Steve Squeri is super-pumped on the new Amex Platinum Card “refresh.”
Marketing it something Squeri knows quite a bit about—and will be relying on to sell the new card, whose annual fee will rise from the current $695 to $895. That’s ahead of the $795 charge for Platinum’s closest rival, the Chase Sapphire Reserve entry that got its own uplift in late June. But Squeri insists that the improved Platinum will provide the richest benefits of any widely-used card today. It’s also worth noting that the uplift represents the biggest investment Amex has ever in a card refresh. “If you use the credits, you’ll they’ll get over $3,500 a year in value on both the consumer and business cards,” he says. “At the $695 fee, that value was $1500 a year on the consumer card. People are going to do the math. They’re going to say, wait a minute, you want me to pay $200 extra for over $1,000 in additional value?” And if people really feast on the new benefits, they could get even more from the new menu, Squeri avows.
On the travel side, it’s mainly enhancements to today’s perks. For hotels, Amex is tripling the annual credit for stays booked through American Express Travel from $200 to $600 at the mainly five-star hotels at its Fine Hotels & Resorts and slightly less fancy Hotel Collection offerings, a list that includes such choices as the Amman properties around the world and the newly-refurbished Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. Cardmembers get early check-in and 4:00 checkout privileges, as well as $100 towards such extras as food and beverage or spa services as varied as facials and saunas. Squeri stresses the sumptuous value cardmembers can reap from exploiting Amex’s hotel rewards. “We offer 3100 hotels that offer those things,” he says. “We have the largest array of any card company, and it keeps growing. You get early check-in and late checkout that gives you extra hours at the hotel. You can get the $100 in incidentals per stay, and you can get it any time you go to one of our hotels. You also get a free breakfast each day, we’ve all had hotel breakfasts for two people and we all know they’re not cheap!”
A big bonus for Amex customers: scoring tables at top, hard-to-get-into restaurants. The Resy network encompasses many Michelin star and sundry award winning locales including Le Bernadin in New York, Alinea in Chicago, and Canlis in Seattle. Some of those places often hold “inventory” in reserve for cardholders, or put them at the top of waiting lists over non-Amex folks who booked earlier. Why do these coveted addresses offer Amex those deals? “It’s simple, because the Amex cardholder will order the more expensive bottle of wine or order the steak or it’s going to be a corporate cardholder on an entertainment budget,” says Squeri. Adds Resy CEO Pablo Rivero, “Card members with the Resy credit spend 25% more at U.S. Resy restaurants once the benefit launched [Resy benefits were introduced in 2024 on several other Amex cards]. The restaurants want to fill up with the people who spend the most.”
Increasingly, that cohort encompasses the Gen Z’ers (up to age 27) and Millennials (28 to 44), a demo that Squeri’s been a first mover in courting. “Those two groups use their cards at restaurants 60% more on average than boomers or Gen X’ers combined,” notes Rivero. Together, those younger generations account for 35% of all U.S. consumer spending for Amex, up from 19% in 2019. And the Gen Z and Millennials crowd tilt heavily to acquiring fee-based cards like Gold and Platinum.
Squeri’s broken fresh ground by both offering super-rich bennies overall, and tailoring the offerings to the customers of the future, those affluent, free-spending, adventure seeking folks from their mid-20s to mid-40s. For Steve Squeri, that’s the formula for winning customers who’ll stay onboard for decades to come.
