Offers
Schwab link| The Morgan Stanley connection
- American Express Charles Schwab Platinum offers 150,000 bonus points after $12,000 spent within the first 6 months.
- American Express Morgan Stanley Platinum offers 150,000 bonus points after $12,000 spent within the first 6 months.
Offers end on 07.08.26.
Card details
Card details
- The annual fee of $895 is not waived the first year
- The card earns the following fees:
- 5x points per $1 spent on purchases made directly with airlines
- 5x points per $1 spent on prepaid hotel and airline reservations made on the American Express travel site
- 1x points on all other purchases
- Lounge access:
- Centurion Lounge Access
- International American Express lounge access
- Delta SkyClub lounge access
- Priority Pass Choice Membership
- Airspace lounge access
- Global Lounge Collection
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Sterling Leaders Club status for the world’s leading hotels, Marriott Gold status, Hilton Gold status, Avis, Hertz, National car rental status
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There are no foreign transaction fees
Card loans
- $600 hotel credit ($300 from January-June and $300 from July-December), (FHR each stay; THC min. stay 2 nights), more discussion in this dedicated post
- $400 Resy Credit ($100 per quarter) – See post,Maxing Out $400 Resy Credit for Dining on the American Express Platinum Card.
- $300 Lululemon Credit ($75 quarterly) – See this post,Lululemon $300 credit max on the American Express Platinum Card.
- $300 in entertainment credits – entertainment credit is increasing from $20 to $25 each month and also expanding what works to include the following: Disney+, a Disney+ bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Paramount+, Peacock, The Wall Street Journal, YouTube Premium and YouTube TV.More discussion here.
- $120 Uber One credit
- $200 Uber Cash
- $200 Oura Ring credit. Oura requires a paid subscription, see more analysis in this dedicated post.
- $200 incidental airline credit
- $155 Walmart+ Membership Credit ($12.99 monthly)
- $100 Saks credit ($50 January-June, $50 July-December) – this loan expires soon
- $300 Equinox credit and $300 SoulCycle credit
- $209 clear membership credit
- $85/$120 TSApre/GlobalEntry Credits (once every 4-4.5 years)
exclusive
Exclusive to the Morgan Stanley Edition:
- Get your first Platinum add-on card for free (The annual fee for each Additional Platinum Card is $195. There is no annual fee for Companion Platinum Cards.)
- Redeem points as cash, credited to your E*TRADE or Morgan Stanley account, at a value of 1 cent per point. Unlimited.
- Morgan Stanley Annual Commitment Bonus – up to $895 per year in your Platinum CashPlus account offsetting the annual fee. (Must have Platinum CashPlus account, Morgan investment relationship, $5K monthly deposits + $25K cash balance requirements to avoid CashPlus fees.)
Exclusive to the Schwab version:
- Redeem points as cash, credited to your Schwab brokerage or retirement account, to the value of 1.1 cents per point. Limit 1 million points (0.8 cents thereafter).
- Schwab Rating Bonus – an annual statement credit based on Schwab assets: $100 at $250K+, $200 at $1M+, $1,000 at $10M+.
Our verdict
This is the highest ever straight up points offer on the Schwab and Morgan Stanley Platinum cards. They did also increase expenses from $8,000 to $12,000. Some people will also be interested in the cash-out option, especially from the Schwab card with the 1.1 cent cash-out rate.
The annual fee is massive at $895, but many people find it worth the fee with all credits added. I am thinking of applying. We will add this to our list best credit card bonuses.
You can usually get a lifetime bonus from AmEx, so it can be easier to get these other flavors of AmEx Platinum if you previously had the vanilla AmEx Platinum card. In reality, I’m not sure how much it matters since AmEx introduced the popup jail – if you’re interested, just submit an application and see if they offer you the bonus.
Note: the regular AmEx Platinum card offers “up to” 175,000 points so you might want to try that first and see if they offer the 175k offer for you.
