How To Upgrade or Downgrade the Amex Platinum Card [2023]

The Platinum Card^® from American Express is, without a doubt, one of the most popular travel cards in the business. Offering superb luxury travel benefits and impressive rewards, it’s almost impossible to beat this card if you’re looking to get pampered.

But let’s say you gave this card a shot and found that it’s not the right fit — maybe you’re looking to make a change and swap out your card for something else.

In this guide, we’ll compare the benefits of the major types of cards in the same family as the Amex Platinum card and show you how you can downgrade or upgrade your Amex Platinum card to another product.

Amex Platinum Card — Overview

Before we dive into how to downgrade or upgrade your Amex Platinum card, let’s take a quick moment to review the card and the benefits you receive as a cardholder.

Some of our favorite perks include:

• 5x points on flights purchased directly with the airline or with Amex Travel (up to $500,000 spent per year, then 1x points), and on prepaid hotels booked with Amex Travel
• Access to over 1,400 lounges as part of the American Express Global Lounge Collection
• Access to American Express’ Fine Hotels + Resorts and The Hotel Collection
• Elite status and benefits with National, Avis, and Hertz (upon enrollment)
• Complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status and Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status (upon enrollment)
• Up to $200 airline incidental credit (upon enrollment)
• Up to $200 prepaid hotel credit towards eligible stays
• Up to $200 Uber Cash credit per year
• Up to $189 CLEAR Plus credit
• Up to $100 Global Entry or up to $85 TSA PreCheck application fee credit
• No foreign transaction fees (rates and fees)
• Impressive travel insurance, including trip cancellation and interruption insurance, trip delay insurance, and more

Downgrading Your Amex Platinum Card

It’s recommended that your Amex Platinum card is at least 1 year old before you can downgrade your card to the American Express^® Gold Card or the American Express^® Green Card.

Amex Gold Card

Amex Green Card

Downgrades can take place in 2 ways:

1. Call the number on the back of your card and request a downgrade of your Amex Platinum card.
2. Start a chat conversation after logging into your Amex online account to request a downgrade of your Amex Platinum card.

Hot Tip:

When you process the downgrade of your Amex Platinum card, you may be able to get a prorated refund of the annual fee you paid.

Reasons To Downgrade Your Amex Platinum Card

Below, we’ll focus on reasons why you might consider downgrading your Amex Platinum card to either the Amex Gold card or Amex Green card.

You Don’t Travel Much Anymore

The Amex Platinum card is first and foremost a travel card, which means its benefits will help frequent travelers the most. It comes with a $695 annual fee (rates and fees), but also a bevy of travel perks.

If you’re able to use most of these benefits, particularly the statement credits, then their value easily outweighs the annual fee in spades — but that’s if you can actually use them.

If you’re truly cutting down on travel, the Amex Platinum card probably isn’t going to be a good fit for you moving forward. Instead, you can downgrade your Amex Platinum card to the Amex Gold card or Amex Green card, both of which offer mild travel benefits but strong rewards for popular spending categories.

You Don’t Want To Pay a High Annual Fee

If you’re looking to cut down your spending in general, one of the easier ways to do that is to cancel a high annual fee card — and the Amex Platinum card is definitely one you’ll turn your attention to for this reason.

So if you’re tight on cash and don’t want to pay a large $695 annual fee, there’s a strong case to downgrade your Amex Platinum card, even though you’ll lose all of its travel benefits.

You Want More Rewards on Everyday Spending Categories

A common realization for many with a travel card is that the value of the rewards you earn for spending is more than the benefits you enjoy on the card.

For example, if you travel only once or twice per year, you might get some value from the Amex Platinum card, but not as much value as a road warrior that travels every other week.

Meanwhile, if you spend a lot of money at restaurants or supermarkets, the Amex Gold card is almost a dream come true with its strong points-earning bonus categories.

For example, if you spend $3,000 per month on eating out, you could earn 4x points on those points with the Amex Gold card, which is 144,000 Membership Rewards points per year, worth $3,168 by our valuations. In contrast, if you spend all that money on the Amex Platinum card, you’d only earn 36,000 Membership Rewards points, which are worth $792 based on our estimations.

