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The Platinum Card® from American Express Guide: 2025 Changes
On September 18, American Express announced big changes to The Platinum Card® from American Express. This article walks you through the changes and strategy tips.
Want to know if this card is worth it for you? Scroll down to our benefits calculator to make your own valuation!
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What Changed in 2025
Annual Fee
The annual fee increased from $695 to $895 per year. With the increased annual fee comes a slew of new benefits.
Adding an additional card to your account now costs $195 per year (previously this was $175).
Companion cards are still free, but have limited benefits.
New and Increased Benefits
The refresh comes with several brand new benefits (more on this below).
Some of the previous benefits have been enhanced or increased to offer even more value.
New Card Design
The Mirror Platinum Card is a special, limited-edition Card design available to new and existing Platinum Card Members.
New and Enhanced Benefit Details
$120 Uber One Credit
You can now receive up to $120 in statement credits each calendar year after you purchase an auto-renewing Uber One membership with the Platinum Card®. Terms apply.
My Take: Uber One gives you $0 delivery fee, 6% back on rides, up to 10% off orders and a few more little perks. If you pay for Uber One, this is a straight savings. This will also make it easier to use the monthly Uber credits the card comes with.
Increased Hotel Credit: two $300 credits 2x a year
The hotel credit has now increased from $250 per year to a new potential total of $600 per year. The perk now gives $300 back in statement credits semi-annually for up to a total of $600 in statement credits per calendar year. These credits are given for prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts® or The Hotel Collection bookings through American Express Travel when you pay with your Platinum Card®. Note that The Hotel Collection requires a minimum two-night stay.
Each of these bookings comes with other complimentary benefits, such as a room upgrade at check-in (when available) and a complimentary credit valued at $100 to use towards eligible charges, such as food and beverage, spa, or other on-property charges, which varies by property. They often include breakfast for two people as well.
Certain room categories are not eligible for upgrade.
My Take: This has theoretically more than doubled in value from the previous credit. I never found this credit easy to use when I had a Platinum card but now some websites like MaxFHR make that easier.
New Hotel Status for Leaders Club
You can now receive complimentary "Leaders Club Sterling Status" from The Leading Hotels of the World®. This gives you some additional benefits at The Leading Hotels of the World which include over 400 independent luxury hotels worldwide. Those benefits include upgrade opportunities subject to availability, daily breakfast for two, and on-property perks. Enrollment required.
My Take: For most people who read this blog, I'm going to assume this isn't worth much. But if you happen to stay at these hotels, it will be nice!
$400 Resy Credits + Platinum Nights by Resy
With the $400 Resy Credit, you can get up to $100 in statement credits each quarter when you use the Platinum Card to make eligible purchases with Resy, including dining purchases at over 10,000 U.S. Resy restaurants. Enrollment required.
You also get access to Platinum Nights by Resy, which offers sought after reservations at participating top Resy restaurants on select nights. Add your eligible Card to your Resy profile to explore and book Platinum Nights reservations. Restaurants are located in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami.
My Take: The fact that this is a quarterly credit just makes it more of a pain to use. That means you have to be sure to use it four times per year. That immediately lowers the appeal for me. That being said, there are a lot of qualifying restaurants and so I think a lot of people will be able to use this. If you plan to use this, don't forget to enroll FIRST otherwise you won't get your credits. You'll need to enroll via your Amex login, sign up for Resy, and then add your Platinum card to your Resy account. Then you can dine at any of the Resy restaurants and pay directly with your Platinum card to trigger the credit.
Increased Digital Entertainment Credit: Now $300 + More Options
You are eligible to get up to $25 in statement credits each month when you use your Platinum Card to subscribe to your choice of one or more of the following: Disney+, a Disney+ bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Paramount+, Peacock, The Wall Street Journal, YouTube Premium, and YouTube TV or make eligible purchases with these partners. Enrollment is required to receive this benefit.
Previously, this credit was $240.
My Take: I appreciate the expanded places you can use your credit including YouTube Premium and YouTube TV. This credit is still fairly limited in scope but most households likely use at least a few of these services.
$300 Lululemon Credit
With the $300 Lululemon credit, you can get up to $75 in statement credits each quarter when you use the Platinum Card for eligible purchases at U.S. Lululemon retail stores(excluding outlets) and Lululemon.com. Enrollment required.
My Take: Again, like the new Resy credit — the fact that this is a quarterly credit just makes it more of a pain to use. That means you have to be sure to use it four times per year. That immediately lowers the appeal for me. If you plan to use this, don't forget to enroll FIRST otherwise you won't get your credits.
$200 Oura Credit
Receive up to $200 in statement credits when you use the Platinum Card to purchase an Oura Ring at Ouraring.com each calendar year. Enrollment required.
My Take: The cheapest Oura ring is $199 so this covers that but then you still need a subscription to the service. Truly just a coupon here for something you may not even plan to buy.
What's Staying the Same
Many of the perks and benefits of the Platinum card are staying the same.
Points Earning Structure
No changes here. Card members and authorized users earn points at the same rate as before:
- 5x points on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel
- 5x points on prepaid hotels booked with AmexTravel.com
- 1x points on everything else
Lounge Access
The Platinum card gives you access to over 1,550 lounges through the Global Lounge Collection. This includes:
- Centurion Lounges (no complimentary guests, unless you spend $75,000 per year)
- Priority Pass Select Membership (enrollment required, 2 guests)
- Escape Lounges (2 guests)
- Delta Sky Club (when flying on Delta but must book above Basic Economy; 10 lounge visits per year)
- Plaza Premium Lounges (2 guests)
- Select Lufthansa Lounges (when flying Lufthansa)
My Take: The lounge and guest access rules are a bit convoluted. For the Centurion lounges, you'd have to dedicate a lot of spending to get lounge access. But Priority Pass still includes 2 guests which after February 2026 is more than Capital One Venture X cardholders can say!
