7 reasons you might want the Amex Business Platinum instead of the Amex Platinum Card

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The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, with a $595 annual fee (see rates and fees), is not only one of the best small-business credit cards, it also happens to be one of the best all-round credit cards for travel rewards.

Despite a plethora of valuable benefits and some excellent opportunities to earn bonus points, though, it still tends to be overshadowed by its personal counterpart, the $550-a-year (see rates and fees) The Platinum Card® from American Express. However, with the recent launch of a new welcome offer just for TPG readers, you might be taking another look at the Amex Business Platinum. Here are seven reasons why you might want to get the Amex Business Platinum instead of the Amex Platinum, and how to make your decision.

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First, let’s take a quick look at the current Amex Business Platinum card offer.

Related: Credit card showdown: Amex Platinum vs. Amex Business Platinum

Amex Business Platinum card details

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(Photo by Isabelle Raphael/The Points Guy)

Here’s a snapshot of the Amex Business Platinum’s current terms, earning rates and annual fee.

Current welcome offer

Through a TPG-exclusive offer, readers can earn up to 125,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $15,000 on eligible purchases within the first three months of card membership. That’s 40,000 more points than the previous public offer — a positive points windfall!

Related: Big benefits with a high price: Review of the Business Platinum Card from American Express with 125K welcome bonus

Earning

The Amex Business Platinum earns points at the following rates:

• Earn 5x points per dollar spent on flights booked through Amex Travel.
• Earn 5x points per dollar on prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel.
• Earn 1.5x points per dollar on eligible purchases of $5,000 or more, up to 1 million additional points per calendar year.
• Earn 1x points per dollar on everything else.

Unique benefits

Aside from the perks it has in common with the personal Amex Platinum Card, the Amex Business Platinum offers the following:

• A 35% rebate when you pay with points for a first- or business-class ticket on any airline or an economy ticket on one airline of your choice (up to 500,000 points per calendar year).
• Up to $200 in annual statement credits for U.S. Dell technology purchases – up to a $100 credit for January through June, and another $100 credit for July through December.

Annual fee

$595 (see rates and fees)

Related: Is the Amex Business Platinum worth the annual fee?

Amex Platinum card details

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(Photo by The Points Guy)

For its part, the Amex Platinum is currently fielding the following introductory terms.

Related: 10x bonus point categories and 75K welcome offer: The Platinum Card from American Express review

Current welcome offer

Earn up to 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first six months of account opening. Plus, earn 10x points on U.S. supermarkets and U.S. gas stations for new cardholders on up to $15,000 within the first six months. However, you could score a welcome offer as high as 125,000 bonus points if you apply using the CardMatch tool (offer subject to change at any time).

Earning

This card earns points at the following rates:

• Earn 5x points per dollar on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com (on up to $500,000 per calendar year).
• Earn 5x points per dollar on prepaid hotels booked on Amex Travel.
• Earn 1x points per dollar on everything else.

Unique benefits

The personal Amex Platinum Card extends these two specific perks that the business version does not:

• Up to $200 in U.S. Uber credits (for rides or Uber Eats orders) each calendar year – up to $15 per month, plus an extra $20 in December.
• Up to $100 in statement credits at Saks Fifth Avenue per calendar year – $50 to use from January through June, and $50 to use from July through December.

Annual fee

$550 (see rates and fees)

Related: 10x bonus point categories and 75K welcome offer: The Platinum Card from American Express review

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The American Express Centurion Lounge in Denver. (Photo by Zach Griff/The Points Guy)

Perks offered by both cards

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For context, here’s the full slate of benefits that both cards offer their members in common.

*Eligibility for this offer is limited. Enrollment is required in the Amex Offers section of your account before redeeming.

Related: Lesser-known benefits of the Amex Business Platinum card

Amex Platinum vs. Amex Business Platinum Comparison

This table provides a snapshot of the key differences between the two cards.

Related: Credit card showdown: Amex Platinum vs. Amex Business Platinum

7 reasons to choose the Amex Business Platinum over the Amex Platinum Card

Now that their similarities are out of the way, let’s focus on their differences and how those might sway you to choose the Amex Business Platinum card instead of the Amex Platinum Card.

1. You have or already had the personal Amex Platinum Card

Like many other issuers, American Express has increasingly restricted who is eligible for the welcome bonuses on its cards. The offer terms for the Amex Platinum Card, for instance, say the following:

“Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had this Card. We may also consider the number of American Express Cards you have opened and closed as well as other factors in making a decision on your welcome offer eligibility.”

So if you already have the Platinum Card, or even if you once carried it in the past but have since closed it, you might be precluded from taking advantage of its current welcome offer. If you want to regain some of its benefits, as well as the chance of scoring tens of thousands more Membership Rewards points, you might have to opt for the Amex Business Platinum instead.

2. You can spend enough to earn the Amex Business Platinum’s higher TPG-exclusive introductory welcome offer

That might be just fine, though, considering your shot at earning more bonus points is probably better with the Amex Business Platinum.

The Amex Business Platinum’s introductory terms are fairly straightforward: Earn 125,000 bonus points after spending $15,000 within the first three months. That’s a considerable amount, but not outside the budget of many small businesses.

By contrast, the Amex Platinum Card currently offers a two-tiered bonus: 75,000 points after spending $5,000 within the first six months, and 10x points per dollar on up to $15,000 in purchases at U.S. supermarkets and U.S. gas stations within the first six months.

