For years, booking a trip through American Express allowed me to log in to my desktop browser and click on the Amex Travel portal. It worked, but in a world where travelers are used to smooth apps from airlines and hotel chains, the experience often felt clunky.
Thankfully, American Express has finally launched its new dedicated Amex Travel app, a mobile hub designed to help cardholders plan, book and manage their travels in one place. The deployment is as travel loyalty programs and credit card issuers compete to win the attention (and spending) of travelers who increasingly expect seamless digital tools along with premium perks.
This app is currently available for download on iOS devices. Android smartphones can be downloaded in the coming weeks.
You can get a closer look at what the new app offers and what features are likely to be most useful to travelers.
A single hub for booking flights, hotels and cars
The new AMEX app’s heading function is all-in-one reservations. Instead of switching between airline apps, hotel sites and third-party platforms, travelers can now book flights, hotels and car rentals via one mobile interface.
The app also includes a wish list option that allows users to bookmark hotels and itineraries and revisit them later. Anyone who is an indecisive planner or compares destinations and property options while waiting for PTO approval will have fewer tabs in their open browsers, meaning more organized decisions.
Currently, all hotels that you can book are drawn from Amex’s Fine Hotels + Resorts and the Hotel Collection Program. No new hotel stock has been added. Please note that the booking app is separate from the regular Amex app, allowing the cardholder to confirm the transaction and make credit card payments.
Seamless reward booking and perks
Importantly, the app integrates Amex’s existing ecosystem of rewards into the booking process. Members can pay in cash, points, or in mix of two. That flexibility makes it easier to maximize points by allowing users to compare points and cash costs.
Cardholders should ensure that additional perks attached to their free bookings (such as a free breakfast or a free breakfast or a guaranteed late checkout that may tilt the scale when deciding where to stay).
Waiting time at the Centurion Lounge
If you’ve ever run through the airport terminal just to find a capacity lounge, the new app offers some serious relief. It displays the real-time lounge wait times and lets travelers decide whether it is worth heading to the lounge or whether they need to join a digital waiting list before leaving the gate area.
The update highlights the busyness of airport lounges due to the surge in travel after the pandemic. Delta and Capital One are facing rebounds from the long lines outside the lounge, and the Amex move shows efforts to ease friction among loyal cardholders who are unhappy with the lounge squeeze.
Curated inspiration
The app is more than logistics, and it also aims to spark ideas about where to go next. The new Inspiration Feed blends a guide to destinations, hotel spotlights and themed itinerary drawn from Amex’s network of travel partners.
Instead of starting from scratch in the search bar, travelers can view these curated options, such as hotels worth planning their trip, how to flip through magazines and scroll through social media.
Digital Travel Records
One more playful feature is Amex Passport, a type of digital stamp book that allows cardholders to collect virtual stamps tied to destinations they visit.
These are more than just icons. You can personalize it with highlights (memorable dinners, favorite museums) and save it as a digital souvenir that can be shared on social media and text. It may not appeal to all travelers, but it depends on making international purchases through AMEX (not all travelers do it regularly), but for those looking for a modern riff on paper passport stamps from an era when physical passport stamps are disappearing, it could be a fun product.
