Authorized user benefits for the Platinum Card® from American Express

The Platinum Card® from American Express is probably one of the more famous and recognizable cards in the world, but the truth is that unless you’re using it to book airfares (it earns 5 points/dollar on up to $500,000 of flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel and 1 point/dollar thereafter – terms apply) or perhaps hotels through Amex Travel 5 points/dollar), it’s not a card that anyone should be using when they’re shopping.

It’s simply not rewarding enough.

Instead, this is a card that you hold for some of the great benefits that it offers, and what many people may not know is that authorized users get a lot of the same benefits that a primary cardholder gets.

The Platinum Card has changed significantly in recent times, with an increased annual fee, with several of the old credits being cut or swapped out, and with lounge access being tightened up in ways that, oddly enough, can make an authorized user card more valuable rather than less.

So, in this article we have updated the benefits offered to primary cardholders and we’ll show just how many of those benefits (new and old) can be used by any of the authorized users that a cardholder has chosen to add.

Considering that a primary account holder can hand Platinum Cards to authorized users for a total cost of $195/year (rates & fees), you may be surprised just how many benefits authorized users are given.

The Platinum Card® from American Express – the benefits

Note: Terms apply and enrollment may be required

Right now the Platinum Card® from American Express is offering this welcome bonus:

Earn as many as 175,000 bonus points when you put $12,000 of eligible spending on your card in the first 6 months of opening your new account.

More importantly, these are the standard earnings and benefits that the card currently offers in exchange for its $895 annual fee (rates & fees). Terms apply to all and enrollment may be required:

• 5 points/dollar on up to $500,000 of flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel and 1 point/dollar thereafter.
• 5 points/dollar on prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel.
• Complimentary access to Amex Centurion Lounges + 2 guests* (guest fees apply, see below)*
• Priority Pass Select Membership
• Access to the American Express Global Lounge collection
• Access to the American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts program
• Access to Delta Sky Clubs when traveling with Delta on the day of entry (now limited to 10 visits per card, per year)

• Access to the International Airline program (for discounts on premium cabins on select airlines – more info)
• Hilton Honors Gold status
• Marriott Bonvoy Gold status
• Leaders Club Sterling status with The Leading Hotels of the World
• Credit towards the cost of Global Entry or TSA Precheck
• Up to $200/year in Uber Cash ($15/month plus a $20 bonus in December, useable in the US only)
• Up to $120/year in Uber One membership credits
• Up to $200/year in airline fee credits
• Up to $600/year hotel credit ($300 per half-year) on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings (2-night minimum for The Hotel Collection)
• Up to $300/year Equinox credit for eligible memberships
• Up to $300/year digital entertainment credit (up to $25/month and only valid on spending with Disney+, ESPN, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and YouTube)
• Up to $400/year Resy credit (up to $100/quarter)
• Up to $300/year Lululemon credit (up to $75/quarter)
• Up to $200/year Oura Ring credit
• $219/year credit for CLEAR® Plus membership
• $12.95 monthly Walmart+ credit
• $300 SoulCycle At-Home Bike credit
• Elite status with Hertz, Avis, and National, enrollment required
• Trip interruption and cancellation insurance (Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details.)
• No foreign transaction fees

*Amex Platinum cardholders are charged $50 for each adult guest ($30 for children aged 2 to 17) they bring into into a Centurion Lounge unless they spend at least $75,000 per year on their card, in which case they receive complimentary access for two guests.

Platinum Card authorized user benefits (terms apply)

The list of benefits posted above is impressively long, so let’s now take a look at which of those benefits an authorized user with a supplementary Platinum Card also receives.

If you’re an authorized user on someone else’s Platinum Card, any airfare spending that you put on that card will earn (the primary cardholder) 5 points/dollar*, and when it comes time to fly, you’ll be able to access the American Express Centurion Lounges, the Priority Pass Lounges (with up to two complimentary guests), the Delta Sky Clubs (if you’re flying with Delta), and any lounges that are part of the American Express Global Lounge collection.

Your authorized user card gives you the same lounge access benefits as the primary card holder enjoys.

Note: When it comes to Priority Pass Select membership, authorized users can’t enroll in the membership online. They have to call the number on the back of the card to do it.

*Valid on up to $500,000 of flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel. 1 point/dollar thereafter.

