Background

During the pandemic, AMEX finally made some major moves: not only extending the minimum spending window for all newly opened cards to six months, but also adding targeted temporary benefits to a number of other cards. Here’s a summary of the new perks:

Note that the benefits below do not require enrollment and are automatically applied.

Summary of Benefit Updates

All versions of the AMEX Platinum

This includes the following versions of the Platinum:

New benefits include:

  • $320 in streaming and wireless service credits: from May through December, receive up to $20 per month for select streaming services and $20 per month for wireless telephone services

AMEX Business Platinum

The benefits on the AMEX Business Platinum are especially strong:

  • $160 wireless service credit: from May through December, receive up to $20 per month for wireless telephone services
  • $160 shipping credit: from May through December, receive up to $20 per month, $160 total, for purchases with shipping providers such as UPS, FedEx, USPS, and others
  • An extra $200 Dell credit ($400 total): receive up to $200 in additional statement credits for U.S. purchases with Dell Technologies, for a total of up to $400 in statement credits in 2020 when added to the existing Shop Dell with Business Platinum benefit ($100 in additional statement credits from May 1 through June 30, 2020 and up to $100 in additional statement credits between July 1 and December 31, 2020) .
  • New, free Shop Small® templates and resources at ShopSmall.com, as well as benefits, offerings and expertise from more than 40 leading companies as part of the recently launched ‘Stand for Small’ coalition.
  • Resy, a subsidiary of American Express, is waiving all fees for new and existing ResyOS customers through December 2020.

Green

  • $80 wireless service credit: from May through December, receive up to $10 per month for wireless telephone services

Delta cards

This includes the Delta SkyMiles Reserve, Platinum, Gold, and Blue

  • 4x at supermarkets: 4X miles at U.S. supermarkets (May through July 2020) .

Marriott cards

This includes the Marriott Bonvoy and Brilliant

  • 6x at supermarkets: will now earn 6X Marriott Bonvoy points at U.S. supermarkets on up to $7,500 in eligible purchases (May through July 2020) .

Additional benefit for Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant:

  • The $300 credit can now be used for restaurant purchases and takeout: eligible purchases at U.S. restaurants, including takeout and delivery, will now qualify toward the $300 Marriott Bonvoy Statement Credit benefit (June through August 2020) .

Hilton cards

This includes the Hilton Surpass and Aspire

  • 12x supermarket points through year-end: earn 12X Hilton Honors Bonus Points at U.S. supermarkets (May through July 2020) . 
  • Bonus points count toward elite status: Bonus Points earned through eligible purchases on all Hilton American Express Cards, that post to the Card Member’s Hilton Honors account between May 1 through December 31, 2020 will be considered Base Points and will count towards Elite tier qualification and Lifetime Diamond Status.

Additional benefits for Aspire

  • Restaurant credit: the much-discussed $250 Resort credit can now be used directly on dining and restaurant takeout, from June 1 through August 1. Hopefully takeout will still feel reasonably safe by then.
  • Points can help toward Lifetime Diamond: Hilton points earned from spending on this card between May 1 and December 31 can count toward Lifetime Diamond. Honestly, if you really love Hilton, just holding this card may be enough.
  • Free night certificates are much more flexible: through December 31, free night certificates that were previously restricted to weekend night use can now be used any day of the week. Certificates issued between May 1 and December 31 will be valid for two years.
  • Official page describing these temporary benefits

My Take

Let’s start with the positives: nearly all travel-related personal cards and AMEX’s own business cards received meaningful temporary benefits. Extra earnings at supermarkets and credits for streaming and wireless bills are concrete benefits that many people can actually use. The changes to hotel-related credits also help ease some of the pressure of keeping these cards. As a major card issuer, AMEX will probably persuade quite a few people not to cancel their cards with this move.

Now for the negatives:

  • Where did the most important airline credit go? Since using it is so difficult right now, they might as well let airline incidental credits work for dining too.
  • Most of the changes are on co-branded cards: what about Blue Cash and EveryDay? Was AMEX Gold left out? Why does Green get this but Gold doesn’t?

Also, how should people maximize all these credits?

  • Restaurants: use them for actual food if you can. Later we can see whether restaurant gift cards trigger the credit. If not, maybe buy them monthly and resell them on the secondary market.
  • Wireless credits: maybe this is a good time to finance a phone? Or try carrier gift cards? Or buy a phone accessory every month?
  • Streaming credits: use them on shows? memberships? gift cards for services like Hulu?

In any case, as time goes on, we should see plenty of DP. We’ll summarize those as they come in, and we’ll also try to test the easiest ways to cash out these benefits.