Should nonrevs apply for the American Express Platinum Card?

Spend enough time in the world of credit card points & miles and you are bound to come across travel bloggers lauding the benefits of the American Express Platinum credit card. The features appear great on the surface: a decent sign-up bonus, a slew of luxury perks, and an iconic metal card. When you read the fine print though, you quickly realize that the Platinum Card has a number of drawbacks that can limit its usefulness for travelers like us. Tack on the $550 annual fee and you will find yourself struggling to justify the cost of carrying this card. Let me be clear: the American Express Platinum Card is not a great credit card for nonrevs & airline employees.

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What’s So Great About The Platinum Card?

Let’s start with the positives. American Express offers a pretty sweet sign-up bonus. At worst, you will walk away with 75,000 Amex Membership Rewards points. Those with fortunate timing may have been able to score a limited-time sign-up bonus worth 100,000 MR point (or even 125,000 with targeted offers). A six-figure sign-up bonus is enough to perk up any traveler’s ears, but we need to understand how much these points are worth to put this sign-up bonus into context.

Unfortunately, many of the best ways to redeem Amex’s Membership Rewards point will not be useful to most non-rev travelers.

American Express Membership Rewards Transfer Partners

American Express rewards its customers with Membership Rewards points that can be earned through credit card spend. With the Amex Platinum Card, cardholders can earn 1x MR point on all spend and 5x MR points on flights & hotels booked through Amex’s portal. Since nonrevs will never purchase flights through Amex’s portal, and we have resources like ID90 Travel (use our invitation link for $10 off your first booking) to book hotels with travel industry rates, there is little value in putting any spend on this card once you get the sign-up bonus.

Membership Rewards points (or MR for short) can be redeemed for straight cash back or for travel through the American Express Travel Portal, but transferring them to Amex’s airline & hotel partners is often the lucrative option. There are over 20 airline & hotel transfer partners to choose from that are part of the American Express Membership Rewards program:

Airline Transfer Partners

• Aer Lingus
• Aeromexico
• Air Canada
• Air France/KLM
• Alitalia
• All Nippon Airways
• Asia Miles
• Avianca
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Delta Air Lines
• Emirates
• Etihad Airways
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Iberia
• JetBlue
• Qantas
• Singapore Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic

Hotel Transfer Partners

• Choice Privileges
• Hilton Honors
• Marriott Bonvoy

That is an impressive list, but most non-rev travelers have no need for airline miles. Since most of us can fly standby on our own planes or ZED partner airlines, I have found very little incentive to collect airline miles during my years as a nonrev. I always find myself wishing that Amex had more hotel partners, but thankfully each of these hotel chains has a large footprint around the globe to choose from.

American Express Platinum Travel & Shopping Perks

The Platinum Card has a ton of perks. Frequent flyers & luxury travelers will be able to extract the most value of the Platinum Card, but everyone should be able to benefit from some of these categories.

Uber Credits

All Platinum Card holders receive $200 in Uber credits for rides & food delivery every year. This perk is broken up into separately $15 monthly credits (with an extra $20 credit in December).

Global Lounge Collection

Like many other premium credit cards, holding this card grants you a Priority Pass Select membership (here’s a list of other credit cards that can get nonrevs into Priority Pass-affiliated lounges). This program gives you (and up to 2 guests) access to over 1,300 airport lounges & experience locations around the globe.

Of course, one of the more exciting perks of the Platinum Card is access to the exclusive network of Centurion Lounges at the following airports:

• Charlotte (CLT)
• Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW)
• Denver (DEN)
• Hong Kong (HKG)
• Houston (IAH)
• Las Vegas (LAS)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Miami (MIA)
• New York (JFK)
• New York (LGA)
• Philadelphia (PHL)
• Phoenix (PHX)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• Seattle (SEA)

Unfortunately, getting into these lounges is not easy as a non-rev traveler. American Express explicitly forbids nonrevs from entering their Centurion Lounges with standby boarding passes, and they no longer allow travelers to enter upon arrival in an airport with a lounge (unless you are connecting on to another airport).

Global Entry or TSA Pre credit statement

Cardholders receive a statement credit of up to $100 every 4.5 years to go towards buying or renewing a Global Entry or TSA Pre membership.

Premium Global Assist Hotline

Amex’s concierge hotline can help you score tough reservations and assist with travel planning, but don’t expect anything less than a premium price tag with anything procured through this hotline.

Fine Hotels & Resorts Collection

Luxury travelers can enjoy room upgrades & complimentary breakfast for two when booking grand hotels through Amex’s FHR program. 

Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status

Complimentary mid-tier Marriott Bonvoy Gold status automatically allows guests the opportunity to earn bonus points, complimentary room upgrades, and late checkout privileges.

Hilton Honors Gold Status

In addition to bonus points and potential room upgrades, the mid-tier Hilton Gold status offers complimentary breakfast at eligible properties.

Saks Fifth Avenue Credit

Platinum Card holders get $100 in statement credits every year ($50 for the first 6 months of the year and a second $50 credit for the 2nd half) for Saks Fifth Avenue or online at saks.com.

Purchase Return Protection

American Express offers a maximum of $1,000 per year to help out with product returns within 90 days if the merchant/retailer won’t accept your return. 