When you arrive at your destination, you can make the most of complimentary car rental elite status (Hertz President’s Circle, Avis Preferred Plus, and National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive) and you’ll be able to enjoy Marriott Bonvoy Gold elite status and Hilton Honors Gold status (the most useful mid-tier hotel status) when staying with either of those chains, as well as Leaders Club Sterling status with The Leading Hotels of the World.

You can book your hotel stays through the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts program, your trip will be covered by the excellent trip delay protection^ as well as the trip interruption and cancellation insurance^ that the card offers (as long as the flights were booked using your Platinum Card) and you can even use your very own credit to get free membership of the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck programs to help reduce the time you spend in lines at airports.

^Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

Lounge access rules have changed the maths on authorised users

The changes we’ve seen Amex and Delta make to their lounge access rules over recent years has changed the maths on an authorized user card for the better.

Now that a guest joining the primary card holder in a Centurion Lounge costs the primary card holder $50 a visit, it would take just four such Centurion lounge visits a year before guesting someone into the lounge becomes more expensive than giving them an authorized user card.

For someone with a Centurion lounge at their home airport (or at an airport they visit relatively frequently) and who travels with whomever they’re giving the supplementary card to, that’s probably not going to be a high bar to clear.

This works with Delta Sky Clubs too, and it’s worth noting that as Sky Club access is now capped at 10 visits per card per year, an authorized user gets their own 10 visits rather than eating into the primary cardholder’s allocation.

What isn’t offered to authorized users?

Authorized users of the Platinum Card do not get their own versions of the following benefits:

• The Uber credits,
• The hotel credit,
• The digital entertainment credit,
• The Equinox credit,
• The CLEAR credit,
• The Walmart+ credit,
• The Resy credit,
• The Lululemon credit,
• The Oura Ring credit,
• and the airline fee credit.

It’s worth noting, however, that with the exception of the Uber credits, all the credits listed above can be shared by an authorized user (i.e. the credits being offered can be used by the primary cardholder or an authorized user, but the total credit available will not exceed what is shown above).

The outlier

The SoulCycle At-Home Bike credit is a bit of an outlier because although the credit offered to an authorized user is probably not a separate benefit from the credit given to the primary cardholder (the terms and conditions are ambiguous, as I’ll show in a moment), it may as well be a separate benefit as far as a majority of people are concerned.

Allow me to explain.

The terms and conditions of the SoulCycle At-Home Bike credit say the following:

“Basic Card Members and Additional Card Members on U.S. Consumer Platinum Card Accounts are eligible to receive a $300 statement credit when using their Card to make a single purchase of a SoulCycle At-Home Bike online at www.equinoxplus.com/bike”

That’s a little ambiguous because that sentence could be interpreted to mean that both the primary cardholder and an authorized user both get their own $300 credit, or it could be interpreted to mean that they get one $300 credit between them.

I think that it means that the credit is shared, but fortunately, it doesn’t matter which interpretation is correct because the terms and conditions go on to say the following:

“Platinum Card Members can receive the $300 statement credit on up to 15 individual SoulCycle At-Home Bike purchases per calendar year.”

With an account eligible for 15 SoulCycle At-Home Bike credits every year, even if the credit is shared, a Primary cardholder and up to 14 authorized users could each purchase a SoulCycle At-Home Bike every year and each get a $300 credit towards their costs.

I think we can all probably agree that that’s more than enough!

Note: A 12-month Equinox+ membership ($40/month + tax) is required to purchase a SoulCycle At-Home bike so this benefit isn’t a way to buy a lot of At-Home bikes at a significant discount.

Bottom line

The Platinum Card® from American Express may not be as obviously focused on travel benefits as it has been in the past, but it’s the card’s travel benefits that are the reason why a lot of us continue to carry the card, and why an authorized user card can be very useful in the right hands.

If anything, the case for adding an authorized user is stronger now than it once was. Amex and Delta have spent the last few years putting a price on things that used to be free (guests in Centurion Lounges, guests in Sky Clubs), and an authorized user can be the way around most of that. Four lounge visits and the fee is covered, and that’s before any of the other benefits are considered.

It costs $195/year to add a Platinum Card authorized user to a primary cardholder’s Amex Platinum Card account (rates & fees), and while this shouldn’t be done without due care and consideration (the primary cardholder will be responsible for all charges the authorized users put on their cards), for a family that likes to travel or a family that likes to travel but that may not always travel together, having at least one authorized user could make a lot of sense.

For rates and fees the Platinum Card® from American Express, please visit this page