According to a rumor reported by Doctor of Credit, The Platinum Card® from American Express will be “refreshed” this year and may sport a mirror finish. Nick and I recently took a stab at predicting what perks and rebates the refreshed card will offer in our podcast episode “Predicting the Refreshed Platinum Card.” I think we got a lot right in that show, but maddeningly I forgot to include one of my primary predictions: Amex will add Resy Restaurant credits. So, I’m declaring a do-over. I’m taking the best predictions from the show, plus Resy Restaurant credits, plus some ideas contributed by our audience to produce a new set of predictions. What follows is what the refreshed Platinum card will really look like. 110% guaranteed1.
The following predictions are for the consumer Platinum Card. The Business Platinum Card, if refreshed, will have different changes.
Annual Fee: $895
I think Amex will go big here and increase the fee from $695 to $895. Ouch.
Point Earnings Unchanged (Unfortunately)
Currently the Platinum card earns 5 points per dollar for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel, and 5 points per dollar for prepaid hotels booked through American Express Travel. For all other purchases it earns only 1 point per dollar. That’s really poor compared to most other popular cards. I would love to see Amex make the Platinum card more competitive here. At a minimum, this card should continue to earn 5x in select travel categories and 3x for all other travel purchases; and 3x for dining worldwide. Unfortunately, I don’t think that even that much is likely.
$300 Resy Restaurant Credit (New)
Given that Amex recently added Resy credits to the Delta SkyMiles Platinum and Reserve cards and the Amex Gold card, this prediction is a slam dunk. That’s why it’s particularly irritating that I forgot to mention it on our podcast!
I expect that the credit will be doled out monthly: up to $25 back per month for any spend at U.S. restaurants listed on the Ressy platform. This will be advertised as a $300 credit ($25 x 12 months) to encourage customers to believe that it’s a great trade off for the increased annual fee.
$300 Lifestyle / Wellness Credit (Replaces $300 Equinox and Soul Cycle credits)
This one was suggested by Whitney (here). I expect that this credit will be for spend at gyms, spas, wellness apps, etc. I expect that it will be doled out monthly: up to $25 back per month. While I don’t think this is nearly as likely as the predicted Resy credit, I think this would be a popular new benefit. It would be great to be able to pick our own path towards wellness rather than having Amex dictate that we do it through Equinox or Soul Cycle.
$200 Flight Credit (Replaces Airline Incidental Fee credit)
Currently, the Platinum card reimburses up to $200 per calendar year in incidental airline fees. That credit will be replaced with a $50 per quarter flight credit. Any purchases made directly with an airline should qualify for up to $50 back each quarter. This mirrors a similar change that was made to Hilton Aspire card a couple of years ago.
This switch will at once make it easier to use the credit since it won’t be limited to airline fees, and harder to use the credit since it will be spread out quarter by quarter.
$240 Rideshare Credit (Replaces $200 Uber Credit)
Currently Platinum cardholders get $200 per year in Uber credit doled out monthly as $15 per month and $35 in December in use-it-or-lose-it credit. I predict that this will be replaced with up to $20 per month in rideshare rebates (similar to the Delta Platinum and Reserve cards’ $10 per month rideshare rebates. The nice thing about this is that it wouldn’t be limited to Uber. One bad thing is that it won’t work for Uber Eats. Another bad thing is that families with multiple Platinum cards won’t be able to pool their rideshare credits as they can today.
$120 Walmart Cash (Replaces $100 Saks)
Nick came up with this one and I think he’s probably right. My guess is that we’ll get $10 per month in use-it-or-lose-it Walmart Cash. For Walmart shoppers this will complement the current Walmart Plus rebate which I expect will continue. This new credit will probably replace the $100 Saks credit ($50 every six months) that we have now.
Delta Complimentary Upgrades (New)
This is a bit of a wild guess, but I think it makes sense. Long ago, Amex Platinum cards came with Delta Platinum elite status. I don’t see that happening again, but I do think that it would be easy and cheap for Delta to allow Platinum cardholders onto the complementary upgrade list for free (mostly domestic) upgrades to comfort+, first class, or Delta One. This would mirror the benefit found on Delta SkyMiles Platinum cards (details here).
Many perks unchanged
Platinum cards have many other popular perks including lounge access, elite status with Hilton and Marriott, rental car benefits, prepaid hotel credits, digital entertainment credits, etc. I’m predicting that most of these will remain unchanged. For complete details about Platinum card perks, see: Amex Platinum Complete Guide.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
To me, the huge draw to the general public on this card is the Centurion lounge benefit. At what point does it make you just saw “forget it”, and pay for a sit down restaurant at the airport rather than pay this huge fee to get a coupon book. Not a chance I’d keep this card at $900/year. At $695, I currently hold 2 only due to juicy upgrade offers I received.
#SickOfTheCoupons
The card was overpriced for me at $695 – these changes make it worse. I have ONE restaurant in town that is on Resy – and it’s vegan (my DH is definitely NOT). I rarely use rideshares, and my gym doesn’t accept CC payments.
I’m hoping you’re wrong….
