It's the same old story. American Express is notorious for constantly tinkering with the benefits on their travel credit cards. Sometimes they give. More often than not, they take. It's quite a headache for current cardholders to keep up with these changes, as well as a potential turn-off for travelers interested in applying for an Amex travel card.
As first flagged by Deals Points, Amex recently added an end date of Dec. 31, 2024 for the $400 Dell credit ($200 semi-annually), $360 Indeed credit ($90 per quarter), and $150 Adobe Credit that come with *biz platinum*. For a card with a $695 annual fee (see rates & fees), these statement credits historically helped offset the cost of holding the card.
An Amex spokesperson confirmed that the expiration date signifies the potential end for these credits, but did not elaborate on whether they'll replace the credits with other benefits.
“We are committed to making sure there is significant, well-rounded value on our Business Platinum Card,” an Amex spokesperson said in an email to Thrifty Traveler. You are seeing this expiration date because we are uncertain if these statement credit benefits with these merchant partners will be available after this date, as we continually evaluate our offerings.”
This begs the question, what will Amex replace these credits with? Amex will likely throw current cardholders a slew of new credits to make up for what they are taking away.
To get a sense of what might be coming, let's take a look at what changes Amex has implemented in the past with their other travel cards.
Read more: My Favorite Benefit of the Amex Business Platinum Card
Learn more about *biz platinum*.
What Credits Are Going Away?
Much like the personal Platinum card, *biz platinum* comes packed with perks and credits that help justify it's sky-high annual fee. While some of these credits are undoubtedly easier to use than others, they can each be big money savers for business owners.
The good news is that if you've currently got the Business Platinum Card in your wallet, there's still time to put these credits to use before Amex sunsets them.
Here's a breakdown of exactly what's scheduled to go away at the end of 2024:
Up to $400 in Annual Statement Credits at Dell
Cardholders receive up to $400 in statement credits annually for U.S. purchases with Dell, available in two $200 increments. Dell sells a lot more than just computers (including products from other brands), making this credit incredibly valuable for many cardholders.
Up to $360 in Annual Statement Credits at Indeed
Small business owners who hold the Amex Business Platinum Card get up to $360 each year in statement credits for Indeed hiring and recruiting products. This benefit gets broken up into four separate allotments with $90 getting doled out each quarter.
Cardholders are required to enroll in this benefit before making a purchase with Indeed and the fact that it's broken up into quarters means you're going to be spending more than the credit alone each time you use it. Still, if your business regularly uses Indeed for its hiring needs, it will be a bummer to see this one go.
Up to $150 in Annual Statement Credits on Adobe Products
Cardholders also get up to $150 each year to spend on select Adobe purchases. Like the Indeed credit, this one is more tricky for many business owners to use. The benefit is only valid on annual prepaid business plan purchases of Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Acrobat Pro for teams.
Read our full breakdown of the American Express Business Platinum Card for more info!Â
Amex Gives, Amex Takes
In all fairness, Amex typically tries to make it up to current cardholders when they take away a particular statement credit, or card benefit, or raise the annual fee.
As 2021 ended, *amex gold* cardholders lost their $100 annual airline fee credit. Around the same time, Amex gave cardholders an annual $120 in Uber Cash to make up for it. This Uber Cash benefit is doled out in monthly $10 increments for use with Uber rides and Uber Eats transactions after adding your Amex Gold Card to your Uber app. Along with the $120 dining credit that comes with the Amex Gold Card, these credits can easily cancel out the $250 annual fee (see rates & fees).
Of course, not all benefits can remain untouched. In 2022, the $120 dining credit added additional merchants like Milk Bar, Wine.com, and Goldbelly while taking away Ruth's Chris Steak House and Boxed.com as dining partners.
In 2022, *bonvoy brilliant* cardholders lost the annual $300 Marriott Bonvoy statement credit for stays at eligible Marriott properties. Instead, cardholders now get $25 a month (up to $300 a year) in dining credits to use at restaurants worldwide. Not only did Amex provide a credit that is harder to use but the dining credit is simply less valuable. Although it still helps cardholders offset the $650 annual fee (see rates & fees), to lose the $300 credit for use on Marriott stays just doesn't make any sense for a hotel card. If I wanted a dining card, I'd just opt for the Amex Gold Card instead.
In 2023, the $240 entertainment credit that comes with *amex platinum* dropped Audible as an eligible service in favor of the Wall Street Journal. A super questionable and huge loss for those consuming audiobooks and podcasts on the regular. Fortunately, the current eligible services are far superior to the original four: Audible, The New York Times, Peacock, and SiriusXM. In 2022, Amex added The Disney Bundle, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ to their portfolio of eligible services. Whether those are here to stay…you never know.
Late last year, Amex completely overhauled the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card …Â and raised the annual fee to $550.
You use to just get a $250 Hilton resort statement credit to use at select Hilton properties every year at hundreds of participating Hilton properties around the globe. But now, Aspire cardholders get up to $400 in resort credits split up into two yearly installments: $200 from January through June, then another $200 from July through December.
Even with an annual fee increase, this is still a positive change for cardholders that makes the $550 price tag to hold the card easier to swallow.
While reducing the hard-to-use $250 Amex airline fee credit to a $200 “flight credit”, cardholders could finally use this benefit to purchase airfare outright. You'll just have to do this every quarter with only $50 up for grabs at a given time. Finally, while taking away the complimentary Priority Pass Select membership that comes with the card, Amex instead added an up to $189 credit to cover a CLEAR® Plus membership.
With positive changes always come some negatives. The trend with Amex is that with the removal of some card benefits, new ones are sure to follow.
Bottom Line
Card benefits are like characters on the hit TV show Game of Thrones – easily killed off with little notice. While it feels like Amex is playing mind games with cardholders, it's a balancing act that is at play when it comes to building new relationships to offer more benefits while cutting off ties with others.
To Amex's credit, they never fail to make a splash in the world of premium travel credit cards and are sure to keep cardholders, new and old, on their toes at all times.