Why I always shred my Amex Platinum's Priority Pass membership card — even though it's one of the card's best perks

The Amex Platinum's Priority Pass benefit is easily worth $400+ annually. And I always can't wait to throw it in the garbage.

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• The Platinum Card® from American Express comes with an otherwise (very) expensive membership to Priority Pass** airport lounges.
• You can visit over 1,300 lounges worldwide as often as you want — and even bring two guests for free.
• I deliberately refrain from using this super valuable benefit for one simple reason.
• Read Insider's guide to the best travel rewards credit cards.

You probably know that it's possible to achieve many thousands of dollars from the benefits of The Platinum Card® from American Express each year. It's hard to believe the amount of perks Amex has managed to jam into a millimeter-thin slab of stainless steel.

Quite a few of these goodies are incredibly niche and far from useful to the average cardholder. Even still, it's relatively easy to extract $1,200 in value from the card with a small bit of strategy.

One of the card's best benefits — worth well over $400 per year to even the occasional traveler — is its Priority Pass airport lounge benefit. This gives you the magic admission ticket to 1,300+ lounges worldwide. You can enter as often as you want, and you'll (usually) have access to unlimited free alcohol and food, free Wi-Fi, comfy chairs, and sometimes even showers.

To use this benefit, you must enroll your card in Priority Pass. But get this: I immediately feed the Priority Pass membership card through the paper shredder when I receive it. Here's why.

Why I throw my Amex Platinum Priority Pass membership away

The absolute best Priority Pass lounge membership money can buy costs $429 per year. For that price tag, you'll get:

• Unlimited free visits
• Visitors cost $32 each per visit

The Priority Pass membership that comes with the The Platinum Card® from American Express gives you:

• Unlimited free visits
• Up to two guests for free per visit

In other words, the The Platinum Card® from American Express's version of Priority Pass can be worth significantly more than the highest-tier option available to paying Priority Pass customers. If you regularly travel with a partner and child, the The Platinum Card® from American Express is effectively worth $64 per lounge visit.

It really is a great membership. The reason I throw it in the trash bin is that I have other credit cards that offer even better Priority Pass benefits.

Different credit cards offer varying Priority Pass benefits

Quite a few credit cards offer Priority Pass lounge membership. But the exact terms of your membership differ depending on which card you have. For example:

• The Chase Sapphire Reserve® and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card offer unlimited visits and two free guests. You'll also get access to Priority Pass-participating restaurants, which can mean up to $30 per person in free food and drinks (capped at one guest).
• The The Platinum Card® from American Express** and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card** come with unlimited access for primary cardholders and two free guests. You will not have access to Priority Pass-participating restaurants.
• The Ritz-Carlton Rewards Credit Card (not available to new applicants) offers unlimited visits and does not specify a limit to the number of guests you can bring into the lounge with you. You'll also get Priority Pass-participating restaurant privileges.
• The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card** and The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card** both provide 10 free visits per year (then $32 per visit) and no access to participating Priority Pass restaurants.

Read our guide to the best credit cards with free Priority Pass airport lounge access for all the nitty-gritty stuff.

I currently hold five credit cards that come with some form of Priority Pass lounge access. With each membership, I receive a unique Priority Pass membership card. These cards do not specify the credit card from which I received them — so I adopted the habit of simply writing "Amex Platinum" or "Bonvoy Brilliant" on the back to help myself remember.

I now just throw all but my favorite membership away — the one issued by my Ritz-Carlton credit card. There's no reason to have more than one Priority Pass membership card. For example, if I accidentally grab a membership card other than the one associated with my Ritz-Carlton Card, a few things could happen:

• My Priority Pass card could be rejected when I traipse into a Priority Pass-participating restaurant (if I picked up an Amex-issued membership card).
• The check-in desk will charge me when traveling with more than two friends.
• The lounge will turn me away because I hadn't even enrolled that particular card.

Better to shred all the ones I don't use and not even worry about something going wrong.

Read more: The best credit cards with free airport lounge access of 2022

Bottom line

If you've got multiple Priority Pass lounge memberships, I recommend disposing of all but your favorite one. It can eliminate confusion and even embarrassment at the airport.

The The Platinum Card® from American Express doesn't offer the absolute best Priority Pass benefits. Other cards like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® are slightly better. But the The Platinum Card® from American Express is still extremely useful for accessing airport lounges that other cards cannot, such as:

• Amex Centurion Lounges (widely considered to be the best domestic lounges in existence)
• Delta Sky Club (when flying Delta)
• Escape Lounges
• Plaza Premium
• Lufthansa Lounges

You can access these lounges by simply showing your The Platinum Card® from American Express at the door — freeing you up to dispose of your Priority Pass card.