American Express - Platinum Review

    I received my amex platinum card last year in hopes that my husband and I could travel to New Zealand cheaper with its 2 for 1 airline perk. The annual fee was $250 but we were going to save so much money  since the airline tickets were $1000s. Wrong! The 2 for 1 tickets are from the city leaving the U.S. (so you have to get there first, which for us was flying from the east coast to the west coast) and also are based on the published, not discounted rates......that's really the clincher. Most flights are "discounted" in some way. The published rate is a ticket that could be bought an hour before the flight- the highest rate possible.

  This year when renewal time came up, they had another twist. For an annual fee of $395, you can buy up to 4 domestic travel tickets 2 for 1. Really, I'm normally not a sucker for these things!!! So, I called first to get some flights booked before I paid the annual fee. It worked! I bought a flight in June that I saved $248. I have several more flights to book but you can only book 6 months in advance (could I have been scammed again?). We'll see if I can pull the same deals out. If so, I will save around $600. We'll see.

  The platinum card also has many other luxury perks (a 24 hour concierce to get the best tickets to shows, golf tournaments, wine tastings, etc) but we don't have the time for that lifestyle.......yet.