How does the Amex Platinum 5x points bonus work?

You can earn and redeem American Express Platinum card points by using it for purchases. With your American Express Platinum card, you’ll earn 1 - 5 points per $1 spent. To qualify for this card’s 5 points / $1 rewards rate, flights must be booked through the airline or Amex (up to $500,000 spent per year), and hotels must be booked through Amex.… read full answer

In addition, the American Express Platinum card also offers 100,000 points for spending $6,000 in the first 6 months. When you redeem American Express Platinum card points, they’re worth 0.7 cents to 1 cent each in most cases.

Here’s how to redeem American Express Platinum card points:

• Book travel through Amex. Just log in to your Amex account via the Amex travel portal, then search for the transportation and accommodations you want to book. There will be an option to pay with points at the check-out.
• Transfer points. You can actually move your points at a 1:1 ratio to 17 airline and 3 hotel loyalty programs. To do so, log in to your Amex account and choose your loyalty program. Just keep in mind that you have to transfer in 1,000-point increments.
• Get gift cards. Log in to Amex’s gift card reward page to make your selection. There are dozens of options to choose from, including restaurants, movie theatres and airlines.
• Donate. You can make a charitable donation with your rewards points by logging in at Amex’s JustGiving page.
• Amazon Shop with Points. If you connect your Amex card to your Amazon account, you can use their Shop with Points system to spend points on merchandise. But you’ll only get 0.7 cents per point using this method.
• Statement credit. You can use your points to pay for charges on your statement, at a rate of 0.6 cents per point, by logging in to your Amex account.
• Shopping. You can also spend your points toward Ticketmaster purchases (0.6 cents per point), Rite Aid purchases, Bestbuy.com, Staples.com and a few other sites (0.7 cents per point). Plus, you can use them at a rate of 1 cent each toward NYC Taxi rides.

For more redemption options and current point values, visit the Membership Rewards Points calculator website.

In addition, American Express Platinum card points do not expire as long as your account isn’t closed due to inactivity and you keep your account in good standing. Points are forfeited when losing an account, so make sure to redeem them before that.

Yes, the American Express Platinum card does offer 100,000 points for spending $6,000 in the first 6 months.

The initial 100,000 points are worth enough to offset the cost of the American Express Platinum card’s hefty $695 annual fee, at least for the first year. In addition to the welcome offer, the American Express Platinum card offers many other … read full answerbenefits and extensive ongoing rewards: 5 points per $1 on flights booked with airlines or with American Express Travel (up to $500,000 spent per year), 5 points per $1 spent on prepaid hotels booked through Amex, and 1 point per $1 on all other purchases.

Once you’ve met the spending requirement ($6,000 in the first 6 months) for the American Express Platinum card’s bonus, the points will post to your account within 8-12 weeks.