The points world is buzzing about Amex’s latest perk on its platinum card- Hilton. Hilton Gold is great especially when traveling abroad. I received ocean bungalow upgrade in Seychelles, a stellar room at the Conrad Tokyo, and the over-the-top Japanese Penthouse at the Hilton Colombo Residence.
But is the $450 annual fee for the Amex Platinum worth it for this benefit, among others? As someone who has both the Amex Platinum Personal and Business, I will give you my finest legal answer: it depends. While the Amex Platinum personal card gives a $200 airline statement credit if you can maneuver the restrictions and provides SPG Gold status and access to the Centurion Lounges (see Vegas, Mexico City), I’m still wary of the high annual fee when cards like the Citi Prestige provide a $250 airline credit that can go directly towards airline tickets, access to the Admirals Club Lounge when flying American, and 3 free rounds of golf.
On the other hand, is it better to pay $95 for the Citi Reserve card for Hilton Gold and $95*2 for the SPG Personal and Business? The answer again is it depends. If you are striving for platinum with SPG and benefit from the 4 night stay credit towards the 25 required and if you can MS or shell out 10k on the Citi Reserve for a free weekend night then paying for those cards are worth it. Personally, I need SPG platinum in my life and this will be the second year I have earned a free Hilton night which may be used in Tahiti. For those reasons, I hold onto these three.
This year’s Keep vs. Cancel list is complete and I’ve already paid the annual fees for the two Amex platinum cards. So for now they’re all in my wallet. Next year when the annual fees become due, I may have to reconsider carrying all the cards when one Platinum may do the trick.
Then again, it depends.
For convenience, here is a list of all the Platinum Personal card benefits and here is a list of all the Platinum Business card benefits.
Many other and cheaper ways to obtain and keep Hilton Gold status.
Well when you look at $95 + $95 + $95 for Citi Reserve, SPG, SPG which used to be $65 it begs the question if doing it a la carte is the best way or if the extra amount for the platinum with its added benefits is better than those 3. I think I’d still do it separately because I like the 4 night credit for SPG.
I have one SPG Biz which gives me access to lounges at the Sheraton, meaning breakfast, milk, and happy hour for 4 people. Worth the $95 AF as I am SPG Gold which is worthless. The AMEX Platinum does not provide this access at Sheratons. I got the MB AMEX Platinum for $495 (50K MR points bonus) once and got back a total of $400 airlines statement credit ($200 in June & $200 in January) but canceled after the first year.
The basis for my strategy is not losing out on SPG Platinum. That’s why I lean towards cancelling Amex and keeping the SPG cards for the night credits. This is especially ture since I want to maintain Hyatt Diamond next year and don’t have all the time/money in the world to stay 25 nights at each. 150 Amex Biz, 100k Amex Personal, 75k Amex Gold
Hey, how about the income generated from the affiliated cc links like most bloggers? 😉 Plus you just got the Hyatt Diamond, so you should be good until Feb 2017.
Clock starts tickin in January!
I wish I had affiliate links but I’m not that special yet. But I’d rather have SPG sponsorship than push ccs. We shall see where this goes.
I thought lounge access on the SPG Biz was limited to 2 people?
they won’t deny access to angelic kids, would they? 😉
No milk for youths!