The Business Platinum Card® from American Express review: A bigger return on investment than ever

The Amex Business Platinum card offers a solid rewards rate and a terrific mix of travel and business perks, making it easy to offset the annual fee and squeeze a ton of value out of the card..

Perks: A ton of valuable credits 

One of this card’s biggest selling points is its generous roster of practical, easy-to-use perks. While the exact value you’ll get get from these perks will depend on where you spend, you could enjoy thousands in credits and reimbursements, including:

• An average of $600 in perks with a Fine Hotels and Resorts program property when you book through American Express Travel.
• Up to $400 in statement credits per year on Dell purchases (up to $200 semi-annually)
• Up to $360 statement credit on Indeed hiring and recruiting products and services (up to $90 back per quarter)
• Up to $300 in onboard credits on participating cruise lines with select room bookings through the Cruise Privileges Program (per new cruise booking)
• Up to $100 in statement credits for eligible stays at The Hotel Collection properties
• Up to $200 per year in statement credits for qualifying airline fees, such as baggage fees, with a selected airline
• Up to a $199 statement credit when you use your card to cover the cost of a CLEAR® airport security membership
• Up to $150 in statement credits per year on select Adobe business plan purchases, including the Adobe Creative Cloud and Acrobat Pro DC
• Up to $120 in statement credits per year for telephone service purchases made directly with  a U.S. wireless provider (up to $10 back per month)
• Up to a $100 statement credit every four years to cover a  Global Entry application or up to an $85 statement credit every four and a half years to cover TSA PreCheck application fees

These perks could offer enough value to offset the card’s annual fee on their own, but you’ll also unlock some ofs the best airport lounge access privileges on the market, including access to  Amex Centurion lounges,  Priority Pass Select lounges, Delta Sky Club lounges, Airspace Lounge locations, Escape Lounges, Plaza Premium lounges, Lufthansa Lounges and more. In all, you’ll be able to rest in over 1,400 airport lounges across 140 countries and more than 500 airports. 

If you often stay at Marriott or Hilton properties, you’ll also have a leg up on their loyalty programs since the Business Platinum offers complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status and Hilton Honors Gold Status. Enrollment Required.

The Amex  Business Platinum is also one of the best cards for travel insurance if you’re a frequent flyer for business, thanks to the layers of security it can protect your travel plans with. You’ll get standouts like $20,000 per card in trip cancellation and interruption insurance every 12 months, trip delay insurance for up to $500 per trip (up to two claims each 12 months), return protection and up to $3,000 of baggage delay insurance. 

Rewards: An ideal fit for frequent travelers and low-maintenance cardholders

Frequent travelers might get the most out of the Amex Business Platinum due to its travel-oriented rewards and perks. However, cardholders who make frequent business purchases can also come out ahead thanks to the card’s boosted rewards rate on select business expenses and on purchases of $5,000 or more.

Unlike other general travel cards, the Business Platinum requires you to purchase flights and prepaid hotels through the American Express Travel portal to earn 5 points per dollar spent. Though this makes the card less flexible than some competing business travel cards, 5X points is an excellent rate no matter how you slice it.

If your business has significant expenses or you don’t travel as often, you still have an excellent opportunity to earn major rewards. Purchases in eligible categories and purchases of $5,000 will earn 1.5X points (on up to $2,000,000 in combined purchases per year): 

• Electronic goods and associated retailers 
• Software Cloud service providers 
• Construction materials and hardware supplies 
• Shipping providers 

You’ll also enjoy decent flexibility when it comes time to redeem rewards. You can use points for booking travel — including flights, hotels, cruises, and more — through American Express or transfer points to one of Amex’s many travel partners. Transferring may even allow you to increase the value of your points.

Using points for travel bookings through the Amex portal will get you at least 1 cent per point in value, but based on Bankrate’s credit card point valuations, you could get around 2.1 cents per point in value with the right transfer partner. 

Plus, you can take advantage of the card’s 35 percent Airline Bonus feature, which gives you 35 percent of your points back when you use points to cover eligible flights with a qualifying airline of your choice and book through American Express Travel. 

While the Amex Business Platinum could make a lot of sense for travel-minded small-business owners, it’s still an expensive card to carry.

Unless you can take advantage of the card’s perks, you may be better off with a lower-cost rewards card. You’ll also need to pay off your in full each month unless they use the Pay Over Time feature, which could be a dealbreaker if you sometimes need to carry a balance or want an intro APR to free up cash flow.

