Cost-benefit analysis of American Express Platinum Card

As the year-end approaches, it is time to perform a cost-benefit analysis of my credit cards. Here I discuss the American Express Platinum Card.

Optimizing this card is far from simple, which explains my love-hate relationship. To begin, the annual fee is $895, which is quite expensive. The awards structure is simple, however:

• 5 points per dollar spent directly on airlines or booking flights or hotels through American Express Travel.
• 1 point per dollar spent on everything else.

What makes this card complicated is that there are many benefits, some of which apply annually, semiannually, quarterly, or monthly, and at any time, there are 100 targeted offers. Navigating through these benefits (until I remember them) is mentally taxing.

This year, I recovered the following benefits.

• $200 for Uber. This is easy to remember because we get $15 Uber cash every month (with $20 extra in December). Because I can’t get reimbursed for Uber Cash as business expenses, I use it for personal Uber rides if there are any, and if not, I order random things on Uber Eats (and choose pickup to save on delivery fees).
• $200 for Resy. This is also easy to remember because we get $100 every quarter. I try to use it for business meals because we can get reimbursed.
• $148.27 for Lululemon. There is a $75 credit each quarter, and I ask my wife to purchase things that we would buy anyway.
• $100 for Saks Fifth Avenue. There is a $50 credit every half year, and I ask my wife to purchase things that we would buy anyway.
• $209 for Clear.
• $225 for Fine Hotels & Resorts or Hotel Collection. There is a $300 credit every half year, but it is difficult to use this credit because these hotels are expensive and some require a two-night stay. Ideally, I want to use this for a business trip that I can get reimbursed for, but this year, we used it for a family trip to Las Vegas.
• $142.83 in airline fee credit. You get $200 in incidental expenses for one airline of your choice. I chose Delta because I fly often, and I’ve used it for an upgrade to premium economy and for booking fees on award tickets and in-flight purchases.
• $213.1 by clipping coupons. Once I got $100 off for booking Delta, and another time $70 off for purchasing the Dropbox annual plan (both of which I would buy anyway).
• $8 for digital subscriptions. I signed up for the Wall Street Journal, which costs $1 per week at the moment.
• Finally, I earned 47,371 points for total spending (most of which is travel, obviously). I used these points for booking flight tickets, which I value at $473.71. (More on this here.)

Noting that the annual fee was $695 (before the increase), we can compute that the average cashback rate was 7.92%, which is pretty good. Every credit card needs to have a purpose to hold. For me, the reason for keeping the Platinum card is not the cashback rate but intangible benefits like access to Centurion Lounges and gold status at Hilton and Marriott. I wish American Express would reduce the annual fee by simplifying various benefits. (To me, Oura ring or digital subscriptions have no value.) I guess I will keep the card for now because I often fly through Atlanta, which has a Centurion Lounge, but if Capital One Venture X or Chase Sapphire Reserve expands their airport lounge networks, I might switch.