A Review of Amex Platinum Charge 2025
- Ava Lyn
- Jan 5
- 10 min read
2025 is over and it's time to look at how the Amex Platinum Charge card has been for us this year. I sound almost like a broken recorder talking about how benefits of this card has been depreciating in value. 2025 in particular was a terrible year as Amex made its card users jump through hoops in order to utilise their benefits. On saying that, and despite it annual fee charges, it has remained a staple for us for travels as well as dining benefits and in this post, we will share what the return in value has been for us in 2025.
Summary
Benefit | Value Assigned | Comments |
Amex Annual Credits | 1354 SGD | Airline, Global Dining, Entertainment, Fashion, Lifestyle Credits |
Amex Vouchers | 330 SGD | Hotel Stay and wine |
Airport Lounge Access | 160 SGD | 8 visits valued at SGD 20 each |
FHR Hotel Benefits | 200 SGD | Hotel Credits, Breakfasts |
Accelerated Hotel Loyalty | Not Valued | Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton, Pan Pacific, Radisson |
Love Dining | 850 SGD | 17 visits valued at SGD 50 each |
Chillax By Amex | 0 SGD | Complimentary Drinks |
Random Offers | 400 SGD | Amex App Offers |
Paragon Club | No value assigned | Paragon lounge visits |
Retention Offer | 180 SGD | 40,000 MR |
Insurance and Protection | No value assigned | Travel, Purchases insurance |
Concierge Service | No value assigned | General Help |
Amex Events | 210 SGD | A Christmas Story |
2025 Total Value: 3684 SGD
For a very detailed breakdown, continue reading! Because we share some of our tips and tricks to maximise and further add value to the benefits.
Amex Annual Credits
The annual recurring credits have been terrible to utilise this year. With most credits spilt into 2 half yearly spend, you need a very good strategy and someone on top of their game in order to maximise your benefits. We found ourselves asking this year, did we use this in H2 this year? or was that H1?
Amex Airline Credit
The airline credit sits at 200 SGD rebate spilt into 2 x 100 SGD half yearly spend, each with a minimum of 300 SGD spend on either SQ or Scoot, in one transaction. Although the miles earning rate (1.95 miles/dollar) is poor, any flights purchased via Amex provides complimentary insurance (see Section on Insurance and Protection for more details) which helps when utilising this flight credit.
Global Dining Credit
Our Very Fabulous Meal at Fiz (Local)
The total value sits at 400 SGD, with 200 SGD under local dining credit and 200 SGD under global dining credit. However, this is further spilt into 100 SGD per 6 months in each category.
Entertainment Credit
The entertainment credit is 17 SGD monthly, which makes the annual value, 204 SGD. This means a free Netflix subscription. Thank you, Amex. Apart from Netflix and Disney+, newspaper subscriptions through SPH media and payments made online for Ticketmaster also qualify. So remember to check
Fashion Credit
150 SGD spilt into 75 SGD per half year that can be utilised on NET-A-PORTER or MR PORTER. This one is an easy one. Stack it with existing promotions and get the rebate back. It can seem abit like forced spending, but we always seem to have things to buy on these 2 sites.
Lifestyle Credit
Spend a minimum of 600 SGD and receive 400 SGD back. Again, spilt into 2 half yearly spends to receive 200 SGD back each time with a minimum spend of 300 SGD. There are a number of spas on the list. However, our default is always Grand Cru for some wines. Note that the price of these wines are not always the best value as the site puts a premium on the price tag. So the value is definitely less than 400 SGD. But for the purposes of this review, we are going to keep it at 400 SGD and assume we rocked up to a bottle shop, didn't do price research and just bought a bottle or 2.
The Grand Total of rebates and savings from the Amex Annual Credits alone is 1354 SGD.
Benefit | Comments | Value Assigned |
Amex Airline Credit | Qualifying spend with SQ or Scoot half yearly | 200 SGD |
Amex Global Dining Credit | 200 SGD Local and 200 SGD Overseas half yearly | 400 SGD |
Amex Entertainment Credit | Monthly valued at SGD 17 per month | 204 SGD |
Amex Fashion Credit | Net-a-porter, SGD 75 half yearly | 150 SGD |
Amex Lifestyle Credit | Grand Cru Platinum half yearly | 400 SGD |
Total | 1354 SGD |
Amex Vouchers
I shared in another post about the 2025 vouchers. Some we utilised, some were ambiguous and perhaps utilised and definitely some that we just put into the discard pile.
Complimentary Hotel Stay
This year, we stayed a Dhawa Yura Kyoto. We talked about it in this post. Overall, it was a great stay which would have cost us 250 SGD per night. During our stay, we also received complimentary cocktails and breakfast which we valued to be 60 SGD. Overall, a superb free night stay.
