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American Express Platinum (Personal) Review

 

I’ve had the Amex Platinum card for 8 months now and can now provide my honest feedback about the card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Benefit Evaluation

  • $200 Airline Incidental Fee Credit per year: If you signed up for the card like me towards the end of the year, you can get the full $200 credit for the current year and another $200 credit the start of next year as this is calculated based on a calendar year. If you play your cards right, this nearly negates the annual fee entirely as you can use the $200 from this year and $200 from next year on airline tickets (Read more about how I used this towards the purchase of United Airlines gift cards, which I redeemed for travel)

  • Lounge Access: The Platinum card grants the primary cardholder AND any authorized users enrollment in the Priority Pass Select program and access to Amex’s own Centurion Lounges. While cardholders may bring up to 2 guests or family into the Centurion Lounge, there is a $27 charge for bringing a guest into a lounge under Priority Pass. And Delta and Airspace lounges Yes, the Centurion Lounges are a huge step above airline lounges, but there’s only 5 of them (San Francisco, Miami, Dallas, Las Vegas, LaGuardia) and Seattle coming very soon. As a Star Alliance Gold customer with an international carrier, I have access to the United Club and can bring guests and since I fly out of San Diego, the only lounge I have access to is Airspace.

  • $100/$85 Global Entry/TSA Pre Reimbursement: Primary cardholders AND authorized users can apply for Global Entry or TSA Pre and get reimbursed then $100 or $85 application fee, respectively. Global Entry comes with TSA Pre benefits so you might as well apply for Global Entry. The benefits include expedited security lines and not having to remove belts and liquids/laptops from your bags. I haven’t used the Global Entry kiosk for entry into the U.S. yet, but if you are an elite flier, you probably either already have TSA Pre or will find its lines just as long, if not longer than the elite security lines. Once approved for either Trusted Traveler program, your approval is good for 5 years.

  • SPG Gold Status: Normally achieved after staying 25 qualifying nights or 10 qualifying stays, this is a nice benefit that I have already put to use when I stayed at the Sheraton in Downtown Denver. (Read about that here) You can also achieve SPG Gold status by spending $30k a year or more on the SPG Amex credit card (personal AND business version).

 

Apply for the card here

 

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