Business Platinum Card from American Express
130,000 MR points
Head-to-Head: Amex Platinum Card vs. New Premium Aeroplan Cards
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American Express Platinum Card
- Earn 70,000 MR points upon spending $10,000 in the first three months
- Plus, earn 30,000 MR points upon making a purchase in months 14–17 as a cardholder
- Earn 2x MR points on all dining and travel purchases
- Receive an annual $200 travel credit
- Receive an annual $200 dining credit
- Transfer MR points to Aeroplan and other frequent flyer programs for premium flights
- Unlimited airport lounge access for you and one guest at Priority Pass, Plaza Premium, Centurion, and other lounges
- Credits and rebates for daily expenses throughout the year with Amex Offers
- Bonus MR points for referring family and friends
- Annual fee: $799
26 Comments
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Looks like Amex stepped up their game. The Reserve now includes unlimited Priority Pass and 1.25 earning rate. I think you need to update this comparison
Thanks for the heads up – yes, we’ve got lots of content we need to update with all of the jazzing-up that Amex has done!
Ricky, I have twice sent you a message (a question) on your site, but you never reply.
Sorry about that Alison, I’ll get on it right away.
2 Questions:
1. You mentioned historically amex plat offered 60000pts but i see only 25k now. Will they likely offer promo in the future or is the only way to get more points is thru a referral link?
2. when i travel it’s usually a fam of 6: parents, wife, me & 2 kids. Is there any way to fit us all in in the lounges? I’ve always wondered – since there’re usually multiple lounges in the same terminal – could I take my wife&kids to one ie: Centurion, then come out and get my parents to another one ie: priority pass lounge. If this doesnt work then I guess the only way is to get 4 business-class tickets so the whole fam could go into the NON- centurion lounge. Any suggestions?
Yes, 60,000 points was the historical pre-pandemic level via a referral link. Once Amex has more appetite for new acquisitions again, I’d expect the bonus to go back up to around that level (if only to justify the annual fee, which the current 25,000 points certainly doesn’t).
You can definitely do that. However, keep in mind that even a single lounge is often happy to let your kids in free of charge (although they don’t always do so).
ya kids im not too worried, but not my parents. Currently the Centurion lounge allows immediate family OR 2 other individuals. And I actually just realized that my aforementioned tactic wont work because the cardholder HAS TO accompany the party at all times, so I CANT go out to take my parents to another lounge and leave them there.
They really don’t enforce that very strictly (there’s no way they can keep track of everyone in the lounge to make sure that all guests are accompanied by the cardholder at all times).
You can very easily exit the lounge on your own, saying that “you’ll be right back in a second”, go check your parents into the other lounge, then come back.
Don’t forget that the bankcredit card yearly fees can be brought down significantly if not eliminated if you have a suite of services with that bank ie. accounts, mortgage rrsp etc. Also I find the centurion lounges superior to maple leaf in almost every case and I tend to use them quite a bit. Best combo I think is a plat for Aeroplan earn and an RBC priviledge for avios earn.
Amex extended my timeline to use the credit earlier this year as a way to help use it. I think the extension was either 6 or 12 months. Not sure as I found a way to use it. 🙂
The current Amex Aeroplan card provides access to all MLLs including CDG etc for the primary cardholder + supplemenatary cardholders. Will any of the new Aeroplan cards offer access to the MLLs in Europe?
Is there a limit on the ability to earn 1,000 Status Qualifying Miles (SQM) or 1 Status Qualifying Segment (SQS) per $5,000 in eligible spending with the new Amex Aero Plat? If I spent $200k, does it mean I will get 40k SQM and 40 SQS? If I also spent $4k in AQD, does it mean I can qualify for Elite 35k? Thanks.
No limit as far as I’m aware. What you’ve described is correct – the SQD requirement will still need to be met independently to qualify for Elite Status.
It’s very detailed comparison here, but a VERY important factor is missing here and it’s the number of places you can use these cards in Canada or the rest of the world. Having a better reward rate for collecting points doesn’t mean much if you can’t use your card everywhere. If you live in Canada, just go to a coffeeshop and try to pay with your Amex card – not possible. Even pay your bills online – very limited. My conclusion is that you would need another card in addition to any American Express to use in places you can’t use Amex in Canada. Amex really gives you the best on paper, but in real life, the situation is not that shiny
… but you are right, asking “do you take Amex?” gets tiring..
I hope there was a non-amex card with unlimited lounges privileges, I was looking at the Visa Infinite Privilege but they only offr 4 or 6 lounges access…
Amex for lounges access + Visa infinite privilege for Air Canada Priority boarding might be a good combo! but two annual fees of about 700 bucks each is not easy to stomach.
Even Dollarama now accepts Amex. In fact they just sent a promo “Spend 25 bucks get 500 MR points”
I agree with Dan, that has always been a long standing issue with AX, lack of outlets for use of Ax cards. I did exactly as Ricky states” Pair it” with a Visa or MC. I chose TD Aeroplan. It works well for travel too. Amex, is for sure a beneficial card to use when travelling, it offers great peace-of-mind and the perks are clear assets when on the road.
You should always pair an American Express with a Visa or MasterCard, that’s for sure. However, I’ve always found that Amex acceptance tends to be stronger in Canada than people imagine it to be, although perhaps that’s because a lot of my spending is concentrated in Amex’s core categories of travel, dining, and entertainment.
Excellent point 🙂
all these cards still seem to have worse/same earning of Aeroplan then a Amex Gold card shame
How does the westjet card compare?
It doesn’t compare really but it is my perfect second card to my Amex. I happen to fly WJ a lot with my family so the free checked bag beef it saves us a lot of money each year and the companion ticket each year is easy to use (most years at least). You do get some MasterCard elite benefits like lounge access through lounge buddy and I think there is a Boingo wifi discount but you have to lcok on the MC elite webpage.
Another plus is if you have the correct RBC banking package (vip?) and have multiple account types with them, they refund your annual fee. I think it’s a really great card but again we happen to travel a lot with WJ.
I wonder what benefits exactly secondary cardholders will have with the Amex Reserve. Depending on that, I might just keep my Platinum and become a secondary cardholder on my partner’s account for the benefits ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s looking like the lounge access, free first checked bag, priority airport services, and preferred pricing will be shared.
I do agree that holding a Platinum Card and a premium Aeroplan card and then adding each other as authorized users might make sense for households who can stomach two sets of annual fees.
I notice that many people put a strong emphasis on the lounge access when commenting on which card offers additional benefits. To be honest, I found the Platinum lounge to be rather underwhelming in Toronto compared to the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge. As a result, this would not influence my decision making as much as it appears to do wirh other people.
On a side note, has Amex found a way to let cardholders use the $200 travel reward while we are unable to travel? Flipping it to MR points to be used in the future might be a win – win proposition.
The Plaza Premium lounges are generally a step below Maple Leaf Lounges, but I’d also point out that the transborder Plaza Premium lounge offers hot food (of mediocre quality, but still) whereas the transborder Maple Leaf Lounge doesn’t.