6 Key Amex Business Platinum Card Benefits That Unlock $2,000+ in Annual Value

The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express is arguably one of the most popular business cards on the market, but its giant $695 annual fee (rates & fees) is sure to give discerning business owners pause.

Beyond the potential rewards you can earn from your business expenses, the Amex Business Platinum card can unlock thousands of dollars in value with annual benefits to useful merchants like Dell, Adobe, Indeed, CLEAR, and many more (enrollment required).

This guide provides a detailed analysis to help you decide whether the Amex Business Platinum card is a smart investment for your business, including a complete breakdown of benefits, real-world applications, and how the value you receive can help the card pay for itself.

High-Value Welcome Bonus

Currently, the Amex Business Platinum card offers the following welcome bonus:

• ELEVATED OFFER: Earn 150,000 points after spending $20,000 in eligible purchases within the first 3 months.

The exact value you will receive from this welcome offer will depend entirely on how you decide to redeem these bonus points. However, American Express gives you a variety of options like AmexTravel.com portal redemptions, statement credits, using Amex’s transfer partners, and more.

Depending on your redemption choice, you could expect to receive $3,300 in value according to our points and miles valuations.

While earning the welcome bonus offer for the Amex Business Platinum card does require a sizable minimum spend requirement, it might not be as challenging to meet as you expect. Consider that large expenses like rent, advertising, estimated quarterly tax payments, inventory, software, and more could all be paid with your Amex Business Platinum card.

Welcome offer aside — after all, that’s a one-time opportunity to earn a ton of points — let’s go over 6 key benefits that can deliver immense value year after year for business owners.

Hot Tip: Check to see if you’re eligible for a welcome bonus offer of up to 250k points with the Amex Business Platinum card. The current public offer is 150,000 points. (This targeted offer was independently researched and may not be available to all applicants.)

1. Dell Technologies Credit [Up to $400]

With your Amex Business Platinum card, you’ll receive up to a $200 statement credit semi-annually on U.S. purchases with Dell Technologies, totaling up to $400 each year in credits (enrollment required).

This credit can easily cover up to $400 each year toward technology, software, and more, that you would have needed to spend on your business anyway.

When you think of Dell, you might think of purchasing a computer, but there is actually a wide variety of items you can purchase through Dell, including monitors, software subscriptions, headphones, keyboards, servers, data storage, webcams, cameras and lenses, and much more.

Hot Tip:

To maximize your annual Dell credit even further, click through Rakuten first before purchasing your items. This allows you to earn additional cash-back or even additional Amex Membership Rewards points on these purchases.

2. Airline Fee Credit [Up to $200]

By selecting 1 eligible airline, you can receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year toward incidental fees paid with your Amex Business Platinum card.

If you fly frequently and often need to check bags or pay for other items, receiving the full airline incidental fee credit should be fairly easy each year.

Since the credit only applies to your chosen airline, which can only be changed at the beginning of the year, you’ll likely want to choose the airline you fly with most often. After all, the carrier you fly the most with will offer more opportunities to purchase checked bags, inflight purchases, seat selection fees, and more, making you more likely to use the full value.

3. Complimentary Global Lounge Access [Up to $500]

The Amex Business Platinum card provides complimentary access to over 1,400 airport lounges globally, including The Centurion Lounge, Delta Sky Clubs when flying same-day with Delta, Escape Lounges, Lufthansa Lounges, Plaza Premium, Priority Pass Select Lounges upon enrollment, and additional Global Lounge Collection partner lounges.

If you travel often, this benefit can easily save you tons of money each trip. For starters, airport lounges that sell day passes can often charge $30 to $50 per visit — if not, more. Alternatively, if you are someone who usually pays for food and drinks at a restaurant in the airport, you’ll now save money on those items by enjoying the complimentary food and beverages in the lounge.

Using airport lounges doesn’t just give you a place to enjoy complimentary food and beverages. Many airport lounges also offer business-centered benefits, such as private phone call pods, business centers, quiet places to relax or get work done, fast Wi-Fi, and showers so you can freshen up on your way to your next meeting.

We’ll estimate this benefit to be worth $500, but that’s a conservative estimate knowing that many annual lounge memberships with airlines often cost way more than this.

Hot Tip:

For those who travel often, airport lounge access is often one of the favorite benefits amount Amex Business Platinum cardholders, and it is easy to see why when you look at the best lounges to access with the Amex Business Platinum card.

