The Platinum card from American Express underwent some changes this past year. Amex added benefits like the $200 annual uber credit, but the fee increased to $550 as a result. I’ve had my Platinum card for just over a year and I’ll be canceling due to this increase. However, there are a few benefits I’ll miss.
Most notably, I’ll have to say goodbye to Centurion Lounge access and SPG, Marriott, and Hilton Gold Status. One underrated perk of this card that I will miss is the concierge service. I’ve had a lot of success using the Amex Concierge for dinner reservations. Last year they were able to get me a seat at Babbo in New York City which may have been difficult to do on my own. However, my all time favorite use of the Amex Platinum concierge is their ability to make reservations for you in other countries. A lot of the places we ate at in Italy required reservations but lacked an online reservation service. I wasn’t about to call Italy, so I called the concierge instead. Within a day, they had set up all of my requested reservations in Rome, Florence, and Venice! In the words of the Barefoot Contessa, how easy is that?
Final Thoughts
The Amex Platinum has a lot of great benefits, but one I’ll definitely miss is using the concierge service to make dinner reservations in other countries. It’s so easy to make one phone call and request all of your desired reservations for your entire trip. Guess I’ll have to resort to restaurants listed on OpenTable going forward…
