Is the American Express Platinum Card Worth It? Editor’s Review for 2024 (2024)

Pros

• 80,000 points offer
• Hundreds in annual credits

Cons

• $695 annual fee
• Limited financing capabilities
• No preset spending limit

Is the American Express Platinum card Worth It?

The Platinum Card® from American Express is worth it for frequent travelers with a good credit score who don’t mind paying for extra benefits. The card gives 1 - 5 points per $1 spent on purchases and has a massive initial bonus of 80,000 points for spending $8,000 in the first 6 months. It also offers hundreds of dollars in spending credits and other perks per year. The downside is that the annual fee is also enormous, at $695.

Considering just the rewards, the average person would earn more than $1,000 with the American Express Platinum card over the first two years of use, even after factoring in the annual fee.

What You Need to Do to Make the American Express Platinum card Worthwhile

To make the American Express Platinum card worthwhile, you need to spend at least $8,000 in the first 6 months to earn the card’s initial bonus of 80,000 points. That will cover most of the annual fee for the first year, the rest of which you should be able to make up through your standard rewards and benefits.

For the American Express Platinum card to be worthwhile after the first year, you will need to cash in on the various statement credits to which you’re entitled, regularly spend time in airport lounges, and use the card for purchases in its ongoing bonus rewards categories. You will also need to pay the bill in full monthly so that interest doesn’t outweigh your rewards.

Amex Membership Rewards points are worth up to 1 cent each. Without considering any of the card’s valuable supplemental perks, you’d have to spend around $14,000 to $70,000 to break even on the annual fee in a normal year, assuming you redeem your points for travel or gift cards.

American Express Platinum Card Review Highlights

1. 80,000-Point Initial Bonus

   Spending $8,000 during the first 6 months your account is open will earn you 80,000 bonus points, redeemable for ~$600 in gift cards or travel purchased through American Express. You have other redemption options, to be sure, but those two methods provide the most value.

2. Free Access to Airport Lounges

   The Platinum Card® from American Express is your ticket to preflight leisure, providing complimentary access to over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. It provides automatic entry to the American Express Centurion Lounge – which has locations in New York (La Guardia), Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, Miami and Houston – as well as the Airspace Lounge (four locations) and the Delta Sky Club (51 locations available to Platinum cardholders). It also gives you the option of enrolling in Priority Pass Select, which features more than 1000 lounges, at no cost.

   Ordinarily, without the Platinum Card, a one-time pass to a Centurion Lounge costs $50 and is only available to American Express cardholders. Airspace Lounge and Delta Sky Club charge a minimum of $20 and $59, respectively, and you’d have to pay a $99 annual fee just for the privilege of shelling out another $27 per visit to a Priority Pass Select location.

3. Hundreds in Annual Credits

   Each year, you stand to receive up to $200 in statement credits to cover “incidental” air travel expenses, such as baggage fees and the cost of in-flight refreshments. All you have to do is designate an airline of choice, and you will be automatically credited for eligible charges assessed by that airline as they post to your account.

   In addition, you will also receive up to $200 in Uber credits annually and up to $200 annual credits for prepaid bookings made through American Express Travel at Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection properties (The Hotel Collection requires a minimum two-night stay). On top of all that, you can receive up to $155 Walmart+ credit when you pay the $12.95 monthly Walmart+ membership with your Platinum card (the cost includes the applicable local sales tax and the membership is subject to auto-renewal).

4. Up to 5 Points per $1 Spent

   The American Express Platinum Card’s regular rewards earning rate is perhaps its least exciting benefit, providing less than the market average of 1 point per $1 spent on most purchases made with the card, yet it is a benefit nonetheless. After all, you also earn 5 points per $1 spent on airfare (on up to $500,000 spent per calendar year) and on prepaid hotels booked through American Express Travel.

   One thing to note, however, is that rental-car reservations and non-prepaid hotel reservations are for some reason specifically excluded from earning extra points. That could potentially loom large, depending on your travel preferences.

5. Complimentary Hotel Status

   As an Amex Platinum cardholder, you will have the ability to enroll in Hilton’s Hilton Honors Rewards program as a Gold-level member for free, without having to meet the spending requirements to which other consumers are subject. Ordinarily, Hilton Honors Gold membership costs at least $2,880 per year, based on Hilton's minimum stay requirements and average daily room rate.

