Unveiled: the 2025 Amex Platinum dining and Harvey Nichols cashback changes

The Platinum Card from American Express is very popular with Head for Points readers, despite the £650 annual fee.

This is initially due to the generous sign-up bonus (50,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 50,000 Avios) which you qualify for even if you already have a British Airways American Express card.

What tends to keep people paying the fee is the generous benefits package. You can recoup much of your fee in almost-cash benefits, even without considering ‘soft’ benefits like airport lounge access and hotel elite status.

At present, there are three key ‘pseudo cash’ benefits worth £350 per year that you get with The Platinum Card:

• £50 every six months to spend with Harvey Nichols, either in-store or online

• £150 per calendar year to spend in 300+ UK restaurants

• £150 per calendar year to spend in 1,300+ restaurants outside the UK

These benefits were guaranteed until the end of 2024. American Express has, frankly, been very slow in confirming what will happen in 2025.

Now we know.

What are the Amex Platinum cashback benefits for 2025?

Harvey Nichols

As I suspected, the Harvey Nichols benefit is being killed off, but not just yet.

It will continue until 30th June 2025. This means that you can claim one £50 credit in 2025.

Dining credits

The better news is that the dining credits are remaining, and are getting even better.

The total annual dining credit will now be £400 per calendar year.

You will receive:

• £200 per year to spend at participating UK restaurants, with a maximum credit of £100 every six months

• £200 per year to spend at participating restaurants outside the UK, with a maximum credit of £100 every six months

This means that you will need to eat out at least four times to earn the maximum credit.

What do we think?

The loss of the Harvey Nichols benefit is a shame for me, but as I live near the London store I am not exactly typical. Other people may not see it as a big loss.

The change to the dining credit is good news, I think.

The UK part of the credit is not an issue for me and I treat this as being as good as £200 of cash. I accept that if you don’t live or work in London you may see if differently.

The overseas credit is, if I’m honest, always trickier to use – and I say that as someone who spends 50+ nights per year outside the UK. I still haven’t used my 2024 credit. Due to a couple of unexpected trip cancellations in recent weeks, it looks like I will only have one further opportunity this year – and I’d be on my own, meaning a £150 solo meal.

That said, my wife and I used our 2023 credit at a lovely brasserie in Paris, and it was somewhere we would never have made the effort to try otherwise. Sometimes a benefit which makes you go a little outside your comfort zone can be good.

The bottom line is that holders of The Platinum Card will get £450 of Harvey Nichols and dining credits next year.

One tiny bit of small print

You will need to re-register for the dining credits in January. Your existing registration will not be valid.

Don’t rush out on 1st January for a slap-up New Year lunch without renewing your registration. I am told by Amex that this may not be available immediately on 1st January.

Apply NOW and get £800 of credits

Yes …. apply for The Platinum Card now and you could earn £800 in credit.

This is on top of the 50,000 Membership Rewards points (which convert to 50,000 Avios) you’ll get as a sign-up bonus if you qualify.

The £800 consists of the following:

• £50 to spend at Harvey Nichols by 31st December 2024
• £150 to spend at participating UK restaurants by 31st December 2024
• £150 to spend at participating overseas restaurants by 31st December 2024
• £50 to spend at Harvey Nichols between 1st January and 30th June 2025
• £100 to spend at participating UK restaurants between 1st January and 30th June 2025
• £100 to spend at participating overseas restaurants by 1st January and 30th June 2025
• £100 to spend at participating UK restaurants between 1st July and 30th December 2025
• £100 to spend at participating overseas restaurants by 1st July and 30th December 2025

If you didn’t renew for the 2nd year you’d need to complete the final two tasks before your first anniversary, which would be late October 2025 if you applied today.

You can read more about the benefits of The Platinum Card in our full review here. It hasn’t been updated with this new benefits information yet.

You can apply for the card here.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers: