If there was ever a credit card that you could summarize my relationship with as “It’s Complicated,” the American Express Platinum Card fits the bill. And if you’re old enough to remember when Facebook relationship statuses mattered, welcome to our website.
I loved my Platinum Card when I first got it. Club access was incredible and it upgraded the way we traveled. Then the fees increased, benefits were limited, and the credits became hard to use. Eventually, I ditched the card and never looked back.
I stayed that way until 2022. I had plenty of other cards that provided club access and provided similar, if not better travel benefits (Hello, Sapphire Reserve).
It took a generous upgrade offer from AMEX for me to become a Platinum cardholder once again. Over my first year back, I learned that it’s possible to use the card benefits to make back more than the annual fee.
I renewed my card for another year and I’m considering adding Sharon as an authorized user. This is a bit awkward because she’s already an authorized user on my account. Last May, AMEX sent me an offer for 20,000 Membership Rewards points after adding someone to my account. I didn’t want to pay AMEX another $175, so I added her to my card with a no-fee Gold Card. This card is a strange animal as it’s connected to a Platinum Card and earns the same bonuses but has almost none of the benefits. This AU Gold card is not to be confused with the AMEX Gold Card which is great in its own right.
Why Pay An Additional $175 For An Authorized User?
American Express Platinum Card Authorized Users get many of the same benefits as the main cardholder. One Mile At A Time does a great job of breaking down all the benefits you’ll get for $175.
The main benefit is lounge access. There are many clubs you can access with the AMEX Platinum Card. For us, the two most important ones on the list are the AMEX Centurion Lounges and Delta Sky Clubs.
Due to overcrowding issues, both of them have put restrictions on guests into place. For Centurion Lounges, guests cost $50 each unless you spend at least $75,000 on the card per calendar year, in which case you can bring two guests for free. Delta Sky Clubs allow access when flying Delta on the same day and you can bring guests for $50 each.
It’s a weakness, but if I have access to a nice club, I will take advantage of it.
Over the first year of membership, I paid for Sharon to enter Delta Sky Clubs three times. The first two were $39, and the last was $50 when Delta raised the guest pricing in February 2023. I also paid the $50 guest fee for Sharon to enter the Centurion Clubs twice, in San Francisco and at JFK.
That’s $228 in guest fees which would now be $250 for both of us to visit a Centurion Club or Delta Sky Club on our past travels.
I already have two flights booked where we’d be able to use a Delta Sky Club, so I’d already be $100 in the hole. It would only take two more visits to break even.
I know we don’t have to visit a club but one of our best uses of club access is at Orlando Airport. Even with TSA Precheck and CLEAR, we have to arrive early at MCO for flights, even more so if we’re checking luggage. If we’re flying Delta, our only choices for a morning coffee is to stand in the endless Starbucks line, deal with adequate food offerings and below-average coffee at The Club MCO, or the Delta Sky Club.
Recently, I’ve been paying per visit for the Sky Club but if I pay for an AU Platinum Card, we’ll both get access to the Delta Sky Club.
Sure, it’s a case of paying money up front hoping I’ll get a return on my investment. If you’ve ever flown out of MCO, you’ll know that having a place to wait for your flight away from the gate is money well spent.
In addition, we’ll be able to visit Centurion Lounges on our trips without thinking if it’s worth paying the extra $50 for a guest.
I will wait until we have a trip when we need lounge access to upgrade Sharon’s AU card. I called AMEX and asked if the $175 fee was prorated if it was added in the middle of the year. The representative said it wasn’t but the AU fee would have a different due date than the Annual fee.
I’ll let you figure out if there’s a way to arbitrage this into getting extra value from an AU card 🙂
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
2 comments
I recently added my wife to my platinum card, which is a $170 cost that allows me to add up to three additional cardholders to my account. After doing so I realized that all cardholders must be over the age of 13. Initially, I was going to add my two small children, not so that they could actually use the card, but so that they could enter the centurion lounge and I would not have to pay the $50 per person fee each time. It sounds like there is no way around this, but it does seem strange that if they were 13, they could enter for free since I have already paid the $170 a year for up to 3 additional cardholders. I appreciate your AMEX goal to help lessen the crowds at lounges but also feel like it really penalizes families with small children.
After spending the $170 to add my wife as an authorized user, I found the other two AU’s I paid for make great Christmas gifts for relatives. You can set the spending limit for the cards at $0 but the AU gets the lounge access and various elite statuses.