I just got invited to apply for a Platinum Amex card … but I’m not sure if I really want it.
It’s going to cost $900 per year (yes, that’s $900 !!!!) – but there are quie a few benefits you get for that (which I’m not going to detail here … look it up on the Amex website if you are interested).
Sufffice to say that once I really evaluated the benefits, it seems as though a lot of the benefits they offer I already get as part of my employment through IBM.
I think that if I did stop working for IBM, the Platinum Amex benefits may be of more use to me, but until then, it’s simply not worth paying that kind of money.
From what I’ve heard, the Platinum Amex is no where near as “exclusive” as it used to be – they seem to have lowered the requirements to qualify, and many more people have been invited to apply for one in recent years.
The “buy one business or first class flight and get one free” benefit sounds great … but you have to purchase at least a full fare business class seat, which is generally much more than twice the price of a economy class seat … and starts to lose some of the initial attraction when you start to do the sums.
Notice it’s a business or first class full price fare. Discounts of up to 50% are consistently available in those classes. So the people I know who got it never use that benefit.
You want to be offered the “Centurion” amex – it’s the black one. When I was at IBM GSA every contractor got offered one. It became that common.
Platinum is almost the Amex business card. At film markets everybody uses theirs to pay for their $20USD burgers.