American Express Card Refresh Coming Early May!

American Express' CEO Stephan Squeri revealed some exciting credit card refresh news during the 2020 Q1 earnings call last week! Amidst the current global circumstances, many companies, including banks and airlines, have made welcomed changes to accommodate their customers during this crisis caused by COVID-19. American Express is stepping up to the plate by sprucing up the perks of their iconic credit cards, explicitly gearing toward non-travel based rewards. Staying home has become the current norm, and American Express has reported that consumer spending on travel and entertainment on their cards has reduced by 95%. This sadly correlates with the travel industry being down roughly the same across the board. The pricey $550 annual fee Platinum Card from American Express is known for all of its luxury travel-related benefits, including Centurion Lounge access, Fine Hotels and Resorts program, hotel status, and Uber credits. Unfortunately, none of these travel benefits can be utilized right now, so American Express wants to infuse additional value into their products hoping their customers will stick around.

During American Express' earning call, refreshes and rewards were mentioned by American Express CEO Stephen Squeri, who advised that the Platinum Card from American Express would see enhancements from "wireless to streaming to other types of travel credits that could be used in the future." Also mentioned were additions of limited-time offers, including Amex Offers (like this +1 Membership Rewards for Grubhub and Seamless), credits, and rewards on stay-at-home services as well as business essentials for small business consumers. It should be noted that currently, we are seeing Amex Offers from Amazon (+5 Membership Rewards), Lowes (+1 Membership Rewards) and Best Buy (+1 Membership Rewards), which do not expire until late 2020, possibly pointing toward when some of these potential temporary perks may last until as well. Squeri specifically mentioned that these product refreshes would be coming in early May. This means as early as next week we could be enjoying extra points or statement credits for all the Netflix we are watching, getting an extension on our airline credits, or even getting double rewards like many other Platinum Card products globally.

 To get a glimpse of what may be in our U.S. Platinum Card's future, let's look at what has been enhanced over the past few weeks regarding other global Platinum Card products. The United Kingdom and Canada versions of the Platinum Card are currently earning double the Membership Rewards points earning potential until July 20, 2020. Just to put that into perspective, Canada's Platinum Card will now go from 3x to 6x Membership Rewards Points for dining! Both U.K. and Canada products have doubled their Membership Rewards Point statement credit redemption value as well. We can certainly speculate that it is likely that our U.S. Platinum Card will see something similar to these global changes. Going from 1x Membership Rewards Points to 2x on all purchases would be a welcomed increase and would encourage Platinum cardholders to use their card more often on non-category spending in an attempt to make up for the loss in travel and entertainment spend. If American Express doubled our airfare rewards to 10x Membership Rewards Points from 5x, depending on if it is temporary or not, we could see a tremendous shake up on which travel card people would use to purchase plane tickets when life gets back to normal! Especially since the Platinum Card from American Express just got more travel coverage at the beginning of 2020. At our valuation of $0.02/point, that would be a 20% reward return on airfare purchases and potentially grab a lot of consumers itching to get back in the air.

Any American Express refresh is generally surrounded by hype and excitement, especially within the credit card rewards and travel community. American Express saw a massive surge in credit card applications when they refreshed the American Express Gold Card to include 4x Membership Rewards on dining and U.S. Supermarkets in 2018. With our current situation, the American Express Gold Card could not be more appropriate due to most of us only spending on food right now.

In November 2019, American Express' Group President of Global Consumer Services Doug Buckminster made mentions of a new credit card product between the Platinum Card and Centurion Card. We found more hints that this car may be called the Optio Card from American Express or the Amex Optio. Since then, we have uncovered a vendor list including a "Titanium" card from a manufacturer that makes American Express' metal credit cards. All of these clues certainly pointed toward a new luxury American Express card in our future, although these findings were all pre-pandemic. We think it is very likely a new luxury card could take a back seat to new stay-at-home based perks and benefits in our future, unfortunately.

What benefits or perks are you most excited to see from American Express? Comment down below, D.M. us on Instagram, or message us on Facebook to let us know!