Updated on February 13, 2020

Calling all big spenders! American Express recently launched their popular Business Platinum Card from American Express OPEN 100k bonus welcome offer. I usually get excited about 100k offers. But…this is a very large spend requirement: $10k+$15k = $25k in total to get the entire bonus. I can think of better things to do with that much spend.

This offer has expired but you can see the current offers here.

The 100k Offer [EXPIRED, current offer is up to 75k]

This offer has EXPIRED.

• Limited Time Offer: Get 50,000 Amex points after $10k spend + another 50,000 points after spending $15k more within 3 months (up to 100,000 Amex points total)
• $200 Airline Fee Credit per calendar year (so if you do $200 in 2018 and $200 in early 2019, you'll get $400 before you decide if you will pay another annual fee)
• $450 annual fee
• American Express Global Lounge Collection access – I always enjoy visiting Centurion lounges but this includes more options than that (but… Centurion is the only one I really care about)
• SPG and Hilton Gold status (For Hilton, Gold is all you need. For SPG gold is meh.)
• Expires 8/8/18

Secondary benefits:

• Free Global Entry ($100 value) or TSA Pre✔ ($85 value) — but why not just get Global Entry if its free?
• Boingo American Express Preferred Plan
• 5x points on flights and prepaid hotels on Amextravel.com (I prefer to book directly with hotels to maintain elite status/benefits and with airlines, but if you have employees who travel, this could really be worthwhile for you)
• 1.5 points per dollar on each eligible purchase of $5k+ (those big purchases make this more attactive)
• 35% Airline bonus – use Amex points to pay for your flight and get 35% of the points back (I generally find the best use of Amex points is transferring them to the airline then booking, so I would likely never use this)

Compare this card with other business card offers

Is this a good offer? Who should get it?

This is a good offer (it's 100k) but it's not for everyone due to the big spend. It comes with a lot of benefits to cover the big annual fee as well.

For some small businesses, $25k will be an easy spend. This is a huge spend requirement and for many small startups/freelancers, this is impossible. Another case where this may be worthwhile: for those of us who have almost every credit card alrady and have trouble finding and qualifying new bonus offers. This offer is once in a lifetime so that one time should be a 100k offer at least! In general, putting $25k spend to collect 1 credit bonus is a tall order and not efficient. If you are able to apply for several cards, you'd be better off collecting multiple bonuses. Newbies — you should be looking into some Chase cards first!

I don't have a small business?

Read here to see if your business may qualify for a business card. If you are just looking for personal cards, there are plenty of good offers available, but you should do some planning first. For example, consider the Marriott 100k bonus offer from Chase first.

What's better than the 100k Amex offer?

Some other cards that I'd consider getting before this 100k Amex are two card that I have myself. 1) The Chase Ink Business Preferred (80,000 bonus after $5,000 spend in 3 months). 2) The Chase Ink Business Cash ($500 bonus after $3,000 spend in 3 months). If you think you've had these cards in the past, check again because there have been many versions of the Ink cards. When the card names change, they are considered new products and you won't have to worry about not qualifying for the bonus.

Compare this card with other business card offers

Hotel Business Cards?

If you already have your Chase business cards mentioned above, I'd suggest considering the new Hilton card offers. If there was ever a good time to earn some Hilton points, this is the time. 1) Honors American Express Business Card offer: a whopping 125,000 Hilton bonus welcome offer.  2) In addition, check out the Hilton Honors Ascent Card from American Express. You can earn 100,000 bonus points after $3k spend.

Learn more about this and other hotel card offers