Amex Platinum Travel credit card is one of the best travel credit cards in India. It gives ~7% reward rate post annual fees, which is probably unparalleled in the industry. Below is a detailed review of this credit card.
Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card
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Fees:
- The first-year fee of 3500+GST (i.e. 4130). Second year onwards 5000+GST (i.e.5900). Joining benefit of 10,000 MR points.
Rewards and Benefits:
- Base Reward Rate: 1MR point for every INR 50 spent. Value of 1RP =50p. i.e. 1% (Considering redemption value for Taj vouchers). No reward points for spending on fuel, insurance, utilities and cash withdrawal.
- Accelerated Reward Rate: 3MR points for every INR 50 spent on the Amex Reward Multiplier portal (similar to the HDFC Smartbuy portal).
- Milestone Rewards:
- On spending 190,000 in a year, you get 15,000 MR points. At 50p, that’s 7.5k in Taj vouchers. This is a straight 4% (7500 /190000) reward rate.
- On spending 400,000 in a year, you get additional 25,000 MR points. This is in addition to the 15,000 MR points received earlier. So overall 40,000 MR points. This translates into a 5% reward rate on 400,000 in milestone spending alone.
- That’s not all. You also get a 10,000 Taj voucher for spending 400,000. So overall, you get 40,000 MR points + 10k Taj voucher as a milestone benefit on spending 4lk. This translates into a whopping 7.5% reward rate on an annual spend of 4lk.
- Accounting for the regular MR points on your spending and an annual fee of 5900. You still end up with a handsome reward rate of 7%.
- Lounge access:
- The primary cardholder has access to 8 lounge visits (max 2 per quarter) in a year. A list of lounges is available here.
- One disappointment here is that the Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card does not provide access to Amex lounges. 😞
Thoughts on Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card
Positives:
Great card for those lumpy annual spends
Amex Platinum Travel credit card is a great card for those lumpy annual spends (ala insurance spends). Unlike, the Axis Magnus credit card (apply now) milestone benefits in this credit card are on annual spending. Thus, you can pay the lumpy annual spends such as insurance premiums thru this card and easily reach the milestone spends.
I personally use this credit for most of my insurance spending. Though this credit card does not give reward points on insurance spending, the spending is considered for the annual milestone. Further, if you make the payment thru Amazon Pay at times you do get reward points. Not to forget that Amex generally brings in offers on insurance payments during Jan-Mar months.
Thus, applying for this card now and being ready makes sense
Apply Amex Platinum Travel Now!
Similarly, you can use this card for fuel spending in conjunction with other spends. Thus you end up with a cool 7% reward rate on fuel spending too. 😇
Any Amex offer is by default a double dip on this card
Any offer from Amex is a double dip on the Amex Platinum Travel credit card. Simply because the offers run in addition to the card features. Thus, for example, if Amex has an offer that says, “Spend 2lk and get vouchers worth 10K.” On this card, the 2lk spent will get you 10k vouchers plus the 15k MR points on spending 1.9lk.
A phone call always helps during renewal 😇
While the Amex Platinum Travel credit card does NOT offer spends based fee waiver, you should always call up customer care during renewal. My experience is they will give you some offers such as adjusting reward points against annual fees or extra reward points for making the payment. If your spending is above their threshold then you may very well get a fee waiver too.
Reward multiplier gives 3x points
You get 3x MR points on your purchases on the Amex Reward Multiplier website compared to 2x offered on the MRCC credit card.
Negatives:
No access to the Amex lounge
One of the biggest grouses with this credit card is it does not provide access to the famed Amex lounges. I mean they can easily give 1/qtr or worst 2/year access to their own lounges on this credit card.
Bonus MR points need to be manually converted into regular MR points
This is one weird rule with Amex. The milestone MR points are not automatically converted into regular MR points. You need to either chat or call customer care for those 40k MR points. I know of a case where the customer didn’t know this and his last 3-year bonus MR points were converted into regular MR points in one shot. A true bonus of 120k MR points. 😀😀😀
Reward rate is maximised only on Taj voucher or Marriott transfer
If you are someone who is not much into travel then you may find this card underwhelming. The best redemptions on this card are on either Taj vouchers or transferring to Marriott Bonvoy. Thus if you are looking for the pure statement credit you will be disappointed.
