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The Business Platinum Card® From American Express Review

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Who Is the Business Platinum Card From American Express Good For?

The American Express Business Platinum Card is part of the Membership Rewards program and the top premium business card offered by American Express. It carries a high annual fee, but the exclusive benefits are worth the high cost of admission.

Cardholders receive a sizable sign-up bonus, free access to airport lounges, an annual credit for airline incidentals, credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre-Check, gold statuses in hotel loyalty programs, and many other benefits.

However, you’d be hard pressed to call its earning scheme generous. The Business Gold Rewards card is much more generous for earning Membership Rewards points and its annual fee is roughly 2.5 times less.

ANNUAL FEE
$695, not waived for the first year

APR FOR PAY OVER TIME FEATURES
19.49% to 27.24% (variable)

RECOMMENDED CREDIT SCORE
N/A

TYPE OF CARD
American Express

AIRLINE TRANSFER PARTNER
Air France KLM
Asia Miles
British Airways
Delta Airlines
Emirates
Etihad
Finnair
Iberia
Scandinavian Airlines
Singapore Airlines
Virgin Atlantic
Qantas

Remember that the American Express Business Platinum Card is a charge card so you are expected to pay your balance in full every month.

Sign-Up Bonus:

The current sign-up bonus is 120,000 Membership Rewards points after charging $15,000 on eligible purchases with your card in the first three months. Eligible purchases can be made by the primary card member and any employee card members in a single card account. That means if you open employee cards, your employees will help you earn the welcome offer.

It’s important to note that eligible purchases do not include fees or interest charges, purchases of traveler’s checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards, person-to-person payments, or purchases of other cash equivalents.

Points Earned:

  • 5X points on flights and prepaid hotels booked on AmexTravel.com
  • 1.5X points on eligible purchases in key business categories and on eligible purchases of $5K or more everywhere else. Cap applies
  • 1 point per dollar on other eligible purchases.

What Do Your Points Get You?

The benefits of the Platinum card are diverse and plentiful, but most of them are centered around travel. Of course, you can use your Membership Reward points to buy gift cards, pay your credit card balance, shop, etc., but if you do use it for travel, you will see why it’s more than worth the annual fee.

The Business Platinum Card From American Express
The Business Platinum Card from American Express

First, Platinum card membership allows you to get 35 percent of your Membership Rewards points back if you book a business or first class fare on any carrier or any cabin with your designated airline if you pay with points through the American Express Travel website, up to 1,000,000 bonus points back per calendar year.

That already gives you a terrific value, but you might do much better if you transfer your points to a  participating partner airlines’ frequent flyer account. That can be especially lucrative if you redeem your points for expensive tickets, like premium cabin seats.

Usage Perks:

  • 120,000-point sign-up bonus
  • $200 airline fee credit per year for incidental airline fees
  • $189 CLEAR® Plus credit
  • $100 credit for TSA Pre-Check or Global Entry
  • 35% rebate on eligible airfare purchased through the Amex travel website
  • Free Access to Centurion Lounges, The Global Lounge Collection, Delta Sky Clubs, and Plaza Premium Lounges
  • Priority Pass lounge membership
  • Marriott Bonvoy™ Gold Elite Status
  • Hilton HHonors Gold Status
  • Occasional bonuses for airline transfers

Usage Quirks:

  • High annual fee
  • Free Priority Pass lounge access is limited to the cardholder
  • $200 airline fee credit is for one designated airline only
  • Some airline transfers are not instant

How Far Do Your Points Go?

When you use Pay With Points for booking your designated airline, you will receive a 35 percent rebate for a value of 1.5 cents per point. This is a great redemption, as the Platinum card is the only publicly available card in the Membership Rewards family that can get you more than 1x return without transferring to an airline program.

For example, if you spend 40,000 points to book a $400 ticket, you will get 14,000 points back that you can use at a later time. It’s like getting $140 back from a $400 purchase.

Of course, you can get a better return if you transfer your points to partner airlines and redeem them for award tickets on really expensive flights. For example, using the Membership Rewards points to redeem a premium class flight on Cathay Pacific between New York and Hong Kong in first class can yield up to 13 cents per point.

Additional Cardholder Benefits:

  • Fine Hotels + Resorts® program and The Hotel Collection benefits
  • Trip delay insurance
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
  • Premium car rental privileges
  • Business Platinum travel service
  • Shop Dell Technologies credits
  • Adobe Creative solutions
  • Wireless credit
  • Preferred Access
  • Car rental loss and damage insurance
  • Global Dining Access by Resy
  • Baggage insurance plan
  • Premium Global Assist hotline
  • Pay Over Time option
  • No preset spending limit
  • Employee cards
  • Cell phone protection
  • Extended warranty
  • Purchase protection

Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

UGC Disclosure: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

American Express Business Cards: Which Is Best for You?

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Many frequent travelers—especially small business owners—focus their loyalty on the American Express Membership Rewards program. That’s because of the myriad airlines that participate in its transfer program.

You can transfer MR points to Delta, British Airways, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, AeroMexico, El-Al, Air Canada, Emirates, Air France, KLM, Hawaiian Airlines, Alitalia, Iberia, JetBlue, ANA, Cathay Pacific, and Singapore Airlines. That’s a pretty powerful transfer list! Just remember that when it comes to Membership Rewards, you have several small business cards that you can choose from. Let’s delve into which one might be the best for your business.

Determining which American Express business card is best for you will depend on your earning and redeeming goals as well as how your business works.

