A combination of post-Covid work travel frequency and additional perks of the Hilton Amex cards have induced me to reshuffle my Amex card portfolio.
It was a complicated process with no win-wins and some priorities placed over others for personal reasons, but overall I think a decent tradeoff.
They have been weening the benefits I prefer from the Amex Platinum for a couple of years, and expanding benefits I don't want or need. So the utility of the Amex Platinum isn't there anymore. Of the Platinum features I did use, a lot of those same features are covered by the Hilton Surpass now - including HHonors Gold status and National Executive Aisle.
Further, the Amex Green $/lbs is a great card given its $150 annual fee, and it covers the Clear+ membership which is valued at more than the annual fee of the card, so the Amex Green pays for itself instantly.
I do utilize Delta Sky club and Amex Centurion Lounges with some frequency, so those perks of the Amex Platinum were good, and the 5x Amex points on airfare was a huge benefit, too. But at this point the 5x Airfare, Global Entry reimbursement, and lounge benefits were the only things Amex Platinum offered that I couldn't get with another card I already had. Are those perks alone worth $695 annually?
There was no silver bullet here, but I think I struck the most economical balance with what I ended up doing:
Dropped the Amex Platinum to Amex Green ($695 to $150) and in lieu to retain lounge benefits opened a Delta Reserve account ($650). Already had a Delta Blue (no-fee) card that was never used, but opted instead to open a new Delta Reserve account vs upgrading the Blue account so that I could take advantage of the Delta Reserve welcome offer: 95,000 skymiles. Another big benefit of the higher fee Delta cards under the new Medallion qualification scheme is the $2,500 "MQD Headstart" which gets you halfway to silver medallion automatically every year, requiring only $2,500 more in MQD spend to reach Silver Medallion, which is a perk I value highly given the Sky Priority bag drop and free exit row seats when booking benefit (at 6'3" the additional legroom is almost mandatory and I prefer exit rows to Comfort+, anyway).
The Delta Reserve card isn't fantastic unless the user flies Delta a LOT, and I do. Of the near-monthly air travel over the past decade (excluding pandemic) I have flown Delta almost exclusively, save for some foreign airlines when traveling internationally. So I think I fly Delta enough to make this card worth it - and starting in 2025 it permits 15 annual visits to the SkyClub (vs 10 with the Amex Platinum) and Centurion Lounge for Delta-booked itineraries (vs Centurion Lounge access for any airline with Amex Platinum). So there are obviously trade-offs.
Also Delta Reserve only pays 3x SkyMiles for Delta airfare, versus Amex Platinum's 5x Amex pts for any airfare (SkyMiles convert 1:1 with Amex pts). Whereas Amex Platinum pays 5x points on airfare and 1x on everything else, Amex Green pays 3x on airfare, and 3x on hotels, rental cars, restaurants, and rideshare expenses. So in terms of ability to accrue Amex pts I am probably not losing anything (and may be gaining) by going from Platinum to Green. Again I think the Amex Green punches way above its weight in terms of what the user gets for the fee.
Additional benefits of Delta Reserve are Global Entry reimbursement ($100 every five years) to replace that perk from the Amex Platinum, 15% discounts on Delta airfare booked with SkyMiles, and an annual first class or lower domestic companion certificate (conservatively valued at $1,100 annually for a first class ticket). The 15% discount on SkyMiles flights is something I didn't value much in the last, but doing the math it actually appears to be a decent perk. For instance a 50,000 SkyMile domestic roundtrip flight would be discounted by 7,500 SkyMiles using the card. That's not insignificant.
Also, the Delta Reserve retains the Amex Platinum's trip delay and cancellation insurance which over the past couple of years of travel have come in handy. I've had more flights severely delayed or outright canceled over the past two years than the preceding decade combined. One flight was abruptly canceled last month which required me to drive home in a rental car - fully covered by the trip delay insurance.
In summary, the changing Amex perks and airline frequent flyer landscape over the last year have induced a reshuffling of the card portfolio, and while this new setup isn't ideal, I think it's the best compromise between cost and perks I value. Will run it for another year or so to see how it works out.
). We've had a number of cases with very long Pre-Check lines and more reasonable CLEAR lines that jump to the front of the queue. At a cost of free, it's no no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.
) in SMF yesterday and I was so thankful for the Terminal A escape lounge! Super nice staff, it wasn't crowded, gave me a quiet and comfy place to sit. It wasn't 5 star food or anything, but they really improved my day immensely!
