The Amex Platinum card often polarizes opinions in our community. Some love it, some hate it and call it the coupon book. I first got the Amex Platinum card when it had the $450 annual fee. I’d be the first to admit that back then, it had a much stronger value proposition. However, the card has now evolved into a much more expensive card that offers credits that are split across merchants and time frames. American Express offers different versions of the Amex Platinum card. Since the last 4 years, I’ve carried the Charles Schwab version, which you can have if you have a Charles Schwab Brokerage account open.
Last fall, Amex delivered yet another refresh. They rejigged some of the benefits. However, they also increased the fee to $895. In this post, I wrote about my attempt to get a retention offer after the higher annual fee was posted to my card. So, with the higher annual fee, does it still make sense to renew. The decision was not as easy for me compared to last year’s renewal. However, I still renewed the card. Here’s why.
The Amex Platinum Card: Keep or Cancel?
As highlighted in previous posts, right out of the gate in January, I saw that my annual fee had posted for 2026. I put in a request for a retention bonus but didn’t get any. Now, I had to make a decision. Should I keep or cancel? I started looking back at the previous year and took an analytical approach to make a decision. The Amex Platinum card has a ton of benefits. What this means that different people may find different benefits useful. This table is an illustration of how I see things and why I decided to renew.
Also, the table doesn’t enlist all the benefits. I’m only weighing or rating the benefits I’ve been using regularly. If you don’t see a benefit here, then it means that I either barely use it or don’t find it useful to at all.
The Amex Platinum Card: Weighing the benefits
| Card Benefit | Frequency of Use in 2025 | Ease of Use Rating out of 10 | Benefit Rating out of 10 | Monetary Value Derived | Notes |
| $200 Airline Fee Credit | One Time Purchase | 10/10 | 7/10 | $200 | United Travel Bank Reload |
| $600 Fine Hotels & Resorts Credit | 4 stays | 10/10 | 10/10 | $600 | Multiple stays each year at FHR properties |
| $100 Saks Credit | Low | 8/10 | 5/10 | $50 | With Saks going bankrupt, we could well see changes to this benefit soon |
| Hilton Honors Gold Status | 2 stays | 10/10 | 7/10 | $150 | Complimentary breakfast during non-US stays is very valuable |
| Centurion Lounge Access & Priority Pass | Multiple times | 10/10 | 10/10 | $100 | Very valuable for my style of travel, for solo work trips |
| Amex Referral Credit | $100 is awarded per referral | – | – | $400 | You can use the referral link to refer to any Amex card |
| Total | —————————————-> | $1,500 | |||
What about the rest?
Here’s how I view the rest of the benefits, along with my rationale. for why I don’t find them useful.
- $200 Uber credit: I don’t use Uber and find Uber Eats overpriced. Also, I prefer to go out and eat instead of ordering in.
- $240 digital entertainment credit: Most recently, I’ve started using YouTube Premium credit, which is decent.
- Marriott Bonvoy Gold: I already have Marriott Bonvoy Platinum status, so this benefit doesn’t add any value to me.
- Delta SkyClub Access: I’m not loyal to any particular airline, so this benefit isn’t very useful.
The Pundit’s Mantra
Overall, if you do the math, the value of benefits comes to $1,500 for a card that charges an annual fee of $895. Thanks to the $100 referral credit, it bumped my value up to $1,500 for 2025.
Given that I’m getting decent value for the annual fee that I’m paying, I’m going to keep the card open for 2026. But things can always change. I’ll repeat the process in 2027 and write another post about how 2026 was with the Platinum card.
What are some of your favorite benefits of the Platinum card? Tell us in the comments section.
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Credit Card Offers
American Express Business Credit Cards
- Earn 200,000 Membership Rewards points with the Business Platinum Card
- Earn 100,000 Membership Rewards points with the Business Gold Card by American Express
Chase Sapphire Cards
- 75,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points up for grabs with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card!
- Earn 125,000 bonus points with the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card
- Earn 155,000 bonus points with the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card for Business Card
- Chase Ink Business Preferred Card offering a limited time welcome bonus of 100,000 points
Marriott Bonvoy
Isn’t the Resy credit missing above? If you eat out that might come in handy
And Uber One membership – probably not for you
And digital entertainment credit is now $300.
Did you repurpose an old article?
@Marc: No, this is just a summary of benefits in the chart, showing th e ones I used the most in 2025. “Also, the table doesn’t enlist all the benefits. I’m only weighing or rating the benefits I’ve been using regularly. If you don’t see a benefit here, then it means that I either barely use it or don’t find it useful to at all.”