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Update: The changes discussed in this post are now in effect

American Express has announced sweeping changes to benefits across almost its entire range of business and personal cards, set to take effect on 01/01/2020.

Some of the updates, namely the addition of trip delay and trip cancellation & interruption insurance to premium Amex cards, are fantastic changes. However, the removal of roadside assistance perks, plus a significant shakeup of purchase protection benefits, are undeniably negative changes that may have an impact on which cards you choose to swipe for major purchases.

Trip Delay & Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance are essentials for when travel goes pear-shaped.

Premium Amex Cards Get Trip Delay and Trip Cancellation/Interruption Coverage

The most significant change is the addition of trip delay and trip cancellation & interruption coverage for premium Amex cards. These perks, which have set Chase cards apart for years, are well overdue for Amex's premium travel cards.

American Express Trip Delay Coverage

Amex is adding trip delay coverage to a handful of high-end, co-brand and Membership Rewards cards. There is a higher tier of protection for ultra-premium cards like The Platinum Card® from American Express, and a secondary level of protection for mid-tier cards like the American Express® Green Card. Some of the terminology in the sample Amex trip delay guides supplied by Amex is slightly ambiguous, particularly how they define a covered trip.

Amex defines a covered trip as “a period of round-trip travel to one or more destinations,” which reads as though they will only cover round-trip itineraries. However, when you dig into the terms, it includes “roundtrip, one-way, or combinations of roundtrip and one-way tickets.” So you could effectively book any combination of roundtrip and one-way flights and still retain coverage.

Covered reasons for trip delay to kick in include inclement weather, terrorist events, equipment failure, and lost or stolen passports or travel documents. The coverage will reimburse you for meals, lodging, toiletries, medication, and personal use items.

Tier-one trip delay covers you for up to $500 if your trip is delayed by more than six hours. Covered cards include:

The Platinum Card® from American Express How to Apply The Platinum Card® from American Express Annual Fee$550 Welcome Bonus Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® points after you use your new Card to make $5,000 in purchases in your first 3 months. Show more Earning Rates 5X points on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel, and on prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com

Tier-two trip delay covers you for up to $300 if your trip is delayed by more than 12 hours. Covered cards include:

American Express® Green Card How to Apply American Express® Green Card Annual Fee$150 Welcome Bonus Earn 30,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $2,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 3 months.

Cover applies to travel purchased after 01/01/2020, and you must buy the travel in full with your Amex card, using Pay with Points, or pay the fees and taxes on an award ticket.

Link: American Express trip delay sample benefits guides.

American Express Trip Cancellation & Interruption Insurance

From January 1, 2020, when you purchase travel using a covered card (same rules as mentioned above), and the trip is canceled or interrupted for a covered reason, you could be eligible for reimbursement of non-refundable travel expenses up to the value of $10,000 per trip (max $20K per 12 months). The same ‘roundtrip’ definitions mentioned above apply to this policy. However, the covered reasons differ slightly, including injury or illness to you or an eligible travel companion, inclement weather, a change in military orders, terrorist action, jury duty, your residence made uninhabitable, or quarantine imposed by a physician for health reasons.

Covered cards include only ultra-premium cards charging significant annual fees:

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express Apply Now

Rates & Fees

(Terms apply) (Terms apply) The Business Platinum Card® from American Express Annual Fee$595 Welcome Bonus Earn 75,000 Membership Rewards® points. after you spend $15,000 on qualifying purchases within your first 3 months of Card Membership. Show more HighlightsEarning Rates Earn 75,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 on qualifying purchases within your first 3 months of Card Membership.

Get 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com.

Get 50% more Membership Rewards® points. That's an extra half point per dollar, on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more. You can get up to 1 million additional points per year.

Enroll to get up to $200 in statement credits annually by getting up to $100 semi-annually for U.S. purchases with Dell. Terms apply.

35% Airline Bonus: Use Membership Rewards® Pay with Points for all or part of a flight with your selected qualifying airline, and you can get 35% of the points back, up to 500,000 bonus points per calendar year when you book on amextravel.com.

