More Amex Platinum Changes…… Negative Ones!

Last October we saw positive Amex Platinum Changes to both; the Personal and Business versions of the card. It’s very disappointing to see American Express take away one of these benefits this quickly. Let me remind you what changes took place last October:

Personal Amex Platinum Card Changes:

• Earn 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel.

Business Amex Platinum Card Changes:

• Earn 1.5X points per dollar on qualifying purchases of $5,000 or more (that’s an extra half point per dollar) with the Business Platinum Card^®
  Up to 1 million additional points per year
  • This is not a great benefit except for high spending businesses. Also, you can get 1.5X points per dollar from the American Express Everyday Preferred Credit Card.
• Use Membership Rewards ^® Pay with Points for all or part of an eligible fare and get 50% of those points back.
  There are two types of eligible fares:
  • First and Business Class tickets with all airlines available with American Express Travel.
  • Any fare class with your selected qualifying airline.

After these changes were made. A lot more “enhancements” were implemented to the Personal Amex Platinum Card back in March as outlined in detail here.

One of my favorite benefits added to the Business Amex Platinum is the 50% points rebate when paying with Membership Rewards points for an eligible fare. I recently took advantage of this benefit to book a First Class flight on Virgin America. The flight costs $399 cash, but I paid only 35,980 Membership Reward points due to “Membership Rewards Insiders Fares” and I’m expecting half of these points back. This means the ~$400 first class flight cost me only 17,990 Points. That’s an incredible value.

The Bad News:

Per The Points Guy, as of June 1, 2017, changes are being made to the Amex Business Platinum Card Pay With Points feature:

• The Amex Business Platinum Card Pay With Points benefit will be reduced from a 50% refund to a 35% refund
• There will be a cap of 500,000 rebated points per year
• The rebate now takes 6-10 weeks to post on your account, instead of just a day or two as before

The (somewhat) Good News:

Since this was such an abrupt change to a benefit that was just recently introduced; I called American Express Platinum Customer Service to complain. I was told that if you opened your Amex Business Platinum Card between October 2016 and May 31, 2017, Amex will honor the 50% refund, with unlimited points, for one full year from the date your card was issued.

Bottom Line:

Ultimately I hate to see this benefit get cut massively like this. However, the good thing is if you’ve recently applied for the card or looking to get it soon. You’ll have a year to enjoy this very generous benefit. You can get the Business Amex Platinum now and earn 50,000 Membership Rewards^® points after you spend $10,000 and an extra 25,000 points after you spend an additional $10,000 all on qualifying purchases on the Business Platinum Card within your first 3 months of Card Membership.

If you have any questions please comment below, tweet me @pointspointers or email me at pointspointers@gmail.com