The AmEx Platinum card

OK, so the American Express Platinum is an expensive credit card to have, with a $450 annual fee. Normally, I wouldn't go near such a thing. But when, in late 2014, I received the mailer promising 100,000 AmEx Membership Rewards points to open a new account, I started doing some math. At a penny a point, that's $1000. That's on top of the other card perks, such as the $100 credit for a Global Entry application and up to $200 in miscellaneous charges on an airline of your choice (including the $50 day passes for the airline lounge). Plus, unlimited visits to the AmEx Centurion lounges (including SFO, SEA, and LAS).

So, if you think of this as an offer of 100,000 Membership Rewards points for $450, it starts looking like free money. So, as an experiment, I decided to try it out for one year, cancelling the card before the next annual fee. Here's how it panned out for me in 2015:

• used 24k points for airline ticket to see parents, would have cost me $230; 
• used 61k points for airline ticket to Alaska, would have cost me $625;
• $100 credit for Global Entry program application;
• 14k points to cover $143.07 in Uber charges;
• 4 visits to airport lounges (Centurion Club x4, SFO, SEA, LAS)

So, that comes out to $1,100 in real value, plus 4 free fancy airline lounge visits.  Not bad. And I didn't even get a chance to use the $200 credit for miscellaneous charges on the airline of your choice (mine was United). So, if you ever see that 100k points offer in your mailbox, maybe don't throw it out.