One of Our Favorite Cards Added a Hotel Statement Credit Feature!

A travel rewards and benefits card we’ve long held added a hotel statement credit opportunity to its suite of features!

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express members can earn up to $50 in statement credit each calendar quarter for eligible purchases made with Hilton. (That’s up to $200 a year!) This is in addition to the longstanding benefit of complimentary Hilton Honors Gold elite status for Amex Business Platinum members.

Like many Amex card benefits, manual enrollment is required. Card members must also be enrolled members of Hilton for Business — but don’t stress if you’re not. Once you enroll in the benefit, you’ll automatically get a Hilton for Business account, too.

According to the terms and conditions, eligible purchases must be made directly with Hilton portfolio properties. Think room rates and room charges. (Quick data point from me: using the card online through Hilton should work just fine. It credited for me last week.)

Keep in mind that restaurants and bars inside hotel properties usually code as restaurants/dining — not travel or hotel — when you pay a tab directly on your credit card. So, hitting a local Hilton’s restaurant for dinner and paying with an Amex Business Platinum Card probably won’t trigger the credit.

The Business Platinum® Card from American Express — What’s the Big Whoop?

The main reason we’re so bully about the Amex Business Platinum Card is its 35% Pay With Points rebate.

Cardholders can earn back 35% of Membership Rewards points used to pay for all or part of an eligible flight booked with American Express Travel. (Earn back up to 1 million points per calendar year.) An eligible flight is a First or Business Class ticket on any airline trip you purchase through Amex Travel. You can also book any class on one airline from a list of select carriers through Amex Travel.

Let’s say you find a $1,000 business class flight on Amex Travel. You can pay the whole thing with 100,000 points. Because you hold the Amex Business Platinum Card, you’ll get 35,000 back in a few weeks and the trip will cost you 65,000 points (or $650 worth of points — and that’s a pretty conservative value).

Plus, you earn the full amount of whatever loyalty points-miles-dollars (i.e., Delta MQD and SkyMiles) for your purchase.

And you can really take advantage of that in a big way if you have points-earning heavyweights like the [sc name=”american-express-gold-card-affiliate” ][/sc], American Express® Business Gold Card, American Express® Green Card, or even the no-annual-fee The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express. (See Rates and Fees for the Blue Business Plus Card. All information about the Amex Green Card was independently collected by Eye of the Flyer. It was neither provided nor reviewed by the card issuer.)

The card is one of the “coupon book”-style products featuring several statement credit options:

• Complimentary access to airport lounges
  • American Express Centurion Lounges when traveling with a confirmed seat on a same-day flight
  • Escape Lounge by Centurion Suites (with up to two guests) when traveling on a same-day flight
  • Priority Pass Select membership (enrollment required)
  • Delta Sky Clubs when traveling on a same-day Delta-operated or -marketed flight.
    • Effective January 1, 2025, Reserve Card Members will receive 10 Visits per year to the Delta Sky Club; to earn an unlimited number of Visits each year starting on January 1, 2025, the total eligible purchases on the Card must equal $75,000 or more between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024, and each calendar year thereafter. Once all 15 Visits have been used, Eligible Card Members may purchase additional Delta Sky Club Visits (including Grab and Go) at a per-Visit rate of $50 per person using the Card.
      • A “Visit” is an entry to one or more Delta Sky Clubs or usage of the Delta Sky Club “Grab and Go” feature, at one or more airports, for a period of up to 24 hours starting upon the first Delta Sky Club entry or Grab and Go usage, during an Eligible Card Member’s travel on a same-day Delta-marketed or Delta-operated flight. A single Visit permits usage of Delta Sky Club(s) in multiple airports during the 24-hour period.
• $200 Airline Fee Credit: Select one qualifying airline and then receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year when incidental fees are charged by the airline to your card. (Enrollment is required.) Read this post for more information.
• $199 CLEAR® Plus Credit: Receive up to $199 in statement credits each calendar year for CLEAR Plus membership costs charged to your card. (Enrollment required. Taxes and fees not eligible. Terms apply)
• $120 Global Entry Credit: Receive either a $120 statement credit every four (4) years for a Global Entry application fee or a statement credit up to $85 every 4.5 years for a TSA PreCheck® (through a TSA official enrollment provider) application fee. (Terms apply.) Global Entry comes with TSA PreCheck and is the better value, in our opinion. So many travel credit cards offer this benefit — keep in mind you can “gift” it to someone else.
• Fine Hotels + Resorts: Enjoy early check-in and room upgrades (when available), daily breakfast for two (valued at up $60 total each day), a resort or spa credit (varies by property), and guaranteed late check-out. (Terms apply.)
• Complimentary Gold Elite Status with Marriott Bonvoy (enrolment required.)
• Complimentary Gold Elite Status with Hilton Honors (enrollment required.)
• $120 Wireless Telephone Service Credit: Earn up to $10 back in statement credits each month on eligible purchases made directly with a U.S. wireless (cell phone) service provider. (Enrollment is required and terms apply.)
• $400 Dell Technologies Credit: Earn up to $200 in statement credits from January through June, then another $200 from July through December on eligible purchases made with Dell Technologies. Read this post that explains the benefit a little better. (Enrollment is required and terms apply.)
• $150 Adobe Credit: Earn up to $150 in statement credits each calendar year for eligible annual prepaid business plan purchases with Adobe on Creative Cloud for teams or Acrobat Pro DC with e-sign for teams. Note that personal or individual plans (i.e., “only for Photoshop”) are not eligible. (Enrollment is required and terms apply.)
• $360 Indeed Credit: Earn up to $90 per quarter in statement credits for eligible purchases made with Indeed. (Enrollment is required and terms apply.)

The card’s annual fee is $695 (Rates and Fees). But the statement credits and Pay With Points rebate make it easy to come out ahead.

H/T: Frequent Miler

For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Green Card, please visit this link
For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Business Gold Card, please visit this link.