It’s been a few weeks now since American Express made some significant changes to their flagship Platinum card. Several people have asked for my opinion on the changes. I’m actually finding it much more compelling and worth keeping despite an increase in the annual fee from $695 to an eye-watering $895 per year. I wanted to run through the various credits and benefits and give my opinion on the overall value of the card.

Before we get to the credits, keep in mind that almost any credit card has value the first year as long as there is a good sign-up bonus. There are offers for this card out there up to 175,000 points for spending $8,000 in the first six months. The standard offer is only 80,000 points so keep trying in incognito browser windows or try different referral offers if you have access to those until you find a good offer.

For those that have signed up or already carry the card, here’s my take on the value of each benefit, starting with the credits/rebates and then going into the other non-cash benefits:

Hotel Credit (Improved): Amex now offers semi-annual $300 hotel credits that can be redeemed through the Amex travel portal at Fine Hotels and Resorts (1 night minimum) or The Hotel Collection (2 night minimum) properties. This is a huge upgrade from the prior credit which was $200 per calendar year. The downside is that many of these properties tend to be expensive except in certain locations (Las Vegas, Asia and off-season resorts are some exceptions). The rates also tend to be a bit higher than other publicly available rates. On the bright side, you can still earn elite night credits at chains like Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton and stack your elite benefits as well. The FHR properties provide benefits like breakfast, early check-in/late check-out (based on availability), upgrades (based on availability) and a property credit (sometimes limited to just spa or food & beverage). Overall, I discount this benefit due to the time limitation (each $300 credit must be used from January-June and then from July-December), the limited number of properties in each location, and the hassle of booking through the portal vs. direct.
EmptyNesterMiles Value: $200 per credit = $400

Uber Credit (Improved): Amex still offers a $200 per year Uber credit broken down to $15 per month plus $35 in December. They have added a $120 credit towards an annual Uber One membership. The Uber One membership actually provides a lot of value as it discounts each Uber ride or Uber Eats order plus allows for some free cancellations when your driver is wandering around in circles. I generally save more than the cost of the membership each year so I welcome the additional credit. Overall, I value the credit at 100% as we use Uber Eats a few times a month even if we’re not using the credits for rides, and the membership at close to full value.
EmptyNesterMiles Value: $200 plus $100 value for Uber One = $300

Digital Entertainment Credit (Improved): This credit increased from $20 per month ($240 per year) to $25 per month ($300 per year) and it covers purchases at Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Peacock and Paramount+. I was already using this credit to offset the commercial-free Hulu/Disney/ESPN package at $26 per month so I get full value from this credit.
EmptyNesterMiles Value: $300

Resy Credit (New): Amex has offered small monthly Resy credits on the Delta Platinum and Reserve cards for a while now. They have expanded this partnership with a quarterly $100 credit on the Amex Platinum. This credit is definitely geared towards people in larger urban areas with more Resy-bookable restaurants. But even if you live in a rural area, you can use this credit when you travel to a place like New York, Chicago or LA (or Atlanta, Dallas, etc.). You can also just grab a gift card to a Resy restaurant if you need to use the credit each quarter and save up enough to splurge for a nice meal at an expensive place. There’s a great website that can show you all of the Resy restaurants in each area. I discount this credit slightly just for the limitations on where you can use it and remembering to use it each quarter, but it’s a nice perk.
EmptyNesterMiles Value: $350

Lululemon Credit (New): This one is a bit out of left field, but the Amex Platinum now offers a $75 per quarter Lululemon credit ($300 per year). While I don’t shop there, many do and again, the stores are more high-end so Amex is looking to market this to urban and suburban younger customers. I was able to use the credit before 9/30 to get some pants on sale. Going forward, I will just wait for a large portal bonus through a site like Rakuten (it was 15x recently) and order a physical gift card for $75 (e-gift cards won’t work for the credit as they are fulfilled by a 3rd party). My wife or daughters can use the gift cards when they want something from the store (which is nearby for us). I don’t really value this credit much, but it’s there so I’ll use it.
EmptyNesterMiles Value: $50

Oura Ring Credit (New): Apparently these are some sort of health-tracking rings that connect to an app. I have no interest in this, but if you are going to buy one anyway, the $200 credit would come in handy. Apparently, the credit doesn’t work for the monthly subscription service.
EmptyNesterMiles Value: $0

