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Just a quick post to alert readers that we updated this morning’s post about the new changes to the Platinum card. There is now an even better offer available via restaurant reservation website Resy that’s good for 125K points after $6K in purchases in the first 6 months plus 15x at restaurants worldwide and when you shop small in the US on up to $25K in combined purchases in the first 6 months. If you were able to max this offer out, that would be 500,000 Membership Rewards points from a single credit card. That’s bananas.
The Offer & Key Card Details
For more card information and to find a link to apply, click the card name below to go to our dedicate Platinum card page.
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
100K points + 10X on dining ⓘ Non-Affiliate 100K points after $8K spend in 6 months + 10x on dining for 6 months (on up to $25K in purchases). Terms apply.$695 Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: This card is absolutely loaded with high end perks. Depending upon your situation, those perks may be worth the annual fee or much more. Earning rate: 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel ✦ 5X points for prepaid hotels booked through American Express Travel Card Info: Amex Pay Over Time Card issued by Amex. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: Up to $200 a year in statement credits for incidental fees at one qualifying airline per calendar year ✦ $200 prepaid hotel credit per calendar year valid on Fine Hotels & Resorts and The Hotel Collection bookings ✦ Up to $20 per month rebate for Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, and/or The Wall Street Journal ✦ Up to $120 Global Entry/TSA Precheck fee reimbursement.✦ $15 monthly Uber or Uber Eats credit ($20 in December, use it or lose it each month) ✦ $199 CLEAR (R) Plus fee credit per calendar year ✦ $12.95 (+tax) monthly credit for Walmart+ monthly membership subscription credit when you pay with Platinum card ✦ Up to $100 in credits annually for purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue (up to $50 in credits semi-annually) ✦ Priority Pass membership (Lounges only) with 2 guests and other airport lounge benefits (Centurion and Delta) ✦ Rental car elite status ✦ Marriott Gold status ✦ Hilton Honors Gold status Enrollement required for some benefits. Terms Apply. (Rates & Fees) See also: Amex Platinum Guide |
Quick Thoughts
This offer is absolute insanity. The big increase in annual fee is more than compensated for between the additional 25K points and the fifteen points per dollar spent in the bonus categories. This could be downright amazing if you are planning a wedding that is catered by a restaurant (or a small business!) or the company holiday party at a restaurant or you otherwise spend a lot of money with small businesses. I wonder if any car dealerships code as small businesses and would take a credit card for the full purchase price of a car (before you say no way, I’ve written about that before — while some details in that post are out of date, the fact is that you can indeed find some dealerships that will take a card…). If you manage to max it out with $25K restaurant and small business spend, you’d end up with:
- $25K x 15 = 375,000 points
- 125,000 points from the welcome offer
- Total = 500,000 Membership Rewards points
Based on our Reasonable Redemption Value for Membership Rewards points, that’s worth roughly $7,500. It could obviously be worth tons more via transfer partners in the right situations. That’s incredible.
While I know that number won’t be realistic for everyone, even if you only do $6K in purchases at small businesses and restaurants to trigger the welcome bonus you would have 215,000 points. Anything else is gravy — and at 15x, that gravy train has a lot of steam.
If you have ever thought that maybe the Platinum card was a good fit for you, this is an offer not to pass up if you’re eligible. I know we’ve thought the same thing for the past 7 or 8 months with the previous 100K + 10x offer and I know that supermarkets and gas stations may have been easier categories in some situations, but given a bonus that’s 25% higher and earnings that are 50% more in the bonus categories, this is really just a massive offer with huge potential. I don’t know what will happen if you spend money at a business that is both a small business and a restaurant — I assume you’ll just get 15x. Imagine saying that a year ago — just 15x on a restaurant purchase. Wow.
H/T: John in our Frequent Miler Insiders
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Is the Resy offer still better than the vanilla Platinum? I see with Resy the potential to get up to 500K (125K + 375K) points if one can max the benefits whereas with the vanilla platinum the max would be 400K (150K + 250K). Having said that, are there any exclusions on the Resy Platinum compared to the vanilla platinum, and are there differences between the two beyond the first 6 months? Any reason one should take up the Vanilla platinum in favor of the Resy?
To be clear, they are both the vanilla Platinum card, it’s just that you get a better offer via the Resy website.
No, there is no reason not to get it via Resy. Either way, you get the same 125K into offer after $6K in purchases. The advantage of going through Resy is 15x restaurants and Shop Small rather than 10x (so 375K total possible via Resy vs 250K total possible on the non Resy offer).
I guess you could go via a referral link from player two, but unless you’re going to spend very little at small businesses and restaurants, you would come out ahead with the resy offer. Every $1,000 you spend, you would earn $5,000 points more in those categories via the Resy offer, so it isn’t hard to beat out the referral bonus. At $6,000 in purchases in those categories, that’s already 30,000 points more that you’ll earn if you open via Resy.
Thank you Nick. I have the 150K points pre-approval for the 6K spend on the regular platinum hence wanted to confirm before applying the Resy with 125K. Looks like I still should go for the Resy ?
Despite being an existing cardmember, I’m not getting the popup on this offer, even when I login and have it auto-fill the application. Does that mean I’m eligible?
Do you currently have the vanilla Platinum, or another flavor? (Like Schwab or Morgan Stanley)
Assuming you have the vanilla Plat, you shouldn’t be eligible. I would expect you won’t get the bonus.