$200 Uber Cash
With the Platinum Card® you can receive $15 in Uber Cash each month plus a bonus $20 in December when you add the Card to your Uber account to use on rides and orders in the U.S when you select an Amex Card for your transaction.
My Take: A little easier to use now that you also get an Uber One membership credited as well. Still a monthly credit takes work to make sure you use it. You can use this for Uber rides or UberEats orders.
$209 CLEAR® Plus Credit
You can cover the cost of a CLEAR® Plus Membership with up to $209 in statement credits per calendar year after you pay for CLEAR® Plus with your Platinum Card®.
My Take: Kids under 18 can go through the CLEAR line with you at the airport for free so this can sometimes help. Occasionally the CLEAR line is shorter than TSA Precheck, but at least at our main airports, it is usually the same.
$200 Airline Fee Credit
Select one qualifying airline and then receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year when incidental fees are charged by the airline to your Platinum Card® account.
My Take: This is kind of hard to use. You can see data points here of how to use this.
Credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck
Receive either a statement credit every 4 years after you apply for Global Entry ($120) or a statement credit every 4.5 years after you apply for a five-year membership for TSA PreCheck® (up to $85 through a TSA PreCheck official enrollment provider) and pay the application fee with your Platinum Card®.
My Take: If you're in this hobby long enough, you probably already have this. If you're newer, this credit is a good one!
Automatic Hotel Status
Just for holding the Platinum card, you get Hilton Honors™ Gold status and Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status.
My Take: Hilton Gold does get you free breakfast outside the U.S. so this is more valuable for international travel.
$155 Walmart+ Credit
Use your Platinum Card® to pay for a monthly Walmart+ membership (subject to auto-renewal) and receive one statement credit for up to $12.95 each month. Up to $12.95 plus applicable local sales tax. Plus Ups not eligible.
My Take: Free is free. I wouldn't probably pay for this but do find it useful when I'm getting it for free. Walmart+ has a unique combo of perks including Burger King coupons and Paramount+.
Credits for Saks and Equinox
Get up to $100 in statement credits annually for purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue or saks.com on your Platinum Card®. That's up to $50 in statement credits from January through June and up to $50 in statement credits from July through December. No minimum purchase required. Enrollment required
Get up to $300 in statement credits each calendar year on a digital subscription or club membership at Equinox. Simply use your Platinum Card® to pay for an Equinox+ digital subscription, or Equinox club membership fees (memberships are subject to auto-renewal).
My Take: Don't forget to enroll for the Saks benefit before shopping!
Benefits Calculator
The Amex Platinum Card®: What's It Worth to You?
Enter your personal estimated annual value for each benefit to see a customized calculation of the card's worth.
Your Total Annual Value:
Annual Fee: $895
Your Net Value / Cost:
Is it Worth it?
If you look at these credits and they don't match the way you spend, ignore this card! It will take mental energy to ensure you're getting your money's worth — besides the fact that you'll have to shell out $895 up front and then later try to make your money back on it.
Existing Cardholder Strategy
Existing cardholders have no reason to close the card immediately. Wait until it's time for your next annual fee to post. On your cardmember anniversary, you'll be charged the new annual fee of $895. At that time, you'll want to evaluate if this card is worth keeping for you.
I'd also recommend asking for a retention offer before you close it — sometimes, the first year after big changes, banks are more generous with retention offers.
Application Notes
Order to apply
American Express has some rules on who is eligible for a welcome offer and when. For this card family, if you already have a higher tier card (like the Platinum), you won't be eligible to earn a bonus on a lower tier card in the same family (like the Gold).
If you want the opportunity to earn a welcome bonus on the Green, Gold, and Platinum cards, it's best to apply in this order:
Green first, Gold second, Platinum third.
Lifetime language
For most American Express cards, the terms and conditions state that the welcome offer is only good once per person, per lifetime. In other words, you can only get a welcome offer once for that particular card.
In practice, though, it seems like "lifetime" is more like 7 years. Many people find that they are eligible to earn a bonus on the same card again after 7 years, but there's no guarantee this will always be the case.
Certain offers won't include this lifetime language.
Welcome Offer
The welcome offer for The Platinum Card® is currently "as high as" 175,000 Membership Rewards® Points. That means you could receive up to 175,000 points, but your personal offer might be different.
Pop-Up Jail
If you're not eligible to receive a welcome offer, you'll get a pop-up message letting you know. The message will look something like this:
This is known as "pop-up jail". It can happen for any number of reasons- if it's been less than 7 years since you've applied for the same card, you've applied for a lot of new cards recently, you haven't been putting enough spend on your current Amex cards, or something else.
If you see the pop-up, you can choose to proceed with the application without a welcome offer or cancel the application.
There are no hard and fast rules on this, but if you do see the pop-up, here are some recommendations that may help you avoid it next time.
- Wait a few months before trying again
- Put more spend on your current Amex cards
- Close old Amex cards that you're not using
- Call in to apply instead of applying online
- Apply using a targeted offer in your e-mail or snail mail
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