Can anyone explain benefits of having AE Platinum Card. Companion ticket is triple the price of an individual ticket, and many blackout dates. Maybe I'm missing something.

Access to the DL/CO/NW airport lounges is a ~$300/year value to some people already.

My colleague loves his and claims you get all these perks that save him twice or three times the cost of the annual fee. But then, he gets these "upgrades" from the plat. card at egregiously expensive hotels -- typically the Four Seasons, so I guess for those people, like him, that spend that kind of money on those kinds of hotels, it does "save".

A call by my client who has had the platinum card for many years produced third row center tickets for a sold-out Broadway show more than once. Last minute seating at New York restaurants (Babbo, etc.), automatic upgraded room to Jr. Suite .
I don't know what you mean by the companion ticket being triple the price of an individual ticket. Do you mean perhaps, the price of the card itself? LMF

LMF, we went to San Antonio in September and called 800# and was told price for one coach ticket was $755, I told them I could purchase 2 tickets for $452 ($226 each). Said she was sorry, but could lower to $710. RKKwan, Lounge might be OK if we flew over 3 times a year.

I am confused because I have the Am/Ex card and the companion ticket is free. I purchased the other tickets through Delta direct giving them my certificate #. The other ticket was the same price being quoted everywhere.

I've had a Platinum Card for about 5 years and I can't see myself getting rid of it.

The reasons I have it are:

1)Access to airline clubs. I fly often for business and this is a big plus (especially after being stuck at Boston's Logan airport a combined 5 hours on two recent trips.)

2) Access to their conceirge service. I've used it to get show tickets, dinner reservations at some tough places in NY and Paris, information on tours from Paris to Normandy, and info on whale watching tours in British Columbia. I can spend two minutes on the phone with them instead of 2 hours doing the research myself. They fax back to me a nice organized list of my options with cost and contacts. I'm sure if I asked them, they'd help me plan my wife's 40th Birthday Party next year.

3) The added insurance. My wife lost a fairly expensive ring about 3 weeks after she'd purchased it on the Platinum Card. Amex gave us the option of a refund or a replacement. She chose the replacement which worked out well for her as the replacement stone was slightly larger then the one she'd lost. Because we hadn't yet added the ring to our homeowner's insurance rider, getting the ring covered by them was our only option. The benefit from that alone covers a good 12 years of my annual fee.

As with many things, it's a matter of personal preference. For us, the price is worth the benefits. That certainly shouldn't be true for everyone.

In terms of the hotels, often times the rates you can get from their Preferred Travel Service aren't the best and can be beat by booking directly. When we do use them, it's because we're pretty confident we can get an upgrade to a larger room or their is some member benefit, like free breakfast, that makes the added cost worth it.

I had a Platinum card for several years. I found they were good for 2 things:

1- 2 for 1 business class tickets.

2- snob appeal.

I gave it up because we cut down on our flying, and didn't want to pay the $395. We just didn't need it.

I've saved thousands and thousands of dollars with my AEP card.
I end up getting suite upgrades at hotels ~50% of the time, and on occasion have received upgrades to rooms priced at $1500-3000 per night.
Flying bisiness and first class overseas provides a free companion ticket, and if the fare is >$10,000 (Australia, Hong Kong) that's a hefty savings.
I've been able to get tables at sold out restaurants and tickets to shows and events on short notice.
Free membership in most elite car rental clubs (Hertz #1 Gold, etc).
Gratis entry into certain airline club lounges. When travelling overseas I am thrilled to be able to use a club lounge with full shower facilities, food, peace/quiet.
There are many additional perks.

I will say that for the 'average traveller' (however that's defined) the benefits might not be worth the yearly fee. AEP is not going to help much if the hotel choices are Marriotts and Hiltons and if someone is looking to save a buck on coach airfare.
But it's sure not difficult for me to get $300 worth of perks per year. I get that much back almost every trip, it seems.

Hey Tedturner,
I hope you didn't use you AEP to finance that awful film Gods and Generals. Although, if you had you might be able to get them to cover the cost under their insurance provisions.