The Amex Platinum card isn’t an ideal card for everyday spending, whereas the Amex Gold card and Amex Green card offer multiple times better rewards on everyday categories like dining, groceries, travel, transit, and more.

Bottom Line:

If you look at your spending patterns and discover that you’re missing out on thousands of dollars worth of rewards by using the Amex Platinum card instead of the Amex Green card or Amex Gold card, you might want to consider downgrading your card.

Upgrading Your Amex Platinum Card

Upgrading your Amex Platinum card is a lot different from upgrading a lower-tier Amex card, simply because the Amex Platinum card can’t be upgraded to any other card besides the Centurion^® Card from American Express. However, you can’t upgrade to the Centurion card unless you’re invited.

The Centurion card is informally known as the Amex Black card and comes loaded with luxury benefits, however, it also charges an eye-popping $5,000 annual fee and $10,000 initiation fee. In the past, you were allowed to request an invite to the Centurion card, but American Express has recently rescinded the ability to do so — now, the only way to get invited to the Centurion card is to be a loyal American Express customer and spend a lot on your Amex cards.

Anecdotally, the minimum spending requirement you’ll likely need to have on your Amex Platinum card to even get considered for an invite to the Centurion card is $250,000 per year.

In practice, the minimum figure is probably closer to $500,000 per year — however, in our experience, it’s actually more important to have a long, perfect payment history and relationship with American Express to be considered for the Centurion card.

We’ve seen people with spending that exceeds far beyond that figure who continue to wait for an invite, while those who spend near the minimum requirement but have a long (20+ year) history with American Express get invited to become a Centurion cardholder.

All information about the Centurion^® Card from American Express has been collected independently by Upgraded Points.

Reasons To Upgrade Your Amex Platinum Card

Now that we’ve compiled all of the reasons to downgrade your Amex Platinum card, let’s take a look at all of the reasons why you might consider upgrading your Amex Platinum card to the Centurion card.

Admittedly, if you’ve been invited to upgrade to the Centurion card and are considering doing so, you’re likely in the 1% of the 1%.

You Get Invited to the Centurion Card

If you’ve been invited to upgrade your Amex Platinum card to the Centurion card, you’ve essentially been invited by American Express into one of the most exclusive clubs in the world.

Typically, you will get a package in the mail inviting you to upgrade to the Centurion card. This package may contain a phone number to call, as well as an invite code to provide to the Centurion service agent.

If one of your life goals has been to get entry to this club and you’re willing to pay thousands of dollars in annual fees and initiation fees, then you should absolutely accept an upgrade offer if you’re invited.

You’re Looking for Super High-end Benefits

Maybe you liked the Amex Platinum card’s travel benefits, but you were left wanting for even more luxurious perks from your card.

While it’s difficult to decline an invitation to one of the most hyped-up financial products out there, you should still evaluate whether or not you can get enough value from the card to justify the $10,000 initiation fee and $5,000 annual fee (as well as a $5,000 annual fee for each additional cardholder, up to 2 additional cardholders).

Here’s the shortlist of the Centurion card’s notable perks (terms and conditions apply for all benefits):

• Access to the Centurion concierge service
• Access to Centurion New York, a new luxury space located on the 55th floor of One Vanderbilt in the heart of Midtown Manhattan delivering luxury hospitality and dining
• Complimentary Delta SkyMiles Platinum Medallion status
• Access to the Centurion Hotel Program (includes a room upgrade at the time of booking when available and an additional property credit of around ~$200 per stay) at properties like Aman, Belmond, Mandarin Oriental, Oetker Collection, Peninsula Hotels, Rosewood, St. Regis, and Waldorf Astoria
• Complimentary Hilton Honors Diamond, Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite, and IHG One Rewards Platinum Elite status
• Access to Centurion International Arrival Services (meet and greet service)
• Complimentary PS membership (private airport lounge) and an annual complimentary visit 
• Complimentary Equinox Destination Access membership
• Up to $250 in Saks Fifth Avenue credits per quarter

There are a ton more benefits associated with this card, but this is just a taste of what you can expect when you hold this card. These perks are all quite valuable if you can use them, and even if you take advantage of just a few, you may be able to justify the annual fee.