Complimentary Wines
There are 2 vouchers that can be claimed from the Raffles City precinct. Though this year it has been terrible. In the picture are 2 bottles (the better bottles I would say) from Grand Cru that are part of the Amex Platinum Reserve card. The ones from the hotel is not fantastic and we save them for cooking. A stew of risotto where we can add a very generous splash and wine. I would value them at around 10 SGD per bottle.
Spa Vouchers
Sometimes we remember to use these spa vouchers. This year we didn't and they go into the discard pile.
Dining Vouchers
The stack of vouchers we discard every year
Looking at our vouchers this year, we didn't actually utilise any dining vouchers. Much like last year, there were vouchers for Wan Hao for 30 % off (which is usually a pretty good deal if you have more than 4 pax), Wooloomooloo, Tower Club (value decrease from 100 SGD to 50 SGD), Restaurant Jag, Asian Market Cafe, Crossroads buffet.
Benefit | Comments | Value Assigned |
Complimentary Hotel Stay | Dhawa Yura Kyoto | 310 SGD |
Complimentary Wine | 2 x Bottles | 20 SGD |
Total | 330 SGD |
The grand savings total of 330 SGD from using the 2025 Amex Vouchers. Not bad at all, for forgetting about the vouchers most of the year. If you would like to read more about the Amex 2025 Voucher Pack:
Airport Lounge Access
This used to be one of a favourite perk of ours. Unlimited lounge visits via priority pass with 1 guest for both the primary as well as supp card holders. Which means if you travel with 2 cards, a total of 4 guests can enter the lounge. However, this year had a massive nerf which means now supplementary cardholders only get 8 visits a year which can be shared with guests. The principal card holder remains the same with unlimited visits with 1 guest. It's not like we travel in huge groups all the time, but its just very annoying to now need to remember if you used your visit or not. 8 visits remains plenty, but the annoyance of having a restriction left a very bitter taste. We now use different cards from different providers both with unlimited visits, because we really cannot be bothered to recall how many visits or guests we have brought in each time.
Everyone assigns a different value on lounge accesses. For us, it is where we will typically have our meal before the flight and also get abit of rest, hydration and perhaps a shower before a flight. For this reason, we value each lounge access at 20 SGD.
With Star Alliance Gold membership this year, we scaled back on the priority pass entries. Also slightly annoyed by the restrictions on visits as well as priority pass lounges always being very packed. This year, we utilised 8 lounge visits, which equals 160 SGD in value for us. If you travel plenty, and do not frequent the Business Class lounges or airline loyalty lounges too frequently. I am sure you would enjoy this perk more than us this year.
2025 Value: 160 SGD
FHR Hotel Benefits
For Amex FHR, book through the Amex Travel Website to receive:
Guaranteed upgrade
Early check in (12 pm)
Late check out (4 pm)
Daily breakfast for 2
100 USD property credit
For 2025, we stayed at just 1 property - Ritz Carlton Perth which you can read all about here. Did Amex FHR lose its appeal? The answer is No. As I look back at our travels this year, I realised that we gravitated towards GHA properties - mostly because they offer splendid upgrades at Titanium status and also good value properties. When we travel, I still do the same and compare between Mastercard Concierge and each of the big hotel chains where we have hotel loyalty statuses (GHA, Hilton, Marriott) and see where we get good deals. This year unfortunately, Amex FHR didn't provide fantastic value for the countries we were visiting and so we only stuck with 1 stay for the year.
Benefit | Comments | Value Assigned |
Amex FHR Hotel Credits | 1 credits each with approximately 150 SGD value | 150 SGD |
Amex FHR Breakfast Benefits | 2 breakfasts valued at SGD 25 each | 50 SGD |
Room Upgrades | At least one category | Not Valued |
Early Check In, Late Check Out | 12 pm check in, 4 pm check out | Not Valued |
2025 Value: 200 SGD
Hotel Accelerated Loyalty
As part of the Amex Platinum charge, you get hotel accelerated loyalty:
Marriott Bonvoyâ„¢ Gold Elite Status
Pan Pacific DISCOVERY Platinum Status
Hilton Honors Elite Gold Status
Radisson Rewards Premium Status
For us, Hilton Honors Gold is the best out of the 4. There is free breakfast offered as part of being Gold Status which the rest dont. For us, we have Marriott Bonvoy Platinum and GHA Titanium which are higher statuses than what Amex Platinum Charge is providing. So for this hotel accelerated loyalty category, we will keep the value at 0 SGD.
