Sad: Amex Business Platinum Devaluing 35% Pay With Points Rebate

Well here’s a change that I’m not happy to see (thanks to Jay for flagging this)…

Amex Pay With Points 35% rebate will be more restrictive

As of September 18, 2025, the Amex Business Platinum is changing its 35% Pay With Points rebate, for the worse. Currently, the Pay With Points rebate can apply to first and business class tickets booked on any airline, or to a ticket booked in any class of service on a designated US airline (the same airline that a cardmember selects for their airline fee credit).

With this change, the Pay With Points rebate will no longer apply to first and business class tickets on any airline, but instead, will only apply to your designated US airline.

For those who have no clue what I’m talking about, let me provide a bit more detail. Amex’s Pay With Points feature lets you book flights using Membership Rewards points, typically at the rate of 1.0 cents of value per point. That’s not a great deal, at least based on my valuation of points.

But this is where the Amex Business Platinum has historically been useful. Cardmembers have received a 35% rebate on Pay With Points bookings for select airfare, which has offered 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).

The major limitation was that you could only receive that rebate for first or business class airfare, or for your designated airline. Now that’s being changed, so that it only applies to the designated airline. I frequently used Amex points for first and business class tickets on international carriers, so I’m sad to see this change.

On the plus side, at least this feature is sticking around on the designated airline. So if you fly one US carrier frequently, you can still get good value with Amex points this way.

The timing of this change is likely no coincidence

It’s interesting to see the timing of this announcement. Yesterday, we learned about plans for a Chase Sapphire Reserve refresh, and the introduction of the new Chase Sapphire Reserve Business Card.

One of the major changes we’re seeing over there is that Ultimate Rewards points earned with the Chase Sapphire Reserve will no longer consistently be redeemable for 1.5 cents toward a Chase Travel purchase. That will be lowered to 1.0 cents, and then we’ll see the introduction of the Points Boost feature, whereby there will be select opportunities to redeem at a better rate.

I can’t imagine it’s a coincidence that Amex’s announcement comes just one day after Chase’s announcement. At least that makes sense, competitively. If this is truly a coincidence, then that’s quite something.

Bottom line

As of September 18, 2025, the Amex Pay With Points 35% rebate with the Amex Business Platinum will be changed. The rebate will no longer apply to first and business class tickets on all airlines, and will instead just apply for tickets on one designated US airline. I’m sad to see this change, as it’s a benefit I frequently used.

What do you make of this Amex Business Platinum 35% Pay With Points rebate being adjusted?