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You can’t use your 2025 Amex Platinum dining credits yet

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

(It may, of course, become even more popular soon now that British Airways is culling many Silver and Gold cardholders, since Platinum cardholders get free access for up to four people to the two independent lounges in Heathrow Terminal 5.)

Until 14th January there is a generous sign-up bonus (80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Avios) which you qualify for even if you already have a British Airways American Express card. Some people may see a higher offer – click through and look at the application page.

2025 Amex Platinum dining and Harvey Nichols credit changes

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.

One of these is the Platinum Dining credit.

This has been upgraded for 2025, and 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.

2025 Amex Platinum dining and Harvey Nichols credit changes

Your 2025 dining credit is NOT active yet

Because 2025 sees revised terms for Platinum Dining, you will need to opt-in again. Your existing registration for 2022-2024 is no longer valid.

However, registration is not yet available.

Do NOT go out for a meal this week, or this weekend, hoping to use your £100 of January to June dining credit because you can’t.

Registration will not be available by this weekend. You might have more luck the following weekend ….

You CAN nip out to Harvey Nichols and spend your final £50 credit, however. Registration for that promotion DID rollover, so as long as you were opted in to the 2022-2024 version it remains active. Remember that the Harvey Nichols partnership ends on 30th June 2025.

PS. If you get the Financial Times at the weekend (UK edition only), you’ll find a little story there this Saturday about how I finally blew my £150 of non-UK dining credit for 2024. Barry (from the SAS million points challenge) makes an appearance too.

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Category

American Express Platinum card

Comments (86)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • ianM says:
    2 Jan2 January 09:06

    ……that British Airways is culling many Silver and Gold cardholders…..

    Did BA ask you say that?

    • phantomchickenz says:
      2 Jan2 January 09:10

      It’s what customers asked for

      • David says:
        2 Jan2 January 10:48

        People also asked for Virgin dynamic pricing. It may also seem that want the same for BA.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        2 Jan2 January 10:54

        I’m sure customers did ask for fewer exec elites. The issue is everyone always wants to threshold to be just below their personal achievement.

        BA isn’t stupid enough or doesn’t know how much it’s FF fly and obviously if in 2026 enough people aren’t hitting elite status they can adjust the thresholds.

        Virgin dynamic pricing was far more aggressive in the fact it affected everyone from day 1 and what you’ll pay is pretty much completely unknown it’s just trial and error on looking at destinations/dates.

  • George says:
    2 Jan2 January 09:08

    “ It may, of course, become even more popular soon now that British Airways is culling many Silver and Gold cardholders”

    Wow it gets worse

    • TGLoyalty says:
      2 Jan2 January 09:48

      What gets worse? They’re going to cull them in 2026 because it’s going to be harder to earn / renew.

      • George says:
        2 Jan2 January 09:55

        I hope they’ll cull the benefits rather than the members. That would be a bit harsh

  • r* says:
    2 Jan2 January 09:44

    Is there any suggestion that the amex lounge pre-booking credits will be coming back?

  • Larry says:
    2 Jan2 January 10:00

    amex live chat agent just manually reenrolled me, should appear on the account within the next 4 hours – were they just BSing me?

  • Flightsy says:
    2 Jan2 January 10:21

    I took out the Platinum Biz Amex a couple of months ago and each time I’ve tried using Priority Pass lounges I can’t even get in. I am asked to scan a QR code and I never end up anywhere near the front of the queue. I once paid to get into a PP lounge at Heathrow early last year as I needed a shower after a long work day as I was due to take an overnight flight and the showers were out of order and the lounge was dirty and extremely busy. Personally I wouldn’t take this card assuming you can ever get into the lounges given my experience so far 🙁

  • Neil says:
    2 Jan2 January 10:29

    Honestly, Amex are such a joke. Fair enough you have to opt in but they could have at least let people know about this in advance.

    • Swiss Jim says:
      2 Jan2 January 10:31

      They did

      • Neil says:
        2 Jan2 January 10:41

        Ah fair enough then. I stand corrected.

        • meta says:
          2 Jan2 January 11:34

          They didn’t. Early January means nothing. It’s not exact date and Amex are in breach of card terms. They need to give concrete dates otherwise it doesn’t count.

          • Swiss Jim says:
            2 Jan2 January 12:05

            Where in card terms does it say they have to provide registration link on or before 1 January 2025?

          • meta says:
            2 Jan2 January 12:40

            It says that the annual dining credit is per year. As such it should be provided for the whole year and not partial year.

          • meta says:
            2 Jan2 January 12:49

            And the fact that Amex has not updated its T&C for Dining Credit and has been accepting new applications is also breach of credit card terms.

          • Scaz says:
            2 Jan2 January 12:59

            In the terms and conditions it does say the dining credit will reset 1 January .

            They sent me the terms and conditions when I tried to enrol yesterday .

          • TGLoyalty says:
            2 Jan2 January 13:11

            https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/benefits/diningbenefit/Terms-and-Conditions-GB.pdf Current terms in their website from the platinum page has years which ended in 2024. Do you have link to the ones that’s refer to the 2025 starting on 1st Jan because it will help a few people here …

          • Swiss Jim says:
            2 Jan2 January 13:21

            You’ve also got to prove loss of course. What have you lost given you can use credit until 30 June?

          • meta says:
            2 Jan2 January 19:35

            @Swiss Jim £12+ per week because that’s the weekly fee for holding the card.

          • Swiss Jim says:
            2 Jan2 January 20:50

            @Meta funny 🤣

  • HayMow says:
    2 Jan2 January 12:20

    re “PS. If you get the Financial Times at the weekend (UK edition only), you’ll find a little story there this Saturday about how I finally blew my £150 of non-UK dining credit for 2024. Barry (from the SAS million points challenge) makes an appearance too.”

    If you google the following and click on “Secrets of an airline points millionaire”, you can read the article (or two other recents mentioning Rob) without an FT subscription: financial times rob burgess.

    • scaz says:
      2 Jan2 January 13:26

      Sure and now for Abroad Dining Platinum Benefit Get up to £100 back every 6 months when you dine abroad
      Maximum amount back is £100 per 6 months of the calendar year: Each redemption period resets on 1 July and 1 January until the offer end date of 31 December 2026. You cannot carry any unused offer value from one redemption period into the next. If you spend on the last day of a redemption period, your transaction may not get captured within that redemption period, so it is recommended to redeem at least 1 day earlier in the period.
      Primary Cardmember Only: The Benefit is only available to Primary American Express Platinum Cardmembers using their Platinum Card. Transactions made with a Supplementary Card or Additional Card are not eligible for this Benefit.
      Save this Benefit First: You must first save the Benefit to your Platinum before making your payment to qualify for the benefit. If you use another card to make a payment at any time, you will not be eligible for the b

  • Richard says:
    2 Jan2 January 14:19

    I was chatting to Amex yesterday about another issue and asked about the dining credit. I was told I would be enrolled automatically. I said great I’m abroad and will use the credit tomorrow. She replied “Great, Enjoy the meal”! Glad I saw this article!

    • No longer Entitled says:
      2 Jan2 January 14:27

      There will be a record of this chat. I would be highly confident of getting the £100 as a goodwill gesture and moderately confident that I would still be able to use the actual credit in H1 post registration.

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