3. CLEAR Plus Credit [Up to $199]

A CLEAR Plus membership provides an expedited security experience at 50+ airports and stadiums nationwide, allowing you to get through security screening lines much faster than you would have otherwise.

The Amex Business Platinum card has an up to $199 CLEAR Plus credit annually. This covers the entire cost of a CLEAR Plus membership, and you’ll also be saving yourself a lot of time on all of your future trips. This means you can spend less time waiting in lines and arrive at the airport later.

If you travel often, you’ll certainly appreciate the added convenience here. Better yet, you can combine CLEAR with Global Entry and TSA PreCheck to ensure that you’re always getting through security lines as quickly as possible. (The Amex Business Platinum card comes with an application fee credit to Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every 4 years and 4.5 years, respectively.)

4. Wireless Credit [Up to $120]

Upon enrollment, you can get up to $120 in statement credits annually for wireless telephone service purchases made directly with a wireless provider in the U.S. on your Amex Business Platinum card, amounting to $10 per month.

You’re likely already paying a monthly phone bill for your business, so by opting to use your Amex Business Platinum card for these purchases, you’ll earn rewards and save up to $120 each year.

The up-to-$120 annual wireless credit isn’t the only phone-related benefit you receive when paying your bill with the Amex Business Platinum card. You’ll also receive cell phone protection, which covers the repair or replacement costs following damage or theft for a maximum of $800 per claim with a limit of 2 approved claims per 12-month period, plus a $50 deductible.

5. Adobe Credit [Up to $150]

Enroll your card and get up to $150 in statement credits for eligible annual prepaid business plan purchases of Adobe Creative Cloud for teams or Adobe Acrobat Pro for teams.

If you’re not already using them, Adobe offers various tools that can aid you in marketing, content creation, design, and more. This Adobe credit helps you get a tremendous discount on the suite of Adobe products, which includes many products that can be extremely helpful for your business, including Acrobat Pro, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Express, and more.

6. Complimentary Hotel Elite Status [Up to $500]

Those with the Amex Business Platinum card receive automatic Hilton Honors Gold and Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status just by holding the card, but you must enroll in these benefits first.

With Hilton Gold elite status, which usually requires 40 nights spent at Hilton hotels each year, you receive 80% bonus points on stays, a daily food and beverage credit or complimentary breakfast, space-available room upgrades, fifth night free on reward stays, and more. With your Marriott Gold elite status, you receive 25% more bonus points, 2 p.m. late checkout (subject to availability), enhanced room upgrades, a welcome gift of bonus points, and more.

The Hilton and Marriott brands have a combined 16,000+ eligible hotels worldwide, and as a perk of your Amex Business Platinum card, you’ll be able to enjoy complimentary elite status benefits. These benefits are sure to make your business trips even more rewarding without needing to pay any additional costs.

Like the lounge access benefits, we’ll value these elite status perks at $500, though this can vary depending on how often you travel.

Amex Membership Rewards Points and Flexible Redemption Options

You have multiple great ways to earn rewards with your Amex Business Platinum card, including 5x points per $1 on flights and prepaid hotels purchased through AmexTravel.com, 1.5x points per $1 on all purchases larger than $5,000, and 1.5x points per $1 on the following key business categories:

• Eligible purchases at U.S. construction material and hardware suppliers
• U.S. electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers
• U.S. shipping providers

The exact value you receive for your rewards is going to depend on how you redeem Amex points. As we’ve outlined above, easily the best way to maximize your rewards is to transfer points to select airlines and hotels. You’ll often get the most value possible when redeeming for business and first-class flights and luxury hotel stays, which is an added bonus because these redemptions are usually the most exciting as well.

For this reason, we value Amex points at 2.2 cents per point, giving 150,000 Amex points a value of $3,300, but it is certainly possible to get even more value than that. These are the other options to consider:

• Statement Credit: This is by far the lowest value redemption option, but for those who prefer cash-back, Amex allows you to redeem your points for a statement credit at 0.6 cents per point, making 150,000 points worth $900.
• AmexTravel.com: You can purchase most travel-related items through AmexTravel.com including flights, hotels, rental cars, and more. Your Amex points are worth 1 cent per point when you do so — making 150,000 points worth $1,500.
• Pay With Points 35% Rebate: Through Amex Travel, when you redeem your points for business or first-class flights with any airline, or any seat with your selected airline, you’ll receive a 35% Pay With Points rebate on the amount of points you redeem. This gives you a redemption value of 1.54 cents per point — making 150,000 points worth $2,310.

