American Express Business Platinum review

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The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is a great business card, in part, because it earns extremely valuable Amex Membership Rewards points. Being able to earn Amex points for your business expenses is a great way to maximize your rewards. This is especially true if you can take advantage of the best ways to use Amex points, like for business-class flights to Europe or Asia (as soon as travel returns to normal).

Apply for the Amex Business Platinum card here.

This card has a welcome offer of 120,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases with your Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership. But that’s just the bonus offer – the card is loaded with other amazing perks, like incredible airport lounge access. To learn about what makes this card so special, read the rest of this Amex Business Platinum review.

Current offer

The Amex Business Platinum has a current offer of 120,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases with your Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership. So between the intro-points bonus and points you earn from meeting the minimum spending, you’ll have at least 135,000 Amex Membership Rewards points.

Benefits and perks

Amex Membership Rewards points are popular transferable points to collect because you get the flexibility to redeem points for award travel with any of the Amex airline or hotel partners. With the Amex Business Platinum card you’ll earn (terms apply):

• 1.5x Amex Membership Rewards points on single eligible purchases of $5,000+ on eligible purchases in key business categories (on up to $2 million of these purchases per calendar year)
• 5x Amex Membership Rewards points when you book airfare or prepaid hotels through the Amex travel site
• 1x Amex Membership Rewards points on all other eligible purchases

The ability to earn 5x Amex points on airfare or prepaid hotels is the best earning rate for those categories for any small business card. And the card comes with a host of other perks, including (terms apply):

• 35% of your points back for all first class or business class flights booked through the Amex travel portal using Pay With Points
• 35% of your points back for all flights, including coach tickets, booked with your selected airline through the Amex travel portal using Pay With Points (up to 1,000,000 points per calendar year)
• Up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year for airline incidentals with your selected airline (luggage fees, in-flight food and drink, etc.)
• Up to $400 annual Dell statement credit for U.S. purchases
• Ability to book hotel stays through Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts
• Amex Platinum Concierge
• Access to airport lounges (Delta, Priority Pass, Airspace, Escape and American Express Centurion Lounges) Enrollment required for select benefits.
• Bonus points or statement credits when taking advantage of an Amex Offer
• Elite car rental status with Avis, Executive status with National Car Rental and Gold Plus Rewards with Hertz
• Free Hilton Gold elite status (free breakfast and upgrades when available)
• Free Marriott Bonvoy Gold elite status (Enrollment required for select benefits. )
• Rental car status with National, Avis and Hertz
• Statement credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck
• No foreign transaction fees (see rates and fees)

This card has a $695 annual fee (see rates and fees), which is not waived the first year. But the statement credits, airport lounge access and savings from Amex Offers can easily offset the fee. For more details on the perks read our full guide to the Amex Business Platinum card’s benefits.

You’ll also get a range of complimentary travel and purchase protections (terms apply):

• Trip delay reimbursement – For delays of six hours or more you can be reimbursed for up to $500 in eligible expenses per trip
• Trip cancellation/interruption coverage – You can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per trip ($20,000 per account per 12 month period)
• Return protection – Purchases covered for 90 days, up to $300 per item and up to $1,000 per account per calendar year
• Car rental loss and damage insurance (secondary)
• Baggage insurance – Covered for loss or damage, up to $3,000 per person
• Purchase protection – Eligible items are covered (up to $10,000 per item) for 90 days, up to $50,000 per calendar year per account
• Extended warranty – Eligible warranties of five years or less can be extended up to one additional year

How to redeem Amex points

Amex Membership Rewards points can be incredibly valuable if you transfer them directly to any of the Amex transfer partners to book award travel and airline alliances and partnerships make it easier to find award flights to your desired destination. For example, you can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Air Canada to book an award flight on United Airlines, a Star Alliance partner airline.

Using points this way can get you unbelievable value. For example, you could transfer 70,000 Amex Membership Rewards points to Air Canada to book a one-way first-class award flight on Lufthansa from Europe (Zone 1) to the U.S. This same ticket can cost $10,000+ if you pay cash.

You can check out our American Express points review to learn more. And you can learn how to redeem points for travel to specific destinations with our guides to places like Hawaii and Europe. And when you use Amex Pay With Points, you get one cent per point toward your ticket. Amex Business Platinum cardholders can get a 35% points rebate. You’ll get:

• 35% of your points back for all first class or business class flights booked through the Amex travel portal
• 35% of your points back for all flights, including coach tickets, booked with your selected airline through the Amex travel portal

You are able to get up to 1,000,000 Amex points back per calendar year with this benefit.

