I don't have an AMEX yet in my collection of cards because of the annual fees that are associated with them. It sounds like it's really worth spending the fee every year if you travel a lot, though. I love my Visa and Discover card, even though I don't earn as much as I would like to. So the Platinum card doesn't offer any reward points and they charge that much for the annual fee?

This is a testimonial to credit card reward points as it applies to American Express. For three years I pushed everything to my AMEX Preferred Rewards card garnering the 15K additional points for spending $30K a year for the last three years. For doing this I was able to purchase 2 round trip tickets to the S.F. / Bay Area, Car Rental for both trips, Gas Cards, Restaurant Gift Cards plus hotel rooms for both trips paid for with points. Baggage covered by the Amex Insurance, Car Rental Insurance covered by AMEX for 150K points.

Love Visa and MC and have a Visa Signature and I have heard that both are accepted in more places than AMEX but in my opinion AMEX takes care of you. Like others, I hate the AF but with all the options / benefits and great customer service its hard to beat the AMEX life.

It would be nice to see the Platinum Card absorb the reward point options of the Preferred Card and complete itself as the ultimate card to have outside of the Black Card. The $450 AF would be more palatable for the consumer to consider at that point.