Credit Card Offers Amex Platinum Card Benefits, Offers & Discussion

Enjoy a world of travel benefits and up to 200,000 bonus Amex Membership Rewards Premium Ascent points...​

Learn more and apply for this card:

American Express® Platinum Card

The American Express (Amex) Platinum charge card is one of the best publicly-available cards in Australia for travel benefits.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

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What are the main benefits of this card?

1. Signup bonus: 200,000 Amex Membership Rewards Points (worth 100,000 Qantas Points, Velocity Points, Avios or Asia Miles, among other options) when you apply by 2/12/25 and spend at least $5,000 within 3 months.
2. Earn 2.25 Amex Membership Rewards points per $1 spent on everyday purchases, uncapped. You can transfer these points to 12 airline & 2 hotel programs, including Qantas Frequent Flyer.
3. Enjoy unlimited access to many airport lounges, including Virgin Australia and Priority Pass lounges
4. Gift Priority Pass membership to one additional cardholder
5. Receive complimentary elite status with hotel loyalty programs including Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy, Radisson Rewards & Accor Live Limitless
6. Complimentary international travel insurance
7. Receive a $450 annual travel credit, plus airfare discounts, $400 worth of annual dining credits, subscriptions to The Australian & Wall Street Journal, plus many more exclusive benefits!

Why we like the American Express Platinum Card

Packed full of travel perks, the American Express Platinum Card is one of the best publicly-available cards in Australia for frequent flyers.

With a $1,450 annual fee, this metal card is not for everyone. But the return on investment for the high annual fee is strong, as it comes with a lot of useful benefits! This includes an annual travel credit, dining credits and unlimited access to Virgin Australia, Delta, Lufthansa, Priority Pass, Plaza Premium and Amex Centurion airport lounges.

There are also some great hotel perks including a free annual hotel night, Accor Plus membership, Fine Hotels + Resorts benefits and complimentary elite status with Hilton, Marriott and Radisson.

For points collectors, this is one of the most lucrative cards available in Australia. You’ll earn 2.25 Amex Membership Rewards Ascent Premium points per $1 spent on eligible transactions. Points transfer to most frequent flyer programs at a 2:1 rate, although there are some exceptions (e.g. it's 3:1 to KrisFlyer and Emirates).

You can convert your Amex points to around 12 airlines including Qantas, Virgin Australia, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates and Etihad! Plus, you can transfer points to two hotel loyalty programs for even more redemption possibilities.

To sweeten the deal, new cardholders can also earn 200,000 bonus Amex Membership Rewards Points when spending at least $5,000 on the card within 3 months of approval. See our card guide for the full details:

American Express® Platinum Card

The American Express (Amex) Platinum charge card is one of the best publicly-available cards in Australia for travel benefits.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

AFF members are welcome to discuss this card in this thread.

 

[blacksultan]

No hard credit check, approved immediately.

When I called up Amex to find out what it meant they referred to it as a ‘companion card’

I think it looked like @billmurray post yes.

Is this a new thing as I hadn’t heard of it before? Also plat reserve isn’t easily found on the Amex website I wonder why?

Been there for a while . Not open to general public. .

 

[Houghton27]

Been there for a while . Not open to general public. .

Do you know if this indicates a pathway or stepping stone to the centurion?

 

[blacksultan]

Do you know if this indicates a pathway or stepping stone to the centurion?

No . Used to be popular as it had an additional travel credit of approx $400 with no annual fee . One could choose this as a free companion card to platinum charge .

 

[burneracc]

No hard credit check, approved immediately

FWIW I was hard checked here and now waiting on approval. have been meaning to add it for a while since its a free way to get some duplicate promotions (2x delicious month out, 2x shop small, 2x member month etc). Luck of the draw I guess

 

[blacksultan]

FWIW I was hard checked here and now waiting on approval. have been meaning to add it for a while since its a free way to get some duplicate promotions (2x delicious month out, 2x shop small, 2x member month etc). Luck of the draw I guess

Is there now a concept of hard & soft pulls in Australia ?

 

[andye]

Does anyone know if its still possible to get MR into Alsaka via HA?
And
Do we anticipate warning of changes to move points before any devaluation?

 

[Bell21]

The issue is that the T&Cs are ambiguous. Let me put my linguist/grammar nerd hat on for a minute...

