Why we have Multiple Amex Platinum Cards

We have 3 Personal Platinums. I have the Schwab version because you get a discount on the Annual Fee based on the amount of money you have at Schwab. I have a second Platinum because I upgraded my Gold to Platinum when Amex offered me 50K Membership Rewards points for just $2,000 in spend. My wife has a Platinum too.

There are (were) a few benefits that we take advantage of that made having multiple Personal Platinums worthwhile. The first benefit is (was) the Airline Incidental $200 annual credit. You select a domestic airline each year, and then you can apply the credit to “incidentals”- pet fees, “seat selection” (not upgrades), luggage fees, food & beverage onboard, etc. But the big one was using it to fund the United Travel Bank. The Travel Bank is a stash of money you can use to pay for United flights (not Partner flights). I would add $200 per card to the Travel Bank each year, and it would be reimbursed. But that loophole closed in February. Now I have to figure out how to use that $200 on multiple Platinum cards.

I only have one use for it right now- upgrade to Economy Plus on my flights to & from Chicago later this year.

Since I normally fly Business class (using Points), I don’t usually have a need to upgrade my seats or pay for baggage fees. That $200 was essentially cash, and now it is extremely difficult to use. That’s $200 less value vs. the $895 Annual Fee.

Another benefit we use is the Fine Hotels & Resorts (FHR) $300 semi-annual credit. We have been going to the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City for the past two years, and already have a trip planned for this November. When you book an FHR property, there is a $100 Experience Credit that can be used at the hotel’s restaurants, bars, etc. Just charge something to the room, pay for it with your Platinum, and the $100 will be credited. When we alternate booking a room with my Platinum and my wife’s Platinum, we have been getting the $100 credit for each reservation. This does vary by property, but I’ve been able to get this at multiple properties. It probably helps that my wife has a different last name.

Since my wife also has 2 Business Platinums (more on that later), we can alternate and use the $300 credit to book multiple nights and/or multiple rooms.

For our trip to Quebec City this November, we are bringing our adult daughter, and booking a separate room for her. We stay 4 nights, so 8 nights in total. You can book up to 3 rooms for a given night (or nights) and still get all of the FHR benefits.

I’ve been careful to use a different Platinum for each night, and alternate my Platinums and my wife’s Platinums to maximize the $300 FHR credit and the $100 Experience credit. The Chateau Frontenac isn’t cheap, so I also use some Membership Rewards points to pay for what the $300 doesn’t cover.

But we end up in a fantastic hotel, with a fantastic breakfast and $133 CAD in property credit because you get a $100 credit in the local currency.

I can’t value the $300 FHR credit at full value, but adding in the $100 Experience credit, I’ll call it $250 bi-annually, or $500 annually per card.

The other credit we use is the $100 per quarter Resy Credit. You simply eat at a restaurant listed in Resy, and the $100 magically is credited. Now that “magic” is sometimes manual. We ate at a nice restaurant in Sonoma, California, that was listed on Resy. But the charge appeared at the hotel in which the restaurant was located. I had to call to get the credit manually applied. But we did get our credits.

That restaurant was expensive, so we split the bill across our 3 Personal Platinums, and even used the $50 Resy credit on my wife’s Amex Gold ($50 bi-annually).

It does take a bit of effort for us to use the Resy credit because there aren’t many good Resy restaurants near us. I think it will get easier to use when Tock is merged into Resy this summer. Many of our wine tasting reservations are on Tock, so I’m hoping that we’ll be able to buy wine or food at one of these Tock wineries and use our Resy credits there. TBD.

$400 per year in Resy credits, but not that easy to use where I live in California, so I’ll call it $250 annually per card. As you’ll read in a few weeks, I’m going to NYC to catch up with friends and family. One of my friends chose a Resy restaurant to meet at. And there are a LOT of Resy restaurants in Manhattan. I have $300 from 3 Platinums in Resy Credits this quarter. Will be curious to see how much of that $300 I use in NYC.

The Platinum gets $15 per month in Uber credits, and $35 in December, which totals $200 per year. When we are traveling, I use it to get to the Airport. When we’re not traveling, we use it for Uber Eats, and I pick up at a local Thai restaurant to save on fees.

I’m going to value this at the full $200.

I have been using the $75 quarterly Lululemon credit to upgrade my wardrobe. But it’s been multiple quarters now, and I’m not sure how much more Lululemon apparel I need. I know I can buy gift cards and resell them, so I might be doing that. I’m going to value this at $150 annually per card.

We use the Digital Entertainment credit of $25 per month, which has a pretty broad list of streaming services that can be used. I’m not getting the full $300, but $240 is fair.

There’s also a Walmart+ benefit, which gives you free delivery for $12.95 per month. I use this multiple times per year, but my wife never does. I’ll say $50 annually.

So $500 FHR + $250 Resy + $200 Uber + $150 Lululemon + $240 Digital Entertainment + $50 Walmart+ = $1390 ($1340 for my wife). That’s more than the $895 Annual Fee. I’m not counting Centurion Lounge Access, which we use maybe once per year, or the Amex Offers, which occasionally are useful.

Is the approximately $400 benefit worth the effort?

I think the discounted value I applied to the Credits makes keeping at least two Personal Platinums worthwhile, especially since we can alternate the FHR reservations and get multiple Experience Credits. The third Platinum is still worth more than the Annual Fee, but less so because we don’t have enough streaming services to use the Digital Entertainment credit. I’ll call for a retention offer and see what happens.

P.S. I’ll do a separate post on the Business Platinums, which has a completely different strategy and value proposition.