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Key takeaways
- The Business Platinum Card from American Express offers a wide range of benefits, including a slew of travel benefits and purchase protection benefits.
- The card also offers different kinds of insurance and multiple business statement credits.
- These benefits can make the steep annual fee worth it, but there’s a lot of fine print you have to pay attention to if you’re going to take advantage of them.
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is considered one of the top premium credit cards for small business owners and entrepreneurs. This is partly due to the fact that cardholders can earn American Express Membership Rewards points, which are incredibly valuable and versatile. However, the Amex Business Platinum also offers a range of important benefits that can help users save money on business-related purchases, and even on credit card interest for the first year.
If you’re considering this business credit card from Amex, you’ll want to make sure you can get plenty of value in exchange for its $695 annual fee. Fortunately, the card’s welcome offer, ongoing rewards, Amex Business Platinum travel benefits and statement credit offers more than make up for this fee — especially in the first year.
Amex Business Platinum benefits highlights
Before we explain how Amex Business Platinum benefits work, here’s a rundown of this card’s current offer, including details on its welcome bonus, ongoing rewards rate, introductory APR and more:
- Welcome offer — 150,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $20,000 on eligible purchases within three months of account opening.
- Rewards — 5X points on flights and prepaid hotels booked with AmexTravel.com, 2X points on prepaid rental cars booked through AmexTravel.com, 1.5X points per dollar spent (on up to $2,000,000 per calendar year) on purchases of $5,000 or more on select category purchases, 1X points on all other purchases
Amex Membership Rewards points are incredibly flexible, so you can use them in more than one way. For example, you can redeem Amex points for gift cards or merchandise, or you can use them to pay for purchases as you shop. You can also redeem your rewards for travel directly through the Amex travel portal, and you can transfer them to Amex travel partners, including Air France / Flying Blue, Delta SkyMiles, the Hilton Honors program, Marriott Bonvoy and more.
It’s also important to note that points earned in the American Express Membership Rewards program can be worth up to around 2 cents each when transferred to certain travel partners and used for premium redemptions.
With the 35 percent Airline Bonus points feature offered by the Amex Business Platinum, you can get 42,000 points back when you use your points to pay for airfare through amextravel.com. That would be a value of up to $840.
Travel perks and statement credits
The Amex Business Platinum offers a ton of benefits for cardholders who travel often for business or for leisure.
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When it comes to airport lounge access, the Amex Business Platinum offers the most comprehensive coverage of any other business credit card for travel. First off, this card comes with a Priority Pass Select airport lounge membership, which lets you access more than 1,500 airport lounges around the world and comes with a retail value of $469.
Cardholders also get access to American Express Centurion lounges in destinations like Dallas (DFW), Houston (IAH), Miami (MIA) and San Francisco (SFO), and even in select international airports like London (LHR) and Hong Kong (HKG). As an added bonus, Amex Business Platinum cardmembers can visit Delta Sky Clubs when flying Delta and select Lufthansa lounges when flying with Lufthansa.
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Cardholders can also qualify for up to $200 in airline incidental credits with their chosen airline each calendar year. This credit is good for in-flight refreshments, baggage fees and other incidental charges that occur.
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Those who select this business credit card can qualify for up to $189 in credits toward CLEAR® membership each year. Similarly to TSA PreCheck, this program lets users move faster through airport security at select airports and stadiums.The $189 in annual credit is enough to pay for one full year of membership in this program.
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Amex Business Platinum cardmembers can earn 35 percent of their Membership Rewards points back when they use their points to pay for all or part of a flight through the Amex travel portal and their flight is either First or Business Class, or is any fare class on a qualifying airline that you selected for the year. This benefit is good for up to 1 million bonus points back per calendar year.
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Cardholders are also eligible for a fee credit toward Global Entry or TSA PreCheck membership when they pay with their card. This credit is good for up to $100 for Global Entry every four years or up to $85 for TSA PreCheck every 4.5 years. If you’re approved for Global Entry, you’ll get access to TSA PreCheck at no additional charge.
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Frequent travelers for business or leisure will love the fact this card offers benefits with the Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts program. Specifically, cardmembers qualify for a room upgrade on arrival (based on availability), daily breakfast for two, a guaranteed late checkout, noon check-in when available, free internet access and an experience credit worth up to $100 on eligible bookings.Separately, just having the Amex Business Platinum gives you automatic Gold status with the Hilton Honors loyalty program and Gold Elite status with Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program.