Ah, interesting. I was hoping the popup was the new arbiter of whether you could get a bonus again. Good to know it may not always be reliable.
I am sorry if I have missed it, but is there an announced expiration date for this Resy Amex offer? Trying to juggle multiple possibilities. Thanks,
No, there isn’t. In cases where we know the end date, we usually include it. Honestly, I’m amazed it has lasted as long as it has — but I also said that about the previous Platinum card offer. My guess (and this is only a guess) is that it will last until the main / affiliate offer on the Platinum card ends (I base that on the fact that the previous Resy offer tracked the affiliate offer timeline and changed categories from gas and grocery to restaurant and small business along with the main affiliate offer). We don’t know when that offer will end and we probably won’t receive any official word before the day it ends, but if you hear rumors of the current affiliate offers ending at some point, I would take that as a sign that it’s time to jump on the Resy offer.
That said, I probably wouldn’t prioritize anything above the Resy offer right now — if they pull it at some point, you probably stand to lose more than you stand to gain by waiting to go after something else.
Thanks.
Anyone know if “small businesses” online count? I was looking for some terms of what Amex considers to be a small business and it seems like be based on less than $5 million in amex swipe a year and less than 250 locations if franchised
Yes online businesses count
I sent my wife a referral link from my generic Plat card, but she does not see this offer. Is it referrable?
No, it is not referable. You have to choose between getting the best welcome bonus or getting a lesser bonus and a referral bonus. The best option in my opinion, is to sign up for the Resy offer directly, and then once you get that card, refer someone else from that card to another Amex card (any Amex card) so as to get the +4 referral offer on top of the Resy welcome bonus. You have to do the referral before 12/1 though.
I’m actually in the market for a new car now in DFW area and looking for a Kia Telluride. I did find one dealer so far that has not set limit for Amex but unfortunately they are not categorized as “small business” but 80% of all the other Kia dealers around are categorized as “small business”. I emailed around, 1-2 came back saying 2.5-3k limit but will check others. Most places will up it to close a deal but now days with shortages, it may not be likely. Worst case, I’ll even pay up the merchant charge for the 15X amex points. But many factors are involved from the right inventory of the car available, the minimal Markup above MSRP and the Amex limit they will take.
How do you know that place is not categorized as a small business? Don’t go by the small business map. There are lots of places that code as small business that are not on the map. If you can, put a test charge through on something they sell there – maybe they have a keychain or something you can buy and then wait a few days and see whether or not it triggers the small business bonus. Again, the map is not an all-inclusive list and I definitely wouldn’t expect the dealer themselves to know how Amex has it coded.
I know that the Small Business Map is far from a complete source of all businesses that are coded as “small businesses”, but is there a consensus that if something IS on the map it definitely qualifies as a small business for the 15x?
I’ve assumed that to be the case, but I don’t actually have any datapoints to say
I did not say but I’m sure you discussed, can I get this if I already have the personal platinum card? Will I get sign up bonus?
Not if you have the vanilla Platinum – you can’t get the bonus on a card that you have or have had.
Note that the Schwab and Morgan Stanley Platinum cards are different products, so if you have one of those Platinum cards you could still get this one (or if you have the vanilla Platinum you can get one of those, but they don’t have this Resy offer on those cards), but if you’ve got the regular vanilla Platinum you can’t get the welcome bonus again.
Note too that the Schwab Platinum and Morgan Stanley Platinum do not have access to the other deals: with those cards, you can’t get the +4 referral deal nor the 20K for adding an AU.
Wow, good to know! I was about to put it under mine ( I have a vanilla Plat ) luckily can P2.
Incredible work on the other article on this, thank you!
Is everyone eligible to apply through RESY. Amex warns about not awarding points if you are not the recipient of a targeted offer? Why wouldn’t a person go through RESY? When something is too good to be true.
Yes, everyone is eligible to apply. The Resy offer is a public offer displayed on Resy’s public website. The only reason some people don’t go through this offer to get this Platinum card is that they don’t know about it
That annual fee though…
I doubt it’s a typo. The 15x on $ 25,000 is too insane.
Let’s compare the 2 offers.
15X by 10X is !50,000 bonus points plus 150,000 points going through RESY. That totals $ 300,000 points.
Or
10x by $ 25,000 is $ 250,000 plus 100, 000 points, the current offer. That totals $ $ 350,000 points.
The offers are therefore comparable, whether direct or RESY.
The RESY offer is better with limited small business spending.
I retract my post. People have reported getting 500,000 points.
Nick is there a way to use this deal to get a biz Plat? I already had the consumer so I assume lifetime language would screw me
No. Different products with different offers, sorry.
Probably no way to combine this with a referral bonus?
No. The referral offer is only 10x. The only way to get 15x is to apply through Resy. If you do any more than ~$9K spend at 15x, it more than makes up for not getting a referral bonus.
I have the 45K referral bonus to refer P2. I have been contemplating the Resy or referral bonus at 10X. I am not sure if I can hit 9K spend at 15X (maybe yes or maybe no), should I do the retsy offer or the referral bonus offer? Thanks in advance.
Tough call! If you think there’s a good chance that you won’t do $9k or more spend at 15x then go for the bird in hand (e.g. the 45K referral bonus)
Anyone know how long this offer will be active?
Nope.
“This offer is absolute insanity.”
But wait, there’s more!
Call now in the next 54 minutes, and we’ll double the insanity,
Asbolutely.