Card Promotions Amex Platinum Card Benefits, Offers & Discussion

Enjoy a world of travel benefits and 150,000 bonus Amex Membership Rewards Premium Ascent points...​

Learn more and apply for this card:

American Express® Platinum Card

The American Express (Amex) Platinum charge card is one of the best publicly-available cards in Australia for travel benefits.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

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What are the main benefits of this card?

1. Signup bonus: 150,000 Amex Membership Rewards Points (worth 75,000 Qantas Points, Velocity Points, Avios or Asia Miles, among other options) when you apply by 28 January 2025 and spend at least $5,000 within 3 months
2. Earn 2.25 Amex Membership Rewards points per $1 spent on everyday purchases, uncapped. You can transfer these points to 12 airline & 2 hotel programs, including Qantas Frequent Flyer.
3. Enjoy unlimited access to many airport lounges, including Virgin Australia and Priority Pass lounges
4. Gift Priority Pass membership to one additional cardholder
5. Receive complimentary elite status with hotel loyalty programs including Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy, Radisson Rewards & Accor Live Limitless
6. Complimentary international travel insurance
7. Receive a $450 annual travel credit, plus airfare discounts, $400 worth of annual dining credits, subscriptions to The Australian & Wall Street Journal, plus many more exclusive benefits!

Why we like the American Express Platinum Card

Packed full of travel perks, the American Express Platinum Card is one of the best publicly-available cards in Australia for frequent flyers.

With a $1,450 annual fee, this metal card is not for everyone. But the return on investment for the high annual fee is strong, as it comes with a lot of useful benefits! This includes an annual travel credit, dining credits and unlimited access to Virgin Australia, Delta, Lufthansa, Priority Pass, Plaza Premium and Amex Centurion airport lounges.

There are also some great hotel perks including a free annual hotel night, Accor Plus membership, Fine Hotels + Resorts benefits and complimentary elite status with Hilton, Marriott and Radisson.

For points collectors, this is one of the most lucrative cards available in Australia. You’ll earn 2.25 Amex Membership Rewards Ascent Premium points per $1 spent on eligible transactions. Points transfer to most frequent flyer programs at a 2:1 rate, although there are some exceptions (e.g. it's 3:1 to KrisFlyer and Emirates).

You can convert your Amex points to around 12 airlines including Qantas, Virgin Australia, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates and Etihad! Plus, you can transfer points to two hotel loyalty programs for even more redemption possibilities.

To sweeten the deal, new cardholders who apply by 28 January 2025 can also earn 150,000 bonus Amex Membership Rewards points when spending at least $5,000 on the card within 3 months of approval. See our card guide for the full details:

American Express® Platinum Card

The American Express (Amex) Platinum charge card is one of the best publicly-available cards in Australia for travel benefits.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

AFF members are welcome to discuss this card in this thread.

 

[albyd]

What do you guys think about having a free Uber Pass yearly subscription as a new benefit?

I think I'd pretty happy with that although Amex will definitely need to add better benefits value wise.

Is that the rumored new amazing benefit? How would that work exactly (I’ve only used Uber a few times, please be kind
)

 

[Daver6]

Is that the rumored new amazing benefit? How would that work exactly (I’ve only used Uber a few times, please be kind
)

Don't quite me, but roughly gets you free delivery for food (I think orders over $20), 10% min discount off rides (excluding Uber Pool) and some other minor benefits. I'd be ok with this IF it includes supp card holders too.

 

[albyd]

I think that won’t appeal to me but might to some members like AFR appealed to me but not to others. Guess we’ll wait to see what comes through when Amex finally announces it.

 

[Trin Trin]

What do you guys think about having a free Uber Pass yearly subscription as a new benefit?

I think I'd pretty happy with that although Amex will definitely need to add better benefits value wise.

Nope, doesn't add any value/benefit for a use case like myself.

They'll need to add something tangible that adds up to $600+ in value (since they advertised the AFR benefit at top of their marketing collateral with that highlighted dollar figure). Plus they've also taken away Shangri-La Jade.

