Airline/Hotel Loyalty Programs

[Jeff Lebowski]

Bo - does AMEX waive the annual fee for all of your cards? I'd like to get the AMEX Platinum or Platinum Business card, but I'm not sure I'd get enough benefit to justify the $695 fee for either. I might have to look at that Hilton card.

I just got the platinum business card and they told me the annual fee is $250.

[old_gregg]

I just got the platinum business card and they told me the annual fee is $250.

amex plat business is $695. totally worth it (dell small business, airline credit, lounge access, etc.)

[Pelado]

I just got the platinum business card and they told me the annual fee is $250.

You said in your prior post that you got the AMEX Delta SkyMiles Platinum card and the AMEX SkyMiles Business Platinum card, both of which do carry an annual fee of $250.

The annual fee for the AMEX Business Platinum card (not co-branded with Delta SkyMiles) is $695. As old_gregg says, it comes with a bunch of benefits.

It earns Membership Rewards points rather than SkyMiles. MR can be converted to SkyMiles but - AFAIK - SM cannot be converted to MR.. In addition, MR can be transferred to a bunch of other airline and hotel transfer partners - not just to Delta. MR can also be used to purchase travel through the AMEX travel portal. If you pay with points through the AMEX portal, your can also get 35% of the points back if it's in first or business class or booked on your selected airline.

The card includes complimentary access to AMEX Centurion Lounges.

It also comes with statement credits of up to the following amounts for certain vendors:

• $400 on Dell purchases
• $360 for Indeed purchases
• $150 for Adobe purchases
• $120 on wireless phone services
• $200 for incidental fees charged by your selected qualified airline
• $189 for CLEAR membership

The card earns 5x MR points for flights and prepaid hotels purchased through the AMEX travel portal and 1.5x MR points for purchases in excess of $5,000.

The AMEX Platinum Card - personal edition - carries the same $695 annual fee and has some of the same benefits - including the Centurion Lounge access - but also some unique things:

• From above - CLEAR, airline incidental fees, and maybe something else I'm not seeing right now.
• $200 on hotels booked through AMEX travel portal
• $240 on digital entertainment (Audible, Disney+, Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, Peacock, New York Times, SiriusXM)
• $155 on Walmart+ membership
• $200 Uber Cash
• $300 on Equinox membership
• $100 at Saks Fifth Avenue

The personal card earns 5x points on airfare purchased directly from an airline or through the AMEX portal as well as prepaid hotels purchased through the portal.

So if you are already paying for most/all the items on the list for either card, then it makes a ton of sense to get the card. If I were to get either card, then I would splurge to take advantage of those items as much as possible. But my current spending on those items is well below the $650 I'd have to shell out for either card.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Aha… Gotcha. Thanks guys.

[Bo Diddley]

I've been a freeloader on Amex long enough I'm going to have to carry some of these cards after I retire or I'll feel guilty.

[beefytee]

I've been a freeloader on Amex long enough I'm going to have to carry some of these cards after I retire or I'll feel guilty.

I wouldn't feel too bad for Amex. They make money on every transaction, so you've been paying for it indirectly with your purchases.

I have a few cards that offer rewards, but I never pay any fees.

Thanks to discussions here, I have the Synchrony Amazon Store card and the Chase Prime card. Both give you 5% on purchases at Amazon. The Synchrony card only works at Amazon. The Chase card is pretty nice otherwise too.

We have a GM Mastercard that gives up 5% on purchases towards a new vehicle. There is a limit to the amount we can apply though, so we only use this in the months leading up to a purchase. The nice thing about this is that often they mail us offers that go above and beyond the cap and give bonus cash on this as well. We got a really good deal on one of the cars we bought thanks to this. This card is pretty limited though. You have to be willing to by cars from GM which I'm sure lots of you are unwilling to do.

We have the old Costco Amex with similar rewards to what it was with Costco. I believe it is called the Amex Blue now. It was the Amex Clear when we got it after their divorce from Costco.

This also resulted in us getting the Costco Citi Visa. The crazy thing with Costco is that after the Amex divorce, Costco went with Mastercard in Canada but Visa in the US, so we can't even use our Costco card to pay for things when we go to Canada.

The one card I haven't explored and don't have is Discover. We have gotten by without one up until now but I'm wondering if it is worth considering.

[Joe Public]

You said in your prior post that you got the AMEX Delta SkyMiles Platinum card and the AMEX SkyMiles Business Platinum card, both of which do carry an annual fee of $250.

The annual fee for the AMEX Business Platinum card (not co-branded with Delta SkyMiles) is $695. As old_gregg says, it comes with a bunch of benefits.

It earns Membership Rewards points rather than SkyMiles. MR can be converted to SkyMiles but - AFAIK - SM cannot be converted to MR.. In addition, MR can be transferred to a bunch of other airline and hotel transfer partners - not just to Delta. MR can also be used to purchase travel through the AMEX travel portal. If you pay with points through the AMEX portal, your can also get 35% of the points back if it's in first or business class or booked on your selected airline.

The card includes complimentary access to AMEX Centurion Lounges.

It also comes with statement credits of up to the following amounts for certain vendors:

• $400 on Dell purchases
• $360 for Indeed purchases
• $150 for Adobe purchases
• $120 on wireless phone services
• $200 for incidental fees charged by your selected qualified airline
• $189 for CLEAR membership

The card earns 5x MR points for flights and prepaid hotels purchased through the AMEX travel portal and 1.5x MR points for purchases in excess of $5,000.

