Is the Amex Plat Worth the Annual Fee?

Old Oct 14, 2014, 9:01 am
  #46  
 
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Return protection is also a great benefit. A few times they've even refunded me the money without asking for the item back.
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Old Oct 14, 2014, 12:58 pm
  #47  
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Originally Posted by gooselee
No unique features?

Even though the benefits have dropped off for this card recently, please tell me what other credit card out there at a similar or lower price point offers a comparable amount of lounge access, travel credits, hotel programs, hotel/car status, additional protections (higher LDW, baggage insurance, purchase protection), etc. Perhaps we can cobble together a collection of cards, but I'll also pay a premium for simplicity.

Based on how we normally travel and what we normally buy, Mrs. Lee & I get far more than $625 of value out of our cards each year. This is a calculation each individual needs to make for him/herself. For some it is not worthwhile. For others, it very much is.
No other card has the exact same combination of benefits, so it depends which ones you actually use as to what else it can be compared to.

The Diners Club MC (just opened for new "personal" card applications) is $95/year, has better transfer ratios to most hotel programs than Amex MR does, has lounge access (but not the same so it depends where exactly [down to airport terminalsl] you fly how it compares), and includes rental car collision/theft insurnace (with no extra per-rental fee). It may have some other things on your list, but I'm carry-on only (so never need lost/delayed baggage protection), don't use purchase protection, etc, so I'm not familiar with all of its other benefits.
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Old Oct 14, 2014, 2:27 pm
  #48  
 
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Originally Posted by sdsearch
No other card has the exact same combination of benefits, so it depends which ones you actually use as to what else it can be compared to.

The Diners Club MC (just opened for new "personal" card applications) is $95/year, has better transfer ratios to most hotel programs than Amex MR does, has lounge access (but not the same so it depends where exactly [down to airport terminalsl] you fly how it compares), and includes rental car collision/theft insurance (with no extra per-rental fee). It may have some other things on your list, but I'm carry-on only (so never need lost/delayed baggage protection), don't use purchase protection, etc, so I'm not familiar with all of its other benefits.

It has Diner's club lounge access, which isn't really a fair comparison at all. Being in Atlanta, there are 9 Delta skyclub lounges I can access with the platinum and one Diner's club lounge in the International terminal which I never go to. I'm guessing you place no value on spg Gold, Concierge, Elite status in the three major car rental companies, Global Entry, $200 airfare credit, Boingo wifi, and exclusive access to many different things? To compare these is like comparing a Ferrari to a Miata and saying the Miata is better because its cheaper and fits your needs. Yes it may fit your needs, but it in no way is even close to the Platinum.

Just my opinion, but I don't see your comparison.
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Old Oct 14, 2014, 2:45 pm
  #49  
mia
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Originally Posted by haibane
... Being in Atlanta, there are 9 Delta skyclub lounges I can access with the platinum ...
Provided you are flying on Delta.
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Old Oct 14, 2014, 2:47 pm
  #50  
 
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Originally Posted by mia
Provided you are flying on Delta.
Valid point. I'd love other options, but Delta seems to be the most affordable out of Atlanta.
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Old Oct 14, 2014, 3:35 pm
  #51  
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Originally Posted by sdsearch
No other card has the exact same combination of benefits, so it depends which ones you actually use as to what else it can be compared to....
Originally Posted by haibane
It has Diner's club lounge access, which isn't really a fair comparison at all...
Originally Posted by mia
Provided you are flying on Delta.
Originally Posted by haibane
Valid point. I'd love other options, but Delta seems to be the most affordable out of Atlanta.
So, in summary:
Originally Posted by gooselee
This is a calculation each individual needs to make for him/herself.



Also on the DL-out-of-ATL bit: DL is often not the cheapest on my routes, but I'll be darned if they aren't the most convenient 95% of the time because they have a nonstop and/or multiple flights a day to pick from. Often well worth a $50 premium over an AA/US/UA/WN alternative and they know it. If DL wasn't my primary to begin with, then of course the Amex Plat would lose a ton of value for me. But, it would retain that value for everyone else still flying DL.
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Old Oct 14, 2014, 8:00 pm
  #52  
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Originally Posted by haibane
I'm guessing you place no value on spg Gold, Concierge, Elite status in the three major car rental companies, Global Entry, $200 airfare credit, Boingo wifi, and exclusive access to many different things?
One by one:

I do see a bit of value on SPG Gold, but I don't stay enough at SPG (not a single stay in the past year, for example) to warrant paying for it each year. I mainly use SPG only when I can't use Marriott, Hilton, IHG, etc (so at Iguazu Falls National Perk in Argentina, in Donrbirn Austria and also in the Lakes District east of Salzburg in Austria, etc).

Diners Club has a concierge service too. But I don't use it.