Saks Credit (Existing): This one is harder to use than the Lululemon credit because you can’t order a gift card online. You either need to buy something online/instore or go to the store and buy a physical gift card. As it’s only $50 semi-annually ($100 per year), it shouldn’t be a priority. If you remember to use it, great. If not, don’t beat yourself up over it. Saks isn’t exactly known for bargains.
EmptyNesterMiles Value: $25

Walmart+ Credit (Existing): It’s a bit of a weird match between Walmart and Amex Platinum, but I have used this benefit from time to time when ordering something from Walmart. The best part of this benefit for me is that Walmart+ comes with a free Paramount+ subscription and I use that to watch Champions League and other soccer matches plus some shows on the service as well. The credit is $12.95 per month but I basically value it at the discounted Paramount+ subscription cost which is about $60 per year.
EmptyNesterMiles Value: $60

CLEAR Credit (Existing): CLEAR is not that great these days at my home airport Atlanta. Since TSA Touchless ID started, I usually find that faster. Precheck is often a similar wait to CLEAR as well. If I did not have this credit, I wouldn’t pay for CLEAR, but it does sometimes provide a time savings at other airports like JFK. The price of CLEAR is now $209 but I value this benefit much lower than that.
EmptyNesterMiles Value: $25

TSA Precheck/Global Entry Credit (Existing): You can get either a $120 statement credit for Global Entry or $85 for a 5-year membership for TSA PreCheck. I have used this credit before for one of my kids, but I have so many cards with this credit, that I don’t necessarily need it on the Amex Platinum. You can only use this credit once every four years.
EmptyNesterMiles Value: $10

Equinox Credit (Existing): If you have an Equinox fitness club near you or use an Exquinox+ subscription this $300 annual credit could be a value for you. There were some reports of people using this credit for massages and spa services without a membership, but I think that ended.
EmptyNesterMiles Value: $0

So, there is $1520 in annual value I have assigned to the credits for paying the $895 annual fee. That’s a big overall improvement over the last time I ran this exercise about three years ago where I assigned a $1019 value to the credits against the $695 annual fee.

Another good thing about these credits is that most of the value can be duplicated even if a couple both has an Amex Platinum card. The only credits that may be hard to get full value from is the digital entertainment credit if you don’t use/need all the services or the Walmart+ credit as you probably don’t need two ways to get free delivery or two Paramount+ subscriptions. Of course, you would also need to be able to use the multiple hotel credits as well. Even so, you should comfortably be able to get more than $895 in value from a second Amex Platinum.

Beyond these credits, there are also other benefits from holding the card. I won’t assign a monetary value to these, but they all have some value depending on your travel patterns.

Earn 5x Points on Air Travel: I book almost all my paid flights and award ticket fees/taxes using the Amex Platinum as you earn 5x Membership Rewards points on these purchases. These points can be used to transfer to Amex transfer partners to book valuable award seats. You can also earn 5x points booking trips through AmexTravel, but I wouldn’t recommend that unless you’re using the above-listed hotel credits.

Airport Lounge Access: As Delta flyers, we appreciate the 10 SkyClub visits we get with this card (although it used to be unlimited not that long ago). You also get access to Amex Centurion lounges, other partner lounges and a Priority Pass membership. This is another benefit that can be duplicated with two Amex Platinums (or one plus a $195 authorized user card for the spouse/partner).

Hotel Status: You can get Marriott and Hilton Gold statuses just from holding the card. Marriott Gold isn’t worth much these days, but Hilton Gold is actually a pretty valuable status that gets you breakfast at non-US properties and a credit at US properties along with some other elite benefits. There is also a little-known Sterling status available with Leading Hotels of the World, which is a small chain of upscale resorts and hotels which could come in handy if you happen to stay at one of these properties (Citi actually transfers to this program as well if you have Citi Thank You points).

Travel/Accident Insurance: I’m not going to get into all the insurance benefits here, but one that I truly value is the Premium Global Assist benefit which comes with paid emergency medical transportation assistance. I’ve seen stories of people using this benefit to fly a loved one home on a private jet with a nurse when injured or ill while traveling. You don’t even have to book your travel using the card to take advantage of this service.

Purchase Protection/Extended Warranty: You will have to examine these benefits closely to see if it’s worth foregoing earning more points using another card instead of 1x on the Amex Platinum to get these benefits. Other cards do offer similar benefits as well.

There are a few other benefits, but I think these are the ones worth highlighting. Remember I already calculated $1520 in value from the credits. When you add in the lounge access and other benefits, there’s no reason not to get and hold this card. Don’t let the annual fee scare you as long as you have a plan to use the credits and benefits to extract the most value to you.

If you have questions about this post, let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.