American Express has just rolled out its biggest Platinum Card refresh in years. Yes, the fee is going up as expected, but so are a lot of benefits. The question now is whether the upgrades are enough to justify the price jump and in this case, I’d actually say yes.
Amex claims the new mix of credits and perks adds up to over $3,500 in value annually…if you use everything. For some, the upgrades more than make up for the $200 fee increase. But if many of these credits go unused or if you don’t travel often or dine out a lot, this card is overpriced. The bigger hotel credit and the Resy credit are strong draws, but you’ll need to be intentional to extract full value and since almost every perk requires enrollment or deliberately spacing out purchases over months or quarters, it takes a lot of organization..
As for the new perks, I mentioned here many times I rarely eat out so Resy is useless for me. I changed my hotel strategy to local boutique hotels so never used Amex to book anything.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
