I felt this would be a great article to touch on since a lot of the information I found out there on the WeWork perk that came through the American Express Business Platinum credit card wasn’t all that helpful and slightly misleading. The official pages had the WeWork membership as an over $2,700 value by WeWork and Amex, while I found a couple of blogs out there labeling the membership access as a “hot-desk” with the value of the perk being listed as high as $6,000 (In New York). In actuality, you are limited to only being allowed access during a WeWork staff member is on duty, usually 9am through 6pm, Monday through Friday. So sadly, no early mornings/late nights at the office, nor putting some hours in over the weekend before your football team plays.
With Clark Ideations having just launched in July, upon my return from my deployment to Afghanistan, I was really looking forward to work from a place that I could put my head down for some long days pouring into client projects and rounding out our new portfolio. During my Atlanta Tech Village days, I loved being able to form my own hours which often found me early in and out late so I would miss the worst of Buckhead/Atlanta rush hour traffic.
I did not find “hot-desk” listed on the Amex or WeWork pages, which you can bet I searched out during a fit of frustration after being told by the WeWork staff of the limitations. Ultimately, I feel they should have given more details about the access perk and owned that they basically created a unique membership-type just for the Amex card members.
Ultimately, you have to decide if 9-6pm on weekdays is enough of a perk for you. Also, take into account that a parking pass for most of the Atlanta locations costs about $175 a month. I already had the Amex Platinum personal credit card, so for me, the limitations on WeWork frustrated me due to now having another identical card with a high yearly fee and none of the perceived perks added.
Hopefully, this article offers some assistance to those looking at getting the Amex card for this perk. Keep in mind that this benefit must be requested by 12/31/2019 or you will miss out on this perk.
Luke J. Clark