6. $0 Foreign Transaction Fees

   More and more credit cards are scrapping foreign transaction fees, as evidenced by the fact that the average foreign surcharge has declined by 38% from 2014 through 2021, according to WalletHub’s Credit Card Landscape Report. Amex Platinum is among the cards that lack such a fee. And while that should be expected from a card catered to luxury travel, the ability to save the market average of 1.56% on every purchase processed abroad could nevertheless prove to be quite valuable.

   See Also

   American Express Platinum Review 2024

   That is, of course, if you can find a merchant that accepts American Express. Amex, the world’s third-largest card network, operates in 130 countries, which might seem like a lot until you consider that Visa and Mastercard are both accepted in more than 200 countries.

American Express Platinum Card Review Lowlights

1. $695 Annual Fee

   The Platinum Card® from American Express has one major weakness: its prodigious cost. Only a few of the more than 1,000 credit cards tracked by WalletHub charge more than Platinum’s $695 annual fee. So you should think long and hard about the Platinum Card's hefty cost before you submit an application.

2. Not Great for Financing

   Amex Platinum is not a traditional credit card, and the fact that you normally must pay your bill in full every month in order to continue making purchases with this card does limit its versatility relative to a “normal credit card.” Furthermore, since you figure to be paying so much to use this card to begin with, every bit of lost functionality matters.

   Nevertheless, Amex Platinum allows you to carry a balance in some cases. Certain eligible charges may qualify for the “Pay Over Time” feature, which allows you to carry an interest-accruing balance, up to the Pay Over Time Limit. All charges not added to a Pay Over Time balance must be paid in full each month by the payment due date. So, you’ll need to find another card for big-ticket purchases.

3. No Preset Spending Limit

   It doesn’t mean you don’t have a limit. Rather, this card’s No Preset Spending Limit (NPSL) feature means that Amex determines your limit on a monthly basis, based on your recent spending and payment habits and the economic climate. Unfortunately, you won’t be privy to this information, and without a clear limit in mind, you could find yourself at the wrong end of a declined transaction – perhaps even in an emergency situation when traveling.

Other Things to Consider About the American Express Platinum card

1. Credit for Expedited Airport Screening

   If you apply for and are granted either Global Entry or TSA Precheck and pay the corresponding membership fees ($100 and $85, respectively) with your American Express Platinum Card, you will automatically receive a statement credit reimbursing you for the cost. You can receive one such credit every four years. The Amex Platinum Card also covers the cost of a CLEAR® membership with up to $189 statement credit per year (subject to auto-renewal).

2. Platinum Dining

   You will have access to a concierge who can book reservations on your behalf at more than 1,000 restaurants and make other related arrangements and recommendations. You can see what restaurants are available in your favorite destinations on the Platinum Dining webpage.

3. “By Invitation Only” Program

   Reserved for Platinum and Centurion cardholders, By Invitation Only gives you access to special events such as sports games, culinary events and auto shows. You can find a full list of available experiences here.

American Express Platinum Card vs. the Competition

The Platinum Card® from American Express Review Methodology

The Platinum Card® from American Express review is based on WalletHub’s proprietary 100-point credit card rating system. By using a consistent methodology to evaluate the The Platinum Card® from American Express and all other cards, WalletHub’s credit card experts make it easy for people to compare their options and find the best credit cards for their needs.

The WalletHub rating system uses 16 key metrics grouped into seven categories: Fees, Rewards, Two-year Cost, Interest Rates, Approval Requirements, Special Features, and Reviews. Each metric has a maximum number of points allocated to it, based on the metric’s importance as determined by our editors. The points are added up to create an overall rating for the The Platinum Card® from American Express out of a maximum of 100 points, which is then converted to a 5-point scale.

Ratings for each category reflect how close American Express Platinum card is to WalletHub’s definition of a 5-star credit card, which is based on market conditions and what we believe are reasonable terms. We compare American Express Platinum card to that standard to give a numerical approximation of how reasonable and competitive its terms are compared to other cards.

To learn more about how WalletHub rates credit card offers, check out our full credit card review methodology.

Expert Thoughts on The American Express Platinum Card

To help people learn more about The Platinum Card® from American Express, WalletHub's editors posed the following questions to a panel of experts. You can meet our panelists and read their responses below.

1. When does it make sense to consider a credit card with a triple-digit annual fee?

2. How do you think COVID-19 has impacted travel-centric credit card offers, such as The Platinum Card from American Express?

3. Who do you think benefits the most from the American Express Platinum Card’s Uber benefit: cardholders, American Express or Uber?

Important Disclosures