The Amex Platinum card is a staple of savvy travel. Despite its $550 annual fee, it manages to bring at least 18 benefits which save travelers hundreds, if not many thousands annually in their travel adventures. Plus, it looks cool, and weighs a ton, not that anyone ever actually swipes it anymore, thanks to GooglePay and Apple Pay.
The card made moves to appeal more to life at home this year, but it’s also stayed true to its core of travel, offering new airfare discounts for domestic flights, not just for high flyers in business class, but in economy too. Are the savings legit? It appears so.
Yes, there really may be an easy trick to save on flights, after all the eye rolling articles you’ve read on the subject, and it might just be which credit card you use!
Amex Travel Benefits 2020
A few months ago we wrote about how Amex had incredible, limited time offers for Platinum Card members. Among them, a series of discounts for travel, including many hotels, Fine Hotels & Resorts bookings, and most intriguing – new airfare discounts.
These Amex airfare discounts have been expanded more broadly, and with holiday and spring travel approaching, they’re appearing to be quite useful, with savings of anywhere from $20 to $200 per ticket.
Amex Platinum Flight Discounts
The concept is quite simple. Log on to AmexTravel.com and into your Platinum Card account, and search for a domestic flight within the USA. While you do, perhaps pull up a Google Flights window to run a parallel search and compare prices.
If all goes to plan, the price you see for flights through Amex Travel should be lower than any other option, including directly with the airline.
Amex Travel discounts for the Platinum Card are for flights booked by December 31st, 2020, for travel up to March 31st, 2021. You can head to the discount page to browse. Crucially, the discounts work in economy, as well as business and first class.
The idea is that Amex has negotiated discounts of up to 20% or better for Platinum Card members, and if you see a flight noted “Recommended Flight”, it should offer the ripest of discounts. Obviously check against Google Flights, or with the airline directly to make sure there’s ‘actually’ a discount.
But if there is a savings, it’s a brilliantly compelling reason to book with Amex Travel, putting money back in your pocket on each and every flight. Amex Travel has also been notably fantastic with airline refunds and other changes during the pandemic.
GSTP searches suggest that the most mainline routes are offering the greatest savings, particularly out of airline hub cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston, but it’s absolutely worth a search wherever you are. The Amex discounts apply on American Airlines, as well as Delta.
Limited Time Benefits For The Win
While there’s much to be curmudgeon about during the pandemic, airlines, hotels and card issuers such as Amex have become much more nimble with rewarding customers on terms that are simple, easy and exciting.
Saving anything on a plane ticket is always nice, and when you can make your annual fee back purely in flight savings, not to mention the Centurion Airport Lounges to make the airport experience better, there’s a lot of goodwill being created.
With less travel on most calendars, Amex had to work to keep Platinum Card members happy this year but these discounts are a great way to win favor not just this year, but into 2021 when these discounts are set to expire.
Who knows, maybe they’ll stick around a bit longer, like the standard International Air Program (IAP) discounts on international business class.
Needlessly verbose prose to say so little.
Thanks for reading LOL.
Travel over the holidays is a risk not worth taking. And for anyone at high risk for covid who haven’t been or refuse to be vaccinated – and that’s a LOT of people who have this card – this perk is worthless. Travel before the end of March? I think not.
This is all entirely personal. Everyone has to weigh their risk factors, and ideally to take every precaution prior to travel. Many have managed to safely travel throughout the pandemic, and there will undoubtedly benefit.