The T&Cs say that the insurance is activated if "you pay the full amount of your outbound ticket ... on your ... corresponding American Express Membership Rewards points or frequent flyer points (where applicable)..."

I have literally spent hours trying to work out what that word "corresponding" means and why it's there. Does it modify just the words "American Express MR points" or does it modify the whole remainder of the sentence? In other words, does it mean that

• you must pay for the outward trip with your "corresponding AmEx MR points, or [corresponding] FF points", OR
• you must pay for the outward trip with your "corresponding AmEx MR points, or [any] FF points"

I'm a grammar nerd. I studied linguistics and grammar at university. And still I have no idea how to interpret that clause.

If the first interpretation is correct, the most logical meaning is that your FF points must be "corresponding" to your AmEx account -- ie. at the very least the FF programme needs to be a transfer partner. To use your example, Air Canada Aeroplan points will not activate the insurance.

If the second interpretation is correct, and "corresponding" modifies the first part of the clause but not the second, it means you can pay with [any] FF points to activate the insurance and it doesn't matter which programme you use or where you got the points from.

But which interpretation is correct? Linguistically and grammatically, they're both possible due to the clumsy wording.

As I wrote in a post above, I ended up contacting AmEx/Chubb about this, and the response I received was that in order to activate the insurance, if you paid with points those points needed to be from an AmEx transfer partner that you had linked your FF account to.

I have no idea whether that's Chubb's official policy or whether the person who responded was just answering off the top of their head. But that's the answer I received.

Obviously others have been told different things.

Thanks - I missed this when posted. i had a long discussion with Chubb about this and the rep put me on hold for a while whilst she consulted with her team leader. She explicitly said that 'corresponding' means that for an outgoing reward flight to activate the insurance, the client MUST be able to show that the points were directly accrued on the AMEX card. There has been quite a bit of debate about this either earlier on this thread or a separate thread. As the subsequent poster has said, it may come down to how much $ is at stake and a legal challenge of this clause. It depends on each person's risk tolerance, but from my perspective, for an extra few $100 per trip, I wouldn't take the chance that I would be covered, especially if anything serious goes wrong. YMMV.

 

[Daver6]

Just logged into my account today and this offer popped up



Almost pays for itself with the extra access to Priority Pass.

You also get Accor plus, but given I'd already have that through the personal card, I wonder if that could go to someone else? Not sure there is much value in this offer though. Am I missing something?

 

[lovestotravel]

Thanks - I missed this when posted. i had a long discussion with Chubb about this and the rep put me on hold for a while whilst she consulted with her team leader. She explicitly said that 'corresponding' means that for an outgoing reward flight to activate the insurance, the client MUST be able to show that the points were directly accrued on the AMEX card. There has been quite a bit of debate about this either earlier on this thread or a separate thread. As the subsequent poster has said, it may come down to how much $ is at stake and a legal challenge of this clause. It depends on each person's risk tolerance, but from my perspective, for an extra few $100 per trip, I wouldn't take the chance that I would be covered, especially if anything serious goes wrong. YMMV.

Yeah my recent transfer of points have come from Citibank to Velocity to KrisFlyer, then some from Velocity to Krisflyer and then some from Amex to Krisflyer...

Far too complicated and not a fight I want when I'm trying to get a $xx_,xx_.xx claim covered, so my next few trips I'll be buying a separate policy, even though it's about $1000

 

[Bell21]

Just logged into my account today and this offer popped up

View attachment 469981

Almost pays for itself with the extra access to Priority Pass.

You also get Accor plus, but given I'd already have that through the personal card, I wonder if that could go to someone else? Not sure there is much value in this offer though. Am I missing something?

Yes i applied for this --- happy to also separate business and personal spending on these cards more easily --- you will get double Accor plus benefits albeit same person + PP. Access line is also having a spend $50,000 get 100,000 AMEX bonus points for next 6 months.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Just logged into my account today and this offer popped up

View attachment 469981

Almost pays for itself with the extra access to Priority Pass.

You also get Accor plus, but given I'd already have that through the personal card, I wonder if that could go to someone else? Not sure there is much value in this offer though. Am I missing something?

WOW - looks like I will be talking to AMEX tomorrow after return from Bali

 

[Captain Halliday]

Am I missing something?

Second bite at the ad-hoc statement credit offers?