4 Reasons Why Non-Rev Travelers Should Not Apply for the Platinum Card

All of the Platinum Card’s perks can be valuable to frequent flyers and luxury travelers, but this set of perks is not optimized for non-rev travelers. Here are 4 reasons why the American Express Platinum Card is not the ideal credit card for airline employees.

Centurion Lounge Doesn’t Admit Standby Passengers

In order to enter a Centurion Lounge, you need to present a boarding pass with a confirmed seat. Regular travelers will have no issues presenting a valid boarding pass, but non-rev pass riders are being turned away from Centurion Lounges because standby boarding cards are not valid per Amex’s terms:

To access The Centurion Lounge, the Card Member must present The Centurion Lounge agent with the following upon each visit: his or her valid Card, a boarding pass showing a confirmed reservation for same-day travel on any carrier and a government-issued I.D. Failure to present this documentation may result in access being denied.

On top of barring nonrevs who are not holding confirmed seating assignments, the Centurion Lounges updated their terms to clarify that lounge access is restricted to departing passengers only. This means that virtually all nonrevs will never be able to take advantage of this perk.

Membership Rewards Points Aren’t As Valuable To Nonrevs

Since nonrevs generally have no need for collecting/redeeming airline miles, most of us would end up using MR points for hotel stays. Amex’s MR points are great for travelers who want to take advantage of the airline transfer partners, but booking hotels through Amex’s travel portal is often a poor value and their hotel transfer partners are lackluster at best. 

There are still a couple decent options for hotel redemptions using MR points. Choice Hotels offers a large footprint of budget options that can be useful for domestic & international low-end stays. Marriott’s Bonvoy program can have some sweet-spot redemptions as well (though it’s not my favorite hotel program to use when flying standby).

At the end of the day, non-rev travelers will only ever use a fraction of the transfer partners and never to redeem the more lucrative airline partner redemptions. For this reason, Membership Rewards pales in comparison with other programs for standby travelers.

Bonus Categories Are Not Optimized For Nonrevs

The Platinum Card has very limited bonus categories to begin with, and non-rev travelers will have an especially hard time making them useful. All flights purchased directly through airlines earn 5x points, as well as flights & hotels purchased through amextravel.com. All other purchases only earn 1x point per dollar.

Since nonrevs won’t be purchasing flights through American Express or airlines, we don’t see much value in the Platinum Card’s current bonus categories. There are dozens of other credit cards available on the market with much more valuable bonus earning categories.

Limited Airline Incidental Fees Credit

One of the Platinum Card’s major perks is a $200 airline incidentals credit. This credit can only be applied to a single domestic airline. 9 of the largest U.S.-based airlines are eligible for this credit (with the notable exception of Allegiant Airlines). 

This incidental credit can be triggered by charges like inflight snacks/beverages, luggage fees, and airport lounge day passes. Essentially, any charges processed by the selected airline that are not part of your ticketed fare or a gift card should be eligible for this fee.

In reality, there are few use cases for nonrevs to take advantage of this credit. Since many of our airlines cover baggage fees and our recommendation is that you already have airport lounge access through other channels, using the credit for inflight drinks & food is your best bet. We have seen at least one report of international departure taxes being eligible for credit reimbursement from non-rev tickets issued by specific airlines, but I won’t personally count on my international fees or any ZED fares being covered by the credit until I see more data points. 

1 Reason for [Delta] Nonrevs to get the Platinum Card

There is one glaring exception to the rule, and it only applies if you fly standby on Delta often: the Platinum Card is the best premium travel credit card for getting into Delta Sky Clubs (as long as you have a same-day Delta boarding pass). While you could also use Amex’s co-branded Delta Sky Miles Reserve card to gain entry into Sky Clubs, only the Platinum Card gives you access to both Sky Clubs and the global network of Priority Pass lounges around the world.

While you may not be able to take advantage of the amazing Centurion Lounges very often (if ever) while flying standby, the added benefits of Sky Club access & a Priority Pass Select membership sweetens the value proposition for nonrevs who frequently find themselves in airports with Delta lounges. The Amex Platinum Card is superior to the Delta Sky Miles Reserve in virtually every way.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, holding the American Express Platinum Card as a nonrev can feel a bit unfulfilling. Missing out on the Centurion Lounge because of Amex’s boarding pass requirement is a huge letdown. The earnings rate & bonus categories are not optimal for standby travelers, and the Membership Rewards redemption options are limited. With limited lounge access and sub-optimal hotel partner options, I find it hard to justify paying the expensive annual membership fee when I know I can’t take advantage of all of the benefits. 

By all means, I am sure there is a nonrev out there who can still find value in the Platinum Card even with the handicapped benefits. Even if you can fully take advantage of the Uber credit ($200/year) & Saks Fifth Avenue credit ($100/year), you still need to extract at least $250 of value out of the remaining perks to break even on the $550 annual fee. Without more hotel transfer partners or relevant bonus spend categories, there are more valuable credit cards available to nonrevs and cheaper ways to get into airport lounges.

If you still carry the Platinum Card as an airline employee who frequently travels on their non-rev benefits, I would love to hear your thoughts. Drop a comment below or connect with us on Twitter to share why you think the Platinum Card’s value proposition still makes sense.