The Business Platinum Card® from American Express Review

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is Amex's premium travel business credit card. Like other premium cards, it comes loaded with benefits and statement credits and a pretty high annual fee. Unlike typical credit cards, however, it allows you to carry a balance for certain charges, but not all. In our review of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express we will look at the welcome offer, earning structure, card benefits and share our overall thoughts.

Current Welcome Offer

American Express usually has many different welcome offers for its cards at any given time. The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is no different. The current public offer is as follows:

• 150,000 Membership Rewards after $20,000 spend on eligible purchases in 3 months. Terms apply.
• The annual fee is $695. See Rates and Fees.

***Having said that, there are often offers that are higher than this via targeted offers. We encourage you to look for one of those offers.

Amex Application Rules

If you choose to apply, remember that Amex typically will not approve you for more than two Amex credit cards during a 90-day period. They also have a 10 card limit on the colored Membership Rewards earning cards (of which this is one of). This includes personal and business cards. This is separate from the 5 card limit on credit cards.

Amex also has a once per lifetime welcome offer rule on each card. This is more like every 5 – 7 years in reality though, and not actually your lifetime. That timeline is based off of when you last held a card, not when you last earned a welcome offer on the product though. If you are ineligible for the welcome offer for any reason American Express will usually let you know that with a pop-up before the application is processed. You can cancel the application at this time with no hard pull.

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express Review: Earning Structure

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express earns at the following rates:

• 5x Membership Rewards points per dollar on flights and prepaid hotels booked through AmexTravel.com.
• 1.5x Membership Rewards in the following categories (on up to $2 million in purchases per calendar year**)
  • Purchases over $5,000
  • US construction material
  • Hardware suppliers
  • Electronic goods retailers
  • Software & cloud system providers
  • Shipping providers
    • **Purchases eligible for multiple additional point bonuses will only receive the highest eligible bonus.
• 1x Membership Rewards on other eligible purchases

Amex Business Platinum Card Benefits

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express offers a lot of benefits and perks. Some benefits are great, and most cardholders can derive at least some value from them. Other perks are not as useful and require some creativity, which may not be worth everyone's time. Let's break down some of the bigger perks.

35% Points Rebate for Airfare Booked through Amextravel.com

Amex cardholders can redeem MRs for travel booked through amextravel.com at 1.0 cents per point (cpp). This is not a great rate. But the Business Platinum offers a 35% points rebate for premium cabin bookings and for economy airfare on your selected airline through amextravel.com. This can be an excellent benefit to help maximize cheap premium cabin fares, or when there is no award availability. This is because amextravel.com, like other portals, are cash bookings and therefore do not require award availability. Also, since it is a cash booking, bookings through the portal count towards elite status.

The points rebate is capped at 1,000,000 bonus points per calendar year.

Lounge Access

Like many other premium travel cards, the Amex Business Platinum offers complimentary Priority Pass Select membership. This card also grants you access to the Amex Global Lounge Selection, which includes the Amex Centurion Lounge network, Escape Lounges, and Plaza Premium lounges. You can also access Delta Sky Club when flying Delta, and select Lufthansa lounges when flying Lufthansa.

Access to Delta Sky Club makes the lounge benefits of the Amex Business Platinum stand out, assuming you fly Delta. This can be very useful to some folks, since no other card has a similar benefit.

$200 Airline Credit

Once you select a qualifying airline, you will receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year when you charge incidental fees to your Business Platinum card. Charges to any of the additional cards on your account also trigger the credit. The qualifying airlines are:

• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• Delta Air Lines
• Hawaiian Airline
• JetBlue Airways
• Spirit Airlines
• Southwest Airlines
• United Airlines

Examples of qualifying fees that are covered by the credit include checked bags, seat selection, and EarlyBird check-in with Southwest Airlines. Make sure to enroll for this benefit as soon as you receive your new card. For a full breakdown of Amex incidental credits check out our guide.

Additional Benefits

The Amex Business Platinum comes with a number of other perks and statement credits (enrollment required):

• CLEAR® Plus
  • up to $199 statement credits toward an annual CLEAR® Plus membership (subject to auto-renewal)
• Complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status (enrollment required)
• Complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status (enrollment required)
• Wireless telephone services
  • up to $120 annual statement credits for purchases from any U.S. wireless telephone provider (up to $10 per month)
• Dell
  • up to $400 annual statement credit on all U.S. Dell purchases (up to $200 semiannually)
• Indeed
  • up to $360 annual statement credit on all Indeed hiring and recruiting products and services (up to $90 per quarter)
• Adobe
  • up to $150 annual statement credit on select purchases, including Adobe Creative Cloud and Acrobat Pro DC

ToP Analysis

The Amex Business Platinum has a lot going on and it requires a lot of patience and planning to maximize everything it has to offer. Let's take a look at some different areas for the card.

Credits / Benefits That Offset The Annual Fee

card can be considered a keeper card despite its high annual fee of $695, depending on your travel patterns. The card's many perks and benefits won't be useful for everyone. But most of us should find value in at least some of the credits, such as the $200 annual airline credit, the $120 annual wireless credit, and the $400 Dell credit. The 35% points rebate is a standout benefit for those who can take advantage of it. Award availability can be tough to find, so having this perk in your award travel toolkit can be incredibly useful.

Earning Structure Is A Weak Spot

Great benefits aside, the weak spot of the Amex Business Platinum is earning Membership Rewards. The card's only bonused spend is 5x on on flights and prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com, and 1.5x on purchases of over $5,000 and specific retailers (see list above). This is very limited for a premium card. The 1.5x bonus category can be helpful in meeting minimum spend on the card. But once you meet minimum spend, it would be much wiser to use $5,000 purchases to meet minimum spend for other new cards, or to at least use a card that earns more than 1.5x.

Flight Rebate Offers A Lot Of Potential Value

Many of the folks who keep the Amex Business Platinum do so because of the 35% points rebate. Especially as airlines try to drive awards closer to 1 cent per mile domestically, this perk could become more valuable over time. But even if you don't have much use for the points rebate, the card offers enough perks and benefits that could justify the high annual fee. You would just need to crunch the numbers for your own scenario. But overall, the Amex Business Platinum does make sense for many award travelers.

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express Review: ToP Thoughts

The Amex Business Platinum offers a helpful tool for award travelers through its 35% points rebate. This benefit can be helpful when award availability is tough to find. On top of that, the card offers many perks and benefits that can more than offset the annual fee, assuming you can use those. If you value the 35% points rebate, this card is a no-brainer. If you don't, the Business Platinum can still make sense, but you would have to assess your own case and figure out whether you derive enough value from the card's many perks.

What is your take on the Amex Business Platinum? Come join the discussion in our Facebook group!