Amex Platinum benefits

It’s hard to beat the perks and standout value of The Platinum Card® from American Express, which offers even more exciting benefits and statement credits. This card is great for savvy spenders and frequent travelers who like to participate in hotel loyalty programs, fly often, partake in luxury travel and appreciate access to top-tier airport lounges. However, the rewards and benefits now come at a higher cost — a steep $695 annual fee — making it important for you to understand the benefits available to determine whether you’ll use them enough to make up for the cost.

How do you enroll in Amex Platinum benefits?

If you don’t have the Amex Platinum already, you’ll likely need good to excellent credit to get approved for it. Once you’re a Platinum cardholder, it’s time to take advantage of all the benefits and perks. Some are automatically applied, but many of the perks have to be activated.

You can start by logging in to your online Amex Platinum account. Once logged in, you can review the list of all benefits and perk offers and follow the specific steps to enroll or activate the ones you’ll use.

What are the Amex Platinum card benefits?

The Amex Platinum card offers a variety of benefits that can more than offset the annual fee for the right kind of spender. We’ll explore the extensive list of Amex Platinum card benefits below, including the card’s airline perks, hotel benefits, purchase protection benefits and much more.

Airline benefits

The Amex Platinum airline benefits boast valuable rewards, including the following:

• Shorten your time in security lines with the Platinum’s statement fee credits for Clear, available annually, and for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, available every four or four and a half years, respectively.
• Take advantage of your annual travel credit of $200 for airline fees to cover checked-bag fees, Wi-Fi and in-flight drinks and meals. Your Amex travel credit applies to one airline you select and you can update your choice once a year.
• Relax in style before your flight with access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection, which has more than 1,400 airport lounges around the world. These include Amex Centurion lounges, Delta Sky Clubs (must be on a same-day Delta flight) and select Priority Pass lounges, as well as Airspace, Escape, Plaza Premium and Lufthansa lounges.

Hotel benefits

This elite travel card also provides great benefits for your hotel stays:

• Enjoy Fine Hotels + Resorts perks through American Express Travel, including daily breakfast for two, a 4 p.m. checkout and complimentary Wi-Fi.
• Receive a $200 hotel credit each year for booking at Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection properties through American Express Travel.
• Enroll to instantly achieve the elite Hilton Honors Gold status, giving you access to lucrative point bonuses, award nights and perks that vary by property and brand, such as refreshments, breakfast, room upgrades and more.
• Get rewarded with instant Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status simply by enrolling through your Platinum card benefits. Relax using perks that may include upgraded rooms at check-in, welcome amenities and late checkout, as well as higher point earnings.
• Platinum cardmembers can receive discounts on Wheels Up memberships as well as a credit toward their initial flight. Wheels Up is a private jet charter company offering on-demand private jet flights.

Ground transportation benefits

The Amex Platinum continues to offer travel benefits by helping with ground transportation, including rental car benefits and free Uber credits.

Your Amex Platinum yields elite car rental privileges with a complimentary membership in premium car rental programs, including Hertz Gold Plus Rewards, Avis Preferred and National Emerald Club.

Or, leave the driving to someone else and use $200 in Uber Cash annually for rides or Uber Eats orders in the U.S. The benefit is a $15 monthly credit, plus a bonus of $20 in December. This credit doesn’t roll over, though, so if you don’t use it, you lose it.

Travel protection benefits

The Amex Platinum is packed with travel and purchase protection benefits. Travel-related protections include insurance for various unavoidable problems.

Your trip cancellation and interruption insurance will help you out if your round trip is paid for entirely with your Amex Platinum card and then a covered reason delays your trip by more than six hours. You may be able to get back the non-refundable amount you paid to your travel supplier (like an airline).

If eligible for trip interruption coverage, your card benefits may cover the cost of additional transportation expenses.

And trip delay insurance will cover eligible events for up to $500 per trip for associated expenses, with a maximum of two claims per year (terms and conditions apply).

Product protection and warranty benefits

The Amex Platinum card offers several valuable protection benefits for eligible purchases.

• Cellphone protection: If your cellphone is stolen or damaged, you may be reimbursed for eligible repair or replacement costs for up to two approved claims (maximum of $800 per claim in a 12-month period) provided your cellphone line is listed on a wireless bill and the prior month’s wireless bill was paid on an eligible card account. A $50 deductible applies.
• Return protection: If you try to return an eligible item within 90 days of the purchase date but the merchant won’t take it back, you may be refunded the full purchase price excluding shipping and handling (up to $300 per item and up to a maximum of $1,000 per calendar year).
• Purchase protection: This purchase protection benefit can cover the cost of unexpected mishaps, including damage, loss or theft. Covered purchases may include any tangible item purchased with your Platinum card (remember that terms and conditions apply). This benefit is up to $10,000 per covered purchase and $50,000 per calendar year.
• Extended warranty: When you charge an entire purchase on your Platinum card, you activate longer warranty protection. Amex’s extended warranty perk matches the original manufacturer’s warranty for up to one additional year. This applies to warranties of five years on eligible purchases in the U.S. or its territories. Coverage is limited to the actual amount charged on your card for the item, up to $10,000 per item and $50,000 per calendar year.

