:59

And if you book with the fine hotels and resorts or the hotel collection, some of them come with property credits, possible room upgrades, early check in, late check out.

And some of them even include breakfast for two daily for each day you have booked.

So I actually, I just got the card in November and I didn’t want my credit to expire.

11:18

And at that point in time, I had nothing that I needed to use it for in 2026.

So I said to Jamal, hey, let’s just take a staycation.

And I looked at the hotels in San Diego and we decided to stay at the US Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego.

11:35

It’s part of the American Express’s Fine Hotels and Resort collection.

We stayed one night, which is all that’s required.

The room was $335 for the night.

When you take into consider the $300 American Express credit, we only paid $35.

The hotel gave us $100 in food and beverage credit, which is great because they had a bar lounge and then they had breakfast, lunch and dinner there too at the Grant Grill.

11:59

And then when we checked in, we were upgraded to a larger room and then they had asked us what time we wanted to check out.

We requested 4:00 PM check out and they gave us a $75 breakfast credit that we could use amongst the two of us for the next morning.

So that’s how we use the credit that I had to use by the end of 2025.

12:18

And so I’ll be getting 2 credits for use in 20261 for the first half of the year, one for the second-half of the year.

And in May, we’re going to Iowa and Minnesota, hitting off our 48th and 49th states.

And we’re going to be booking two nights at the hotel collection for our stay.

12:37

The hotel for the two nights is about $400.00, so with our $300 credit, we’re only going to pay about $100 for the two nights.

And it’s a really nice hotel, so I’m super excited about that.

The card also gives you $300 a year in digital entertainment credits, which breaks down to $25.00 a month, and $300 a year in Lululemon credit, which breaks down to $75 per quarter.

12:59

And another hack that I learned is that if you don’t have a Lululemon near you, you can actually buy a physical gift card.

Don’t buy a digital gift card.

Buy the physical gift card, get it mailed to you, and that actually counts as a credit currently.

13:14

Don’t know if that’ll ever change and they have a different way of processing that in the future, but currently it does work.

I already tried it and I got my card Then we have a section of credits that people often forget about, so they do offer a Saks 5th Ave. credit for $100 a year, which breaks down to $50 twice a year.

13:32

I don’t really shop at Saks 5th Ave. ever.

There’s not even one in San Diego and it doesn’t work for Saks off a fifth.

But you can find a nice lipstick or makeup or I just bought some new hand towels for my kitchen and I use my $50 credit that way.

13:49

You also get a Walmart Plus membership, which is about $155 a year, which gives you free delivery gas discounts.

And you can also get a Paramount or Peacock membership for free that you can use for streaming.

So then you can use your streaming subscription on something else like ESPN or Hulu or YouTube TV or whatever else you want to use it for.

14:11

You don’t don’t have to use your streaming credit for Paramount or Peacock because that would be included in your Walmart Plus membership.

You also get a $300 a year Equinox credit.

I did see a hack online about how to possibly use this but I’ve heard some mixed reviews about being able to use it for like some of their spa services so I haven’t tried it.

14:33

So this one probably I’m not going to use the benefit for, but if you have any recommendations please let me know.

There’s also a $200 or a ring credit.

I did look into this because I was intrigued, but the rings are quite pricey there, you know, 350 to $450.

14:50

And it wasn’t something that I was really interested in looking into before.

So I decided to just forgo that credit for now.

We’ll see in the future if maybe I changed my mind.

And it also gives you Hertz President Circle status and other status perks with a few other rental car companies.

15:06

So, but make sure to look into those and also it’s really important when you do open your card, if you do get this card and you go to your rewards section on your Amex banking portal, it’s really important that you go through all of the offers and just activate them all, whether you think you’re going to use them or not.

15:25

Just activate them so you have them and they’re there for you to use if you decide to use it.

The card also has some travel protections like trip delay and cancellation insurance and some baggage delay coverage that’s mentioned in this fine print.

Luckily, I haven’t had to use any of that, but it’s available there if I do need it.

15:43

So I know this was a ton of information, but I hope you found it really helpful and hopefully you can determine if the credit card is good for you and maybe you learned a hack or two if you already even have the card.

And like I said before, the American Express Platinum, the welcome offer varies by person.

16:00

So it could be points, it could be statement credit that they offer.

You could be a mix of both.

You can check your personalized offer.

So if you have an account, you can go into your American, an express account, go to the get a new card button, look at your personalized offers.

I’m going to use Jamal’s as an example.

16:15

So he has two different offers.

Actually.

One of them is to upgrade his gold card to the Amex Platinum card.

And then he’d get 50,000 points and only have to spend 2006 months.

Or he can keep his gold card and then apply for an American Express Platinum on top of that and he would get 80,000 points, but he would have to spend 8000 in the six months.

16:37

But if you don’t have an American Express account, you can go through the process to apply and then you’re going to be presented with a decision and points.

And then from there, depending on if you’re 1 approved and two, you like the amount of points that they’re offering you, you can then accept the card.

16:55

This soft check does not hurt your credit score.

So just keep that in mind.

It’s not until you actually say, yes, I accept that it runs through for your credit score.

So now I want to circle back to the original question that we asked, which was is the American Express Platinum card worth the $895?

17:13

And I think that you can see that if you just stock the most common credits, the $200 airline credit, the $200 Uber credit, the $400.00 Resi credit, the $600.00 hotel credit, that’s $1400 in potential value, which is already more than the $895.

17:31

And that’s not adding in any lounge access, hotel status, the points earned, anything like that.

So for me, when I was thinking about this, I was thinking, OK, I will at least use the 1400 in potential value.

Plus what I received in my sign up bonus is worth the equivalent of $1750 for me.

17:50

That came to a total of about $3150.

And I thought, yes, this card is worth it for me.

I’m going to use it.

I’m going to apply for it.

And that’s how I decided.

But again, like I said, this is a personal decision.

And so you have to see what your offer is and if you’ll find value in it.

And hopefully this episode helped you break things down and understand things a little bit easier.

18:09

So with that being said, thank you guys so much for tuning into this week’s episode of Just the Tip.