Personally, I redeemed my Taj vouchers for a stay at Vivanta Kochi, which was upgraded to a suite. Further, I redeemed the vouchers for a stay at Taj Kovalam where I redeemed points + vouchers worth 50k for a 3-night stay. I paid just 500 out of my pocket during those 3 days. 😀
Do note that the most positives and negatives of the Amex MRCC credit card are also applicable to this credit card and thus I have not repeated the same here.
Comparison with Amex MRCC, Axis Magnus and HDFC Infinia
The sweet spot for the Amex Platinum Travel credit card is around 4lk spends level. Where you get a 7%+ reward rate.
However, if you have say 5-6lk annual spends, you may consider Amex MRCC and Amex Plat Travel combo. At this spending level, these cards if optimized for spending can give you a total 6%+ reward rate post the annual fees. If you are not into the cashback game then the Amex MRCC+ Amex Plat Travel combo will be rated higher over the Amex MRCC+ SBI Cashback+Axis Ace combo.
If you apply using the link below, you can get the Amex Platinum Travel credit card free for the first year.
Apply Amex Platinum Travel Now!
Not to forget the above calculations include fuel and insurance spending too. Thus, it means that you are getting a whopping 6%+ return on fuel and insurance spending too.
Conclusion
Amex Platinum Travel credit card is a highly rewarding card with probably the best redemption option in the travel space. At 4lk spends you get rewards worth 28k post fees, which is good enough for a 2-3 night stay at many Taj properties within the country.
Apply Amex Platinum Travel Now!
Disclaimer
In the interest of full disclosure, Credit Cardz may earn a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through some of the links in this post. However, opinions and views expressed here are of the author's alone and not those of the bank, credit card issuer, or anyone else and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
This is one weird rule with Amex. The milestone MR points are not automatically converted into regular MR points. You need to either chat or call customer care for those 40k MR points. I know of a case where the customer didn’t know this and his last 3-year bonus MR points were converted into regular MR points in one shot. A true bonus of 120k MR points.,
thanks a lot bro for sharing this, after all i dont know this but i am member of platinum since 2016, i have contacted CC, but they credited only last 3 years of points.
i have read so many blogs all these years about credit cards, but no one mentioned this point. really thanks!!!
Happy that this blog helped you retrieve your points.😊
Who are eligible for this card
Typically any one with documented income of around 8lks and residing in the cities that amex serves. there are 20+ cities. The list is available on amex website
Very helpful article!
The excel sheet helps simulate the earnings based on actual expenses is a great asset for calculating
Lol, everyone needs the referral bonus 😛
1.5lk MR points ki kimat tum kya jaano Arun babu. 😈
Haha. I am a MARRIOTT Titanium member.
Holding 15L points.
So for 1.5L points you could stay at 1 night in St Regis Goa or 2 nights in W Goa
Or 2 -3 nights in Al Bustan Ritz Carlton
Or
Cheap people can stay at any Courtyard or Four points or Fairfield properties for 12-18 days assuming 5th night free.
So don’t assume you know everything in this world.
I can teach you on how to get 2-3 million points rather than influencing people with fancy and meaningless excel stunts to click on the link.
I do not show those kind of cheap stunts on internet.
I don’t even think you would have guts to approve this comment.
You wanna learn contact me.
Rather than assuming that you know everything.
Learn from Cardexpert on how humble he is .
😊
Would like to learn from you mate.
Can you please share your contact details on techtrick(at)gmail(dot)com
Will get in touch with you.
Where did you see the part where he is not humble?
Unlike some people who are bragging about how they are super rich and cheap people can only stay at Courtyard!
😂😂😂
Last checked i was a Marriott titanium too sans the attitude. So take a printout, fold it and gently place it safe in your donkey.
Dude, like seriously? Do you think you are the ONLY rich person on this forum? I am not even sure if you are rich or wealthy. He is putting so much effort on this blog and sharing his knowledge with others. What did you do? Showed off your 2 cents, which nobody cares about. It was a joke, learn to be a sport. Chapri!
@Ameya: I prefer Category 1 hotels only.
May be the wordings should have been Cheap budget travellers.
Will that make you happy?
1.5lk MR points ki kimat tum kya jaano Arun babu
I don’t understand Hindi, did a translation and looked like a sarcastic response indirectly meaning what do you even know about 1.5L points.
Hence I had to post comment like that.
Nee venumna indha blog ku jalra thattu, the comment of yours appreciating the Excel stunt will never improve the quality of the blog.
