The Amex Business Platinum card offers a solid rewards rate and a terrific mix of travel and business perks, making it easy to offset the annual fee and squeeze a ton of value out of the card..
Perks: A ton of valuable credits
One of this card’s biggest selling points is its generous roster of practical, easy-to-use perks. While the exact value you’ll get get from these perks will depend on where you spend, you could enjoy thousands in annual credits and reimbursements, including:
- An average of $600 in perks with a Fine Hotels and Resorts program property when you book through American Express Travel.
- Up to $400 in statement credits per year on Dell purchases (up to $200 semi-annually)
- Up to $360 statement credit on Indeed hiring and recruiting products and services (up to $90 back per quarter)
- Up to $300 in onboard credits on participating cruise lines with select room bookings through the Cruise Privileges Program (per new cruise booking)
- Up to $100 in statement credits for eligible stays at The Hotel Collection properties
- Up to $200 per year in statement credits for qualifying airline fees, such as baggage fees, with a selected airline
- Up to a $189 annual statement credit when you use your card to cover the cost of a CLEAR® airport security membership
- Up to $150 in statement credits per year on select Adobe business plan purchases, including the Adobe Creative Cloud and Acrobat Pro DC
- Up to $120 in statement credits per year for telephone service purchases made directly with a U.S. wireless provider (up to $10 back per month)
- Up to a $100 statement credit every four years to cover a Global Entry application or up to an $85 statement credit every four and a half years to cover TSA PreCheck application fees
These perks could offer enough value to offset the card’s annual fee on their own, but you’ll also unlock some ofs the best airport lounge access privileges on the market, including access to Amex Centurion lounges, Priority Pass Select lounges, Delta Sky Club lounges, Airspace Lounge locations, Escape Lounges, Plaza Premium lounges, Lufthansa Lounges and more. In all, you’ll be able to rest in over 1,400 airport lounges across 140 countries and more than 500 airports.
If you often stay at Marriott or Hilton properties, you’ll also have a leg up on their loyalty programs since the Business Platinum offers complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status and Hilton Honors Gold Status.
The Amex Business Platinum is also one of the best cards for travel insurance if you’re a frequent flyer for business, thanks to the layers of security it can protect your travel plans with. You’ll get standouts like $20,000 per card in trip cancellation and interruption insurance every 12 months, trip delay insurance for up to $500 per trip (up to two claims each 12 months), return protection and up to $3,000 of baggage delay insurance.
Rewards: An ideal fit for frequent travelers and low-maintenance cardholders
Frequent travelers might get the most out of the Amex Business Platinum due to its travel-oriented rewards and perks. However, cardholders who make frequent business purchases can also come out ahead thanks to the card’s boosted rewards rate on select business expenses and on purchases of $5,000 or more.
Unlike other general travel cards, the Business Platinum requires you to purchase flights and prepaid hotels through the American Express Travel portal to earn 5 points per dollar spent. Though this makes the card less flexible than some competing business travel cards, 5X points is an excellent rate no matter how you slice it.
If your business has significant expenses or you don’t travel as often, you still have an excellent opportunity to earn major rewards. Purchases that ring up to $5,000 or more and will earn 1.5X points, as will eligible purchases in the following categories (on up to $2,000,000 in combined purchases per year for both 1.5X rewards rates):
- Electronic goods and associated retailers
- Software Cloud service providers
- Construction materials and hardware supplies
- Shipping providers
You’ll also enjoy decent flexibility when it comes time to redeem rewards. You can use points for booking travel — including flights, hotels, cruises, and more — through American Express or transfer points to one of Amex’s many travel partners. Transferring may even allow you to increase the value of your points.
Using points for travel bookings through the Amex portal will get you at least 1 cent per point in value, but based on Bankrate’s credit card point valuations, you could get around 2.1 cents per point in value with the right transfer partner.
Plus, you can take advantage of the card’s 35 percent Airline Bonus feature, which gives you 35 percent of your points back when you use points to cover eligible flights with a qualifying airline of your choice and book through American Express Travel.