The 2025 Amex Platinum Refresh Is Insanely Good

Chase just got smoked.

The long anticipated (feared?) Amex Platinum fee raise is here. While a lot of the updates were leaked ahead of today’s official announcement, it’s still surprising to me that Amex raised the fee by just $200 but added $1k+ of ~actually useful~ credits.

Now, the linchpin here is that to make this card worth your effort, the credits need to be primarily on things that you would have already spent money on. If you are going significantly out of your way to use these credits, stop reading and don’t get this card. Your hours would be more profitably spent as a cashier at McDonald’s than trying to plan out driving to your nearest Resy-eligible restaurant 45 minutes away to break even on this card.

As I’ve said in my previous post on the Amex Platinum, Amex is catering the offers on this card towards younger urban professionals. They are desperate to capture the next generation of big spenders, and probably willing to run a loss up front to capture basis points off all the future spend of this cohort. The beauty of the credit card game is that their CAC is my dinner (literally). Also, in the US, all consumers are very lucky to benefit from what is an extremely fierce competition between Amex, Chase, Capital One, and to a certain extent Citi. They all want you to spend money on their payment rails, and are increasingly willing to spend more on you to get you to do so. All that to say, capitalism is working in your favor, if you know how to play the game.

In this post, you’ll find:

New Fee

The new fee on the card is $895, up from the previous annual fee of $695. This makes the card the most expensive publicly-available luxury credit card on the market (outside of private offerings like the Centurion Card).

Here are the fees of the top tier luxury / premium cards on the market:

1. Amex Platinum – $895
2. Chase Sapphire Reserve – $795
3. Citi Strata Elite – $595
4. Capital One Venture X – $395

$895 is a lot of money to be spending on a credit card per year, but Amex “subsidizes” this via credits you can use to offset costs for certain uses. Their marketing number is $3,500 in credits, and all you need to do to figure out if this card is worth it to you is to go down the list and see how much you actually value each one. I’d also subtract a bit after that because of the annoyance / time used in remembering to utilize these credits. Unless you’re like me and enjoy this stuff.

Also, the sign up bonus on this card (up to 175k points) can help you snag a nice seat on a long haul flight easily worth $5k+ itself:

New Benefits & Changes

In total, Amex added $1,480 in credits for the $200 fee increase. The surprising kicker here is that the $1,480 is actually for pretty useful stuff (at least for how I spend money). Here’s a summary of the new additions and changes, ranked in their importance to me :

1. +$400 Resy Credit, split into $100 quarterly. Pay the bill with your platinum at any restaurant on Resy and you’ll receive a credit.
2. +$400 Hotel Credit Increased from $200 to $600 (2x $300 credits semi-annually). Bookable for one night stays at FHR properties or two night stays at THC properties through Amex travel.
3. +$300 Lululemon Credit (4x $75 credits quarterly).
4. +$60 Digital Entertainment Credit ( $240 per year to $300 per year, cut into monthly portions of $25 for subscriptions). Valid on Wall Street Journal (what I use it for), Youtube Premium / Youtube TV (new), Peacock, Paramount+, New York Times, Hulu, ESPN+, and Disney+
5. +$120 Uber One Credit ($10 per month to pay for an Uber One subscription for better service and ability to earn Uber cash back)
6. +$200 Oura Ring credit. I’m opposed to wearables in general (maintaining the last of analog life before my entire existence is digitized) but this definitely will appeal to the Finance / Tech bro crowd
7. Complimentary Leaders Club Sterling Status. Honestly, I had never heard of this program before, but includes complimentary upgrades, daily breakfast for two, and more for hotels in their network. Note this is separate from Amex’s own FHR (Fine Hotels and Resorts) and THC (The Hotel Collection).

Effective Annual Fee: Amex is Literally Paying You to Get the Card

Looking at my own spend, pre-refresh this card was barely an effective breakeven fee card to me, and I debated cancelling it due to the hassle involved with the credits. Now, it’s solidly effectively paying me $500 per year keep it, for which, I basically plan to keep this card forever or until they nerf the benefits. Below is the exact breakdown of all the credits and how I value them. If considering getting this card or keeping this card, I’d go down the list below and determine what the credits are worth based on your personal spend and tally up that amount.

Again, focus on spend that you don’t really need to go out of your way to do. You’re not looking for a part time job here.

All credits, in order of importance to me:

$400 Resy Credit (NEW)
$100 usable quarterly, on any restaurant on Resy.
How I value this: $400. Throw a rock in NYC and you’ll find a Resy restaurant. Similar in other big US cities.

$200 Uber Cash
$15 per month and then an extra $20 in December.
How I value this: $200. I’ll take an Uber or UberEats at least once per month.

$200 Airline Fee Credit
$200 per year for incidental purchases on select airlines.
How I value this: $150. I use it on United Travel Bank but subtract $50 for the annoyance factor.

$300 Lululemon Credit
$75 per quarter.
How I value this: $225. I like Lulu shirts and pants, but I wouldn’t shop there that often otherwise.

$600 Hotel Credit (NEW)
$300 usable semi-annually.
How I value this: $300. I can swing one FHR/THC stay per year, but otherwise these are too high-scale to be worth it.

$300 Digital Entertainment Credit (Increased from $200)
$25 per month on select providers (Paramount+, YouTube, WSJ, NYT, Peacock, Disney, ESPN, Hulu).
How I value this: $50. I like the WSJ and use it for that, but it’s worth at most $50 per year to me.

$100 Saks Fifth Ave Credit
$50 credit semi-annually.
How I value this: $50. I would never shop at Saks otherwise, but I use this for socks or underwear, lol.

$120 Global Entry Credit
Available once every 4 years.
How I value this: $30. I’ll renew this once every 4 years.

$155 Walmart+ Credit
Monthly cost of Walmart+ ($12.95).
How I value this: $0. This also gives Peacock with ads. I like watching Day of The Jackal, but that’s about it.

$120 UberOne Membership Credit (NEW)
$10 per month.
How I value this: $0. Nice to have, but I’d be fine without it.

$200 Oura Ring Credit (NEW)
For hardware (the ring itself) only.
How I value this: $0. Wearables are too dystopian for me.

$209 CLEAR Plus Credit
To pay for CLEAR memberships.
How I value this: $0. TSA PreCheck alone has never failed to get me through security in under 10 minutes.

$300 Equinox Credit
Gym memberships or digital offerings.
How I value this: $0. Running outside is free, did you know that?

Conclusion

This Amex refresh was a very pleasant surprise. I guess Chase coming out with a big refresh a few months ago put some fire under Amex’s willingness to up the attractiveness of the card, and they really delivered. While expensive, this card can provide a ton of outsized value if it fits your spending.