Welcome offer: Great value but high spending requirement

The Amex Business Platinum gives new cardholders a chance to earn 150,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $20,000 on eligible purchases within the first three months of card membership.

While this is an impressive offer, the spending requirement may be tough to meet for smaller businesses. This offer, while generous enough to increase the amount of points you can earn, also increases the spending requirement from previous offers. For instance, the most recent offer asked cardholders to spend $15,000 to earn 120,000 Membership Rewards points. You'll want to be wary of opening this card if your business is unlikely to spend $20,000 in three months.

Plus, since you must pay off your balance every month (unless you opt into Pay Over Time), you may not have the flexibility you need to finance a large purchase and earn this bonus.

Redemption: Best value via travel

Amex offers various redemption options, but you should probably focus on redeeming your rewards for booking travel — including flights, hotels, cruises, and more — through American Express or its travel transfer partners. Although there’s a broad scope of redemption options, many offer subpar redemption values, with some offering as little as 0.5 cents per point in value

According to Amex’s rewards calculator, the only ways to get at least a 1-cent-per-point redemption value is to use your rewards for flights, stays at the Fine Hotels and Resorts properties and flight upgrades (when available). 

The $695 annual fee can seem intimidating at first glance. Depending on how you plan to use the card, you can recoup the annual fee with the card’s valuable features with relative ease. The $830 of credits added for office-centric expenses like computer hardware, software and employee cell phones can recoup the cost if you won’t be using the travel features as much. Still, frequent business travelers will gain much more value out of the features. For instance, the free airport lounge access and the possible guest passes alone outweigh the annual fee based on how much yearly membership for a few of the lounge programs costs.

Once you break it down, you’ll receive up to $1,030 yearly in purely non-travel-related credits, which jumps to $2,534 in credits once you account for one stay each through the Fine Hotels and Resorts program, The Hotel Collection and the Cruise Privileges Program. Factoring in the airport lounge value makes your yearly benefit value skyrocket to $3,508.

Making up for the annual fee solely through rewards is more challenging, but doable if you or your employees travel often. Based on the 1.35-cent point value, you’d have to spend about $859 per month on qualifying American Express Travel purchases to break even on the annual fee or a much steeper $2,861 per month in your 1.5X category purchases otherwise.

Luckily, most — if not all — of the Business Platinum card’s benefits outside the welcome offer are ongoing, so you won’t have to worry about diminishing returns after your first year.

*Based on our formula used to calculate each card’s average rewards rates and average ongoing rewards value, using Bureau of Labor Statistics spending data and an assumed $48,000 yearly spend over three years ($4,000 per month).

Here’s how Bankrate credit cards writer Ryan Flanigan takes advantage of the American Express Business Platinum card’s credits and benefits.

I use almost every perk and credit that this card offers. While the annual fee is high, I get far more value in return just from its list of credits and benefits. The perks cover various needs I have throughout the year. For example, I enjoy waiting for my flights in lounges and using my airline credits the first day they’re available. And I can always use Dell credits for things like smart home products. The points rebate opens up significant value when booking business and first-class flights. While I don’t use this for a ton of everyday spending, the value of the credits and travel benefits alone will keep this card in my wallet.

— Ryan Flanigan, Writer, Credit Cards

The Business Platinum may be ideal if your business spends a lot on travel, but since not many issuers offer premium business cards with flexible spending limits like American Express, you can consider other Amex business credit cards that offer more rewards in different categories.

As a general-purpose travel card, you could shore up your rewards strategy by supporting the Amex Business Platinum with cards that earn rewards on your other major business expenses. 

Businesses that spend big and seek luxury hotel and airline perks for their frequent travels will find the American Express Business Platinum one of the most worthwhile cards on the market — especially now that it has a plethora of  credits and reward opportunities for popular non-travel expenses.

The annual fee can certainly carry some pressure, but the Business Platinum’s statement credits alone can easily offset the cost while your rewards generate even more value. Although these day-to-day benefits can be tempting, small businesses that aren’t sure they’ll take advantage of the additional features may want to consider another travel card considering those factors are the Business Platinum’s main value.

Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.

All information about The Business Green Rewards Card from American Express has been collected independently by Bankrate and has not been reviewed or approved by the issuer.

For rates and fees of the Business Platinum Card from American Express card, please click here. For rates and fees of the American Express Business Gold card, please click here.