The idea of monthly $25 Resy credit is enraging. I could handle a quarterly Resy credit I guess.
I’m a little late to the party, but I would love to see guest passes to the Centurion Lounge. Maybe 10 total per year so the few times you travel with friends or family, you can bring in the whole gang.
I’m skeptical Amex will touch the AF in the short term — if you had asked me last year I would have agreed with your prediction, but there’s a lot of reason to be uncertain about the economy right now and I don’t think Amex wants to give anyone a reason to question whether it is worth keeping the card.
The Walmart Cash idea is clever, but for many people that would be as close to an automatic rebate that I doubt the math makes sense for Amex. I have to think the breakage would be far too low.
I’m with others…$895 is too much if these are the changes. I think Resy is likely as is an increase, but you can only go so far before you start losing too many cardholders to make the increase worthwhile.
Wow, I influenced Greg THE frequent miler? I’m flattered! I considered predicting a Resy credit, but ultimately dismissed the idea as being too close to cannibalizing the gold card — though I suppose the same argument could be made about the current uber cash benefit (I would argue they’re materially different, however, since uber cash could be used for dining or ride share). I tend to think that Amex adding some sort of entertainment/events benefit is the most likely of my predictions that aren’t reflective of already existing benefits on other cards (e.g., ride share & airline credits). I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
I need a poop emoji for all these “benefits”
$895 is a nonstarter for me no matter how many coupon book credits are added.
I will simply cancel one of out Morgan Stanley cards and add as a free AU on the other cards. And my kids will get gold cards instead.
Amex will see major attrition
My thoughts for the ride share credit is that if they were going to do that, they would’ve done so already with the Amex gold card. It wouldn’t make sense to start with the platinum after the gold was refreshed and didn’t change the uber benefit. I speculate that there is an uber specific discount with the credits that uber gives to Amex.
I think the Delta refresh was the test candidate with Resy/Ride Share/$200 Delta Stay’s and the Upgrade list (I have the $350 Delta Biz Plat -I wasn’t sure at first last Spring ( when IIRC they also refreshed Gold) but PDX has a decent Resy selection.
– We have an amazing Brazilian Steak house close to our house that we have been visiting monthly (three Gold cards and the Delta) as well as it triggered Resy credit using Inkind for a tip unexpectedly at a Sushi joint downtown.
The ride share is annoying – I like the Uber/Eats credits for the months we don’t fly (the only time we really use ride share).
I tend to order UberEats for pickup. Same with GH on Gold. Some months I bank the ride share credit with Lyft – and I tend to compare who is cheaper Uber or Lyft when booking from/to Airport. But its annoying as that neither work outside US except the few countries that us USD. I lost the credit when I booked a Uber in France and I tested the credit it was only $13 from train station to WA Versailles -but I did have my daughter use $50 Uber credit for food and also our Grubhub credits since we were gone the whole month.
The platinum card will sport a “mirror finish?” With a suggested annual fee of $895, sounds like “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” presently playing on Broadway in NYC! I just can’t reconcile an almost $900 membership fee per year with increased Walmart benefits! Hope you are all way off the mark with the annual fee prediction.
I agree the The Wal-mart benefits would just meh. I just checked the app – and since 2021 when they rolled out the monthly $12.95 credit.
I have ordered 11 times – mainly deals off Dan’s Deals/Slick Deals -and a few Amex offer’s and bought a clearance Keuirg Single serve on clearance that was $17 after the $15 Walmart cash promo in December that they were giving out with the $10 Lyft Credit IIRC.
I also tried Curbside pickup in Park City – for women’s snow pants ( couldn’t find anything in my wife’s size (reasonable priced) that would arrive (Amazon) before our trip to Park City – we ordered 18 hours before scheduled pickup – got an email our order was ready for pickup to text from parking lot when we get there that evening. The next morning got an “oh sorry the item is unavailable but we can ship it to you for free in two weeks”
I much prefer Amazon same day ~ 2-day free delivery with no tip for delivery driver needed.
Amazon is far superior to Walmart with deliveries and returns – So many Items are 3rd party or unavailable for same day or even 2 days delivery. I would never pay for the $12.95 or $99/yr Business plan ( they have insane pricing for the higher tiers plans).
I think you are right on resy and its kinda of genius. because the plat card is not a “wallet card”’ for me but rather finds itself in my travel backpack. With resy credits now im balancing getting my credits but with a terrible bonus rate with using the proper card (ie amex gold or equiv) which has both resy and 4x bonus. Unless i go the gift card route on the plat (sigh, another gift card uggg) then im bound to screw it up and overcharge restaurants on the plat and amex wins with a higher fee and less points. oh lets not tall about the mass market who are already (incorrectly) over using this card and once they see resy credit they will slap down the plat anywhere and everywhere
Already cancelled mine due to no retention offer. Simply not worth the annual fee.
I think you meant Resy, not Libby
Oops! Thanks, fixed
$895?! They are certainly going to accomplish mass cancellations at that rate. Thank you, AMEX. I consider this a huge favor!
I think you underestimate how oblivious the American public is. I bet most won’t even realize the increase or the AF when it posts either.