I mostly rent only with Avis, where I already have elite status much of the time (but I don't notice a consistent difference between it and regular Avis Preferred status), and I rent with Hertz so rarely (agian, not a single time in the past year) that I don't feel it's worth paying for whatever it is that elite would get me there.

Will you stop forever with Global Entry????? A fee for Global Entry is only charged once every 5 years, and so the Global Entry fee benefit is useless 4 out of 5 years that one could have an Amex Plat. (In my case, I have NEXUS, which cost half of GE btw but gives me GE benefits anyway for free, and won't need to renew for a couple more years. And will Amex Plat help me renew NEXUS???. You get Global Etnry free with NEXUS, but you can't get NEXUS fee with Global Entry, so that's why I want NEXUS, not [just] Global Entry, because I travel to Canada enough.

It's not $200 airfare credit, is it? It's ancillary purchases only last I heard (though may include gift cards). And my main paid airline is AA (where I'm lifetime Plat), and there are uncorifirmed rumors that Amex Plat may drop this credit for AA in 2015.

I don't need Boingo wifi often enough to pay extra for it. If it was GoGo in-flight wifi that was offered, that might be different story. (And more and more airports are converting to free wifi, but airplanes aren't.)

I don't need excluisve access to those "many things" Amex thinks I want. The things I might want occasional exclusive access to, Amex never offers (they're "too obscure" for Amex to offer). But again, exclusive access is not something I need every year.

Now, as mentioned above, if I could really get 2x$200 credit on gift cards (preferably for AA), by straddling 2 calendar years, then it might be worth it to get it once, get those credits, and then cancel it before the second annual fee hits. But I don't personally see enough value for me to keep this card at $450 every year.

But I do have explain that I virtually never fly for business, and though I have 160ish nights/year of hotel stays, all are paid on my own dime (and budget conscious). So I admit that I am far from the typical "road warrior" that this card seems to be aimed at.
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Old Oct 14, 2014, 10:17 pm
  #53  
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Originally Posted by sdsearch
One by one:

I do see a bit of value on SPG Gold, but I don't stay enough at SPG (not a single stay in the past year, for example) to warrant paying for it each year. I mainly use SPG only when I can't use Marriott, Hilton, IHG, etc (so at Iguazu Falls National Perk in Argentina, in Donrbirn Austria and also in the Lakes District east of Salzburg in Austria, etc).

Diners Club has a concierge service too. But I don't use it.

I mostly rent only with Avis, where I already have elite status much of the time (but I don't notice a consistent difference between it and regular Avis Preferred status), and I rent with Hertz so rarely (agian, not a single time in the past year) that I don't feel it's worth paying for whatever it is that elite would get me there.

Will you stop forever with Global Entry????? A fee for Global Entry is only charged once every 5 years, and so the Global Entry fee benefit is useless 4 out of 5 years that one could have an Amex Plat. (In my case, I have NEXUS, which cost half of GE btw but gives me GE benefits anyway for free, and won't need to renew for a couple more years. And will Amex Plat help me renew NEXUS???. You get Global Etnry free with NEXUS, but you can't get NEXUS fee with Global Entry, so that's why I want NEXUS, not [just] Global Entry, because I travel to Canada enough.

It's not $200 airfare credit, is it? It's ancillary purchases only last I heard (though may include gift cards). And my main paid airline is AA (where I'm lifetime Plat), and there are uncorifirmed rumors that Amex Plat may drop this credit for AA in 2015.

I don't need Boingo wifi often enough to pay extra for it. If it was GoGo in-flight wifi that was offered, that might be different story. (And more and more airports are converting to free wifi, but airplanes aren't.)

I don't need excluisve access to those "many things" Amex thinks I want. The things I might want occasional exclusive access to, Amex never offers (they're "too obscure" for Amex to offer). But again, exclusive access is not something I need every year.

Now, as mentioned above, if I could really get 2x$200 credit on gift cards (preferably for AA), by straddling 2 calendar years, then it might be worth it to get it once, get those credits, and then cancel it before the second annual fee hits. But I don't personally see enough value for me to keep this card at $450 every year.

But I do have explain that I virtually never fly for business, and though I have 160ish nights/year of hotel stays, all are paid on my own dime (and budget conscious). So I admit that I am far from the typical "road warrior" that this card seems to be aimed at.
Again, you are correct that it is absolutely a personal value calculation for each individual. Period.

I would suggest you consider one thing about the elite status though. One of the main benefits of having status through this or any other credit card is the fact that you do NOT need to rent/stay enough for what it would normally take to earn status. So if you have earned status with Hilton, having SPG Gold in your back pocket is useful for the couple times a year you stay there. Normally rent from Avis? National Exec and Hertz 5* are useful to get nicer cars the few times they are much cheaper than Avis (not to mention the 4 hour grace period with Hertz can save you an entire rental day sometimes).

