Originally Posted by
notquiteaff
Go through all the benefits of the card and determine if you will likely use them, and what value you assign to them.
Same advice applies as that which i gave my son when he was mulling the Chase Platinum Reserve card: Forget the points accumulation; points are of fungible / uncertain value and should be seen as a windfall bonus if they turn out to be useful and replace some cash spend of yours, but don't pay real money for them. Assess the Amex (or any similar) card rationally, on the total cash value of travel and other benefits you would actually buy and use in any case. If you would go out and spend $700+ / year on lounges, Uber, Clear, insurance, Hulu, etc. in any case, you're in profit with Amex Plat. Otherwise, you are wasting money on it.
(In other words, if you don't care about Hulu and wouldn't buy it as a rule, that doesn't count.)
I would add that lounge access is becoming almost as unpredictable / fungible as reward points value -- the arrangements change constantly, Centurion lounges are often oversubscribed and put you on a waiting list, etc. So i would not spend $695 expecting unlimited on-demand global lounge access and then be angry because the queues are longer than my airport dwell time.
Originally Posted by
JakiChan
Such as? Is there a product that can get me access to a lounge when I’m flying SWA? What product is that and where do I find cost information?
You might consider Priority Pass. A ten-visits--per-year ticket can be had with a number of $95-per-year cards. But PP coverage is spotty, and very often you are the lowest-priority standby contender for entry, or simply barred during peak departure hours.