Why We Still Keep the Amex Platinum — Even at $895

If we wanted to enter the Centurion Lounge together without paying extra guest fees, we each needed our own access. That worked well for a while.

Melanie renewed in 2025 at the old $695 annual fee. Jon’s card was set to renew in March 2026 at the new $895 annual fee, and we seriously considered keeping it.

We still value the card. We still value the lounges. We still got meaningful value while we had both cards.

We just decided that paying two full Platinum annual fees no longer made sense for the rest of this year.

First, we already had plenty of premium-card benefits to use. Sometimes the issue is not whether credits have value. The issue is whether you actually want another list of credits to track.

A benefit can be “worth it” on paper and still become one more thing you have to remember to use.

Second, the Chase Sapphire Reserve came out with its largest-ever bonus offer. That changed the opportunity cost. Instead of keeping Jon’s Platinum at $895, we could shift that part of our strategy toward a card with a major bonus and benefits that fit our current plans.

Third, we were able to add Jon as an authorized user on Melanie’s Platinum. That came with a $195 annual fee, but also 20,000 bonus points, which more than offset that cost for us.

Most importantly, adding Jon as an authorized user allows both of us to still have Centurion Lounge access.

That was the benefit we most cared about preserving.

If your goal is squeezing every dollar of value out of a card through forced spending or credit gymnastics, this likely is not your card. If you value comfort, flexibility, and a smoother travel day, it might be.

Comfort is easy to undervalue until you travel enough to know what a long airport day can feel like.

A quiet place to sit matters. A clean bathroom matters. A place to grab food without fighting airport crowds matters. Reliable Wi-Fi matters when you need to work or check on something before a flight.

None of that is necessary.

But it can make travel feel significantly better.

That is why we are willing to pay for certain premium benefits when they fit the way we actually travel.

The key phrase is when they fit.

Once the second Platinum card stopped fitting as clearly, we canceled it.

We care about:

• A quieter place to sit
• Comfortable seating
• Reliable Wi-Fi
• Clean restrooms
• A calmer start or end to a travel day

That said, the food and drinks absolutely matter.

We genuinely enjoy having a solid meal before a flight and a couple of drinks when we’re traveling for fun. Not paying airport prices for food, cocktails, or beer is real value.

It just is not the only reason we value the lounge.

We don’t love the idea of judging lounge access only by whether you ate enough food to offset the annual fee.

That misses the point.

Yes, the food has value. Yes, the drinks have value. Yes, avoiding airport prices has value.

But the bigger value is the overall experience.

If a lounge gives us a calmer, easier, more enjoyable start to a trip, that matters — especially when we use it repeatedly at our home airport.

That is also why it was important for Jon to keep lounge access even after canceling his own Platinum. Adding him as an authorized user on Melanie’s card gave us a cleaner way to keep the benefit we actually use most.

This is one of the biggest reasons credit card advice can fall apart in real life.

A benefit that is amazing for one person may be almost useless for someone else.

If your home airport has a lounge you can use often, lounge access may be a major part of the value. If your home airport does not have strong lounge options, that same benefit may be worth far less.

For us, Phoenix matters.

The Amex Platinum fits better because we can use one of its biggest benefits without going out of our way.

That does not mean everyone in Phoenix needs this card. It just means the location piece is part of our math.

Credits that fit naturally into your life are worth far more than credits you have to chase.

A credit only has real value if you use it naturally or with very little effort.

That is where Uber works well for us.

We don’t need to create a new habit. We don’t need to buy something we wouldn’t otherwise buy. We don’t need to talk ourselves into it.

That is the type of credit we are comfortable giving meaningful value when we evaluate a card.

The opposite is also true.

If a credit requires us to change our behavior, spend more than we normally would, or buy something just because a credit exists, we discount that value heavily.

Four Peaks is a good example because it is not some random restaurant we picked only because a credit existed.

It is a place we already enjoy.

That is what makes the credit feel real.

If a credit pushes you toward something you would not normally do, it may still have some value, but it should not be counted at full face value.

For us, Resy is useful because it fits our normal life.

That is very different from building a strategy around a credit just because it is listed as a benefit.

This is where premium-card math can get messy.

A card may advertise a long list of credits, but that does not mean every credit is worth face value to every person.

Some credits are easy. Some are useful only if the brand already fits your habits. Some feel more like a coupon book than a true benefit.

For us, Saks and Lululemon fall into the category of credits we may use, but do not fully value.

That does not mean they are worthless.

It means we are not pretending they offset the annual fee dollar-for-dollar.

When we evaluate a premium card, we separate credits we naturally use from credits we would have to force.

If you don’t value those things, this card will feel overpriced no matter how good the math looks.

We do not think “luxury” automatically means wasteful.

But luxury should be intentional.

There is a big difference between paying for something because it genuinely improves your life and paying for it because the internet says it is a “must-have” card.

The Amex Platinum can be a great card for the right person.

It can also be an expensive mistake for someone who is chasing benefits they do not actually need or use.

That is why we are comfortable saying two things at once:

• Melanie’s Platinum still makes sense for us.
• Jon’s Platinum no longer did.

The authorized user option gave us a better middle ground.

The biggest benefit we wanted to preserve was Centurion Lounge access.

By adding Jon as an authorized user on Melanie’s Platinum, we kept that access without keeping two full Platinum accounts open.

The authorized user fee was $195 for the year, and the 20,000 bonus points more than offset that for us.

That made the decision much easier.

We still need to be thoughtful about the fee in future years, but for this year, the math and the experience both made sense.

This is also a reminder that the best answer is not always “keep” or “cancel.”

Sometimes the better answer is restructuring.

The Sapphire Reserve was a better fit for this season.

This is why we do not evaluate cards in isolation.

The Amex Platinum can be worth keeping.

The Sapphire Reserve can also be the better move right now.

Both things can be true.

A card decision should consider what else is available, what you are trying to accomplish, and whether you actually have room in your life to use another set of benefits.

For us, the Sapphire Reserve bonus created a better opportunity than renewing Jon’s Platinum at $895.

That does not make the Amex Platinum bad.

It just means the better move changed.

Premium cards should not be set-it-and-forget-it.

Your travel changes. Your home airport matters. Your spending habits change. Your other cards change. Your tolerance for tracking credits changes.

A card that made perfect sense last year may not make sense this year.

That is not failure.

That is strategy.

For us, the updated answer is simple:

• We still value the Amex Platinum.
• We still keep one.
• We canceled the second one.

And we feel good about that decision.