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The American Express Platinum card offers a bevvy of benefits and the Mercedes Benz American Express Platinum card offers all of them plus more. Here’s a look at the official offer from American Express.
Yes you can get it if you’ve had the Amex Plat before
So per the terms above, you can get this card even if you’ve had a different American Express Platinum card, but excluded if you’ve ever had this specific product.
Product, you say?
If you aren’t familiar with the varying products definition: Credit card companies issue different types of cards even if they may carry similar looks and names. For instance, The American Express Platinum card, The American Express Platinum card for Mercedes Benz, Ameriprise American Express Platinum card, The American Express Business Platinum card, etc. All of these are technically different products, and therefore don’t count against your “Once in a lifetime” new member sign up bonus when applying for them individually. Of course, YMMV, but most people have not had problems receiving the bonus when applying for different products.
Why get this card?
If you own or lease a Mercedes there are some nice perks listed above:
- 5x purchases on Mercedes
- If you’re thinking of buying one. Ask to use this credit card. If they say no, tell the dealer you’ll pay the processing fee. On a $30,000 car you’ll pay several hundred bucks in processing fees but earn another 150,000 points. Totally worth it IMO. At just $0.02 you’re earning $3,000 back. Way more when redeemed for international air travel.
- $1000 certificate when you spend $5000
- 2000 overage miles waived on a lease
- $100 credit towards accessories
Honestly, none of those apply to me, and probably don’t apply for most people. However, here’s a list of things I think would would benefit you:
- 75,000 bonus points = valued at just $0.02 per point that’s worth a $1500
- $200 annual airline fee reimbursement – in your first cardmember year, you’ll qualify twice for this – that’s $400
- The airline reimbursement is per calendar year vs the cardmember year of which the annual fee is based.
- Global Entry fee reimbursement – worth $100
- Priority Pass Select membership – worth ~ $400
- lounge access around the globe
- Delta Sky Club lounge access – when flying on Delta
- Centurion Lounge access – network expanding and very worthwhile
- Access to Fine Hotels and Resorts
- Amazing benefits such as free breakfast, resort credits, room upgrades, early check in, late check out, etc
- Over 20 transfer partners: like Singapore Air, Air Canada, Air France, British Airways
- SPG gold status
- Hilton Honors gold status
- Boingo free wi-fi at more than 1,000,000 hotspots around the globe
- The Hotel selection
- slightly different that Fine Hotels and Resorts, but provides great benefits, credits, and upgrades
- Return protection on goods a store won’t take back, you get reimbursement up to $1000/year $300/item
Seriously the list goes on and on – if you’re interested, check out the full list here
The biggest, by far, are the transfer partners.
Airlines
- AeroMexico Club Premier
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France Flying Blue
- Alitalia MilleMiglia
- ANA
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- British Airways Avios
- Delta SkyMiles
- El Al
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Guest
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Iberia Plus
- Jetblue
- Singapore Airlines Krisflyer
- Virgin America Elevate
- Virign Atlantic flying club
Hotels
- Choice Privileges
- Hilton Honors
- SPG Starpoints
The transfer partners are so crucial in making these points unbelievably valuable. Above, I had them valued at roughly $0.02. I tend to get value more in the 5-10 cent range. These values come from long haul international business/first class travel. In fact, Amex points are how I flew last year from San Francisco to London on Virgin Atlantic by transferring to Delta, and how I got back from Japan on American Airlines First Class by shoring up my British Airways account when Amex had a 40% transfer bonus.
I’m really wanting to plan a trip to Russia soon and experience Singapore ‘s 777-300ER First Class. I also want to fly the direct flight from SFO to SIN on Singapore’s brand new A350 in business class. I’d like to try out their A380 Suites from Singapore to Beijing at some point too. Are you seeing the pattern…Singapore, Singapore, SINGAPOOOOOORE. You guessed it…they are a transfer partner and you can experience one of these products with a transfer.
Here’s what they look like: images courtesy of singaporeair.com
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card went through a major refresh in 2026 adding new bonus categories, travel protections, statement credits, and remains one of the best travel starter cards in the market. It earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott. Note that Hyatt is now a 4:3 transfer partner
Welcome Offer
Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Earn
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x points on gas and EV charging
- 3x points on vacation homes at top brands
- Cardmembers will earn 3x points on vacation homes at these top brands: Airbnb, Vrbo, Plu Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com and Vacasa.
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 2x on all other travel
- 1x on everyday purchases
Benefits and Credits
- Earn up to $100 in statement credits each account anniversary year for hotel stays through Chase Travel℠
- Count on Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance, Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, Emergency Evacuation and Transportation and more
- Get a year of complimentary Apple TV when activated by December 31, 2026 – a value of $156.
- Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for 12 months when you activate by12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders.
- Receive one statement credit of up to $120 every four years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to your card for a Global Entry, TSA Precheck® or NEXUS application.
- Transfer points to leading airline and hotel loyalty programs
- Member FDIC
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is great starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Chase Ink Business Cash® , Chase Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into the Sapphire Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee remains quite low at $95 a year and it has great bonus categories and useful statement credits that not only enhance your travel, but help offset the annual fee.
One thing that is a bummer is Chase lowered the transfer ratio to World of Hyatt from 1:1 to 4:3.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.