The Business Platinum Card® from American Express Review

Full Review of the Business Platinum Card® from American Express

Pros Explained

• Excellent rewards value with certain travel partners: Get 5X Membership Rewards(R) points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com. Earn 1.5X points (that's an extra half point per dollar) on eligible purchases. Eligible purchases include U.S. construction material and hardware suppliers, electronic goods retailers, software and cloud system providers, and shipping providers, as well as on purchases of $5,000 or more everywhere else, on up to $2 million of these purchases per calendar year. Certain Membership Rewards transfer partners offer better redemption value options, such as Hilton Hotels (two cents per point) and British Airways (one cent per point). However, that one cent per point valuation doesn’t reflect a valuable plus to this card. Additionally, you can get 35% of your points back when you use your points to book qualifying fares through the Amex travel portal, up to 1,000,000 Membership Rewards per year.
• Impressive luxury travel benefits: This card has a long list of luxury benefits and statement credits. Cardholders get an annual credit of up to $200 against incidental airline fees, such as baggage charges on one eligible airline selected each year. Members also get up to two $200 Dell statement credits and a fee credit for the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck programs with enrollment. For traveling in style, you'll get access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection; Gold Elite and Honors Gold status, respectively, with the Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors programs with enrollment; and complimentary benefits at fine hotels and resorts. There's also a travel service that provides custom itineraries and tailored recommendations.
• Generous, if hard-to-earn, one-time offer: The one-time offer—a total of 150,000 points—is one of the highest available among small business cards. We value those points at $1,200 when rewards are used to book flights through American Express Travel, more than enough to justify the annual fee for the first year. But the spending required to earn the bonus could be daunting. To earn 150,000 Membership Rewards points, you must spend $15,000 within the first three months of card membership. Spending that much in so little time—let alone paying it back—would be challenging for many businesses.

Cons Explained

• $695 annual fee: As one of the highest annual fees of any business card, this card’s $695 tab represents a significant drawback for many small businesses. Unless your company spends heavily on travel, its most rewarding category, justifying the fee could require massive spending on other purchases, which earn only one point per dollar spent. 
• Carrying a balance is not assured: As with the original Amex cards, the Business Platinum from American Express was ostensibly a charge card, with its balance due in full at the end of each billing cycle. There is now a Pay Over Time option, but that comes with caveats. You must apply to add Pay Over Time after you get the card, at which point a limit for the balance you can carry is determined—and it might be less than the card’s spending limit, Amex warns.
• For best rewards, you must book travel with Amex: Earning five points per dollar rewards on flights and prepaid hotel stays comes with a caveat. To earn those rewards, you’ll have to use amextravel.com for booking. You can't book, for instance, on a third-party site or directly with the airline or hotel and still earn five points per dollar reward. 

Who This Card Is Best For

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is a good fit for regular business travelers with big budgets that match its big annual fee. If you can afford to spend the required $15,000 within three months to earn its hefty one-time offer and pay the balance off immediately, which is mostly likely necessary, the $695 annual fee probably isn’t much of a deterrent to getting this card.

It's also a good fit for business owners who prefer to avoid interest charges by paying their accounts in full each month. There is an option to enroll in the Pay Over Time feature and to carry over certain purchases, but the program may not be available to you immediately and may not cover your full spending limit.

In addition, it helps to be comfortable navigating the Amex Membership Rewards program and its redemption options. The closest thing you can get to earning cash back is by redeeming points for gift cards, which results in a lower value per point than other options.    

Business Platinum Card® from American Express Bonus Offer 

Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases with your card within the first three months of card membership.

We value this offer at $1,200, according to our most recent valuation of Membership Rewards points when redeemed for travel through Amex. That's one of the highest one-time offers available, but earning it all comes with a very high spending requirement. Charging $15,000—or $5,000 per month—to the card within three months may be out of reach for many cardholders.

Rewards Earning Details

Cardholders earn five points per dollar spent by booking flights and hotel stays through American Express Travel. Eligible purchases outside flights and hotels of $5,000 or more earn 1.5 miles per dollar spent up to $2 million per year, while all other purchases each one point per dollar.

Rewards Redemption Details

You must be enrolled in the Amex Membership Rewards program to redeem points. After enrolling, American Express offers several ways to collect your rewards. You can book travel through American Express, get gift cards, pay with points at select merchants, and transfer points to a partner loyalty program.

You'll generally get the best value for booking travel by transferring points to the loyalty program of certain Membership Rewards transfer partners, like Hilton or British Airways. However, according to our valuations, each Membership Reward point is only worth one cent when redeemed for travel through amextravel.com.

That valuation doesn't consider that with this card, you can get 35% of your points back (up to 1,000,000 points per year) when used to book an eligible flight through American Express Travel. 

