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The Platinum Card® gives us many perks when we travel, especially during our 5-month family trip around the world.
In this article, I’ll put each of these advantages into practice.
In this article, we will go over all the travel perks associated with the Platinum Card®. But before that, here is the new welcome offer for the Platinum Card®!
If you want to discover what the Platinum Card® has to offer in terms of perks, American Express is offering you, as a new Cardmember, the opportunity to earn up to 170,000 bonus Membership Rewards® points:
That is enough points to get a $1,700 statement credit to use toward eligible travel purchases charged to the Card. And since you get a $200 Annual Travel Credit, it’s like getting the first year annual fee cleared thanks to this offer!
A great way to fully enjoy all the perks offered by the Platinum Card®.
Without a doubt, the most sought-after perk for people who sign up for the Platinum Card®: airport lounge access.
Holders of the Platinum Card® enjoy complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges in over 130 countries.
This perk is valid not only for the Cardmember of the Platinum Card® but also for one guest accompanying them. In some lounges, it is even possible to bring in up to 2 children under 21. Note that guest access conditions vary by lounge.
We’re big fans of airport lounges! Traveling frequently with our 2 children, we’ve saved a lot of money over the past few years, especially during our 4-month trip around the world a few years ago.
Here we are, for example, as a family at the Bidvest Sky Lounge at Johannesburg Airport, thanks to the Platinum Card®.
And many of the lounges we visited are high quality, especially in Asia, like here in the only lounge available at Siem Reap Airport in Cambodia:
Here, to give you an idea, are all the free lounge visits at the airports in Zurich, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Singapore, Siem Reap, and Bali that we got in two months thanks to the Platinum Card®:
Holders of the Platinum Card® get elevated hotel status levels with several loyalty programs. Benefits differ by program and can range from a room upgrade to free breakfasts, the most sought-after perk!
Here are the four American Express partner loyalty programs in which holders of the Platinum Card® receive a higher status:
With Hilton Honors Gold status, we receive free breakfasts during our stays at Hilton hotels! A significant advantage, especially during our world tour when Marriott Bonvoy hotels (our main loyalty program) are not present!
This was the case, for example, in New Zealand, at the Hilton Lake Taupo hotel. We had free breakfasts for us and our children.
Each year, when the annual fee renews, holders of the Platinum Card® receive a $200 annual travel credit.
To take advantage of it, you must book travel of $200 or more with the Platinum Card® through American Express Online Travel Services or through the Platinum Card® Travel Services. It can be, for example, a hotel night or a car rental.
As we travel a lot, we find a use, each year, to this $200 Annual Travel Credit.
This year, we booked a hotel room in New Zealand thanks to this credit offered by the Platinum Card®. And like every year, the $200 credit appears in the account at the same time as the expense.
The Platinum Card® is one of the Canadian cards offering the best insurance coverage. If fortunately, we have not had to use it so far, it is great to be able to count on it in case of a problem.
Here are examples of insurance coverages offered by the Platinum Card®:
During our several-month trip around the world, we found a particularly useful insurance benefit: the rental car theft and damage insurance offered by the Platinum Card®.
In some countries, car rental agencies ask to place a very large deposit hold on the credit card.
The Platinum Card® has a major, little-known advantage: it is a charge card.
A charge card has no preset spending limit on purchases, and this is where it was very useful for us during our trip around the world.
For example, in South Africa, the car rental agency required a deposit hold equivalent to $5,000 on our card! Without the Platinum Card® in our wallet, that would have complicated our transactions or forced us to prepay another credit card.
American Express’s Membership Rewards program is undoubtedly the best program offered by a bank in Canada, notably because of its flexibility.
The Platinum Card® lets you earn:
We use the Platinum Card® to pay for our travel (such as car rentals): 2 Membership Rewards points per dollar is an excellent return. And we can travel with peace of mind, thanks to the Card’s insurance coverage we described earlier.
With American Express Membership Rewards loyalty program, you can enjoy flexible ways to use your points:
For us, the best use of American Express Membership Rewards is by transferring points to frequent flyer programs like Marriott Bonvoy, Aeroplan, or British Airways Executive Club.
Transferring Membership Rewards points to British Airways Executive Club Avios miles saved us a lot of money, especially in Australia!
British Airways Executive Club lets you use Avios miles to get plane tickets with partner airlines like Qantas, the Australian airline.
For example, to get a flight for four people between Uluru (AYQ) and Darwin (DRW), we converted 36,000 Membership Rewards Points into 36,000 Avios miles.
That same plane ticket would have cost us no less than $1,300:
Suffice to say that 36,000 Membership Rewards Points saved us almost $1,000 in this case!
American Express regularly has promotional offers, directly accessible in your online account.
Holders of the Platinum Card® are eligible for these offers.
For example, we were lucky enough to take advantage of the latest offer for one of our trips:
We used this offer to book a 10-day prepaid car rental in Bali worth $500.
The $100 credit was posted to our account only a few days after the expense appeared on our account!
The Platinum Card® is a card we particularly appreciate as frequent travellers, and even more so during our family trip around the world. We consider its annual fee to be a full-fledged travel expense as it brings us significant benefits!
If you would like to learn more about this card or to apply for it, find more information on this page.
Here are frequently asked questions in the milesopedia community about this card.
To maximize your Membership Rewards points accumulation, consult our complete guide to the American Express Membership Rewards program as well as our ranking of the best American Express Membership Rewards credit cards, updated monthly by the Milesopedia team.
Savings this way:
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