I think if they offer something universal (like two * $400 grocery credits), that'll be more palatable and acceptable for majority of their customer base - including myself.

If they come up with something as lame as an Uber Pass, I'll pass and will be cancelling after this year.

 

[zig]

Uber pass represents no value to me, so hopefully something more substantial will be offered.

 

[sudoer]

What do you guys think about having a free Uber Pass yearly subscription as a new benefit?

Swapping a $625 benefit for a $180 benefit? No thanks.

 

[fantastikforce]

Swapping a $625 benefit for a $180 benefit? No thanks.

Haha yeah definitely not. If they do offer it though, it will need to be with other benefits as well as the value doesn't match at all.

 

[sudoer]

I noticed today that Mount Lofty House has been added to the Amex FHR program. It doesn't yet appear if searching the FHR directory, but it will show up when searching for hotels in Adelaide through the regular Amex Travel booking engine.

$100 USD benefit is a 'property credit' rather than being limited to spa or F&B. Did a spot check and price was identical to booking directly.

 

[Daver6]

I noticed today that Mount Lofty House has been added to the Amex FHR program. It doesn't yet appear if searching the FHR directory, but it will show up when searching for hotels in Adelaide through the regular Amex Travel booking engine.

$100 USD benefit is a 'property credit' rather than being limited to spa or F&B. Did a spot check and price was identical to booking directly.

Adding a FHR night to an Accor Plus free night there would be a great little deal.

 

[TravellingSquid]

Hi All, just got the platinum charge card, but want to use one card as business card. read online you can get additional card, rang them up and said they have temporarily stopped the ability to do this. Shoudl i just request another supp card with a different name?

What did you end up doing? I want to do the same thing but have the ability to pay the bill off separately. From what I've read so far it will still be under the same statement

 

[TravellingSquid]

I just received an AC card yesterday.

Long story short, I've requested one 3 times over the last year, each time they said a form will show up in the post within the next two weeks. After the 3rd time of it not arriving I lodged a complaint and they e-mailed me the form within an hour.

Attached is a copy of the form (I'm not sure if any of the codes below are account specific, but can't hurt to give it a try.
Once completed upload through the online services section by going to the account tab and then selecting document upload.

Good luck!

Thanks for sharing the form. I tried calling Amex twice (got Manila both times) and they said as of March 2021, due to updates on the app it's no longer possible to request an A/C card or any supplementary card in your own name.

Has anyone done this successfully in the last few months?

I wonder if submitting the old request form will still slip through and work. I'll try it and see

 

[Actos]

Thanks for sharing the form. I tried calling Amex twice (got Manila both times) and they said as of March 2021, due to updates on the app it's no longer possible to request an A/C card or any supplementary card in your own name.

Has anyone done this successfully in the last few months?

I wonder if submitting the old request form will still slip through and work. I'll try it and see

Wow that's a shame. I submitted mine in February but not without multiple issues... I faxed the form twice (shouldn't have been so silly) on two different days, called up and no-one had received anything. Frustrated, I finally uploaded a form online... and wound up with two A/C cards with different numbers.

 

[TravellingSquid]

Wow that's a shame. I submitted mine in February but not without multiple issues... I faxed the form twice (shouldn't have been so silly) on two different days, called up and no-one had received anything. Frustrated, I finally uploaded a form online... and wound up with two A/C cards with different numbers.

Haha that's an oopsie! Do you still have both of them? I didn't think it was possible to get two!

I submitted my form through the online document uploader (was really hard to find that but got there through a google link). Will report back what happens.

 

[chijl]

They transferred me to someone working in their onshore retentions team who said a prorata AF refund isn't possible but they could give 30k MR points due to the loss of the benefit.

pity. I'd prefer to keep my card, but not at this price. With 1MR ~ 1 cent, they basically took away AUD 625 from you and give you AUD 300 (MR) + AUD25 (The Australian). Effectively still shrink by AUD 300.

