festriaqua

Benefit terms on the MS application page still show the Saks credit.

Mahogany

Saks benefit is gone from my benefit page.

eddiechacha

Yeah these benefits suck. Initially I thought I'd keep this card around and cancel my Green but now I might just cancel both once the time comes.

In the meantime, maximize the value the best I can I guess? There's student rates for the NYTimes and SiriusXM and a steaming only rate for Audible so I guess I'll try those three out for the next year (I'm trapped with Xfinity, so Peacock is already free... and better with .......). But yeah I thought that $240 would be less crap.

Also annoyed that they're filtering out the hotel credit to be used only with THC and FHR places and obviously Equinox is annoying (funnily enough, attempting to enable the benefit thru the link gave me an error that it was already active?) but those were expected.

The entertainment credit would have made the card worth keeping for me if it was as broad as it was in the midst of the pandemic - as it stands this seems like Amex only got a few interested desperate parties to shill memberships with.

synzero

That is an extremely limited list, you're right. So I'll reframe my calculation:

$200 Hotel FHR/THC credit
$179 Clear Credit (really worth more like $109 or $119 depending on what discount you get)
$240 Digital Entertainment Credit (worth $0, though if we have this might as well sign up for the services since they're basically free)
$300 Equinox Credit ($25/month) (worth $0 to me)
$200 Uber credit
$100 Saks
$200 Airline credit

As for Uber - I use it for food delivery pickup, electric scooter rides, as well as the cheapest rideshare rides, easily hitting the max spend every month. If there's some reliable and easy way to get 15% off of all that by prepaying, great, but for now I value this at face value.

Saks, similarly, there's always something I would want to buy anyway, and you can get free shipping with that shopping membership which I have through both Amex and at least one other card.

The airline credit is also, for the moment, still usable for me, though perhaps not something I would always get the full $200 for.'

So I'd reframe this as: $200 FHR/THC + $109 CLEAR + $200 Uber + $100 Saks + $0 - $200 airline credit = $609 - $809, assuming the rumored Resy credit doesn't materialize. Not nearly as much of a win, but I guess you get free Audible, NYT, etc. To recoup the annual fee means still doing the airline credit thing, but there are still workarounds for it, so, it's still a win for me.

I Love to Travel

Interesting, it looks like the Clear $179 credit benefit has also been added to my business platinum benefits.

As far as the other new benefits, the $240 Digital entertainment credit is disappointing. I can get some use but not enough to make use of the $20/month. The Equinox has $0 value to me.

WasKnown

To each their own. I heavily disagree with you valuing these credits at face.

Greg from frequent miler does a better job of explaining this than I can:

I recommend looking at each of the annual credits and major perks and asking yourself: if I could pay separately for a subscription to this thing, how much would I pay? The answer should never be face value: you would never pay $240 in advance to get $240 in entertainment credits spread out $20 per month, would you? I hope not. You’d only pay in advance if you could get a substantial discount.

I also agree with how he discounts the credits https://frequentmiler.com/the-revise...ls-and-review/

Uber doesn’t value it’s prepaid gift cards at face value. The Amex Platinum provides credits that are strictly worse than even normal Uber gift cards. If they won’t value it at face, I won’t either.

notquiteaff

What value do you assign the lounge access? For me, that is the primary reason for having the card. The prepaid credits are just a way for me to make the AF palatable, but I would see no reason to have/keep the card just for those “coupon book” offers.

moe8555

I am perplexed that they don't see the value in adding 2X on spend with no FX fees. The only other player (partially) offering that with transferrable points is CapitalOne. It would be big bragging rights and fit in with the travel/global motif.

It would certainly keep me on, even without the Equinox, Uber, Clear, and Entertainment credits.

lsquare

I see the new benefits, but can't seem to enroll in Sak's. What's the problem?

Mahogany

FYI, last month we (2 plat card holders) waited 40 minutes at Seattle just to get in the lounge.
It would be nice to have Admiral/Alaska/United Club added to Plat benefit. — I know I am dreaming.

eddiehuang97

Seatac is getting a new lounge late 2022 I believe. Also you do have access to the N gate AS lounge -- just forever waitlisted now lmao

lsquare

I see the airline fee in my account. I already used it up earlier this year and it's asking me to select an airline again?

Jimgotkp

Citi is another one with the Citi Double Cash, assuming you have Prestige or Premier as well.

I don't see AX offering 2X pts with no cap on the AX Plat with the # of heavy spenders they have who spend high six or seven figures every year.

gengar

Double Cash has FTF, I believe.

time_stamp

At my home airport I have non-Amex lounge access in every terminal and I have access to three other lounges in the same terminal as the single Amex lounge. And all the other lounges give me access for my family members as well which Amex doesn't, so for me the answer is really not much. At this point the coupon book aspect certainly looks worse but maybe we don't know all the details yet.