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Update: The offer for the Business Platinum card has expired and benefits of the card have changed. Please see our Best Offers page for a complete description of the current offer and benefits.
Last fall, when Amex unveiled enhancements to their Platinum cards (5X airfare rewards on personal Platinum cards, and game-changing enhancements to their Business Platinum Card) they stated that these changes were just the beginning. I took that to be a promise of more good things to come, but maybe I should have taken it as a warning…
Early yesterday morning, news broke about upcoming changes to the Amex Platinum personal cards. Full details can be found here: AmericanExpress.com/
- Annual fee increases from $450 to $550 (existing cardholders will keep their current annual fee until they renew their membership on or after September 1 2017)
- The new card will be made out of metal
- Free authorized user Gold cards
- $200 Uber Credit and Uber VIP status. Apparently cardholders will get $15 credit per month (and $35 credit in December).
- 5X rewards for prepaid hotel bookings made through Amex Travel.
- “Expanding Global Lounge Collection”
To me, 5X rewards for booking prepaid rates through Amex Travel is hardly worth mentioning. If you’re willing to book prepaid rates (which won’t earn hotel rewards), then you’ll almost always do better elsewhere. For example, you can typically click through a cash back portal to Hotels.com for 7% cash back, apply a coupon and/or earn Hotels.com rewards too. That way you’ll also earn credit card rewards (e.g. 3X with the Chase Sapphire Reserve).
And, having a metal card just means that my wallet would be heavier. Who needs that?
Free authorized user Gold cards is good, but those cardholders don’t get any of the great Platinum card benefits.
An “expanding Global Lounge Collection” may be interesting, but its unclear exactly what that means. We do know that more Centurion Lounges are being built. That’s great, but Centurion Lounge access was already a Platinum card benefit.
So, the only meaningful changes, in my opinion, are the “enhanced” annual fee ($550 now instead of $450) and up to $200 in Uber credits spread out $15 per month (and $35 in December). If you use Uber regularly and are 100% sure that you’ll use the credits, then it seems like a good trade-off. For everyone else, not so much. Would you pay $100 up front for the possibility of saving $200 on Uber rides with a max savings of $15 most months? I wouldn’t.
Terrible Timing
I can’t imagine a much worse time for Amex to get in bed with Uber. After all, the Uber CEO was recently captured on video arguing with an Uber driver…
And the company has been reeling from sexual harassment claims…
And, of course, there was the #DeleteUber campaign…
And I could go on and on. Regardless of how you feel about these issues, you’ve gotta admit that Uber has been having a bad year. I’m sure Amex has had this deal in the works for a while now. They might just be regretting it though…
What’s next?
The Amex Business Platinum Card’s 50% rebate when paying with points for flights (with some restrictions) has led many to suddenly consider the card to be worth its $450 annual fee. But will they feel the same if Amex increases the Business Platinum fee to $550? I’m guessing no. I hope that Amex doesn’t do it, but its hard to imagine that they won’t.
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I also let AmEx know that I find a partnership unacceptable. Will be cancelling my card before the renewal. It is a wasted benefit for me, as I don’t want to support a company so toxic for female employees.
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I called and emailed to AMEX to let them know how offended I was by the partnership with UBER given the ongoing revelations about their leadership…thought I was a protest of 1 😉 – suggest everyone contact them to let them know what a poor decision this is so they can course correct and try to retain us.
I’m curious how they responded to your call.
not surprisingly, the CSR guy was polite, but it was over his pay grade ;). However, my email got sent around and I eventually got a call from Sr. Manager, Platinum Concierge Strategy. And we probably talked for like 30 minutes – and the way I left it with him was, I felt heard. Which in today’s political climate is hard to come by 😉 – but at the same time – that business is moved by numbers – so if everyone uses this benefit and no one let’s them know their dissatisfaction – then it will continue. at the time i thought i was a protest of 1 though…so if everyone gives feedback – then they’ll think it impacts the bottom line…then they might care. But we’re going to re-connect in September cause he assured me there were other changes between now and then that would earn the retention of my business.
Thanks Denise. That’s interesting that he thought additional changes are coming that would change your mind. I’m looking forward to learning what those are
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[…] changes coming to the American Express Business Platinum card as of March 30th, 2017. We have previously reported on changes to the personal Platinum card. According to Gary Leff’s sources at American Express, the Business Platinum changes are a […]
Shows how out of touch Amex has become. Who, other.than a tiny few, will use the ridiculous $200 Uber credit? The rest will simply get a $100 fee increase for no meaningful additional benefits. Fail.
Disgusted at this so-called enhancement
Spoke to customer agent earlier today regarding reverting back to Gold on annual fee date. This was NOT a good strategic marketing decision. I don’t even use Uber…prefer taxicab. I think AMEX overshot on their efforts in capturing millenials, and will face a backlash on the price hike.
The 5x at hotel is silly. I though Amex aspired to business travelers with their high end cards. What am I going to do with non refundable hotels?
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no real new benefits for using the plat amex and the XXXTRA $100 fee –OUCH Uber not a big deal they need to get with the program>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Interesting, I actually find some value in uber. We use it occasionally, but not often enough to use all the credits BEFORE they expire. I was really hoping you would get the $200 in uber credits at the beginning of the year, to use throughout the year. We like to use Uber or Lyft for our airport trips, when it makes economic sense to do so (cheaper and easier, sometimes, than paying to park at the airport).