Travel and Purchase Protection Benefits

Your Amex Business Platinum card helps keep you covered when traveling and purchasing products by offering you protections like trip delay insurance, trip cancellation and interruption insurance, rental car insurance, baggage insurance, purchase protection, extended warranty protection, and more.

These protections can potentially be quite valuable for you if things don’t go according to plan. For instance, with your trip delay insurance, if your flight is delayed by 6 hours or more for a covered reason, you’re covered for up to $500 in reasonable expenses like meals, lodging, and personal use items. Or when you purchase an item with your card, that purchase is covered for up to 90 days from the purchase date, up to $10,000 per item, and $50,000 per year, in the event of theft, loss, or damage thanks to your purchase protection benefit.

Bottom Line:

Ideally, you hope that you never have to use some of these benefits, but they can really help you out if you need to. If you frequently purchase expensive business equipment and travel, one or more of these protections will likely come in handy for you.

Additional Perks and Business Tools

Amex Business Platinum cardholders receive many more perks that we’ve not discussed already, including access to Amex Offers (enrollment required) and the Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts program, rental car elite status upon enrollment, Global Dining Access by Resy, up to $360 in statement credits with Indeed upon enrollment (up to $90 quarterly), access to the Amex Business Platinum Concierge service, no preset spending limit*, Preferred Access to exclusive events, and much more.

Like the many other benefits, many of these perks are designed to help save you time and money, or enhance experiences. There are genuinely dozens of ways you can maximize all of these different benefits, from scoring hard-to-get dinner reservations to rental car upgrades during business trips to being one of the first to get tickets to sought-after events and even receiving elite status-like benefits at hundreds of luxury hotels around the world.

How To Maximize the $2,000+ in Annual Value with a Simple Strategy

ELEVATED OFFER

Terms Apply / Rates & Fees

The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the in's and out's of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

This card is ideal for business travelers who enjoy luxury travel and are looking for a card loaded with benefits!

Learn More(at Amex's secure site)

The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express

This card is ideal for business travelers who enjoy luxury travel and are looking for a card loaded with benefits!

Welcome Offer

Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards^® points after you spend $20,000 in eligible purchases on the Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.

150,000 points

UP's Bonus Valuation*:

$3,300

Annual Fee

$695

APR

18.74% - 27.74% Variable

Credit Recommended

Upgraded Points credit ranges are a variation of FICO^®Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit cardapplication.

Good to Excellent (670-850)

Why We Like This Card

The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express is a premium travel rewards card tailored toward business owners who are frequent travelers with a high number of annual expenses.

When you factor in the large number of perks that the card offers like the best airport lounge access at over 1,400 lounges, along with tons of annual credits, it’s easy to see why this card can is a top option for frequent traveling business owners.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 5x Membership Rewards points per $1 on flights and prepaid hotels at Amex Travel
• Access to over 1,400 worldwide airport lounges as part of the American Express Global Lounge Collection
• Get 50% more Membership Rewards points (1.5 points per $1) on eligible purchases in key business categories, as well as on purchases of $5,000 or more (cap applies)

Cons

• High annual fee of $695 (rates & fees)
• Airline fee credit does not cover airfare, only incidentals like checked bags

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Card Highlights

• Welcome Offer: Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards^® points after you spend $20,000 in eligible purchases on the Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.
• 5X Membership Rewards^® points on flights and prepaid hotels on AmexTravel.com, and 1X points for each dollar you spend on eligible purchases.
• Earn 1.5X points (that’s an extra half point per dollar) on each eligible purchase at US construction material, hardware suppliers, electronic goods retailers, and software & cloud system providers, and shipping providers, as well as on purchases of $5,000 or more, on up to $2 million per Card Account per calendar year. Purchases eligible for multiple additional point bonuses will only receive the highest eligible bonus.
• Unlock over $1,000 in statement credits on select purchases, including tech, recruiting and wireless in the first year of membership with the Business Platinum Card^®. Enrollment required. See how you can unlock over $1,000 annually in credits on select purchases with the Business Platinum Card^®, here.
• $200 Airline Fee Credit: Select one qualifying airline and then receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year when incidental fees are charged by the airline to the Card.
• $199 CLEAR^® Plus Credit: Use your card and get up to $199 in statement credits per calendar year on your CLEAR^® Plus Membership (subject to auto-renewal) when you use the Business Platinum Card^®.
• The American Express Global Lounge Collection^® can provide an escape at the airport. With complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges across 140 countries and counting, you have more airport lounge options than any other credit card issuer on the market as of 03/2023.
• $695 Annual Fee.
• Terms Apply.

