American Express’s updated Platinum Card is the latest escalation in the battle of premium credit cards for deep-pocketed customers. The credit card will carry an annual fee of $895 — a $200 increase — reflecting rising customer expectations for travel and lifestyle benefits.
Today, Amex announced details for the Platinum card, its second most expensive offering to businesses and consumers. That high price comes with what could total more than $3,500 annually in credits and rewards if cardholders take advantage of every available perk. The new benefits, which include hundreds of dollars in credits with a wider range of brands, show a deeper investment by the company to transitioning from a travel card to a luxury lifestyle card.
The nearly 30 percent jump in the Platinum card’s annual fee continues a trend of luxury credit cards becoming increasingly crammed with benefits and rewards — and of soaring prices for the cards. Three months ago, Chase announced changes to its most elite credit card, the Sapphire Reserve, including a bevy of lifestyle, dining and travel credits — and a 45 percent increase in its annual fee to $795. Citibank in July launched the Strata Elite card ($595), targeted at frequent travelers.
“We’re witnessing an unprecedented arms race in the premium credit card space, where annual fees are inching closer to the four digits while benefits multiply exponentially (yet often in ways that make them feel like coupon books to actually redeem those benefits),” Sally French, a travel expert at NerdWallet, wrote in an email.
She added that premium travel cards are no longer simply points-earning tools; they can now be used more broadly to fund consumers’ lifestyles, especially for people younger than 40. “Issuers are betting that their target demographic — high-income millennials and Gen Z individuals with excellent credit — won’t blink at fee increases if the value proposition grows proportionally,” she said.
Howard Grosfield, group president of U.S. Consumer Services at American Express, emphasized that the brands included in the new Platinum product will “resonate across generations.” But it’s clear that Amex is attracting a younger audience. Millennial and Gen Z customers, the company’s fastest growing customer base, have showed “continued strength in spending,” Amex said in its 2024 annual report.
“We are not trying to attract every millennial and Gen Z,” Mr. Grosfield said. “We found a way to hit the heartstrings of the subset of truly premium millennial and Gen Z’s.”
Expanded benefits
Among the Amex Platinum benefits that will continue are credits to use at streaming services like Disney+ and Peacock, Saks Fifth Avenue, Equinox, Uber and airlines, and for Clear’s expedited security screening. The card will also continue offering unlimited free access to Amex’s Centurion Lounge at airports and 5 times points for dollars spent on Amex Travel bookings.
The new and enhanced benefits include: a $400 Resy credit; $300 to spend at Lululemon; $200 at the wellness tracking company Oura; $600 in Amex hotel bookings, up from $200 previously; $300 to spend on digital entertainment, a $60 increase; and $120 for an Uber One membership. Business cardholders will also receive up to $1,150 for Dell products. Points earned per dollar spent increase from 1.5 times to 2 times rewards on eligible purchases.
Members spending more than $250,000 per year will unlock as much as $3,600 more in flights booked on Amex Travel and will pay no monthly fees for Amex’s accounts payable system.
Platinum cardholders will also be able to better monitor their progress toward rewards. The Amex app will offer a new benefit-tracking feature, in addition to clearer displays of travel and hotels customers have booked with Amex.
New cardholders are subject to the higher fee starting today, while existing members will be charged more at their next renewal date or by Dec. 2, whichever is first.
A status symbol for young people
The Platinum card has recently emerged as a status symbol for generations under 40. There’s a thriving category of TikTok videos that tout the luxuries of simply owning the card. People film themselves unboxing it, admiring its metallic sheen and heft, and boasting about getting approved for it at a young age and spending large sums with it. Whether real or aspirational, the card signals wealth and success.
The card, which is available in a limited edition mirrored finish, is sure to inspire a wave of more videos. In past years, customers sought out and documented versions embellished with a sprawling floral design by the artist Kehinde Wiley and abstract modern shapes by Julie Mehretu.
Rebecca Sowden, a 28-year-old who creates TikToks about money management, said that the card had been on her wish list for years because of its travel benefits. She got one in 2023 and noticed it quickly became commonplace within her social circle.
“It’s definitely become almost like a designer handbag,” said Ms. Sowden, who lives in Orange County, Calif. “It’s a nod to aesthetics. It’s not necessarily about what your personal finance actually is.”
Last year, 75 percent of new accounts for Platinum and Gold credit cards were opened by millennials or Gen Z-ers, according to Amex. These consumers are particularly valuable because of their growing spending power. For the second quarter of this year, Amex reported that millennials spent more on credit cards than any other age group, representing 30 percent of total spend across the company’s credit card portfolio.
While Gen Z cardholders represented only 5 percent of total spend across cards, they outpaced all other age groups’ spending rates compared with the year-earlier period.
Amex is investing further in dining perks, a continued effort to engage a younger audience. Recent research indicates that Gen Z members dine out more often than any other age group. Stephen Squeri, Amex’s chief executive, said in an earnings call last year that millennials and Gen Zers “transact almost two times more on dining” on company credit cards compared with other age brackets, and they make up a higher share of Resy users.
Amex plans to launch restaurant takeovers, known as Platinum Nights, just for cardholders, starting this year in New York City, Los Angeles and Miami.
“Experiences have always been a core part of what we’re able to deliver,” Mr. Grosfield said. “This product has leaned into the way in which membership unlocks access to experiences.”
But a fee just shy of $1,000 is divisive. Some cardholders say that the product’s value has been diminished, even as the number of credits and perks has multiplied. They talk about being forced to use credits undesirable to them and leaving credits unused. Ms. Sowden said she downgraded to an Amex card with a lower fee this year because of frustration about unused benefits.
Others, complaining of overcrowded Centurion lounges, say they’re willing to pay even more than the new price to restore the card’s exclusivity.
“The Amex lounge at the airport used to be lit,” one user said on TikTok. “Now every college grad with an entry level sales job in the world goes and gets an Amex Platinum to feel rich. Now they’ve turned these lounges in to their college dorm rooms.”
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Christine Chung is a Times reporter covering airlines and consumer travel.
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