We’ve known that American Express was planning its largest overhaul ever of the Amex Platinum Card portfolio. In a separate post, I’ve covered the changes to the personal version of the card, and in this post, I’d like to take a look at the changes to the business version of the card, the Amex Business Platinum Card.
The card’s annual fee has increased, but several other valuable new perks have been introduced as well, and I think the card’s value proposition has actually improved with these changes. Maybe not as much as on the personal version of the card, but I’d say it’s still an improvement, on balance. Let’s take a look at all the details.
In this post:
Details of the Amex Business Platinum Card changes
The Amex Business Platinum Card is undergoing major changes. For new cardmembers, all these changes (including the higher annual fee and new perks) kick in effective immediately. Meanwhile for existing cardmembers, the new perks kick in effective immediately, while the higher annual fee only applies for the first renewal on December 2, 2025, or later.
I’ll cover the changes below, though let me note that most of the existing perks stick around, so a lot of the changes are just incremental improvements. So there are no changes to the lounge access perks, existing credits and benefits, rewards structure, etc.
Annual fee increases from $695 to $895
Let’s start with the bad news first. The Amex Business Platinum Card’s annual fee has increased by $200, from $695 to $895. This is a new high among card annual fees, but is hardly surprising, given the annual fee inflation we’ve seen over the years. Obviously that’s a significant increase, though on the plus side, some valuable new perks have been added as well.
Authorized user fee increases from $350 to $400
The annual fee increase for the primary cardmember isn’t the only bad news. The cost to add authorized users to the card has also increased, from $350 per person to $400 per person. So that’s rough, but then again, authorized users were never an amazing value on this card, if you ask me.
New $600 hotel credit added
With the refresh, the Amex Business Platinum Card now offers up to $600 in hotel credits annually. This is a semi-annual credit, so you receive up to a $300 credit in January through June, and up to a $300 credit in July through December.
This credit is valid for prepaid Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings through American Express Travel®. For The Hotel Collection, stays must be at least two nights, while a single night stay is valid with Fine Hotels & Resorts.
This is pretty awesome, since you could basically book a $300 hotel stay every six months, and maximize the credit that way. This now matches the perk on the personal version of the card, as previously the business version of the card didn’t offer this hotel credit.
Increased points earning for spending
With the refresh, the Amex Business Platinum Card now offers a slightly improved return on spending. The card now offers 2x points per dollar spent on key business purchases, on up to $2 million in spending per year, and 1x points thereafter. That’s a 33% boost, as previously the card offers 1.5x points on these purchases.
Eligible spending includes purchases of $5,000 or more, as well as purchases with U.S. cloud service and software providers, U.S. construction materials and hardware suppliers, U.S. electronics retailers, and U.S. shipping providers.
Bonus for those who spend $250K per year
With the refresh, the Amex Business Platinum Card has added an extra incentive for those who spend a significant amount on the card. Specifically, if you spend $250,000 per calendar year on the card, you can receive up to $3,600 in statement credits:
- Receive up to $1,200 in statement credits for American Express Travel flights
- Receive up to $2,400 in statement credits for American Express One AP monthly fees
New Leaders Club Sterling status from LHW added
The Amex Business Platinum Card already offers Hilton Gold and Marriott Gold status (enrollment required), and now we can add another hotel elite tier to the mix. With the refresh, the Amex Business Platinum Card now offers Leaders Club Sterling status from Leading Hotels of the World, with enrollment being required.
This status ordinarily requires $5,000 of spending at these hotels per year, and offers things like five pre-arrival upgrades per year.
New Adobe & Dell credits
This isn’t actually brand new, but is worth mentioning in the context of the Amex Business Platinum overhaul. In July 2025, we saw Amex make changes to the Adobe and Dell credits offered on this card. Specifically:
- With Adobe, enrolled cardmembers can get a $250 statement credit after they spend $600 or more on U.S. purchases made directly with Adobe each calendar year
- With Dell, enrolled cardmembers can get up to $150 in statement credits on U.S. purchases made directly with Dell each calendar year, plus an additional $1,000 in statement credits after spending $5,000 or more on Dell purchase each calendar year
My take on these Amex Business Platinum Card changes
Essentially, we’ve seen the Amex Business Platinum Card annual fee increase by $200, but for that, we’ve seen several new perks added. I think the single biggest new perk is up to $600 in annual hotel credits, which should for many people more than offset the annual fee increase. Previously, the card didn’t offer any such hotel credit.