Shopping benefits

The Amex Platinum also offers shopping perks, including up to $100 in statement credits per year for purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue or saks.com. The credit is available in semiannual amounts of up to $50 from January through June and then up to a second $50 from July through December.

Most recently, Amex has also added statement credit benefits covering the full cost of a Walmart+ monthly membership. The subscription costs $12.95 per month plus any applicable taxes.

Lifestyle benefits

Platinum cardholders living an active lifestyle may also appreciate the new annual up to $300 Equinox credit (enrollment required, see offer terms for details) available when they purchase eligible Equinox memberships, including Equinox All Access, Destination and E by Equinox. Equinox+, an on-demand fitness app, also qualifies for the credit. On top of that, cardholders can earn a $300 annual statement credit on the SoulCycle At-Home Bike through Equinox+.

Furthermore, Amex has recently added entertainment benefits to the card. Cardholders can receive up to $240 in annual digital entertainment benefits (up to $20 per month) for eligible subscriptions, including Peacock, Audible, SiriusXM and The New York Times.

Additionally, the card offers a subscription to Departures, a lifestyle destination resource with content on food, travel and culture.

Dedicated foodies will enjoy the Global Dining Access by Resy, included with the Amex Platinum. The program provides elevated dining benefits, such as special access to famous restaurants worldwide, exclusive reservations, presales to dining events and more.

What benefits do Amex Platinum authorized users get?

Adding card members or authorized users to your account is easy. Simply log in to your Amex online portal or call the customer service phone number on your card and provide the person’s full legal name, date of birth and Social Security number. It’s important to know that when you add an authorized or additional user, you are entirely responsible for paying off their purchases on your card account.

Once someone is added as an authorized user on your Amex Platinum card, they can enjoy many of the same benefits you do as a cardholder:

• Use a up to $200 airline fee credit
• Receive up to a $300 annual Equinox credit
• Enjoy an up to $200 hotel credit (again, $200 is the annual limit across all cards on the account, minimum two-night stay required)
• Use an up to $240 digital entertainment credit (up to $20 per month across all cards)
• Get an up to $189 Clear credit (total for all cards on the account)
• Receive a statement fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck
• Contribute to the rewards you earn on your account
• Enjoy access to the Global Dining Access by Resy program and the associated benefits

How do you maximize Amex Platinum benefits?

The first step to maximizing your Amex Platinum benefits is to take advantage of the lucrative welcome offer. You can earn 80,000 Membership Rewards points if you spend $6,000 in the first six months.

To maximize the welcome offer, make sure you reach the spending thresholds. You can track your spending on the Amex mobile app, so you don’t miss the mark by a couple of dollars. If you wouldn’t spend this much regularly and can’t pay it off on time, then be careful about chasing bonus points that might actually cost you more in interest. This card is a good fit for high-spending individuals who use the Amex Platinum card for household spending, ground transportation, airline and hotel travel and everyday purchases.

Beyond the welcome offer, the card features a regular rewards rate of 5X points on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel (up to $500,000 in purchases per calendar year).

The card also offers 1X points on all other eligible purchases, which can add up, especially if you frequently reach for the card for household spending, link the card to online bills or use the card for repairs, home improvements and other large purchases.

Be sure to optimize your card’s value by using up the Uber credits allocated each month and taking advantage of the extra credit in December.

It’s also important to enroll in the offers you want to use that aren’t automatic. Log in to your card account and sign up for what meets your needs. If you’re traveling, remember to activate the Hilton, Marriott and car rental provider benefits to reap those travel rewards.

It’s also worth noting that the flexibility of the Amex Platinum rewards points works in your favor. You are not limited to travel redemption, as you can also redeem your points for statement credits, retail merchandise and gift cards. If you want to stretch your points, you can also consider transferring your points to an American Express transfer partner.

How do the benefits compare to the annual fee?

With an annual fee of $695, how easy is it to rack up rewards and perks that outweigh it? By just adding up all the easy-to-use credits, you can access over $1,400 from the Amex Platinum benefits annually:

• TSA PreCheck or Global Entry– up to $100
• Clear credit – $189
• Hotel credit – $200 (minimum two-night stay required)
• Airline fees credit – $200
• Fine Hotels & Resorts experience credit – $100
• Uber Cash credit – $200
• Saks Fifth Avenue credit – $100
• Digital entertainment credit – $240
• Equinox credit – up to $300
• SoulCycle At-Home Bike – $300
• Walmart+ – more than $150 (if using the statement credit benefit monthly for the entire year at $12.95 per month)

Add in the welcome bonus and then the regular rewards rates on top of these benefits, and this card is an easy choice if you can maximize all or the majority of the statement credit benefits.

Bottom line

Plenty of other reward cards come with lower annual fees, but the value of the Amex Platinum card can easily justify the card’s higher annual fee for the right cardholder. To maximize your Amex Platinum benefits, aim to reach the spending thresholds for your welcome bonus (just remember to pay your bill on time and in full every month so you don’t lose your gains by paying interest), and use your benefits and perks to save money in your daily life and for travel.

Enroll in all the benefits you’re planning to use and make sure you check the card’s terms before traveling or giving up on a damaged or lost item that you could get covered with your extended warranty or purchase protection benefits. Finally, don’t forget to book applicable travel on amextravel.com and enjoy hotel upgrades through the hotel status benefits available on your Amex Platinum card.