Amex Business Platinum Underrated Benefit: 35% Pay With Points Rebate

Link: Apply now for The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (review) is a popular business card. While the card has a steep $695 annual fee (Rates & Fees), that’s potentially pretty easy to justify, thanks to the huge numbers of credits and benefits, plus the airport lounge access perks.

Another incentive to apply for the card is that it consistently features a huge welcome offer, which makes the card especially compelling for the first year (there’s a terrific offer right now). Anecdotally, I also find this card to be quite easy to get approved for.

In this post, I want to focus on what’s probably my favorite perk of this card, which I take advantage of frequently…

The Amex Business Platinum makes points more valuable

Generally speaking, the best way to maximize Amex Membership Rewards points is to transfer them to airline and hotel partners, since that potentially offers the most outsized value, at least for those who are willing to put in the effort.

While you can always redeem your points toward the cost of a travel purchase through Amex’s Pay With Points feature, the catch is that the redemption value isn’t typically great. Generally speaking, you’ll get no more than 1.0 cents of value per Membership Rewards point, which is significantly less than I value the currency.

But this is also where the Amex Business Platinum Card comes into play. Cardmembers receive a 35% rebate on Pay With Points bookings for select airfare, which can get you up to 1.54 cents of value per point. This doesn’t just apply to the points earned on this specific card, but instead, applies to all Membership Rewards points linked to your account (so you could redeem all your Amex points this way, including those earned on other cards).

Now, there are some things to be aware of. Most significantly, this rebate only applies when booking first or business class travel, or economy travel on your designated airline (you can designate an airline in your Amex account — this is the same as the carrier you designate for your airline fee credit). Furthermore, the 35% benefit allows you to get up to one million points back per year.

Keep in mind that this perk can be combined with the Amex International Airline Program, which offers discounts on premium tickets on select airlines. That means you can get up to 1.54 cents of value on (often) discounted airfare.

Just to explain how this works in practice, ordinarily you can book airline tickets at the rate of 1.0 cents per point through American Express Travel®. So let’s say you were to book a $1,000 ticket:

• You’d pay 100,000 Membership Rewards points
• Then you’d retroactively be refunded 35,000 points
• That means in the end you paid 65,000 points for a $1,000 ticket, which gets you 1.54 cents of value per point

So while you do have to front the points, the actual cash out value toward eligible airfare is quite good, if you ask me.

Is it really worth redeeming Amex points this way?

The miles & points world has changed a lot over the years, plain and simple. Points are easier than ever before to earn, but are also more challenging to redeem for good value. Back in the day, I wouldn’t have considered the ability to redeem Amex points for 1.54 cents each toward a premium airfare purchase to be a particularly good deal.

However, as the industry has evolved, I’m increasingly finding that it can represent a good deal, and it’s one of the reasons I hold onto the Amex Business Platinum Card. We’ve seen mileage redemption rates for premium cabins often become much more expensive, all while upgrades have become more difficult. At the same time, premium airfare is actually largely quite reasonably priced if you just pay outright.

So to be honest, I am increasingly finding myself quite happy redeeming this way. For example, soon I need to fly from Miami to Boston, and the Delta first class fare is $350. Amex often has a slight discount for travel on select airlines, so I’m being quoted $344 through American Express Travel®. With that in mind:

• At the rate of 1.0 cents per Membership Rewards point, that ticket would require 34,379 points
• Then I’d receive a 35% bonus after the fact, meaning I’d get 12,033 points back
• That means in the end I’d be spending 22,346 points, which I’d consider to be a perfectly good deal, especially since this ticket is then eligible for points accrual

Of course it’s absolutely possible to get higher value redemptions, but I earn points pretty easily, so this is a redemption option that’s easy, and that I feel pretty good about. Similarly, we often see airlines have fare sales for long haul business class tickets, and in some cases, rates with Pay With Points can be comparable to what you’d pay for an outright award redemption.

Bottom line

The Amex Business Platinum Card is a popular card — it has a huge welcome offer, and the card is fairly easy to get approved for. On top of that, the card offers quite a few credits, plus valuable airport lounge access.

The single thing that most differentiates this card for me is the 35% Pay With Points bonus, which essentially allows you to get 1.54 cents of value per point toward premium airfare (or economy airfare on your designated airline).

I don’t want to suggest that 1.54 cents per point is the world’s most amazing redemption, but I do frequently redeem this way, and find that the math checks out.

Anyone else like the 35% Pay With Points rebate on the Amex Business Platinum Card?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: The Business Platinum® Card from American Express (Rates & Fees).