Terms Apply

Rates & Fees 5X Membership Rewards ® points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com

points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com Get 50% more Membership Rewards ® points. That's 1.5 points per dollar, on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more. You can get up to 1 million additional points per year

points. That's 1.5 points per dollar, on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more. You can get up to 1 million additional points per year 1X point on other purchases

Enroll to get up to $200 in statement credits annually by getting up to $100 semi-annually for U.S. purchases with Dell. Terms apply.

Again, coverage applies only to travel purchased after 01/01/2020. And you must purchase the travel in full with your Amex card, using Pay with Points, or pay the fees and taxes on an award ticket if using points or miles from a loyalty program.

Link: American Express trip interruption & cancellation sample benefits guides.

Updates to Existing Amex Travel & Purchase Protection Policies

Amex is making multiple updates to existing card benefits, with changes inbound for purchase protection, extended warranty, return protection, and lost luggage policies.

Purchase Protection

Purchase protection coverage will be reduced from 120 days to 90 days across all Amex cards. This is a bizarre change considering Amex increased this policy from 90—>120 days in August 2018. This move pushes Chase back to the top of the rankings for the best credit cards for purchase protection benefits.

Extended Warranty

Another policy that Amex rewired in August 2018, extended warranty will be removed from select no-annual-fee cards (consumer cards only, from our research), and the remainder of Amex’s rewards card lineup has the policy reduced from two years coverage to an additional one year of warranty coverage at the end of the manufacturer's warranty. Again, Amex only increased its policy to two years mid-way through 2018, so it is a curious move for them to cut it so quickly. Check out our head-to-head review of the best cards for extended warranty.

Return Protection

Amex will cut return protection from most of its cards come January 1, with the policy being retained on just a handful of cards. The following cards will keep an unchanged return protection benefit:

Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express Apply Now

Rates & Fees

(Terms apply) (Terms apply) Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express Annual Fee$95 Welcome Bonus Earn a $250 statement credit after you spend $1,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 3 months. Show more HighlightsEarning Rates Earn a $250 statement credit after you spend $1,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 3 months.

6% Cash Back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%).

6% Cash Back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions.

3% Cash Back at U.S. gas stations and on transit (including taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, trains, buses and more). 1% Cash Back on other purchases.

Low intro APR: 0% for 12 months on purchases from the date of account opening, then a variable rate, currently 13.99% to 23.99%.

Plan It® gives the option to select purchases of $100 or more to split up into monthly payments with a fixed fee and no interest.

Cash Back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit.

$95 Annual Fee

Terms Apply.

Rates & Fees 6% Cash Back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions

6% Cash Back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%)

3% Cash Back on transit including taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, trains, buses and more

3% Cash Back at U.S. gas stations

1% Cash Back on other purchases

Lost/Damaged Luggage Protection

In a case that is going to leave Amex EveryDay Preferred cardholders feeling decidedly singled out, it's the only card to lose baggage insurance as a card benefit. All other cards that had the policy retain it.

Amex Cutting Roadside Assist and Travel Accident Insurance

From January 1, Amex is cutting roadside assistance (both the full service and dispatch services) and travel accident insurance entirely from all cards. While the loss of travel accident insurance is unlikely to cause many folks sleepless nights, we see cutting roadside assistance as a genuine loss to Amex cards. Particularly those that provided full-service roadside assistance. Keep an eye on our post covering best cards for roadside assistance when the changes go into effect for alternative cards if this is a benefit you value.

Business Platinum Card Losing Boingo, GoGo, and WeWork Memberships

Last on the list is changes to the Business Platinum Card, which will lose the annual Boingo Wi-Fi membership, complimentary GoGo Wi-Fi passes, and the one-year WeWork subscription. If you haven’t registered for your WeWork subscription by 12/31/2019, you will no longer be eligible as a Business Platinum Card cardholder.

Our Take

Premium Amex cardholders should be pretty happy with these changes. The addition of trip delay and cancellation/interruption insurance is huge news. After the Prestige card lost these benefits, those with multiple premium cards were forced to choose between 5x earning on airfare (without coverage) or 3x earning from the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. With this change, the personal and business Platinum take a commanding lead as the best cards to swipe for airfare.

If you hold a low- or no-annual-fee card that will have benefits removed, your take on these changes will likely be negative. These updates don't go into effect until January 1, 2020, so you still have a couple of weeks to make last-minute purchases under the current policies.

For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees), and Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express (Rates & Fees)

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