American Express is about to make a controversial change to its flagship Platinum card

Highfalutin 'premium' travel cards from creditors like American Express  (AXP)  and JPMorgan Chase  (JPM)  have already captured America's biggest spendthrifts. The trick now is keeping them while raising annual fees. 

They're not worried, though: if history is any indication, America's mass affluent will be 'all fuss, no action.'

In its latest quarterly showing, Amex's fee revenue jumped 20% year-over-year, extending a years-long trend of growth made possible by reinventing products with new credits and higher annual fees.

Without any real pushback, that trend is bound to continue, too. On Thursday, the credit giant is expected to announce a consequential change to its flagship product, the American Express Platinum Card. 

The biggest of those changes — the price — is unlikely to be popular.

Tale as Old As Time: Amex Raises the Fee

For the first time since Jul. 2021, American Express is expected to roll out changes to its American Express Platinum and Business Platinum cards. 

Amex foreshadowed these changes earlier this year when competitor Chase JPM borrowed its homework with hefty changes to its top-of-the-line Chase Sapphire Reserve Card. At the time, Amex promised to "take these Cards to a new level," with the "largest investment ever in a Card refresh."

That large investment will have a higher entry fee, though. The $695/yr Amex Platinum and Business Platinum will now be $895/yr, a 28.8% increase. 

The higher fee will take effect at the cardholder's next renewal. Additional cards, which confer a number of benefits like lounge access and TSA PreCheck credit, are expected to stay at $195/yr.

So what can cardholders expect from the big changes?

What's Changing on the Consumer Card?

According to leaks, many of the core features on the Amex Platinum Card will be staying the same. 

That means the 5x Membership Rewards (MR) points on flights and Amex Travel and 1x points in earnings will be staying the same. It also means that many of the existing credits that Platinum cardholders have gotten comfortable with will be here to stay.

However, to justify the increased annual fee, Amex is expected to add a series of new credits to the card, which aim to offer sufficient value to retain their high-spenders.

Among the rumored additions are:

• A $600 Hotel Credit ($300/biannually on select Amex Travel options)
• A new $400 Resy Credit ($100/quarter)
• Courtesy Uber One and $200 Uber Cash Credit (offered monthly)
• A new Lululemon credit ($75/quarter)

All of these announcements will be made on Thursday, when the company announces the refresh and a new design variant of the card, Mirror Finish.

What Does the Change Mean?

For some, the Amex Platinum's higher annual fee is a nonstarter, especially since the card is now creeping closer to $1,000/yr. Hardly cheap.

It remains to be seen how the changes will be received by cardholders. We ultimately won't know until the changes are fully announced on Thursday (this article will be updated to reflect the changes.)

However, it seems most likely that a steepening fee won't thin out the lines at the company's Centurion airport lounges just yet. It might just be the latest inconvenience that affluent spenders learn to live with, all for the sake of value.

If not for the fee hikes and affluent spenders, it's hard to know where American Express — up 224% over the past five years — would be today. But one thing is for sure: if it didn't work, the rest of the industry wouldn't be following their lead.