At the age of online shopping these days, no one gives a toss about what the card is made of.

Can we start a poll? curious at how many will / will not renew their membership this yr

 

[Bell21]

I guess I will probably keep it, as I tend to get value out of most of the card benefits, even the more obscure ones, but it's getting 'harder and harder' to justify...

 

[fantastikforce]

I also missed the Fine Hotels and Resorts until I discovered pretty much all the major chains run similar programs.

Would you be referring to the individual hotel chains programs? Because you'd have to stay with them for a massive number of nights to get to a decent level with benefits.

 

[Bell21]

Irrespective of the quality of The Aus.... all its news can be obtained via other free sources. The same cannot be said of AFR, there's so much in the AFR that isn't covered elsewhere.

I personally cancelled my Plat Charge about a year ago as I only have it for the travel bennies, but my AFR app is still going strong so no complaints yet.

Now that domestic travel is happening to some extent, I am missing my VA lounge access but it's not worth $1400 so I just have to suck it up.

I also missed the Fine Hotels and Resorts until I discovered pretty much all the major chains run similar programs.

not to distract from the main point, but when I looked at other chains who ran similar programs to FH&R, I couldn't find any that provided the 4pm guaranteed late check-out (it was for Shangri-La Sydney)

Post automatically merged: Jun 9, 2021

Would you be referring to the individual hotel chains programs? Because you'd have to stay with them for a massive number of nights to get to a decent level with benefits.

classic travel is an example of a booking site I believe that you could use, without any prior history (although I've never used them)

 

[muppet]

Would you be referring to the individual hotel chains programs? Because you'd have to stay with them for a massive number of nights to get to a decent level with benefits.

Classic Travel lets you book quite a few of them in Australia such as:

Virtuosso (kind of like FH&R) - brekkie, $100 credit, upgrade, welcome amenity, late checkout but not 4pm guaranteed)

Hyatt Prive - brekkie, property credit (varies), welcome amenity

Marriott Luminous, Marriott STARS - brekkie, upgrade, $100 credit

IHG Luxury and Lifestyle, Hilton Impresario, Shangri-La Luxury Circle, Four Seasons Preferred etc. etc.

As with FH&R, not all hotels participate and I have not used all of the above, just listing what's out there. However, none of them require stays or status, you just have to book through their preferred travel agent, of which Classic Travel is a good one that allows online bookings.

 

[TravellingSquid]

Can we start a poll? curious at how many will / will not renew their membership this yr

I'm still renewing my Platinum this year. Mostly for these reasons:

1. Didn't use the AFR membership anyway
2. Still get grandfathered into the $400 travel credit on the reserve
3. This card is one of the highest earners per dollar on the market. Which is important to me because my annual spending alone nets 500k-1M points per year.
4. I like the flexibility of being able to choose which rewards program I transfer to.
5. It's a charge card so I don't have 50k+ credit card limits plastered all over my credit file


But if the reserve travel credit disappears completely and/or my annual spending decreases dramatically then I'll probably jump ship to something else.

What would be a comparable card for someone in my situation?

 

[chijl]

I will probably cancel in December unless the benefits/earn rate improve substantially, international travel comes roaring back, or I get offered a retention deal I can't turn down.

International travel won't be back till at least 2nd half of 2022.

Amex's transformation towards 'Lifestyle' cards fell well short of my expectation. Amex could have offered 'choice' of news subscription, substitute with credits for grocery..etc, this way, they will retain some greater profit margins on some memberships and less on some others, but still a profit. but no, too greedy

Mine will be due for renewal before yours, unless it's 60MR upwards, see you Amex in 2023 (maybe)

Post automatically merged: Jun 9, 2021

I guess I will probably keep it, as I tend to get value out of most of the card benefits, even the more obscure ones, but it's getting 'harder and harder' to justify...

Big spender? If so, definitely a reason to keep the card. I have other Amex cards in which I can retreat to after cancel the platinum charge