With its own eye-popping $550 yearly fee, the American Express Platinum Card charge card needs to work hard to justify its own presence, particularly now that the Chase Sapphire Reserve card has been nipping at its heels, with its long list of travel perks.
In recent months, American Express has upped the rate for traveling spend to five points a $ 1 on the card from three points. They included a $200 credit for Uber rides. They expanded the community of American Express airport lounges. Those motions were made with considerable fanfare, publicized with all the other communications and information releases outlets available to the Amex marketing group.
By contrast, the Platinum advantage was slipped to card perks’ record with uncharacteristic stealth. Fixing the card’s past (and largely useless) two-for-one deal on full-fare business-class tickets, the International Airline Program has been redesigned to provide discounts on premium-class tickets booked via American Express Travel on 18 participating airlines.
The details:
- Discounts on the market, business, and premium-economy tickets, equally non refundable and non refundable fares
- Travel must begin and finish in U.S. or pick Canada gateways
- Discount may be applied to up to eight tickets
- Eligible for Pay with Points payments
- $39 fee per ticket
The discount varies by airline, and from flight; cardholders might need to telephone the Platinum Card Travel Service for a quotation on specific itineraries. A forum for travelers, cardholders posting on FlyerTalk, are reporting significant discounts while the lack of transparency is concerning.
The new benefit isn’t by itself a compelling reason. Nevertheless, it’s certainly worth factoring to the calculation if you’re thinking about the card. And in the event that you have the Platinum card in your wallet, you want to see if you are able to snag a much better rate on your next international airline booking.
Reader Reality Check
Can you justify paying for a $550 annual fee for the Platinum Card?