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Fred Stein, CPA EA's avatar

When you book hotels and flights through the card site, are the prices you get the same, less or more than if you went through other free sites, such as Orbitz. We have our Chase card and on occasion I compare and on quite a few occasions, it was still better to purchase through other sites forgoing the benefit. Just curious to see if you looked at it from that angle.

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Josh Youngblood, EA, CRETS's avatar

I have noticed some instances where the Amex FHR rate was more. BUT when you take into account the additional benefits (breakfast, early check in, late check out, $100 credit for either food, spa, etc.) then it is almost always worth it.

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Dominique Molina's avatar

Keep in mind there is a difference in benefits between business and personal platinum. (Unfortunately) also hate that these benefits are not available for each separate cardholder- just per account. When you pay the fee for multiple card holders you should absolutely get the benefits.

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Josh Youngblood, EA, CRETS's avatar

Agreed. The review of the Business Platinum Card will be dropping later this week.

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Dominique Molina's avatar

Keep in mind there is a difference in benefits between business and personal platinum. (Unfortunately) also hate that these benefits are not available for each separate cardholder- just per account. When you pay the fee for multiple card holders you should absolutely get the benefits.

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Jennifer Lorenzen's avatar

Is it a charge card or credit card? Back in the old days, you had to pay it off every period. Then they started allowing credit for certain purchases. While I'd love to be able to pay it off every month, it's not always possible. These rewards look fantastic, and my current card is not nearly as good.

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Gail Jewsbury's avatar

What do you use when AMEX is not a card that the merchant uses? Around here most merchants stay away from AMEX as they do not understand the different merchant fee structure compared to Visa and MC.

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Josh Youngblood, EA, CRETS's avatar

Well, first, I get a little annoyed, but then I use a CITI American Airlines card. Other good options are the Chase Sapphire / Sapphire Reserve card.

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Ali Ali's avatar

I currently have the Chase Sapphire Reserve and have been thinking about switching to this version of the Amex card. Thank you for the detailed breakdown. For groceries, look into Amex's Blue Cash Referred card as it offers 6% back at grocery stores. If you're able to group this with the Walmart membership offer on the platinum card, it's a win win.

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