MW Is the revamped American Express Platinum card worth the $895 fee? This new perk may seal the deal.

By Genna Contino

American Express is seeking to address longstanding customer complaints that it is difficult to track statement credits

American Express's updated app features are intended to help manage the statement credits that come with the refreshed Platinum rewards card - a task that has been historically tedious for premium cardholders.

The refresh of the American Express Platinum card announced Thursday includes updated app features to help track the premium rewards card's benefits - but some experts aren't sure it will address cardholders' concerns. It also comes with a hefty annual fee.

The new card's price tag jumped nearly 29% year over year to $895, an expected annual-fee hike for the revamped Platinum card as American Express $(AXP)$ and its peers compete to maintain a premium aura around their high-end products.

With the app update, the card issuer is seeking to address a common complaint that it is difficult to track statement credits, which are reimbursements to a cardholder's account after they make specific purchases that offset the cost of the annual fee. Some rewards cards have earned the derisive nickname of "coupon book," as benefits are often fragmented, tend to be offered in quarterly or monthly increments and require users to actively manage niche perks.

The upgraded American Express app now offers users a one-stop shop to monitor statement credits along with upcoming dining reservations, trips booked through Amex travel, airport-lounge wait times and financial insights such as weekly spending and account notifications.

See more: You'll have to charge over $75,000 a year on the new Chase Sapphire Reserve card to get the most out of it

"It is a historic pain point that's being addressed," said Stewart Kendall, senior vice president of enterprise digital experiences at American Express. "We're very excited to see [customers] start to engage with these benefits and just get a real sense of the value they're getting up front as they enroll."

Will the American Express app fix a longstanding 'pain point'?

The revamped app was designed to give Platinum cardholders a "digital unboxing" experience. Instead of manually typing in the card number to activate it, users can just tap the back of the card, the first step in a guided setup.

After that, the app takes users through the different benefits that come with the card and lets them enroll. The refreshed consumer Platinum card comes with several new credits, including $400 for dining at restaurants that use the online reservation-booking platform Resy, $300 at Lululemon $(LULU)$, $120 toward an Uber $(UBER)$ One Membership, $200 toward smart-ring maker Oura and a complimentary premium status for the Leading Hotels of the World, a luxury hotel group.

See more: Citi's new Strata Elite credit card has a $595 annual fee. Here's how its perks stack up against the competition.

The Platinum card also comes with an enhanced $600 hotel credit and a $300 digital entertainment credit to cover the cost of a select list of digital subscriptions, now including Paramount+ $(PSKY)$, YouTube Premium and YouTube TV.

"Listening to our customers' feedback, we wanted to make sure that they understand what benefits that Amex is providing to them as part of their membership," said Ashish Pawale, a vice president of technology at American Express. "We thought, we'll walk them through these benefits as part of this guided setup as part of their onboarding, so that they have a clear understanding of the benefits that they're getting and also an easy way for them to enroll into those benefits."

The app's push notifications are still focused on transaction or account-data alerts, but in-app prompts are designed to remind users about benefits they haven't enrolled in yet. Existing Platinum cardholders must update their app to access the new version.

The prioritization of the app is reflective of American Express leaning into the interests of its younger cardholders, according to Bankrate senior industry analyst Ted Rossman, who said the majority of the company's new customers are Gen Z and millennials.

See more: My credit-card APR is 27%. Here's what happened when I asked my bank to lower it.

"That is a very tech-savvy audience that is using mobile apps and would definitely presumably be interested in something like this," Rossman said.

NerdWallet (NRDS) travel expert Sally French, a Platinum cardholder, said she's excited to try out the app to manage her rewards.

"I used to just track those things by hand and would have a little notes on my computer showing what credits I had left," French, a former writer and editor at MarketWatch, said. "To have it done for me and make sure I didn't miss anything - even my own notes could be prone to error - that is a really nice benefit."

It's gotten harder to get 'champagne travel on a beer budget'

Still, French acknowledged that "these cards are increasingly becoming coupon books." Even with the revamped app, users might shift their shopping habits to feel like they're squeezing all the perks out of the card to justify the annual fee.

Nick Ewen, senior editorial director at travel website The Points Guy, believes there is a ceiling for what consumers are willing to pay for annual fees, but the continued fee hikes by issuers suggest it hasn't been reached yet.

As premium-card annual fees continue to grow, companies like American Express are risking alienating their "maximizer" customers, Ewen said. Maximizers are points-card users who earn moderate incomes and don't have a pathway to unlock some of these benefits outside of credit cards.

Someone making a mid-six-figure salary might not be fazed by a $200 annual-fee hike, but "if you're a teacher and you have a relatively low annual salary that you're making, but you love to travel and you really enjoy maximizing these credit cards, at some point you're going to probably max out," Ewen said.

But experts say an industry trend of weeding out lower-income cardholders could be intentional. As premium cards became more accessible, the perks that made them feel luxurious - like airport-lounge access - lost their luster, as evidenced by complaints about overcrowded lounges. Consequently, surging annual fees are seen by industry experts as a deliberate move to restore a sense of exclusivity by raising the price of entry.

See more: Premium travel perks like VIP lounges and rewards points offer less than they used to - but these upgrades are still worth it

Almost a decade ago, premium cards made it possible to attain "champagne travel on a beer budget," Rossman said. "The [Chase] Sapphire Reserve and Amex Platinum, they're becoming more like champagne travel on a caviar budget. There's an exclusivity there that for some may be part of the appeal, but that's not really for the middle-class person that's traveling as if they were rich."

The Chase $(JPM)$ Sapphire Reserve card, which has a $795 annual fee, was designed for affluent customers who use rewards to elevate travel experiences. A lower-cost option is the Sapphire Preferred card, which offers an entry into travel and dining benefits for a more accessible $95 annual fee.

The American Express Gold card, which multiplies points for restaurant, grocery-store and flight purchases and has a $325 annual fee, is another travel-rewards-card option at a lower price point.

Chase did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Is the updated Platinum card a good deal?

The Platinum card's benefits tend to align more with lifestyles of people who live in bigger coastal cities, said French. Credits for perks such as Equinox gym memberships, Uber (UBER) or Saks Fifth Avenue might not be super useful for someone living in a rural area. If airport-lounge access is important to you, the absence of an American Express Centurion Lounge in your home airport could be a dealbreaker, too.

See more: Why American Express and American Airlines shrunk the airport lounge

"I live in San Francisco and there's a lounge there and I travel all the time, so I get value out of that," French said.

Whether the card is the right fit for you ultimately depends on your existing spending habits. Experts recommend going through each of the statement credits that the card offers and looking for subscriptions or perks you're already paying for without the card, rather than ones you don't have yet.

"Look at the real value of the perks you're getting from that card," Ewen said. "That's not the value that the card issuers market it as, but the real value that you were putting back in your pocket with the statement credits, with the rewards you're earning."

-Genna Contino

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September 18, 2025 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)

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