American Express Optio Card: Amex’s New Soldier between the Platinum and Centurion Card
The Pantheon in Rome, Italy
Everything We Know about the American Express Optio Card
Exciting chatter about a brand new luxury American Express product was born this week during the Bank of America Future of Financials Conference. The conference was held on November 5th and 6th, 2019 at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. During the finance event, American Express' Group President of Global Consumer Services Doug Buckminster may have slipped about knowledge of a new American Express card with more perks than the American Express Platinum Card, but not quite as exclusive as the Centurion or Black Card. Doctor of Credit released a rumor article which stated that Buckminster was asked a question regarding the launch of such a card, and apparently stumbled over his words, saying "yes", but effectively stating he had "no comment" about the new card question. If you are interested in learning about all of the American Express Platinum Card’s perks and benefits, check out our comprehensive 2020 deep dive article here.
With the recent increase in the Centurion Card's benefits and annual fee from $2,500 to $5,000, we can see that American Express is certainly widening the gap between the Platinum and the Centurion Card. Based on this alone it seems very plausible for American Express to introduce another higher end luxury card. Couple that new gap with Buckminster advising that the American Express Platinum Card membership has seen an increase in 60% after adding new benefits a couple years back. Also, now more than half of new Platinum card members are under the age of 35. Buckminster added that suddenly everyone was talking about high-fee credit cards that have lounge access and rich benefits. If you are reading this right now, you can see he wasn't wrong. With the increase in Platinum card members, American Express has likely seen a hole in the market that they are about to fill with the possibility of a new American Express Card product.
Within the comment section of the Doctor of Credit rumor post, a commenter named K-Man stated that a little bird had told him that the new card would be called the American Express Optio. The Optio Card would carry an annual fee of $1,500 and would be invite only to current Platinum Card holders. According to K-Man, the American Express Optio would be easier to obtain than the Centurion Card and it would have most of the Centurion Card's benefits, except the personal concierge and Equinox Gym membership. Also, the American Express Optio Card would come with Delta Gold status, instead of the Delta Platinum status the Centurion Card carries.
You may be thinking, American Express Optio? What is Optio anyway? Optio is a Latin phrase which means "to choose". If the Optio name is a reality, American Express would be staying true to its ancient Roman theme. In the Roman Army, an Optio was chosen by the Centurion to enforce his orders and take over the command during his absence or death. Basically, the Optio was the second in command. Again, this possible Optio name for the American Express product being a tier below the Centurion Card product is accurate to ancient Roman history. An interesting fun fact is that the Optio's pay was generally double the standard soldier. Would the standard solider be synonymous to the Platinum Card? If we double the Platinum Card's annual fee of $550, we get a possible American Express Optio Card annual fee of $1,100. Would you pay a $1,100 to $1,500 annual fee for the speculated benefits so far?
What do you think about the possibility of an American Express Optio Card between the American Express Platinum Card and the American Express Centurion Card, or Black Card? Have you see our article about the American Express Titanium and Black Card for 2020? If so, what are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments down below or hit us up on Instagram: @pointspassport .