 

[Daver6]

Details here Business Card Offers For Platinum

Yes i applied for this --- happy to also separate business and personal spending on these cards more easily --- you will get double Accor plus benefits albeit same person + PP. Access line is also having a spend $50,000 get 100,000 AMEX bonus points for next 6 months.

Only real benefit for the Accor plus would be 4 free nights per year. Becoming a little annoying since you can't combine with one stay.

I currently separate spend out using the primacy verse A/C card.

Second bite at the ad-hoc statement credit offers?

Fair point. However, he offers for he most part are so poor these days it's not worth the chase. The 99 free supp cards could be useful to dish out to family for lounge access and hotel benefits. Ironically I see there is a Dell benefit. I actually spent with Dell online this morning!

Does anyone know how strict Amex are about the $75k in business revenue requirement and the requirement to be registered for GST? What information do they request for the application?

 

[andye]

Details here Business Card Offers For Platinum



Only real benefit for the Accor plus would be 4 free nights per year. Becoming a little annoying since you can't combine with one stay.

I currently separate spend out using the primacy verse A/C card.



Fair point. However, he offers for he most part are so poor these days it's not worth the chase. The 99 free supp cards could be useful to dish out to family for lounge access and hotel benefits. Ironically I see there is a Dell benefit. I actually spent with Dell online this morning!

Does anyone know how strict Amex are about the $75k in business revenue requirement and the requirement to be registered for GST? What information do they request for the application?

So a generic offer. That seems pretty appealing. As @cruiserelite says the travel insurance is good for most. And add in Centurion/Plaza.Premium that's a lot of people you can make happy. My professional personal Charge is limited in its supps so if I'm eligible, I'd be signing up for sure. I'd also consider using my personal card for business use only so I could tax deduct the fee

 

[Bell21]

Details here Business Card Offers For Platinum



Only real benefit for the Accor plus would be 4 free nights per year. Becoming a little annoying since you can't combine with one stay.

I currently separate spend out using the primacy verse A/C card.



Fair point. However, he offers for he most part are so poor these days it's not worth the chase. The 99 free supp cards could be useful to dish out to family for lounge access and hotel benefits. Ironically I see there is a Dell benefit. I actually spent with Dell online this morning!

Does anyone know how strict Amex are about the $75k in business revenue requirement and the requirement to be registered for GST? What information do they request for the application?

Yes, I don't know how the new Accor+ benefit is going to work for me - just looked at Stay Plus for March in Melbourne CBD and NO accor hotels have any stay plus nights (Thurs/Fri)...

For others business credit cards they always want our P&L report and other financials, so assume they're strict on the $75K and GST registration (I recall in past AMEX has asked for all of this from memory).

 

[Bell21]

Funny data point - one of my partners just told me we've been approved for the card - didn't provide any reports, so assume they're relying on previous info provided for personal plat card, since I received offer for plat bus based on having personal plat card

 

[NoName]

Does anyone know how strict Amex are about the $75k in business revenue requirement and the requirement to be registered for GST? What information do they request for the application?

For others business credit cards they always want our P&L report and other financials, so assume they're strict on the $75K and GST registration (I recall in past AMEX has asked for all of this from memory).

My experience with getting the Velocity AMEX Business card was that they didn’t ask for a single thing by way of proof. Gave them my ABN & revenue and that was it. Presumably the fact that I’m registered for GST was enough.

Wondering if I could take up this offer and switch to the platinum card. Will call tomorrow and find out.

 

[Bell21]

My experience with getting the Velocity AMEX Business card was that they didn’t ask for a single thing by way of proof. Gave them my ABN & revenue and that was it. Presumably the fact that I’m registered for GST was enough.

Wondering if I could take up this offer and switch to the platinum card. Will call tomorrow and find out.

You could well be right, as I recall it arriving within a few days at record speed.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

I notice that the very first thing the application form does is check that the business is registered for GST. It gives the following error if the ABN supplied is GST-free.

"Your Business must be registered for GST to be eligible for an American Express Business Card. To finalise your application, we will require your business to be registered for GST."

 

[Daver6]

I notice that the very first thing the application form does is check that the business is registered for GST. It gives the following error if the ABN supplied is GST-free.

"Your Business must be registered for GST to be eligible for an American Express Business Card. To finalise your application, we will require your business to be registered for GST."

I guess that's the $75k turnover test they use then.