An Amex Platinum Card ‘glitch’, has it affected you too?

The Amex Platinum card is the ‘top of the pack’ premium credit card in Amex’s portfolio. It carries a massive $695 fee but is studded with credits and benefits or ‘coupons’ depending on how you see it. Amex has different types of Platinum Card, the plain vanilla Platinum card, the Charles Schwab Platinum card and the Morgan Stanley Platinum Card. I’m currently holding the Amex Platinum Card issued in conjunction with Charles Schwab.

Amex Platinum Card Glitch – What Happened?

I logged into my Amex account to make a routine check about some upcoming bill payments. I clicked on my card benefits page and saw an anomaly. For the Amex Platinum card, I saw that the complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status benefit was completely missing! However, I could still see all the other benefits, including the Marriott Bonvoy Gold benefit. So, I immediately posted on X to find out if anyone else was seeing the same thing.

I also logged into my Hilton Honors account and saw that my Gold status had been downgraded to Member status! I was a bit flabbergasted thinking why such a major change was made without notice.

After a few hours, Mark Ostermann from Miles to Memories replied and it seemed like this was a glitch only affecting Charles Schwab Platinum cardholders.

Amex Customer Service

I tried reaching out to Amex’s customer service. I tried initially with Amex’s chat service. They seemed clueless. I then called up customer service to see what was going on. Here’s what the rep said:

• There was a tech glitch which was causing the Hilton Honors Gold Status feature to disappear from the benefits section. The rep submitted a request internally to flag that as an issue.
• The rep noticed that I’d been unenrolled from Hilton Honors Gold status as well. He submitted another request to re-enroll my account for Hilton Honors Gold. Before submitting the request, he confirmed my Hilton Honors account number and the email address on file.

The Pundit’s Mantra

I’m glad I happened to check my card benefits, especially given the fact that I have a couple of Hilton stays coming up in the next few weeks. Based on my conversation with Mark, it seems like this glitch may be currently affecting only those cardholders who have the Charles Schwab Platinum card. However, regardless of which version of the Platinum Card you have, it would be prudent to do a quick check and see if you’re still seeing yourself enrolled in complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status.

If you see that your status has been revoked, then you need to call and submit a request to restore it..

In addition to the Amex Platinum card, you can also get complimentary elite status with Hilton Honors via Hilton’s co-branded credit cards. At the moment, American Express is running limited time elevated welcome bonuses on all of their co-branded credit cards with Hilton.

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