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 18.74% - 27.74% Variable
• Foreign Transaction Fees: None

Rewards Center

American Express Membership Rewards

As you can see, if you calculate the value from the annual credits and benefits like airport lounge access, hotel elite status, travel and purchase protections, and various other perks, it is easy to see how you can receive over $2,000+ in annual value — which easily offsets the $695 ongoing annual fee.

Fortunately, many credits, such as the annual wireless, CLEAR, Adobe, and airline fee credits, only need to be enrolled in once at the start of account opening without requiring ongoing maintenance. However, for others like Dell and Indeed, it’s important to utilize them during their semi-annual and quarterly windows, respectively, to maximize their value.

Don’t forget that, aside from the card benefits, you’ll also be earning some of the most valuable rewards on the market. Between the welcome bonus offer and points you’ll earn on all of your business expenses, you’ll be sure to rack up a large balance of points in no time. Then comes the fun part: redeeming those points for memorable travel experiences.

Final Thoughts

Back to the original question: Is the Amex Business Platinum card worth it for your business? The answer is most likely a resounding yes. Once you add up all of the credits you receive, the rewards you’ll earn, and the many benefits and protection the card offers you and your enterprise, it is likely that most business owners would find it very worthwhile.

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*No Preset Spending Limit means your spending limit is flexible. Unlike a traditional card with a set limit, the amount you can spend adapts based on factors such as your purchase, payment, and credit history.

For the cell phone protection benefit of The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express, coverage for a stolen or damaged eligible cellular wireless telephone is subject to the terms, conditions, exclusions and limits of liability of this benefit. The maximum liability is $800, per claim, per eligible card account. Each claim is subject to a $50 deductible. Coverage is limited to two (2) claims per eligible card account per 12 month period. 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 car rental loss and damage insurance benefit of The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express, car rental loss and damage insurance can provide coverage up to $75,000 for theft of or damage to most rental vehicles when you use your eligible card to reserve and pay for the entire eligible vehicle rental and decline the collision damage waiver or similar option offered by the commercial car rental company. This product provides secondary coverage and does not include liability coverage. Not all vehicle types or rentals are covered. geographic restrictions apply. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company. Car Rental Loss or Damage Coverage is offered through American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

For the trip delay insurance benefit of The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express, up to $500 per covered trip that is delayed for more than 6 hours; and 2 claims per eligible card per 12 consecutive month period. 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 cancellation and interruption insurance benefit of The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express, the maximum benefit amount for trip cancellation and interruption insurance is $10,000 per covered trip and $20,000 per eligible card per 12 consecutive month period. 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 baggage insurance plan benefit of The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express, baggage insurance plan coverage can be in effect for covered persons for eligible lost, damaged, or stolen baggage during their travel on a common carrier vehicle (e.g. plane, train, ship, or bus) when the Entire Fare for a ticket for the trip (one-way or round-trip) is charged to an eligible card. Coverage can be provided for up to $2,000 for checked baggage and up to a combined maximum of $3,000 for checked and carry-on baggage, in excess of coverage provided by the common carrier. The coverage is also subject to a $3,000 aggregate limit per covered trip. For New York State residents, there is a $2,000 per bag/suitcase limit for each covered person with a $10,000 aggregate maximum for all covered persons per covered trip. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.

For the extended warranty benefit of The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express, when an American Express^® card member charges a covered purchase to an eligible card, extended warranty can provide up to one extra year added to the original manufacturer’s warranty. Applies to warranties of five (5) years or less. Coverage is up to the actual amount charged to your card for the item up to a maximum of $10,000; not to exceed $50,000 per card member account per calendar year. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.

For the purchase protection benefit of The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express, purchase protection is an embedded benefit of your card membership and requires no enrollment. It can help protect covered purchases made on your eligible card when they’re accidentally damaged, stolen, or lost, for up to 90 days from the covered purchase date. The coverage is limited up to $10,000 per occurrence, up to $50,000 per card member account per calendar year. Coverage limits apply. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.