I’d consider that to be the bulk of what has changed here, and for everything else, I think the changes are pretty niche. I do think most people putting in some effort can come out ahead here.
That being said, I think the changes on the personal version of the Amex Platinum Card are more compelling. That’s because the card gets $400 in Resy credits annually, which should be worth close to face value for many people.
As I’ve said, the major downside to all these changes is the continued issue of credit card fatigue, as I call it. For those of us looking to maximize value, there’s just so much to keep track of in terms of things to do monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, etc. The ability to get outsized value is definitely there. The question is just how exhausting it is to actually do all of that.
Bottom line
The Amex Business Platinum Card has just undergone significant changes. The card’s annual fee has been increased by $200, to $895 per year. That being said, we’ve seen several new perks added, the most significant of which is an annual hotel credit of up to $600.
I think there’s definitely the potential to get outsized value with these changes, and on balance, I’d consider them to be positive. That being said, I do think the personal version of the card will have wider appeal.
What do you make of this Amex Business Platinum Card revamp?
@Lucky, would you now consider this card to be the best to pay taxes with if the payment is over $5k to earn 2x points/$1? Thoughts?
I’ll be keeping my personal platinum, but downgrading my business platinum. If I didn’t hit the $75k spending on the personal and needed the extra delta sky club visits, MAYBE I would consider that enough extra value to keep the business card, but I’ve been able to get that the last few years via the personal, so I feel like you’re just leaving too many points ok the table by using the business card compared...
I’ll be keeping my personal platinum, but downgrading my business platinum. If I didn’t hit the $75k spending on the personal and needed the extra delta sky club visits, MAYBE I would consider that enough extra value to keep the business card, but I’ve been able to get that the last few years via the personal, so I feel like you’re just leaving too many points ok the table by using the business card compared to competitors. I was hoping for a boost in at least one spending category, or at minimum for them to add 5x points on flights booked directly with the airline, like the personal.
Every time I consider this card I remember that you cant bring your partner into the lounge with you and I lose all interest.
I'm not terribly impressed. The hotel credit is nice, as is the bump in points for business spending.
It's not enough to tell friends to switch from the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business, or the Cap1 Venture X Business. The spending multiplier is much better on those.
I am sorry Ben - but this is a very misleading article. You are leaving out the one major downgrade recently announced - the elimination of the 35% points rebate on business and first tickets on all major airlines.
That single change - as discussed amply in previous articles - vaporizes the value in this card for most of us.
The "enhancements" you escribe amount to a bunch more coupon cutting that in no way make up for this awful devaluation
Lmao what? Been a Platinum cardholder for over a decade and have never heard of this benefit. Are you redeeming points directly for flights?
Wow really? Used to be 50% back when it launched which was too good then they cut it to 35% which is decent. Now it will only apply to your selected airline instead of all premium tickets. I heard you can just change the airline you selected prior to booking and still get the rebate.
"most of us"?
I highly doubt anywhere near 50% of cardholders have redeemed buisness flights through the portal for rebate even a single time (as opposed to transferring points to partners or booking economy flights on the portal) let alone being the major draw of the card that is now "vaporized".
This has literally been the one reason I got the card. If you chose not to use this benefit then that's your problem.
As for UnitedEF's comment - you can only change your airline designation once a year
Regarding the FHR/Hotel collection credits, would the terms allow you to make two consecutive stays at the same hotel on two different business platinums (under the same name?)
If it works the way the personal plat does, you can get 2x Amex $300 credits, but they’ll only do one $100 property credit.
Yea, most places will combine the reservations if you call, but you'll just get $100 credit.
Only getting one property credit makes sense (from hotels perspective) but was more curious of the chances of Amex cancelling seperate reservations back to back.
Do people have multiple personal platinums where this could have been tested? I'm not talking about me booking one night and my spouse booking the next night...
Thats why better to stay at two different hotels if possible for single night stays rather than consecutive ones at same that will lose one of the $100 credits