American Express Platinum Adding New Perks Rumor
There was some info / a rumor shared on Reddit yesterday about American Express Platinum adding new perks. When the refreshed Amex Platinum launched a few months ago I coined it: the world’s most expensive coupon book. It looks like we could be in for more of the same, whomp whomp. But will the new coupons be useful, like the Amex FHR and CLEAR credit, or will they be like the very limited streaming and almost useless Equinox credit? I think it is unfortunately the latter.
Rumored Amex Platinum New Perks
Reddit user MidnightAlchemist says the following credits will be added in early October of this year:
“The benefits will be for SIXT (Rental car company), and statement credits for Walmart+ subscription, and SoulCycle purchases.
I won’t be going into specifics, but thought I’d share in case someone was interested in any of the above services, they’ll be able to get a better deal/save some money in just a few weeks.
Think of this as the second part of the benefits that were added back in July.”
My Thoughts
This seems to be the way Amex is going with their premium cards ever since adding Uber credits a few years back. They partner with a company that likely picks up most, if not all, of the cost of the credit’s price tag and Amex gets to tout more value for cardmembers. The issue is that these credits, or coupons, are not useful to many card members. These are totally a try it free and we hope you get hooked type of gimmick.
With these coupons Amex can say get this card with an almost $700 annual fee and you will get $1200 in value back! How great is that? Except there is almost no one out there that can maximize all of these credits.
The new rumored ones offer pretty much no value to me personally.
- I rarely rent cars and if I do it won’t be from SIXT.
- SoulCycle, does this dad bod look like I use SoulCycle?
- The Walmart+ subscription is a weird one too. For a card aimed at “elites” do you think a Walmart+ membership is going to excite them? Not to mention I have never seen where the actual value in Walmart+ is. I get that it was an attempt to take down Amazon Prime but they forgot all of the good stuff…like streaming. I guess if you use Instacart the free delivery could be of use to you and a savings by dropping that. But, that would mean getting produce and meat from Walmart…ugh yeah, no thanks. Most everything else you can get free shipping from the website anyway.
American Express Platinum Adding New Perks – Final Thoughts
Well, getting more for the same cost is usually a good thing but I don’t think this moves the needle for me at all. If Walmart+ is free I guess I’ll give it a try. I wouldn’t put any monetary value on that though and it could just be a credit on the cost of the full subscription etc. The other two will likely be completely useless to me.
If you use SoulCycle or rent cars from SIXT or already have Walmart+ then of course this could add a lot of value to you. Let me know your thoughts on the rumored new Amex Platinum perks in the comments.
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Whoever is the product manager for Platinum card should be fired!
Instead of coupons/credits, give us the ability to earn more MR. When I signed up for Platinum earlier in the year, I was earning 10x on supermarket. I was using the card quite often.
If AMEX offers people decent ways to earn MR, we would use the card more and in return AMEX collects more fees.
Your suggestion of 10X as a standard is unrealistic. It might be worth surveying the landscape and realigning your expectations. Ben can offer his thoughts on the matter. But, if you find ANY card that offers 10X on an ongoing and unlimited basis in ANY spending category, please let Ben know and he’ll let us know.
The Platinum Card DOES offer people a decent way to earn MRs: 5X on airfare and hotels. That’s better than any other card currently available. (Look to a different card if your spending categories are different.)
If a person uses it for airfare and hotels, one is capturing substantial value. Then there are the FHR perks. If a person does one five-day FHR stay, one has essentially captured the annual fee:
– annual hotel credit = $200
– 5 day x $75 breakfast = $375
– per stay property credit = $100
Total = $675 and you’re essential there — one stay.
Now add in the various statement credits:
– $200 airline fee credit
– $240 streaming entertainment
– $100 Saks credit
– $179 Clear credit
Leaving it there, how does one not make money on this card?
Then, there’s the room upgrades. With this benefit alone, I receive thousands of dollars of value every year.
If you’re not going to use a given card, you’ll never “get it,” so don’t get it. It’s that simple.
I didn’t say AMEX should make 10x permanent. I was saying that they should make more earning categories more attractive and stop offering more benefits that most people won’t use.
The Sixt doesn’t do much for me but the Walmart + subscription and soulcycle credits would be nice. Equinox and SoulCycle are the same company so it would be nice to use those credits on anything I see fit at either place as my equinox credit just goes to waste every month as I can’t figure out what to use it on.
Agreed. More “benefits” with little value on a very pricey card.
Yup
Please see my response to John regarding 10X.
AMEX hitching their snobby cart to Walmart is hilarious.
SIXT? No thanks.
SoulCycle? LOL. Add more Peloton monthly credits and you’re talking.
They are some weird partners for sure. I think many would prefer Instacart and Peloton like Chase got.
I would use an Instacart credit. I agree, I would not use these credits either.
So if they did offer a Walmart + membership then would that mean you would have to charge your groceries/gas/prescriptions to the platinum card or could you use the CSP, Wyndham Biz ?
I don’t think it would matter IF it is a membership.
I’m not eligible for Walmart +. As for Sixt – I don’t think so, but it does depend on if the deal is good.
All of these “perks” just seem to be longer-term Amex Offers.
Very true Brutus
You seldom use a rental car? There are so many things/places you cannot access properly w/o your own set of wheels.
If you only go to bigger cities, sure, but if you want to see remote (natural) places, nope. Buses can only go so far and add a lot of time. Of course, one can always pay for tours, but that’s another matter.
I used to sometimes get a rental car while traveling internationally. Now, almost every trip, at least for some portion. But I’m usually going to more remote / off the beaten track places these days.
Not sure how useful Sixt will be. Already have Sixt Platinum, but use Autoslash a lot. Sometimes I choose Sixt…but I’m not tied to them.
The AmexPlatEntertainment book!
Yeah I have been pretty city focused the last several years so haven’t needed it much.
I thought this card already provided PLT status with Sixt.
My guess is this would be some type of credit off a Sixt rental but just a guess
You could rent a Sixt car to buy some gym clothes at Walmart on the way to Soul cycle. What a deal!
Well done Eric, well done. That is what their marketing team had to envision with this 🙂
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