Amex’s Platinum Refresh
This is the September 21, 2025 edition of the LazyPoints Weekly newsletter. It goes out by email every Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Pacific–unless I oversleep–and is archived here on the blog. Want it straight to your inbox each week? Sign up here.
The summer of the premium card continues. On Thursday, Amex refreshed its Platinum Card, raising the annual fee, and adding a few perks and tons of statement credits to make that new fee–the highest of any mainstream consumer card–much more palatable. I’ll dive deeper in a full post soon, but here are the essentials:
The card is more expensive—and a much better value
If you can afford to pay $895 in a single payment once a year to cover the annual fee, you’ll have a great shot of recouping all of that and more with the benefits that the card provides. Headline credits include:
$300 in digital entertainment credits (including Youtube TV and Premium, Disney, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and more)
$400 in credits at Resy restaurants
$200 in Uber cash
$200 in airline incidental credits
$300 in Lululemon credits
$600 in hotel credits via Amex Travel’s Fine Hotels & Resorts and Hotel Collection
There are also a few other niche credits that a few people might get some value from, like credits with Equinox. Over $1000 of these are new credits or credit increases from the prior version of the card—and, in my opinion, they are quite a bit easier to redeem on balance (more on that in the blog this week).
In addition to those credits, you’ll also earn a variety of perks:
Access to Amex’s lounge collection, including Centurion Lounges, Delta lounges (when flying Delta), Priority Pass lounges, and some Lufthansa lounges (when flying Lufthansa Group)
Marriott Gold status
Hilton Gold status
Leading Hotels of the World Sterling status
Clear+ membership
Uber One membership
Walmart+ membership
Some of these benefits are in the form of a statement credit too, and you could assign a dollar “value” to any of them, although I like to think of them more as perks than as value.
For me, the collection of credits is easily worth $1000+, even without putting a dollar value on the perks.
It’s still a card to have, not to use
The card’s earning structure is unchanged: 5x on flights booked directly or via Amex, 5x on prepaid hotels booked via Amex, and 1x on anything else. With tons of other cards earning much more on base spending, the Amex Platinum is actually pretty simple: you should use it to pay for (round-trip) flights and to redeem your credits, and essentially nothing else. I’m not sure why Amex didn’t make any changes that would incentivize more spending on the card, but for the consumer it makes the Platinum a fairly easy card to engage with if you can manage the credits well.
Should you get it?
My gut reaction was: what’s the point? I have the card, and I think the value proposition is much stronger today than a week ago. But this is all an awful lot of work for perks that you can mostly get elsewhere (the main exception being the oft-inaccessible Centurion lounges). Membership Reward points are decent, but you won’t earn many with this card. For that, you might need to drop $150 on a Green card, and get nothing in return, or spend $325 on a Gold card and juggle even more statement credits to recoup that cost. Meanwhile, you can get more value with less complication from competitors like Alaska, Bilt, Capital One, and Citi.
If you can afford the fee, you can at least break even, and often come out ahead, and the card offers a ton of nice-to-have perks, so I think it still represents a solid option to elevate your travel experience. But I’m not sure it makes much sense as a centerpiece of a credit card strategy.
Should you apply now?
Surprisingly, the card launched without any kind of elevated welcome offer. The “up to” 175,000-point offer available today is the same one that’s been around for weeks, and isn’t much higher than what Amex has offered through various channels for years. So I see no obvious reason to rush.
That said, if you’ve decided to apply, remember that the Resy and Lululemon credits are quarterly—and Q3 ends on September 30. If you apply now and get the card in hand (either via expedited shipping or the digital card), you could squeeze out an extra $175 in credits right away.
This Week in the Blog 📝
After Chase’s big premium card refresh, we asked: is now the time to cancel your Sapphire Reserve? I wouldn’t, but getting lapped by the Amex Platinum isn’t going to help the case to stick with the Reserve.
Quick Points of the Week ⚡
Special offers ✨
Get $75 back on a fancy dinner with the Sapphire Preferred. Link your card to The Infatuation to get a $75 statement credit after spending $150 at a qualifying restaurant in 11 major cities. (MilesTalk)
New products/features 🆕
Amex improving the lounge access experience. Amex is launching a new travel app that will eventually offer the ability to see estimated wait times and join the waitlist for the Centurion Lounge. (TPG)
Extra points 🪙
Southwest offering points on a debit card. But you’ll probably be better off with a cashback debit like Discover’s. (VFTW)
More value 📈
Chase Sapphire Reserve getting better. In 2026, the credits toward The Edit won’t be restricted to certain periods of the year, while Chase is adding a $250 credit towards certain hotel brands, including IHG. (AwardWallet)
Extra points 🪙
Earn 6,000 Virgin points by linking accounts. You may be targeted to earn points if you have a Virgin Atlantic Account but not a Virgin Red account. I did this last time, and the points–which never expire–are still sitting there in my account. (FrequentMiler)
Giveaways 🎟️
Starlux is doing… something. You can win a trip to Taiwan. I think I entered. I’m not totally sure. But it was still interesting.
Fun 👻
Why not both? Delta asked Skymiles Members which of three European islands should be their next destination. Sardinia was the winner… but Delta is going ahead and adding Malta too. (TPG)
Sign-up bonus of the Week 🎯
The Mesa Homeowner’s Card is back again with a 50,000-point welcome offer, albeit with an extreme spending requirement: $12,000 in the first three months. If you can hit that target, though, you’ll receive a best-ever welcome offer worth at least $500+, and get a powerful no-fee credit card with bonuses on all sorts of unique spending categories like mortgage payments, taxes, and daycare. To get this offer, you’ll need to apply by September 30.
Other great current bonuses
100k + 25k companion certificate on the Alaska Atmos Summit (our take: 🔥🔥🔥🔥)
125k on the Chase Sapphire Reserve (our take: 🔥🔥🔥)
100k on the Citi Strata Elite (in-branch) (our take: 🔥🔥🔥)
80k on the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select (our take: 🔥🔥)
165k on the IHG Premier (our take: 🔥🔥)
80-125k on Delta credit cards (our take: 🔥🔥)
75k miles on the Chase Sapphire Preferred (our hot take: 🔥)
100k Avios on Chase cards (our take: 🔥)
$300 (kind of) on Capital One no-fee cards (our take)
Enjoy the weekend! 🦥
See you in the Centurion lounge? (If we can get in)