AmEx Hooked Big Spenders and Regained the Throne With a Pricier Platinum Card
It boosted points and added new benefits, then raised fees in the middle of a pandemic. The risky strategy worked.
Illustration: Edward Carvalho-Monaghan
Inside the American Express Co. lounge at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the smell of success is in the air.
A bartender mixes drinks with ice cubes stamped 1850, the year AmEx was founded. Twentysomethings can be found draped over the lavish furniture, filming their next TikTok video and eating cuisine from a Michelin-starred chef. Wafting through the room is a specially crafted blend of bergamot, pink peppercorns, lavender and leather—the same concoction used in the scratch-and-sniff ads that helped rope in a record number of new Platinum cardholders this year. The lounges have become so popular in recent months that AmEx sometimes has to turn members away.