Business Platinum Card Offering 100,000 Point Bonus

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Through January 25, 2017, the American Express Business Platinum Card is offering 100,000 total bonus Membership Rewards after spending $15,000 in the first three months:

• 50,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first three months
• 50,000 more bonus points after spending another $10,000 in the first three months

Quick Facts

• Sign Up Bonus: 100,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 in spending in the first three months
• Statement Credits: $200 in airline fee credits each calendar year; $100 Global Entry Credit
• Category Bonuses: 1.5x on purchases of $5,000+
• Value of Membership Rewards: Worth 2 cent toward the purchase of airfare OR can be transferred to airline miles and hotel points for higher value
• Lounge Access: Centurion Lounge access for cardmember plus two guests or immediate family and Priority Pass Select Membership means free access to 900+ airport lounges worldwide
• No Foreign Transaction Fee
• Tons of Other Benefits
• Annual Fee: $450
• Eligibility: You can only get each Amex bonus once, so if you’ve had the Business Platinum before, you can’t get this bonus. If you’ve only had personal Platinums before, you can get the bonus.

Sign Up Bonus

The American Express Business Platinum Card offers 100,000 bonus Membership Rewards after $15,000 in purchases within the first three months of account opening.

Membership Rewards have two primary uses:

1. Use them like cash to purchase airfare at a rate of two cents per point.
2. Transfer them to miles with 17 airlines or four hotels. Then they are whatever miles or points you chose, subject to those rules.

The airline partners are awesome because of their versatility. The partners include at least one member of each alliance plus several airlines that aren’t members of any alliance.

Singapore miles are awesome to fly a double bed in the sky or to get to Hawaii or South America. ANA has some very cheap awards. Avios are the best for shorthaul, economy redemptions. Others have uses too.

Overall, I value Membership Rewards at 2 cents each because of the transfer partners, so a 100,000 point bonus is worth $2,000 to me.

Statement Credits

Every calendar year, you get a $200 airline fee credit that is designed to offset things like checked bag, change, and cancellation fees, but in practice also offsets gift card purchases.

Unfortunately the credit only applies to fees from one airline of your choosing. Designate it when you activate your card.

This $200 credit resets at the end of the year.

That means that if you got the card now, you’d have about three months to get the first $200 in credit, and about nine months to get another $200 in credit before your next annual fee. That’s $400 in refunded airline fees or gift cards.

In addition, Business Platinum cardholders are entitled to a $100 statement credit when they pay the $100 Global Entry enrollment fee with their cards.

Global Entry is a United States Customs and Border Patrol program designed to let trusted travelers skip the immigrations and customs queues when arriving in the United States. Instead of spending time in line and talking to an agent, you tap a few buttons at a kiosk and get to the curb in a few minutes.

Global Entry also lets you use TSA Precheck lines in the US, even on domestic itineraries.

I would pay the $100 in a heartbeat for Global Entry even if I only traveled abroad once a year. When you can get it for free, it’s a no-brainer.

How and Why I Got Global Entry

Global Entry is good for five years, and you can get this credit once every four years.

Lounge Access

Business Platinum cardholders get Centurion Lounge access in Dallas (DFW), Houston (IAH), Las Vegas, San Francisco, Miami, Seattle, and New York (LGA) for themselves and two guests (one in Seattle) or immediate family (spouse/domestic partner + children under 18.)

Centurion Lounges are amazing, much better than US airline lounges, though not quite as nice as foreign First Class lounges. I visited the San Francisco Centurion Lounge this month and gorged on some tasty chicken with a tomato salsa.

Priority Pass is the world’s largest independent airport lounge access program. Business Platinum cardholders get free Priority Pass Select membership, which entitles them to free access to 900+ lounges worldwide.

I downloaded the Priority Pass app on my phone, so I can search for participating lounges by airport while I travel. I seem to find one or more options at most international airports and tons of domestic airports.

Category Bonuses

The Business Platinum offers 1x Membership Rewards on all purchases, except those over $5,000 which earn 1.5x. Other cards definitely have better category bonuses.

Other Benefits

Being a cardholder gets you SPG Gold, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold, and status and discounts with other companies. See this post for more information.

Fees

The Business Platinum has no foreign transaction fees.

The card has an annual fee of $450, and the first one is due on your first statement. If that is offputting, you totally missed the part about the $500 in statement credits you can get during your first 12 months, and the bonus points worth $2,000 to me.

Eligibility to Be Approved

If you have ever had an American Express Platinum Business card, you are ineligible to get the bonus again. However the Amex Platinum personal card (and all its variants like the American Express Platinum Mercedes-Benz personal card) are considered separate products; having had those cards will not stop you from getting these 100,000 bonus points.

Post your application results in the comments.

Bottom Line

If you can spend $15,000 in three months, you should get the Business Platinum Card. The bonus points are worth $2,000 to me, the first year statement credits are worth $500 to me, and the lounge access is incredible. All of that swamps the $450 annual fee in my opinion.