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This card also comes with premium car rental benefits with Avis, Hertz and National. Specifically, cardholders become eligible for upgrades when available, discounts on rental periods and priority service at participating locations.With National Car Rental, Amex Business Platinum customers qualify for National Emerald Club benefits.
Travel insurance benefits
Business owners who choose the Business Platinum Card from American Express also receive some complimentary travel insurance protections when they pay for travel on a common carrier with their business card.
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Amex Business Platinum customers are eligible for a baggage insurance plan that applies when they pay for travel with a common carrier (for example, an airline or cruise line) with their card. This coverage is good for up to $2,000 per person for checked baggage and up to a combined $3,000 per person for checked and carry-on baggage.
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Cardmembers are also eligible for auto rental coverage with a maximum benefit of $75,000 for damage or theft. This benefit is good for eligible rental periods of up to 30 consecutive days. This insurance is secondary to other coverage you have.
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Trip delay insurance applies to eligible round-trip travel expenses charged to the card. Coverage is good for up to $500 per trip, and for incidental expenses that apply (including meals, lodging, toiletries, medication and more) when a trip is delayed by six hours or longer.Cardmembers are eligible to file two claims per 12-month period.
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Trip cancellation and interruption insurance can apply to eligible round-trip travel purchases charged to the card. This coverage is good for up to $10,000 per covered trip with a maximum benefit of $20,000 per eligible card each 12-month period.
Benefits for business
In addition to all the Amex Business Platinum travel benefits you can qualify for, there are several business-related perks and statement credit offers available.
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Use your card for eligible Dell Technologies purchases each year and get up to $400 back. Enrollment is required prior to purchasing your products.
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Need to build your team? You can earn up to $360 back in statement credits when you use Indeed to recruit and hire new employees. Enrollment is required prior to making your purchases.
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Get up to $150 back when you use your card to pay for services with Adobe Creative Solutions, an online design firm and app. Enrollment is required prior to purchasing Adobe.
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Finally, you can also earn up to $120 in statement credits toward wireless telephone services purchases. Enrollment is required prior to paying your service providers.
Security and protection benefits
There are plenty of Amex Business Platinum additional card benefits to be aware of, including perks that help you save money when your most expensive purchases break down or become lost or stolen.
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Pay your cellphone bill with your Amex Business Platinum, and you’re automatically eligible for cellphone insurance. This protection is good for up to $800 per eligible claim, although a $50 deductible per claim applies. Cardholders can only file up to two claims per 12-month period.
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Eligible purchases that already come with a manufacturer’s warranty become eligible for one additional year of warranty coverage when you pay with your card. This protection applies to products with manufacturer’s warranties of five years or less.
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Also, cardholders qualify for Amex purchase protection against damage or theft on eligible items, which can apply for up to 90 days from the purchase date. Coverage is good for up to $10,000 per occurrence and up to $50,000 per calendar year.
How to maximize the benefits offered by the Amex Business Platinum
When it comes to the Business Platinum Card from American Express, or really any American Express credit card, you’ll want to pay extremely close attention to the fine print. That’s because Amex tends to create quite a few hoops for members who want to use their perks. This doesn’t mean Amex Business Platinum benefits aren’t worth it; you just need to know the rules ahead of time so you can follow them.
As an example, the $200 airline incidental credit only applies to purchases made with an airline you select. Not only that, but you have to go out of your way to select an airline each year you have the card, and you can only change your selected airline once per year during the month of January.
You’ll also notice the 35 percent airline bonus only applies to either first and business class flights, or any fare with this same selected airline. This means other airline purchases won’t earn these bonus points unless you’re flying first or business class, so you could be stuck having to choose between a flight you really want and the one that will earn bonus points back.
Also, note all the business statement credit offers from companies like Dell, Indeed and Adobe Creative Solutions require enrollment ahead of time. If you forget to enroll before you make eligible purchases, you won’t get any money back.
The bottom line
Amex Business Platinum benefits can easily be worth thousands of dollars. After all, the card’s business statement credits alone are worth up to $1,030 if you use all of them, and Priority Pass Select membership has a retail value of $429. Add in the $200 airline incidental credit, the $189 CLEAR credit and the up to $100 toward Global Entry or TSA PreCheck you receive, and you’re already at $1,938 in value before you even get to your rewards.
This is part of the reason the Amex Business Platinum is often well worth its annual fee. With plenty of statement credit offers and travel perks, plus rewards points that can be worth up to around 2 cents each, this business credit card is hard to beat — provided you’re able to take advantage of all of its perks.
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