2025 Value: 0 SGD
Love Dining
For those who are not too familiar, the benefits vary depending on the number of diners you have. Since, it is just my partner and I dining most nights, we get to maximise the benefits at 50 % off. Always check in on the latest lists of Amex Love Dining Restaurants and Hotels as they do change and update through the year:
For this section, I am not going to do a full listing of the savings at each restaurant each time, so what I will do is list the restaurants that we visited and take an average of 50 SGD savings. This is much less than some of the savings we had incurred, but provides a good reflection of the amount of eating out we did this year (:
Quenino by Victor Liong
Sen of Japan
Si Chuan Dou Hua x12 visits
Prego
Skai Restaurant
15 Stamford
Yes, you saw that right, we visited Si Chuan Dou Hua 12 times. We actually go to the gym near by and Si Chuan Dou Hua is a fantastic after gym dinner venue for us. In 2025, we had a total of 17 visits to Love Dining Restaurants. At 50 SGD savings per visit, the 2025 savings stands at 850 SGD. Personally i think we did a fabulous job utilizing Love Dining this year.
2025 Value: 850 SGD
Chillax By Amex
There is also Chillax by Platinum where you get a complimentary drink at some bars. However, we are quite selective and typically have a tipple during our meals or at home, so this year, like the past, we have not utilized any benefits from Chillax. If drinking out is up your alley, check out Amex's page for the latest promotions:
2025 Value: 0 SGD
Random Offers
We were great with stacking vouchers in our 2024 review. This year though, it became more of an, if we are in the area and there is a deal, let's get it. If not, let's not bother going out of our way to utilise this.
There are though some really good deals through the year, including some great hotel credits which can be stacked with your loyalty program.
Some of the other offers are just cheap thrills for us. Some offers we would never utilise, but some offers are a nice discount to have a meal or get some home stuff.
2025 Value: 400SGD
Complimentary Paragon Club Membership
For those who had their membership this year and didn't meet the miminum spend to retain your Prestige membership, fret not! The Paragon Lounge was closed for most part of the year and has now reopened on L6 in Paragon. As part of this inconvenience, Paragon has extended all existing Prestige Memberships. You will continue to get complimentary access to the Paragon Lounge - rest, get a coffee, water or even take a business call in one of the meeting rooms available.
There are more little deals and rewards that are available so remember to check the Paragon Club website for details:
2025 Value: 0 SGD
Retention Offer
40,000 MR was offered to us this year upon renewal of the annual fee. This equates to approximately 22,000 Krisflyer miles or $180 SGD worth of Amazon giftcards on the Amex redemption page. This equates approximately 0.45 cents per MR.
2025 Value: 180 SGD
Insurance and Protection
This is a category that is quite hard to put a value to but it is one that gives us a peace of mind on purchases and travel. For example, we purchase our phones and computers through Amex for the extended warranty protection. In the event that there is a unforeseen repairs required, then this would automatically cover the repairs. This can be stacked with your Accelerator merchants, which is added protection and ease of mind on expensive purchases.
Coverage includes:
Travel Insurance
Purchase Protection
Return Guarantee
Extended Warranty
Conditions apply, so always refer to the Amex website for the latest updates:
2025 Value: 0 SGD
Concierge Service
The value of the concierge service is hard to quantify. But definitely something we value. For example in 2024, when I forgot my Hertz membership and called them up, they were able to pull all these linked membership numbers up and always politely and respectfully. We are not going to value this, but I certainly appreciate the level of professionalism that the Amex Concierge provides whenever we have a query.
2025 Value: 0 SGD
Amex Events
Amex collaborates with quite a number of brands and there are always events, including previews to new season clothes, watches, fragrances etc. We value these events at 0 SGD as these are really meant to be experiential in nature.
A Christmas Story is an annual event that is hosted by Amex and Amex users affectionately call this event Kiap Kiap. For every 180 SGD spend, you get 2 chances at the claw machine, where you can win a variety of prizes, with a maximum of 4 chances a day. At this pop up, there is also free cookies, coffee, tea soft drinks as well as gift wrapping services. This year, we won 3 bottles of wine which is valued at 50 SGD per bottle by Vivino, 1 Amex candle in collaboration with Maison 21G which we value at 50 SGD per standard candle prices and 1 Amex Fan which we value at 10 SGD. The total value sits at approximately 210 SGD. Not bad, considering we needed to do our Christmas shopping anyway.
2025 Value: 210 SGD
Overall Thoughts
Our savings and benefits from using our Amex Platinum Charge card this year was 3684 SGD, which is a far cry from the 7940 SGD we benefited from in 2024. Compared to its annual rate of 1744 SGD though, it is still a valiant attempt. Despite Amex making us jump through hoops in order to utilise their advertised benefits, we still feel there are benefits to having this card. It is definitely not a card for everyone, and certainly not for the ones who get annoyed from constantly changing and evolving goal posts. Yes Amex has yet again announced changes to their benefits for 2026.