Amex CEO Steve Squeri wants more high-spending millennials and Gen Zers to join his company’s upper-echelon ranks. And he’s starting to give hints of just how exactly he plans to lure more of them to the fold, announcing on June 16 that the company will implement a big upgrade late this summer or in the early fall to its Platinum card. The company says this will be its biggest investment ever in a card program. “We’ll see two areas of investments,” adds Howard Grosfield, group president for U.S. consumer services. “We’ll double down on all the things our cardmembers love now. And we’ll be adding lots of exciting new brands.”
Amex has positioned the Platinum card as the most expensive in its class at $695 a year. (Chase Sapphire at a comparable level costs $550.) But as Grosfield points out, the millennials and Gen Z crowd believe they’re reaping value well beyond the annual price of entry. The proof: The groups covering the mid-twenties to mid-forties age spectrum now make up 75% of Amex’s new accounts acquired on its two premium cards, Platinum and Gold, for 2024, up from 60% in 2019. The number of Gen Z consumer card members grew 40% in Q1 2025 versus Q1 2024, yet the credit record for the two demographics proved better than the industry average. Last quarter alone, millennials and Gen Zers accounted for 35% of total U.S. consumer spending on Amex. The fast-rising numbers signing on at $695 helped increase net card fee revenue last year by 18%. These youthful troops, says Amex, are proving extremely loyal. The company doesn’t disclose quit rates by category, but avows that its all-in retention figure stands at 98%.
The strategy dates back to 2021, when three years into the job, Squeri reckoned that the financial services giant’s best path to growth lay in attracting a far younger generation of shoppers than the affluent boomers that had traditionally formed his enterprise’s—and the industry’s—main target. Squeri took aim at millennials, now 29 to 44, and Gen Zers, today’s twentysomethings, and narrowed his sweet spot for Platinum to the high-income layer boasting excellent credit records.
Prior to that refresh, the Platinum benefits focused on travel, chiefly offering deals on the likes of hotel stays, airfares, and access to airport lounges. As the COVID lockdown lifted, Squeri and his team reckoned that the millennial and Gen Z elite would be craving fresh adventures. So Amex greatly broadened its offerings to cover the breadth of their athletic, treat-seeking lifestyles by adding perks in entertainment, wellness, and upscale shopping. Amex also recognized that this cohort—ranging from lawyers and investment bankers to software engineers and rising executives—didn’t pay like their parents. These were digital natives who often didn’t even carry cash, and charged virtually everything on their cards. They were earning more points toward more goodies than any other generation, and getting hooked. Plus, they relished apps that by tapping a few clicks could get them a seat in the hottest new restaurants that were always booked, or arrange a tennis lesson on red clay courts during a business trip to Paris.
The wider menu of perks proved a big-time lure for the younger set
The carrot that attracted the younger generation: a new array of perks covering all aspects of their leisure lives. These included a digital entertainment benefit award of $240 a year toward subscriptions for such providers as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu. Amex tapped the millennial and Gen Z yen for Uber by awarding $200 a year for rides on the service, and cardholders garner $300 each toward memberships at Equinox and SoulCycle. As for shopping, Platinum bridges luxe to daily staples, furnishing a $100 credit at Saks Fifth Avenue and Walmart+ membership offering discounts on fuel and in-home pickups for returns. The travel services are trending more more and more to the one-on-one and bespoke: Amex’s crew of 7,000 personal travel consultants can plan your itinerary for holidays in Croatia or book you at a rock concert at Wembley.
Amex also hit an ace by making a major foray into restaurant reservations. Its first move came in 2018, the year Squeri advanced to CEO, via the acquisition of Resy; its app guarantees Platinum holders bookings at super-popular eateries where it would normally take days or weeks to get a table. Today, Resy partners with 20,000 restaurants in 30 countries, and last year bought Tock, another big player that added 7,000 culinary partners, including for the first time, wineries from Napa to the Loire Valley. “We’re the only credit card operator with our own restaurant reservations platform,” says Amex’s Grosfield. “We unlock access to the world’s most sought-after tables.”
