I pay $550 a year for my AmEx Platinum, and my favorite perk makes the high fee worth it
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- The Platinum Card® from American Express charges a $550 annual fee, but comes with a laundry list of valuable benefits.
- Lounge access may be one of the most valuable, since the AmEx Platinum gives cardholders access to three lounge networks: Priority Pass, Delta SkyClub, and American Express Centurion.
- While the Centurion lounges are the nicest, they're the least common. Priority Pass lounges seem to be everywhere, though, and Delta lounges can come in handy.
The Platinum Card from American Express is one of my favorite credit cards, even with its $550 annual fee. With an annual fee that high, though, the benefits better be worth it.
In my opinion, they are, and that's why I keep this card around.
The No. 1 reason why I love my Platinum Card is the number of lounges I can get into. The AmEx Platinum participates in three different lounge programs: Priority Pass, Delta SkyClub, and American Express Centurion.
By far, the AmEx Centurion lounges are the nicest, but they're located in the least number of airports. Within the US, you can find a Centurion Lounge at Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Houston (IAH), Las Vegas (LAS), Miami (MIA), New York La Guardia (LGA), Philadelphia (PHL), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle-Tacoma (SEA).
New lounges are in the pipeline as well. The next Centurion Lounge in the US will be at my home airport, Denver (DEN)! There are also eight Centurion Lounge locations at international airports. You can bring up to two guests with you to the Centurion Lounge with your AmEx Platinum card.
Even though Priority Pass lounges aren't as nice as Centurion, I use them the most. That's because there are over 1,200 lounges worldwide that participate in the Priority Pass program. It's pretty unusual for me to be at an airport that doesn't have a Priority Pass lounge I can access.
Priority Pass has also been expanding its program to have member restaurants. If you visit a Priority Pass restaurant, you'll get a food and beverage credit (usually $28 per person) and can just order off the menu! You can bring up to two free guests with your Priority Pass membership.
I don't live in a Delta hub and I don't fly Delta that often, but it's nice to have additional lounge access for the rare occasion it comes in handy for me. In order to access the Delta SkyClub with your Platinum Card, you must be flying on Delta or a SkyTeam partner (like Air France or AeroMexico) that day and you can't bring in any guests. For those two reasons, I find it to be the least useful of the three lounge access programs, but still nice to have.
Between the Priority Pass, Delta SkyClub, and American Express Centurion memberships, my AmEx Platinum can get me into a lounge in almost any airport I visit.