For the right person, the Centurion card could actually end up saving money. For example, the Equinox Destination Access membership can cost typically around $290 per month. If you use your Centurion card to get a complimentary Equinox membership, you’d be saving upwards of $3,480 per year from this 1 perk alone.

Amex Membership Rewards Cards

Now, in this next section, we’ll walk you through each of the major products in the same family as the Amex Platinum card. From most premium to least premium, here are the cards in the personal Membership Rewards family:

• Centurion card (invite-only)
• Amex Platinum card
• Amex Gold card
• Amex Green card

You should be able to downgrade your Amex Platinum card to the Amex Gold card or Amex Green card without issue as long as your card has been open for at least 12 months.

But you can only upgrade your Amex Platinum card to the Centurion card if you get invited.

Benefits Comparison

Below you can compare the benefits of each card side-by-side:

Benefit	Centurion Card	Amex Platinum Card	Amex Gold Card	Amex Green Card
Rewards	1x points on all purchases	5x points on airfare purchased directly through the airline and Amex Travel (up to $500,000 per calendar year, then 1x) 5x points on prepaid hotel stays booked through Amex Travel	4x points at restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery in the U.S. 4x points at U.S. supermarkets on the first $25,000 per calendar year 3x points on airfare purchased directly with the airline or Amex Travel	3x points at restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery in the U.S. 3x points on transit 3x points on travel
Top Travel Benefits	Access to Centurion New York Access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection (including reserved spaces at Centurion Lounges) Complimentary PS membership Centurion arrival and departure services  Complimentary airline, hotel, and rental car elite status Access to the Centurion Hotel Collection, Fine Hotels + Resorts, and The Hotel Collection	Access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection Access to Fine Hotels + Resorts and The Hotel Collection Complimentary hotel and rental car elite status Premium travel insurance protections	Basic travel insurance  Access to The Hotel Collection	Basic travel insurance
Statement Credits (Enrollment May Be Required for Certain Benefits)	Saks Fifth Avenue, SoulCycle, Equinox, CLEAR Plus, and Global Entry or TSA PreCheck	Airline fee credits, prepaid hotel credits, Global Entry or TSA Precheck, CLEAR Plus, digital entertainment, Equinox, Saks Fifth Avenue, Walmart+, and SoulCycle	Dining credits and Uber Cash	CLEAR Plus and LoungeBuddy
Annual Fees	$5,000 annual fee and $10,000 initiation fee	$695	$250 (rates and fees)	$150 (rates and fees)
Authorized Users	Up to 2 additional cards for an annual fee of $5,000 per cardholder	$195 per authorized user (rates and fees)  No-fee basic Gold or Green cards for no additional annual fees (rates and fees)	Up to 5 additional cards for no annual fee, then $35 per additional card after that (rates and fees)	No additional annual fees for authorized users (rates and fees)

Final Thoughts

Downgrading or upgrading your Amex Platinum card is a big decision. You probably opened this card to take advantage of the travel benefits and to earn Amex Membership Rewards points (and maybe even for the card’s prestige).

Your favorite travel companion could potentially be no more — if you upgrade your Amex Platinum card, you’ll join the likes of the ultra-wealthy with the Centurion card.

And if you downgrade your Amex Platinum card to the Amex Gold card or Amex Green card, you’ll still have a fantastic card, though it’ll mostly be a machine to help you earn lots of Amex points.

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For the trip cancellation and interruption insurance benefit of the Amex Platinum card, eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

For the trip delay insurance benefit of the Amex Platinum card, eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

The information regarding the American Express^® Green Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding the Centurion^® Card from American Express was independently collected by Upgraded Points and was not provided nor reviewed by the issuer. 

For rates and fees of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express^® Gold Card, click here.