American Express Membership Rewards - upgrading from gold to platinum

I know that this question has probably been asked and answered a thousand times, but I haven't found an answer.

I'm 26, have a rewards gold card which I spend roughly 1200-1600USD monthly.
I plan on traveling in the near future, and like the benefits that the platinum card offers. I have only been with AMEX for 8 months, does anyone think that it would be hard or beneficial to upgrade?

Welcome to Flyertalk :)

Beneficial. Yes. If you are travelling in coach.
Hard. No. I was with Amex for 3 weeks as an 18yr old student before they offered me Platinum :eek: Sad to see such devaluation of the product

The problem is, I wasn't offered it (at least yet). Should I call them and ask to be upgraded, or wait for the invite?

SBCRE:

Amex is currently offering 15,000 membership rewards points as incentive to cardmembers who upgrade from one of their charge cards to platinum, and all you need is the code number that is posted in one of the prior threads on flyertalk.com. Scroll back through the prior threads about Platinum cards and you will find the code number posted. Call Amex with the code number and you can upgrade to Platinum with a 15,000 point bump in points to your membership rewards account. The upgrade offer was supposed to expire 12/31/04 but was extended for at least three months. Since you can redeem 20,000 points directly to Amex for $100, the 15,000 points is worth at least $75 -- a nice offset to the $395 fee, and worth your time scrolling through the prior threads for the code number. Amex was offering 25,000 membership rewards points for an upgrade during part of 2004, but it appears that offer has indeed expired.
Amex will issue the Platinum card to anyone who has one of its chargecards, and is willing to plunk down $395 on the next bill for the card fee.

Ok, so I guess I'm not as good at searching as other people, especially since the search function on this site is down. Does anyone know the reference #?, and can just anyone use it or is it a targeted cardmember only? I remember in the past looking at this site and seeing something about 25000 MR for upgrading, I guess that has expired by now though, huh?

You don't need to be an Amex member or wait for an invite - anyone who is willing to pay the annual fee can apply for the Platinum.

Even w/15000 pt referral, is there any major benefit over gold as I have membership in NW worldclub and rarely fly DL/CO so club privleges would'nt mean anything to me(at least this yr).

Aside from airport lounge access, and the Fine Hotels and Resorts Program, the Platinum Card offers very little in the way of moneysaving benefits that you could not get without the card and good credit and a good travel agent. To me, the Amex Platinum Card's value, a relative term, is its "cachet" for payment of personal and business entertainment expenses because in my opinion it acknowledges the holder's credit worthiness while creating the impression that the holder has ample discretionary funds to plunk down $395 for a charge card. Additionally, Amex Platinum is the necessary requirement for obtaining a Centurion upgrade offer. I have never heard of anyone other that a musician celebrity who got offered a Centurion without first holding an Amex Platinum charge card. Whether Amex Plat is worth $395 is like art "its all in the eye of the beholder."

Although Centurion would be nice, at this point, I wouldn't even consider the 4k I would be paying in annual fees (the wife would want one too). For now, I would be content with the platinum. The benefits are what I'm looking for, and also, who doesn't like to be upgraded every now and then? Knowing myself though, after platinum, I will start to obsess about centurion. I doubt i will ever charge 150k in a year (ok, give me 18 months!). is there any way around that? What are the major differences between plat and cent? because I've heard of people being offered it and they declined.