On the surface, the personal card’s terms might seem better. Not only do you have twice the time to spend just a third the amount of money to earn 75,000 bonus points, but if you leveraged the full spending potential of those bonus categories, you could snag an extra 150,000 bonus points.

How likely is it that you’ll lay out $15,000 on groceries and gas in six months, though? You’d have to spend $5,000 just in those categories in order to get up to the 125,000 points you could earn outright with the Amex Business Platinum. So you’re really looking at around $10,000 in minimum spending. Think about how probable that is, and whether you would be better off just hitting a general spending requirement with the Amex Business Platinum.

The extra 50,000 points the Amex Business Platinum is offering are worth around $1,000 more based on TPG’s most recent valuation of Membership Rewards points. So that’s something to keep in mind, too.

3. You spend a lot on flights and hotels

The two cards have very similar earning structures — but with two subtle, but significant, differences.

First, the personal Amex Platinum Card earns 5x on flights booked not just through Amex Travel, but also directly with airlines, while the Amex Business Platinum only earns 5x on flights booked through Amex Travel. The personal card’s bonus earning on flights is capped at $500,000 in spending per calendar year, while the business version has no such ceiling. Both accrue 5x on Amex Travel prepaid hotel bookings.

If you tend to just book flights directly with airlines, the personal card is a better choice. However, if you actually use Amex Travel for a lot of your travel plans – or if you can – then you at least won’t be missing out by charging your reservations to the Amex Business Platinum.

Plus, if you book a lot of travel – like more than $500,000 worth per year – with your card, then you’re definitely better off with the business card, since its bonus-qualifying spending isn’t capped at that amount.

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You can book Singapore Airlines A380 new First Class Suites with Chase Ultimate Rewards. (Photo by Brian Kelly/The Points Guy)

4. You can maximize the Amex Business Platinum’s large-transaction bonus

Likewise, if your business requires you to make large purchases of $5,000 or more on a regular basis, the 1.5x earning you get with the Amex Business Platinum is far and away much better than simple accruing 1x with the personal Amex Platinum Card. Just keep in mind that it’s capped at 1 million bonus points per year. But to hit that, you’d need to spend $2 million, so that limitation might not be an issue for most.

TPG contributor Jason Steele leveraged this perk to earn 1.5x points on the purchase of a new car.

5. You use Pay with Points for premium travel

One of the major ways the two cards diverge is that the Amex Business Platinum offers cardmembers a refund of 35% of the points they redeem through its Pay with Points feature, while the personal version does not. There are a few stipulations, though.

First, you only receive the 35% points refund on business- or first-class tickets with any airline, or on tickets in any class with the same airline you preselect for your annual $200 airline fee rebate. That might hamstring your options if you don’t actually plan to spend points on a ticket with the same carrier.

Something else to consider: You can only receive up to 500,000 points back per calendar year. That’s a pretty high bar, but if you do regularly redeem more than around 1.4 million Membership Rewards points per year this way, just be aware that you might overshoot the 35% mark.

Even if you seldom redeem Membership Rewards this way, this one benefit can save you tens of thousands of points on a single ticket. That makes carrying the Amex Business Platinum instead of the personal card well worth it, since the latter won’t save you any Membership Rewards you cash in via Pay with Points.

Related: Amex Business Platinum for flights: When to transfer vs. when to pay with points

Another way to think of this is that instead of getting 1 cent per Membership Rewards point in value redeemed for flights via Pay with Points, carrying the Amex Business Platinum and redeeming this way bumps their value up to 1.54 cents apiece — a 54% premium.

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(Photo courtesy of Dell)

6. You prefer technology to fashion

Both the personal Amex Platinum and Amex Business Platinum offer annual statement credits. The personal one comes with up to $100 on Saks Fifth Avenue purchases, which is split into $50 for the first half of the year and $50 for the second half.

The Amex Business Platinum confers up to $200 back in statement credits on U.S. Dell purchases, similarly split into $100 for the front half of the year, and another $100 for the back half. If you actually spend money with Dell, the Amex Business Platinum represents twice the value back.

Related: 10 items you can get with the Amex Business Platinum’s $100 Dell statement credit

But there’s one other factor to consider.

7. You don’t use Uber that often

The personal Amex Platinum card includes up to $15 in Uber Cash each month for rides and Uber Eats orders in the U.S., plus an extra $20 in December, for a total yearly benefit of up to $200. That’s pretty substantial. But remember that these credits don’t roll over from month. So if you don’t actually use Uber on a regular basis, you might not be taking full advantage of it.

Another factor to consider: You might have another card that offers significant benefits to using different ride-share and food delivery services. For example, perhaps you already carry the American Express® Gold Card, which offers up to $10 per month in Uber Cash for U.S. rides and Uber Eats orders, plus earns 4x points per dollar on these purchases, which might make it more worthwhile than the personal Amex Platinum.

Related: 8 reasons to keep your Amex Business Platinum card

Whatever your situation, think about whether the Uber benefit would be worth carrying the personal version over the business version, or if this is one benefit you can leave on the table, so to speak.

Bottom line

Both the Amex Platinum and the Amex Business Platinum are excellent rewards cards with a variety of benefits from which members can reap tremendous value. Which card is right for you will come down to the one whose introductory and everyday bonus opportunities best match your financial habits and needs, and which one’s other perks you’re most likely to leverage year after year.

That said, you might want to consider carrying both the personal and business Amex Platinum cards since there are plenty of ways the two cards don’t overlap that can add up to a lot of extra statement credits and points per year.

For rates and fees of the Amex Business Platinum card, click here.

Featured photo by The Points Guy.