Is This the Most Puzzling Credit Card Perk Ever?

In this post

1. Amex Platinum Card Benefit – Locked Or Unlocked?
2. $250 AirBnB Experiences Credit
3. The Pundit’s Mantra
4. Credit Card Offers

Disclosure: The Points Pundit receives no compensation from credit card affiliate partnerships. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute personal finance, legal, health, or investment advice. Please consult a licensed professional for guidance related to your situation.

In this post, I discussed how premium credit cards have shifted from status symbols to coupon books or subscription-style products. The market is crowded now, and there is very little room left for meaningful differentiation. I have often pointed out on this blog how complicated many premium cards have become, which seems to contradict the idea of being premium in the first place. Cardholders pay extra, only to spend more time tracking monthly, quarterly, and semiannual credits. Last week, though, Amex took that complexity a step further with its latest change to the Amex Platinum Card.

Amex Platinum Card Benefit – Locked Or Unlocked?

In simple terms, Amex expanded the $600 hotel credit into a broader lodging credit. The updated benefit now includes AirBnB Luxe bookings. But there is a catch: for all bookings, including Fine Hotels and Resorts, Hotel Collection, and AirBnB Luxe, a new two-night minimum stay applies. The credit amount and schedule remain unchanged, with $300 available in each half of the calendar year.

$250 AirBnB Experiences Credit

This is where the benefit starts to feel unnecessarily complicated. What appears to be a straightforward $250 AirBnB Experiences credit is not quite that simple.

To use it, you have to go through a series of steps to unlock the credit.

• First, you need to link your AirBnB account to your American Express account.
• Even after that, the benefit will still display as locked.
• To unlock it, you must make a prepaid AirBnB Luxe booking through AirBnB or Amex Travel.
• The reservation has to be prepaid and must cover at least two nights.
• Your host must accept the booking and it must appear as confirmed. If you or your host cancels for any reason, the credit immediately switches back from unlocked to locked.
• Once the booking is confirmed, the status of your $250 experience credit changes from locked to unlocked.
• After it is unlocked, you can use the $250 credit each calendar year for an AirBnB Experiences booking.

I find this benefit unusually awkward. First, you have to go through extra steps just to make the benefit available. Second, once it is unlocked, the credit is only usable for the rest of that calendar year. For example, if you book an AirBnB stay in the second half of the year, you can only use the $250 experiences credit during the remainder of that year.

The Pundit’s Mantra

If you thought paying a premium price would make life easier, that is often true. But I can no longer say the same thing about premium credit cards.

That makes the renewal decision for next year much harder than I expected.

What do you think about this new benefit? Let us know in the comments.