3 Reasons To Love The Amex Platinum As A Military Family

*Disclaimer: Here at Wives of the Air Force, we want to encourage our community to value personal financial wellness. This post is not intended to encourage you to live beyond your means or incur credit card debt. For more information on financial wellness, please check out our posts on the topic HERE and HERE*

One of our most common questions we get relate to the illustrious American Express Platinum Credit Card. One day you are looking for a new job fresh after a PCS and the next, your active duty spouse is suggesting you sign up for a credit card that has a $695 annual fee?! WHAT? Well don’t lose your cool too fast, over here at WAFs, we have been in your shoes and are ready to shout our praises of this card, whose annual fee is waived for active duty military AND dependents from the rooftops! Here are our top three things we love about it.

1. Points on Points on Points

I’ll be honest, when I first got this card, we planned to use it on gas only. Because we wanted to be responsible, ya know? But I kept hearing about how Kirstin was taking all of these trips and using points to cover almost every one of them and I decided that we needed to fully commit to using this card to accrue points. At the time, the American Express Platinum was a must-pay card so the entire balance had to be paid off each month, which was great for us to learn to use it responsibly. Once we hit the point where our points were able to cover our years worth of travel-which you know is a big deal as a military family living far from “home”-we have never looked back! With the way we use it, within our means and set on auto-pay, it’s the same as using your debit card except now we rarely ever pay for any plane tickets!

2. Airport Lounges

This was actually THE reason our husbands wanted us to get it and let us be the first to say, the hype is real. Stopping in at a Centurion Lounge by American Express at the airport for a luxurious break in your travel day is where it’s at. Free, delicious, gourmet, healthy food. So good. Free drinks, clean bathrooms, comfy seating. Some even have showers and massages available! But it doesn’t stop there, the Platinum card also gets you membership with Priority Pass which has their own set of lounges so you can take your pick, depending on what airport you are at.

3. The Additional Perks!

There really are too many to name so for the sake of not being the end-all-be-all, we want to share our personal favorites. For a more robust list, be sure to check out The Points Guy.

Regularly updated benefits programs with well known brands such as $100 towards a Walmart+ membership, $15 Uber (and UberEats) credit, $50 semi-annual Saks credit and so many more.

Upgrades when booking with their fine resorts and hotels collection through Amex Travel.

TSA PRECHECK. Yes, you read that right. No more crossing your fingers that your active duty members DoD ID number on the booking gets you TSA Precheck as well. Amex will reimburse the cost for your registration which is good for 5 years!

You can sign up for the card using our referral link HERE! This will get you special bonus points and special points for us, a win/win for everyone involved. Meet ya somewhere on a beach?