The elite statuses that come with the card are not about bolstering your existing affiliations, they're about opening the door to other options and allowing you to shop more broadly on price vs. just chasing your status benefits. At least, that's how I see it and where lots of the value comes in.
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Old Oct 14, 2014, 10:47 pm
  #54  
 
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It is a no-brainer for me.

Insurance. I have a business card and use it for all equipment purchases -- both business and home. I spilled coffee on a brand new MacAir in the UA lounge in ORD and Amex paid for a new one (almost $3K I think). Regular Amex cards pay up to $1K for this, but the Plat card pays up to $10K per incident and $50K per year. [Fortunately, we don't get near that]. But, my business partner's iPhone was stolen in KL and they paid for a new one. We have had two espresso machines that died in the extra year of warranty offered by
Amex. Again, they paid with no issues.

Premium Car Rental Protection. You pay something like $25 for the trip and you get much better car insurance. I have had a couple of small scrapes to rented cars (one real and one alleged). Amex just makes it go away (from my standpoint) and the repairs could be substantial. Plus, very inexpensive for longer trips.

Never use the concierge. Like the magazine they send Plats, the concierge thinks I want conspicuous consumption -- things that are thought to be expensive. I'm cheap. I'd like to save the money and invest it or pay for my kids' education or something forward looking. I have a wonderful Executive Assistant and she runs down stuff for me.

The lounge access is OK. Used to be better but now Priority Pass works in some places. But, I think I get Priority Pass Select from someone else and use that.

Boingo may be useful. GE/Nexus nice that they pay.

Hertz #1 Club and National whatever it is and Avis Preferred Wizard are useful, but I don't know if they aren't readily attainable elsewhere.

Tried to get a special deal that was available at Ritz-Carlton for Plat holders and don't think I did.

They did assign me a person to call with questions, but she wasn't especially helpful. When she left, I bounced around but then they tried to answer a question I had.

Never have used the 2-for-1 bus class ticket. Never made economic sense.

But, I am sure the card has paid for itself on the insurance side.
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Old Oct 15, 2014, 7:40 am
  #55  
mia
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Originally Posted by shawbridge
...
Premium Car Rental Protection.
This is not a benefit of the Platinum card. It's available with any card issued by American Express. It may be a reason to have an American Express card, but it's not a reason to have a Platinum Card rather than a free card.
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Old Oct 15, 2014, 8:45 am
  #56  
 
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So, for first year is it better to hold out for sign-up bonus or look for year-end deal to double dip on $200 airline credit?

Historical trends of bonus offers on this card?
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Old Oct 15, 2014, 9:02 am
  #57  
 
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What is the foreign transaction fee on their gold cards? On the Platinum card, is the currency exchange rate the same?
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Old Oct 15, 2014, 9:44 am
  #58  
 
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Originally Posted by mia
This is not a benefit of the Platinum card. It's available with any card issued by American Express. It may be a reason to have an American Express card, but it's not a reason to have a Platinum Card rather than a free card.
I didn't know that. I sometimes put personal rentals on the corporate Platinum Card and then reimburse but now I don't have to do that. Thanks.
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Old Oct 15, 2014, 10:11 am
  #59  
mia
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Originally Posted by Sant
What is the foreign transaction fee on their gold cards? On the Platinum card, is the currency exchange rate the same?
USA Premier Rewards Gold adds 2.7% foreign currency fee. American Express does not manipulate the exchange rate on cards with no foreign currency fee. Once upon a time most card issuers hid commissions in this way, but settlement of a class action suit requires that the fees be disclosed.


Originally Posted by shawbridge
... sometimes put personal rentals on the corporate Platinum Card and then reimburse...
Additional reading:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...amex-card.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html
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Old Oct 15, 2014, 9:31 pm
  #60  
 
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I originally got the card because of the initial points bonus and DL lounge access / priority pass but decided to keep it for a second year despite not even using it much. The 2 main reasons are:

1. Centurion lounge access - took a couple trips to vegas and the lounge was good. Now that they're opening one in SFO which I fly through twice a week, it'll save me from purchasing food or drinks at the airport.
2. Concierge - I'm a foodie and they've been able to secure hard to get reservations to restaurants. Having them try to get the reservations for me saves me time which I think is worse the annual fee by itself.

I use Chase Sapphire for restaurants and travel since I like the transfer partners better (Hyatt / United / Southwest) and SPG Amex for spg hotels since I primarily stay at SPG properties.

But if you don't value any of the benefits of the Platinum card then don't get it, it's as simple as that. It's like trying to understand why someone would ever buy an expensive watch or bag when you don't value those things.

I'm sure some people don't even care about any of the benefits and have the card because it says Platinum on it.
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