It makes sense to pick the card that offers benefits that most closely match your spending habits. That way, you’ll have a better chance of earning more points throughout the year and you may find that it makes financial sense to continue to carry the card for the long term.

We’ll talk about three cards: American Express Business Platinum, American Express Business Gold Rewards, and American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Business. Pay close attention to the sign-up bonuses, benefits, and the annual fee. It will then be a bit easier for you to choose the best card for your business. (Keep in mind that all Amex Business cards are eligible for the OPEN Savings program so we won’t cover that here.)

Also, be aware that sign-up bonuses change often. We’re listing the current offers as of press time but the bonus may be higher or lower when you apply. Some people are also often targeted for offers that are better than those available to the general pubic. Watch your email and snail mail carefully; that’s where you’ll find those targeted invitations.

American Express Business Platinum

If you’ve just started dabbling with loyalty programs and you plan to travel a lot within the next year or two, the American Express Business Platinum card can be an excellent addition to your wallet because of strong benefits like a $200 credit at the airline of your choice for things like baggage fees and in-flight purchases and reimbursement of the $100 fee to apply for Global Entry (a program you can learn more about here that fast-tracks your return to the United States through Customs) or TSA PreCheck.

The card also comes with a robust list of more than 700 airline lounges that members can access, including American Express Centurion lounges, Priority Pass lounges, and Delta SkyClubs. Members also get 10 Gogo inflight Internet passes annually as well as unlimited Wi-Fi at Boingo hotspots. That’s a terrific value if you travel a lot.

American Express Business Platinum comes with an access to American Express Centurion lounges
American Express Business Platinum comes with an access to American Express Centurion lounges

Finally, you also gain access to Amex’s Fine Hotels & Resorts program, receive Gold status in Starwood’s Preferred Guest program, and can get 30 percent of your points back when using the Pay with Points option. That’s a really solid list of card benefits.

The earning ratio is one point per $1 spent on eligible purchases and two points per $1 spent through the American Express Travel website.

The fee for this card is steep at $450, but it can make sense if you take advantage of the $200 airline credit, $100 reimbursement for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, and you plan to use the airport lounge benefit extensively.

American Express Business Gold Rewards

The Business Gold Rewards card might be better than the Platinum card if you’re focused on earning through your spending. That’s because the earning ratio is higher: three points per dollar spent on one category of your choice (choose between airfare, advertising, gas, shipping, or computer hardware/software), two points per dollar on the remaining four categories, and one point per dollar spent on other purchases.

The card also offers a host of benefits that can be useful to travelers, including baggage and travel accident insurance, a Global Assist Hotline that you have 24/7 access to when you travel more than 100 miles from home, premium roadside assistance, and car rental loss and damage insurance (secondary coverage).

Amex waives the annual fee for this card during the first year of cardholdership and then you’ll be charged $175 per year thereafter.

If your company makes a lot of equipment purchases, this card comes to the table with purchase protection as well as extended warranty coverage.

American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Business

This is the only card we’ll discuss in this post that doesn’t earn Membership Rewards points. Instead, the Starwood Preferred Guest Business card earns Starpoints, which can be used to redeem free nights at more than 1,200 hotels in nearly 100 countries around the world—with no blackout dates.

SPG also has a fantastic transfer program that allows you to transfer SPG points to dozens of different airlines. In most cases, when you transfer 20,000 SPG points, you’ll receive 25,000 miles in the airline program of your choice. Spend $30,000 on this card per calendar year and you’ll receive Gold status in Starwood’s program and all cardholders receives credit for five nights and two stays towards SPG elite status each year.

As for earning ratios, you’ll get up to five Starpoints per dollar spent on eligible purchases at SPG hotels and one Starpoint on all other purchases. Other perks include access to the Sheraton Club lounge, free in-room premium Internet and complimentary, unlimited Boingo Wi-Fi.

Earn Starpoints, which can be used to redeem free nights at more than 1,200 hotels around the world
Earn Starpoints, which can be used to redeem free nights at more than 1,200 hotels around the world

The annual fee is waived during your first year of cardholdership and then you’ll pony up $95 per year thereafter.

This is really the best card to carry if you’re looking to build up a stash of points to use on hotel stays or to transfer to one of dozens of airline frequent flyer programs.

Which Card is Right for You? An At-a-Glance Comparison

 American Express Business PlatinumAmerican Express Business Gold RewardsAmerican Express Starwood Preferred Guest Business
Sign-up Bonus40,000 MRs after $5k of spend in 1st and 3 months25,000 MRs after $5k of spend in 1st and 3 months100,000 MRs after $5k of spend in 1st and 3 months
Earning Scheme1 point per $1 spent on eligible purchases; 2 points per $1 spent on purchases made through the American Express Travel website3 points per $1 spent in one category of your choice, 2 points per $1 spent on the other four categories, and 1 point per $1 spent on all other eligible purchases2 points per $1 spent at SPG hotels and 1 Starpoint per dollar elsewhere
Best Benefits$200 airline creit, reimbursement of Global Entry/TSA PreCheck fee, Airport Lounge Access Program, 30% airline bonus, and Gogo & Bonigo InternetPremium Roadside Assistance and Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance, Baggage Insurance, Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty, Travel Accident insuranceFree nights at more than 1,200 hotels worldwide, transfer points to miles (xfer 20k SPG points and get 25k miles in most but not all airline programs), accelerated track to get SPG elite status, free Internet
Foreign Transaction FeeNoneNoneNone
Annual Fee $450/year$0 in 1st year and then $175/year$0 in 1st year and then $95/year

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