According to a rumor (DOC comment), the AMEX Platinum card will get a round of updates in July 2021, with a higher annual fee and additional benefits. Existing cardholders would receive the new benefits immediately, and then see the annual fee updated in 2022. The details are reportedly as follows:
- $695 annual fee
- $300 equinox credit
- $240 entertainment credit, $20 monthly (magazine/news subscriptions, video streaming services and audio/music streaming services)
- $200 credit for prepaid hotel bookings
- Annual CLEAR membership will replace TSA Precheck, but Global Entry seems like it’ll stay
- $100 temp Resy credit
- Other benefits such as airline fee reimbursements and Uber will remain unchanged
Personally, this style feels very AMEX: a wide assortment of benefits. But after the update, aside from the hotel booking and entertainment credits, which should be easy to use up (for example, with Amazon Kindle Unlimited), the other perks seem more useful for business travelers, leaving very little room for maximizing value. If these changes really happen, I’ll probably close my AMEX Platinum card in 2022. After all, spending a lot of effort to piece together a bunch of statement credits is also a real cost.