Nope. Just sold some land in Montana...they say I own half the state, you know.
Darn Braves just keep winning though...13 division titles in a row now. Take that, Yankee fans!

Are you referring to the Platinum charge card? I'm a little confused because you mention buying domestic coach tickets and the Platinum charge card benefit is specifically for international business or first class tickets.

A few of the key benefits of the Platinum charge card are:

1. CO/DL/NW airport lounge access

2. International business or first class companion ticket. This is of somewhat quesionable value because it requires the purchase of a full fare ticket. Great if no other deals are available but often you can find 2 discounted business class tickets for less than the price of 1 full fare ticket.

3. Higher insurance limits - for example the Platinum card limit for purchase protection is $10,000 per occurance vs. $1000 for the Gold card.

My husband has the Platinum card and I have always wanted to take advantage of
the international "partner" program whereby
if we buy one business class ticket on one
of the named airlines, the second is
"free". Recently, I found that many airlines,
e.g. Virgin, Air New Zealand, etc. have "discounted" business class tickets available. Specifically, I inquired about tix
LAX-LHR in March 2005. Virgin and BA are offering very good discounted business fares on this itinerary. When I specifically
asked Platinum concierge (res. agent) if I could get the free companion tix on these fares, she said no. In other words, for example, on the LAX-LHR route, unless I purchased the full-fare round trip fare for business class (between $7 K- $8 K) the free companion fare was not available. But
if I purchased through either Virgin or BA web site a business class tix (which at certain times of year is heavily discounted),
it came out that 2 "purchased" tix were substantially less than the required artificially high price for the one "purchased" tix through the AX program entitling a platinum member to a free tix. So, all readers should research this carefully. I was
personally astounded and a bit miffed at this
AX rule which essentially, from my perspective, makes the "free companion tix"
benefit a joke! Comments, please!

Business travellers. That's the main target market for the Platinum card issuer under discussion. And business travellers often have little advance notice with which to shop for sale fares.
Airlines and hotels and other travel services make the vast majority of their profits from busdiness travellers. Leisure travellers are prone to bargain hunting.
American Express is not trying to compete with discounters in its Platinum segment.

I gave up the Platinum card for a Gold card several years ago. Just not worth the tariff for our endeavors.

Gold card has proved useful for "event" pre-sales and fabulous seats.

There are at least two different Platinum cards with AmEx that I am aware of.

One is the regular Platinum card that offers the free business class ticket for international flights and a few other perks. The other is the one I have which is the Delta Skymiles Platinum card and it offers a free domestic coach companion ticket. I could be wrong but this is the one I think the OP is referring to. The major benefit to this card is that you do not cap out on mileage points like you do on the other cards. That is why we chose this one.

beachdreams,
That would make more sense since the Delta Platinum Amex is the one that offers the domestic companion ticket. I don't have that card so I'm not familiar with the terms of that companion ticket offer. I believe another benefit to the card is that you get 5000 MQM's upfront and another 10,000 MQM's every year that you charge over $25,000. That's a big benefit for someone who's just short of the elite qualification miles needed to reach the next tier level. But may not be an issue for someone who doesn't fly so often.

It may be obvious, but what is MQM?

I have a DL Skymiles Platinum card for a couple of years, but I will cancel it before the next annual fee is due. For one, there's an annual fee. Two, it only earns Skymiles. AMEX's own Membership Reward allows you to use miles on many more programs. Three, the "free companion" coupon's price isn't very competitive, especially for trips to the west coast, which is like $399 for two people.

Sorry, Medallion Qualification Miles. These miles count toward elite qualification on Delta whereas the majority of miles earned from activities other than flying (credit cards, telecommunications, etc.) do not. The only 2 ways to earn MQM's that I know of are 1) flying on DL or one of its Skyteam partners 2) getting the Delta Platinum Amex. The Gold and Basic Delta Amex cards do not give MQM's just regular Skymiles which can be used to redeem free flights but do not count toward elite qualification. So like I said, the card would be more valuable to someone who is close to reaching the next elite tier and needs those extra MQM's rather than someone who flies infrequently.