Get £400 of dining credit every year with American Express Platinum

American Express has a valuable benefit for holders of The Platinum Card – £400 per year of restaurant credit.

It fundamentally changes the value calculation on whether you should get the card or not.

You could offset the £650 Amex Platinum annual fee by £400 if you thought you would use all of your credit each year. This means that you are getting a lot of benefits for the balance of £250.

How does the American Express Platinum dining credit work?

The package changed for 2025. This is what you now receive, which is better than what was offered between 2022 and 2024:

• You get £200 per year of dining credit at selected UK restaurants – £100 to use between January and June and £100 to use between July and December

• You get £200 equivalent per year of dining credit at selected overseas restaurants – £100 to use between January and June and £100 to use between July and December

Is there any onerous small print?

Not really, although you need to follow the rules:

• This is an ‘opt in’ offer. You MUST register before you start receiving cashback.

• You do NOT have to book via any special channel – simply pay for your meal with The Platinum Card.

• The offer is cumulative. You don’t need to spend the entire credit in one meal or at the same restaurant.

• The credit runs per half year and reset on 1st January and 1st July – this means that you could claim each one three times during your first year of card membership (eg join in March 2025 and you could claim the UK credit in the remainder of H1 2025, all of H2 2025 and the early part of H1 2026 before your renewal kicks in)

• Unused credit does not carry over to the next half year

• Supplementary cards are not eligible. Only the primary card receives the credit and payments must be made with the primary card.

What restaurants are taking part?

There are over 2,000 participating restaurants in 20 countries. You can see the list here.

To use the ‘international’ part of your credit, you need to visit:

• EUROPE: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain

• ASIA / OCEANIA: Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan

• AMERICAS: Canada, Mexico, United States

The UK allocation is fairly well spread throughout the country. Taking Birmingham, for example, there are five participating restaurants:

• Opheem
• Orelle
• Simpsons
• Tattu
• The Ivy Temple Row

Whilst clearly you can’t please everyone, American Express does seem to have made an effort to provide a broad spread of restaurants. There are 21 towns and cities in the France with a participating restaurant, for example – it’s not just in Paris.

How do I register?

Look in the ‘Offers’ section of your Platinum statement page, either online or in the app.

You must register TWICE – once for the UK offer and once for the international offer.

This is what you are looking for, for the 2025 offer:

and

Conclusion

This is a very generous new benefit from American Express Platinum.

I think you can reasonably treat the £200 of UK credit as ‘free money’, given that there are over 160 restaurants taking part.

The £200 of international credit will be a little more restrictive to use and will require you to fit in meals around your travelling. On the other hand, it provides a great excuse to try out a local restaurant which you would probably have otherwise ignored. It could even be a good excuse to head over to Paris or Amsterdam for the day for a slap-up lunch.

As the credit is cumulative, there is no pressure for solo diners or couples to go unnecessarily crazy on the wine either. You can use the credit over multiple meals if you wish.

You can find out more about this new benefit, and see the list of participating restaurants, here.

You can find out more about the card, and apply, here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

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