Team member Meghan used her Amex Business Platinum card’s bonus to book award tickets to Denver, Santa Barbara and Lisbon, Portugal with her selected airline, United Airlines.

She booked a round-trip coach ticket between her hometown of Missoula, Montana, and Denver with only 18,200 Amex Membership Rewards points out of pocket using Amex Pay With Points (you get one cent per point toward your ticket) and the 35% rebate from her Amex Business Platinum card.

She also booked a round-trip coach ticket to visit her sister in Santa Barbara. United Airlines services this route, so she was able to take advantage of the 35% rebate. The cash price of the ticket was $340. Using Membership Rewards points and Amex Pay With Points the ticket cost 34,000 points. But again, with the rebate, she only paid 22,100 points out of pocket.

She used the remainder of the welcome bonus she earned to buy her aunt a round-trip coach ticket to Europe so she could enjoy a family vacation with the rest of her loved ones. She flew from Raleigh/Durham to Lisbon, Portugal. At the time there were sale fares to Europe, so tickets were running around $680. Using Pay With Points and the Amex Business Platinum rebate it only cost 44,200 Amex Membership Rewards points for the ticket.

In total, Meghan used 84,500 Amex Membership Rewards points and saved $1,300 for those three round-trip tickets – and even had points to spare.

Is the Amex Business Platinum worth the annual fee?

The Amex Business Platinum card’s annual fee of $695 (see rates and fees) isn’t cheap, but even if you don’t take advantage of all of the card’s benefits, you can still come out ahead. The easiest perk to take advantage of each year is the up to $200 in annual airline credits. After you’ve earned that, you only need to get another $395 in value for it to be worth the annual fee. If you make any Dell purchases, the card comes with up to $400 in Dell credits each year (on U.S. purchases). And if you find yourself stuck in airports purchasing expensive airport food all the time, the airport lounge access perks can easily save you hundreds of dollars.

If you spend a lot on flights and prepaid hotels, being able to earn 5x Amex Membership Rewards points for those purchases could earn you many times the annual fee in travel rewards. And with the Hilton Gold status you get just for having the card, you’ll get free breakfast at all Hilton hotels. If you travel with a family, that benefit alone can save you $60+ a day.

Who is this card for?

Because this is an American Express card, you aren’t eligible for the Business Platinum card’s welcome bonus if you currently have or have ever had the card before. Amex will also consider other factors, like how many Amex cards you’ve opened or closed recently. But if you aren’t eligible for this offer, Amex will let you know with a pop-up window before they check your credit.

That being said, you’ll likely need a credit score of 750+ to get approved for this card and you’ll also need to own a small business to qualify. But you may be eligible and not even realize it. You don’t need to be running a full-time business to qualify for the best business cards. Freelancing, including driving for Uber or Lyft, dog walking or freelance art or design work can qualify as long as you’re not doing the job as an employee.

I’ve qualified for small business cards with freelance writing and my wife has done the same as a part-time freelance artist. And if you’re a sole proprietor, when you apply for the card you can use your social security number as your tax ID and your name as the business name on the application. For step-by-step help check out our guide to Amex business card applications.

Insider secret

Another excellent reason to apply for the Amex Business Platinum card is Amex small business cards do not appear on your personal credit report. So it doesn’t count toward card limits other banks have (like Chase).

Cards similar to the Amex Business Platinum

There are plenty of alternative small business cards with lucrative intro bonuses. I’d recommend the Ink Business Preferred Credit Card. With it, you’ll earn 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. That’s worth at least $1,250 in travel if you redeem the points through the Chase Travel Portal, which makes the card’s $95 annual fee very reasonable. Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to 13 airlines and hotels, including some that don’t accept Amex points, like Hyatt. Read our full review of the Chase Ink Business Preferred to learn more.

Or, you could open a credit card with no annual fee, The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (see rates and fees) is an excellent option. It earns 2x Amex points on the first $50,000 in purchases each calendar year, then 1x.

Bottom line

After meeting the Amex Business Platinum card’s minimum-spending requirements for the points welcome bonus, you can earn at least 120,000 Amex Membership Rewards points.

For many people, the perks on the Business Platinum card can easily justify paying the card’s annual fee. And don’t forget, Amex small business cards do not appear on your personal credit report. So they won’t add to your Chase 5/24 count and restrict you from earning lucrative bonuses with Chase.

For the rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card from American Express, please click here.

For the rates and fees of The Blue Business Plus Card from American Express, please click here.