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:

• You may be eligible for as high as 300,000 Membership Rewards after spending $20,000 on eligible purchases in 3 months. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible for an offer.  Terms apply.

• The annual fee is $895. See Rates and Fees.

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.
• 2X Membership Rewards points on purchases for the first $2,000,000 in purchases each year in the following categories:
  • Purchases over $5,000
  • U.S. 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.

Fine Hotels & Resorts Credit

Get up to $300 in statement credits semi-annually (January 1st – June 30th and July 1st – December 31st) for up to a total of $600 in statement credits per calendar year on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts® or The Hotel Collection bookings through American Express Travel using the Business Platinum Card®. The Hotel Collection requires a minimum two-night stay. You can receive extra perks when booking through Amex FHR like free breakfast and property credit for select hotel bookings.

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 a useful benefit to help maximize cheap premium cabin fares, or when there is no award availability for your selected airline. 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. While this benefit was reduced from all airlines being eligible for premium bookings it can still help in a pinch.

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 (up to 10 “visits” per year), and select Lufthansa lounges when flying Lufthansa.

$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+
  • up to $209 in statement credits toward an annual CLEAR+ membership (subject to auto-renewal)
• Global Entry / TSA PreCheck
  • Receive either a statement credit every 4 years after you apply for Global Entry ($120) or a statement credit every 4.5 years after you apply for a five-year membership for TSA PreCheck^® (up to $85 through a TSA PreCheck official enrollment provider) and pay the application fee with your Business Platinum Card^®
• Complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status (enrollment required)
• Complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status (enrollment required)
• Leaders Club Sterling Status from The Leading Hotels of the World® (Enrollment Required)
• Hilton Credit (enrollment required)  
  • Get up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year (up to $50 per quarter) when you enroll in the $200 Hilton Statement Credit Benefit with your Business Platinum Card through American Express.
  • Gift cards are not an eligible purchase.
• Wireless telephone services
  • up to $120 annual statement credits for purchases from any U.S. wireless telephone provider (up to $10 per month)
• Dell
  • Enroll and earn up to $150 in statement credits on U.S. purchases directly with Dell per calendar year.
  • Earn and additional $1,000 statement credit if you spend $5,000+ on your card in a calendar year.
• Indeed
  • up to $360 annual statement credit on all Indeed hiring and recruiting products and services (up to $90 per quarter). Enrollment required.
• Adobe
  • Enroll and get a $250 statement credit after you spend $600 or more on U.S. purchases directly with Adobe per calendar year on your card.
• Big Spend Bonus Perks
  • Earn the following perks if you spend over $250,000 in a calendar year
    • $1,200 Flight Credit for use in the next calendar year on flights booked on AmexTravel.com.
    • $2,400 One AP® Statement Credit for use in the next calendar year on monthly fees for American Express One AP®, American Express’ digital accounts payable product that automates supplier payments on one platform.

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

The Amex Business Platinum can be considered a keeper card despite its high annual fee of $895, 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, the $150 Dell credit, and the $600 Fine Hotels & Resorts credits. The 35% points rebate is a useful benefit for those who can take advantage of it, but it isn't as good as it used to be where premium cabins were bookable with any airline. Award availability can be tough to find, so having this perk in your award travel toolkit can be incredibly useful when the need arises, even if not as good as it was.

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 2x on purchases of over $5,000 and specific retailers (see list above). This is very limited for a premium card. The 2x 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.

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 for your selected airline. 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!