All other options can yield less value. You can use points at a value of 0.7 cents each at the checkouts of Amazon, Best Buy, and others, or you can use them at 0.6 cents each to erase charges from your account statement.

Transferring Points

Membership Rewards points can be transferred to the loyalty programs of any of Amex's airline and hotel partners. The list includes popular programs like Delta SkyMiles, Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy, and more.

Transfers may come with a fee of $0.0006 per point, with a maximum fee of $99. That's an unusual levy among card issuers. However, American Express may offer you the option to redeem points to cover that cost. And even despite this expense, transferring points can be a worthwhile option that earns you greater value.

How to Maximize Your Rewards

Getting the most from this card begins with using it for all your spending on flights and hotel stays; it’s unlikely you’ll get a better rewards return than the five points per dollar you will earn on these purchases. If you ever have to charge $5,000 or more to a business card, consider doing so to this card, where they will earn 1.5 points per dollar. While that isn’t the best rewards rate out there for general spending, it's better by half than the card’s default rate of one point per dollar.

Even if you can't sustain high spending on the card, try to charge at least $15,000 to it in the first three months of membership. That way, you'll earn the card's introductory bonuses of 150,000 points, which we estimate will easily justify the card’s annual fee for the first year if the points are used to buy travel from Amex.  

Take full advantage of this card's many travel benefits. Apply for either the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck program with the provided credit. Check bags without worrying about the cost, at least up to the $100 annual statement credit for incidental airline fees. If you’re shopping for a PC, consider buying a Dell and using one of the two $200 statement credits for this brand.

Average Case

Since the Business Platinum Card® from American Express is primarily a card for business high rollers which travel a lot, our typical owner is a road warrior. Each month, in our scenario, they take two round-trip domestic flights, which together cost about $8,400 per year, based on the average cost of such flights. 

Let's further assume those trips require staying four nights per month in a hotel, with bills that total about $7,200 per year. By our calculations, they'd earn 78,000 points in a calendar year. Those points, we estimate, are worth $780, provided they’re used to redeem more flights, hotels, and other travel expenses from Amex. That's also more than enough to justify the steep annual fee.

Aspirational Case

In addition to your spending in the scenario above, let's say our road warrior also uses this card to pay for marketing, vehicle expenses, office supplies, professional fees, and other miscellaneous expenses that total $2,000 per month. Then let's add one major $20,000 purchase per year. 

That further use would earn an additional 44,000 points to your annual total, worth $440. In total, along with the 78,000 points worth $780 in the first scenario, you'd have 150,000 points worth $1,200 for travel booked through Amex. In some cases, adding employee member cards to your account can also help you boost your rewards. But this card charges $300 for each additional card. Before adding employee cards, make sure their users would spend enough to break even on the additional annual cost.

Platinum Business American Express Card's Outstanding Benefits

• $200 airline fee credit with enrollment
• Up to $400 in two annual $200 Dell statement credits
• $100 credit to Global Entry or $85 to TSA PreCheck with enrollment
• Access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection
• Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status with enrollment
• Hilton Honors Gold Elite Status with enrollment
• Business Platinum card concierge
• 35% of points returned to you when using Membership Rewards Pay with Points for airline purchases

Standard Benefits

• Global assistance hotline*
• Car-rental collision insurance (secondary to your own policy)*
• Baggage insurance plan*

*Eligibility and Benefit level vary by card. Terms, conditions, and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.

Cardholder Experience

American Express ranked first out of 11 issuers in J.D. Power's 2022 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study.

The Amex customer service department can be reached 24/7 by phone at 800-528-4800. Customers also have the option to log into their account and live chat with a representative. Amex is also active on social media. Questions and comments can be sent to @AskAmex on Twitter. 

Security Features

American Express offers a host of security features that are standard in the industry. Those include a monitoring system that detects fraudulent activity and alerts you if unusual activity is detected. 

Amex also provides security services like pre-purchase verification and personal security keys to safeguard your information and protect your account. For both card members and non-card members, American Express provides MyCredit Guide, a service that offers a free credit score and report.

Fees to Watch out For

There’s a penalty APR for its Pay Over Time feature of 29.99%. All other fees are in line with industry standards.  

Final Verdict

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is built for big-spending business owners who travel nearly constantly. At $695, the card’s annual fee is steep, but it can still pay off for businesses that spend enough in its bonus categories.

Outside of its bonus categories, this card pays a low rate of one point per dollar on all other purchases. It could be smart to pair this card with a flat-rate rewards card to use for all other business spending. The American Express Blue Business Plus card might be a good choice. It earns two Membership Rewards per dollar spent up to $50,000 per year and has no annual fee.

If your annual travel budget isn't quite where it needs to be to justify the Business Platinum Card’s® annual fee, consider a card like the Business Green Rewards card. It charges a $95 annual fee that's waived for the first year and offers two Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on travel booked through Amex.