The productivity in my life for my AMEX Platinum card is directly inversely proportional with how much traveling I do. If I'm having an off-year for traveling, it's pretty much nothing more than weight in my pocket.
Discover IT was used to start my credit-building journey a year ago, and helped me reach a 740 credit score in 12 months after having 3 total credit accounts (Discover IT, Apple Card, Amex Plat) and 1 installment account (car loan).
I hate AMEX platinum now, it is an overpriced card.
For me, Venture X is a much better card. Cheaper, much better travel portal with PRICE MATCHING, widely accepted in EU, PRIMARY car rental insurance up to $75k.
The AmEx platinum seems like a fancy coupon book full of credits I mostly wouldn’t use. Maybe if I cared about airport lounges more I would feel differently, but I agree with your sentiment. I have a hard time understanding the value prop of their charge cards.
I regularly go through their coupon book to see what I’m already using that they pay for. Clear (the airport fast check in thing) is fully reimbursed. They give me a $15/mo Uber credit. I wanted to buy some stuff from Walmart when they had a really good online sale, and Amex pays for the Walmart version of Amazon Prime. I don’t travel an awful lot, but get $200/yr in Southwest credits, so WiFi and drinks are basically always free for me.
I’ve signed up for a couple of things I wouldn’t have otherwise, but mostly I get reimbursed for things I was using anyway.
For the vast majority of Americans, they don't use Uber even once every month and $15 credit is money thrown away (Unless they order Uber Eats, which is not common either -- I found that most people I know rarely order food delivery). So the credit and Uber membership is really targeted to a certain group of their users.
And when you look at their Walmart+ and upcoming Dunkin credits... Well, it gets very confusing who the target card holders are. It seems to me one is very likely to lose money on the annual fee unless they really travel and dine out a lot.
Fine, but my point was that those are things I use that they pay for. They also have a Disney subscription discount and things like that. I don’t use those but lots of people do.
I mean, these are travel cards first and foremost.
AMEX Gold and others with similar bonuses like AMEX Delta Platinum also cater to local use (groceries and dining), but if you can't/don't make thorough use of the No Foreign Transaction Fee benefit you really should be looking at other cards AMEX or otherwise.
Walmart+ is absolute garbage. They have special pricing online and won't give that price in store. Same day pick up often becomes next day after you order.
As much hate Amazon gets, they are a much better business than Walmart.
I've had the card for a few months now, and will be cancelling Amex Platinum next time fee hits.
The only "catch" is that to get most benefit you have to use their travel portal. Also, the points have to be redeemed towards travel purchases. Other than that I did not have any problem at all.
All-Inclusive resorts are kind of lacking last time I searched their portal.
Discover IT was used to start my credit-building journey a year ago, and helped me reach a 740 credit score in 12 months after having 3 total credit accounts (Discover IT, Apple Card, Amex Plat) and 1 installment account (car loan).
My bias between the two is clear.