The AMEX Platinum Card - personal edition - carries the same $695 annual fee and has some of the same benefits - including the Centurion Lounge access - but also some unique things:

• From above - CLEAR, airline incidental fees, and maybe something else I'm not seeing right now.
• $200 on hotels booked through AMEX travel portal
• $240 on digital entertainment (Audible, Disney+, Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, Peacock, New York Times, SiriusXM)
• $155 on Walmart+ membership
• $200 Uber Cash
• $300 on Equinox membership
• $100 at Saks Fifth Avenue

The personal card earns 5x points on airfare purchased directly from an airline or through the AMEX portal as well as prepaid hotels purchased through the portal.

So if you are already paying for most/all the items on the list for either card, then it makes a ton of sense to get the card. If I were to get either card, then I would splurge to take advantage of those items as much as possible. But my current spending on those items is well below the $650 I'd have to shell out for either card.

The ESPN+ reimbursement may become more valuable to BYU fans depending on how sports coverage in the Big 12 shakes out.

[Pelado]

I wouldn't feel too bad for Amex. They make money on every transaction, so you've been paying for it indirectly with your purchases.

I have a few cards that offer rewards, but I never pay any fees.

Thanks to discussions here, I have the Synchrony Amazon Store card and the Chase Prime card. Both give you 5% on purchases at Amazon. The Synchrony card only works at Amazon. The Chase card is pretty nice otherwise too.

We have a GM Mastercard that gives up 5% on purchases towards a new vehicle. There is a limit to the amount we can apply though, so we only use this in the months leading up to a purchase. The nice thing about this is that often they mail us offers that go above and beyond the cap and give bonus cash on this as well. We got a really good deal on one of the cars we bought thanks to this. This card is pretty limited though. You have to be willing to by cars from GM which I'm sure lots of you are unwilling to do.

We have the old Costco Amex with similar rewards to what it was with Costco. I believe it is called the Amex Blue now. It was the Amex Clear when we got it after their divorce from Costco.

This also resulted in us getting the Costco Citi Visa. The crazy thing with Costco is that after the Amex divorce, Costco went with Mastercard in Canada but Visa in the US, so we can't even use our Costco card to pay for things when we go to Canada.

The one card I haven't explored and don't have is Discover. We have gotten by without one up until now but I'm wondering if it is worth considering.

I don't remember seeing much benefit from Discover for travel rewards. There might be other cards with targeted benefits that would be useful to you.

[Green Monstah]

One thing I forgot to mention: I earn Allegiant points for any flight I book under my profile. And it comes to you with a dollar value, and you can offset cost of flights partially with your credits. It probably is not better/worse than a normal flight rewards program from the perspective of credits earned as a percentage of purchase, but I like it.

[Jeff Lebowski]

As I mentioned recently, I just signed up for an AMEX gold (70K mileage bonus) and a platinum AMEX business card (95K mileage bonus). They just sent my wife a mailer offering 85K miles for an AMEX platinum. We applied and it was approved.

That is 250K miles for a modest amount of spending. Yeesh. Need to start flying business class.

[Bo Diddley]

As I mentioned recently, I just signed up for an AMEX gold (70K mileage bonus) and a platinum AMEX business card (95K mileage bonus). They just sent my wife a mailer offering 85K miles for an AMEX platinum. We applied and it was approved.

That is 250K miles for a modest amount of spending. Yeesh. Need to start flying business class.

Lewbowskis are in the game!

[Omaha 680]

Brutal new limits for Delta status qualification are coming in 2024, announced yesterday. After hiking the MQD limit for diamond to $20,000 this last year (from $15k in prior years), they are now going away from any mileage requirement and only imposing new, higher MQD requirements. Diamond will now be $35k (!). Platinum will be $18k which is $3k above what diamond was just a year ago. If you spend a crap ton of money on a Delta Amex card you can get some MQD credit but not sure it's worth it. I'll admit that I am talking out of both sides of my mouth here. I have complained ever since covid ended that there are too many Delta medallion members. The Sky Clubs are so crowded and have such long lines at JFK I rarely go in and I only get upgrades about 25% of the time as a multi-year consecutive Diamond. So in some ways this is a welcome change but they probably priced me out of Diamond given my meager engineer fare budgets.

[old_gregg]

Brutal new limits for Delta status qualification are coming in 2024, announced yesterday. After hiking the MQD limit for diamond to $20,000 this last year (from $15k in prior years), they are now going away from any mileage requirement and only imposing new, higher MQD requirements. Diamond will now be $35k (!). Platinum will be $18k which is $3k above what diamond was just a year ago. If you spend a crap ton of money on a Delta Amex card you can get some MQD credit but not sure it's worth it. I'll admit that I am talking out of both sides of my mouth here. I have complained ever since covid ended that there are too many Delta medallion members. The Sky Clubs are so crowded and have such long lines at JFK I rarely go in and I only get upgrades about 25% of the time as a multi-year consecutive Diamond. So in some ways this is a welcome change but they probably priced me out of Diamond given my meager engineer fare budgets.

the lounges are an amex platinum problem, not a status problem

[Jeff Lebowski]

the lounges are an amex platinum problem, not a status problem

I can use the lounge now? Dang, I didn't know.

[Omaha 680]

I can use the lounge now? Dang, I didn't know.

Oh, great. One more platinum guy contributing to the traffic jam!

o_g I'm sure platinum card holders are a major driver of the lounge problem, but I'm convinced to glut of medallions is a partial contributor. The Centurion Lounges that can be accessed by platinum card are crowded, but nowhere near as insane as the Sky Clubs. Also the drastic reduction in upgrade frequency and how far down the list I usually am as a Diamond post-covid compared to a Platinum pre-covid is pretty crazy. This will certainly improve the upgrade and lounge issue for those medallions who make the cut.