{"id":165646,"date":"2025-09-18T15:05:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T15:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/165646\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T15:05:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T15:05:12","slug":"american-expresss-ceo-unveils-a-big-upgrade-to-its-895-platinum-card-and-explains-how-hes-targeting-gen-z-and-millennials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/165646\/","title":{"rendered":"American Express’s CEO unveils a big upgrade to its $895 Platinum Card\u2014and explains how he’s targeting Gen Z and Millennials"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this afternoon in early September, the American Express<\/a> CEO is giving Fortune an exclusive preview of the new and enhanced benefits in store for its Platinum cardholders in the highly anticipated, forthcoming update, the first in four years, that they\u2019ll unveil the morning of September 18. Seated in his glass framed office overlooking the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan, sporting a rose-hued jacket, tan jeans and loafers sans socks, the homespun Queens native\u2014who seldom gives interviews and by the way, doesn\u2019t drink coffee as he\u2019s unimpressed by the aroma\u2014is buzzing with such fervor over the coming goodies that you might think he\u2019s on a super-caffeine high from the Diet Coke he\u2019s sipping out of a traditional 8 ounce glass contour bottles that he insists \u201cwhich is part of what makes it taste a lot better. It\u2019s great marketing by Coke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marketing it something Squeri knows quite a bit about\u2014and will be relying on to sell the new card, whose annual fee will rise from the current $695 to $895. That\u2019s ahead of the $795 charge for Platinum\u2019s closest rival, the Chase Sapphire Reserve entry that got its own uplift in late June. But Squeri insists that the improved Platinum will provide the richest benefits of any widely-used card today. It\u2019s also worth noting that the uplift represents the biggest investment Amex has ever in a card refresh. \u201cIf you use the credits, you\u2019ll they\u2019ll get over $3,500 a year in value on both the consumer and business cards,\u201d he says. \u201cAt the $695 fee, that value was $1500 a year on the consumer card. People are going to do the math. They\u2019re going to say, wait a minute, you want me to pay $200 extra for over $1,000 in additional value?\u201d And if people really feast on the new benefits, they could get even more from the new menu, Squeri avows.<\/p>\n

Squeri emphasizes that Amex is doubling-down on the pioneering foray it first made during the pandemic: Moving heavily into streaming, wellness, shopping, restaurants and other \u201clifestyle\u201d areas beyond the historic concentration in travel. \u00a0(The press release issued this morning details the entire roster.) Cardmembers get a $100 a quarter credit, or $400 a year, at elite restaurants booked on the Amex-owned Resy site, $120 towards an Uber One membership that provides free delivery on eligible eatery and grocery orders, $300 ($75 a quarter) towards yoga and running gear or other apparel at Lululemon, and $200 for an Oura ring that tracks a wide range of health metrics. The digital entertainment benefit that adds Paramount+ and YouTube<\/a> Premium to the previous list that includes the likes of Disney+, Hulu<\/a> and the New York Times gets lifted from $20 to $25 a month. And cardholders keep all the sundry existing benefits ranging from credits for Walmart+ ($12.95 per month\/$155 a year) and Equinox memberships ($300 a year) to purchases at Saks ($100).<\/p>\n

On the travel side, it\u2019s mainly enhancements to today\u2019s perks. For hotels, Amex is tripling the annual credit for stays booked through American Express Travel from $200 to $600 at the mainly five-star hotels at its Fine Hotels & Resorts and slightly less fancy Hotel Collection offerings, a list that includes such choices as the Aman properties around the world and the newly-refurbished Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. Cardmembers get early check-in and 4:00 checkout privileges, as well as $100 towards such extras as food and beverage or spa services as varied as facials and saunas. Squeri stresses the sumptuous value cardmembers can reap from exploiting Amex\u2019s hotel rewards. \u201cWe offer 3100 hotels that offer those things,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have the largest array of any card company, and it keeps growing. You get early check-in and late checkout that gives you extra hours at the hotel. You can get the $100 in incidentals per stay, and you can get it any time you go to one of our hotels. You also get a free breakfast each day, we\u2019ve all had hotel breakfasts for two people and we all know they\u2019re not cheap!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dining is now the biggest spending Travel and Entertainment category for AMEX, and younger folks are the driver<\/p>\n

Squeri highlighted an historic surge in spending at restaurants that strongly shaped the new suite of rewards. \u201cIn the travel and entertainment segment that includes airfare, restaurants and dining, the latter used to be number three,\u201d he says. But it was the fastest growing T&E area in Q1 and Q2<\/a> of this year.\u00a0 That trend inspired Amex to introduce the $400 a year award for reservations through Resy. The card colossus acquired the site in 2019, a year after Squeri became CEO. Today, Resy takes over 100 million reservations a year; all-comers are welcome, but only Amex cardholders get special treatment.<\/p>\n

A big bonus for Amex customers: scoring tables at top, hard-to-get-into restaurants. The Resy network encompasses many\u00a0Michelin\u00a0star and\u00a0sundry\u00a0award winning locales including\u00a0Le Bernadin\u00a0in New York, Alinea in Chicago, and Canlis in Seattle. Some of those places often hold \u201cinventory\u201d in reserve for cardholders, or put them at the top of waiting lists over non-Amex folks who booked earlier. Why do these coveted addresses offer Amex those deals? \u201cIt\u2019s simple, because the Amex cardholder will order the more expensive bottle of wine or order the steak or it\u2019s going to be a corporate cardholder on an entertainment budget,\u201d says Squeri. Adds Resy CEO Pablo Rivero, \u201cCard members with the Resy credit spend 25% more at U.S. Resy restaurants once the benefit launched [Resy benefits were introduced in 2024 on several other Amex cards]. The restaurants want to fill up with the people who spend the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Increasingly, that cohort encompasses the Gen Z\u2019ers (up to age 27) and Millennials (28 to 44), a demo that Squeri\u2019s been a first mover in courting. \u201cThose two groups\u00a0use their cards\u00a0at restaurants 60% more on average\u00a0than boomers or Gen X\u2019ers combined,\u201d notes Rivero. Together, those younger generations account for 35% of all U.S. consumer spending for Amex, up from 19% in 2019. And the Gen Z and Millennials crowd tilt heavily to acquiring fee-based cards like Gold and Platinum.<\/p>\n

Squeri\u2019s broken fresh ground by both offering super-rich bennies overall, and tailoring the offerings to the customers of the future, those affluent, free-spending, adventure seeking folks from their mid-20s to mid-40s. For Steve Squeri, that\u2019s the formula for winning customers who\u2019ll stay onboard for decades to come.<\/p>\n

Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26\u201327, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this afternoon in early September, the American Express CEO is giving Fortune an exclusive preview of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[12468,28,21045,939],"class_list":{"0":"post-165646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-american-express","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-credit-cards","11":"tag-finance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}