Anyways, I should quit and stop wasting my time here 😛
My last comment, tata babye.
And i don’t prefer to respond to other donkey 😛
First of all, great not knowing Hindi and hence not knowing how to take a joke.
It is a famous movie dialogue from “Om Shanti Om & Devdas”.
It was not at all sarcastic 😂.
But you had to be the dumbass to use google instead of asking what the author meant.
Go be a dick elsewhere.
Ameya:
Famous movie dialogue, lol.
No body gives a shit about Hindi movies.
Being a professional, using a native language In these kinda forums is wrong.
How idiotic it is to tell him a dumbass for googling some alien words?!
Unna madiri oru loosi koodi a yaarum paakka mudiyadu.
Hindi therila na Google thana da panna mudiyuma mullal kaludha.
Iddo Ida nee Google pannana oru appanunukku pirakkala nee 🤣🤣
Joking apart,
@Author;
Did you get any response from him on how he gained that much points?
Looks like a mere communication issues. He has also clarified on why he had to use *Cheap* word.
Yeah, but looks like a show off.
But is that really possible to hold 15 Lakh points?
Plz let me know if you got any response.
@Arun
Rather than playing hide and seek, why don’t you share your experience on how you gained that much point here?
Would be helpful for us also?
Please ignore the idiotic comments and do respond. Would be helpful for any readers
Hey everyone
Request all to please calm down.
I have personally not taken offense of what is being said here. we being from a country with diverse languages and culture this kind of misunderstanding is quite natural.
Arun did msg me post my comment. We are trying to setup a mutually convenient time to talk and exchange ideas. I am sure i will learn a few new things.
Hi harsh,
I request you to not repost same review without change repeatedly. its too annoying to read same reviews.no offence😁
Also i like to have “best credit cards of 2023” -hope this one on the cards
Do you get email alerts for every refresh?
Wow! Dumbass, Dick!
Calling someone by words for not knowing Hindi?
This doesn’t reflect anything about you, but your parents on how they have brought up you!
Was just going through the comments, @Sam- He never mentioned anything about Rich! People read something half baked and flood with negative comments.
@Senthil:
Yes Ameya is disgusting, but even you are stooping low to hit him back.
Please maintain a forum decency guys.
But on lighter note, yeah, I have a feeling that he mentioned 1.5L points, but not 15L points, heheheheh.
But he also mentioned about 2-3million points, may be a mistake? Lakhs instead of Millions?
I am not becoming super curious 🙂 🙂 !
No matter what, at the end, we all need something to learn up, I would be happy if I even have 2L points .. Poor me 🙂
Prithivi:
Bro, you are talking sensible but don’t you think he really knew the difference between Million and Lakh?
Even I wanted you to be right.
But look at the properties he has mentioned, lol, I didn’t even know there is St Regis at Goa untill now.
He also mentioned AlBustan Ritz Carlton.. this is the top luxury resort in Oman! I just Google it 🤣
May be he is NRI?
One trivial question, are emi transactions also considered in milestone. Ex., (30k – split as 10k for 3 months) will this be added as 30k in the milestone ?
I would say just move on if you don’t like the article. NRI or not NRI, calling something cheap shows not only Hindi but English learning is an opportunity too 🙂 Much better word usage would have been ‘reasonably priced’
By the way, what’s the point of writing two lines of southern regional language in between in some of these replies? To show the world that this language also exists?
Reward rate is much reduced now. You get only 7500 points at 1.9 lac milestone and only 10000 points at 4.0 lac milestone. That comes out to be less than 3% reward rate if you take out the annual fees.
(I have this card – got it using your referral 3 months ago)
Thanks a ton for using my referral mate.
The reward rate was the same always.
Just that you need to ask the customer care on the app or call to convert the bonus pts into regular pts.
The 17500 bonus pts will be converted into 40k regular pts.
most of spending is in the western suburbs of Mumbai. Amex cards are not accepted by many shops/restuarants.
This has been a major inconvenience for me.
How can I effectively use both Amex MRCC and Platinum travel? I am planning to cancel my Amex MRCC.
Hey Nihal.
For optimum usage you need to have spends of around 6.5-7lk in a year.
The way I do it is do all the lumpy purchases (eg. insurance premium, once in a year spends) on Plat travel.
For mrcc, I do my routine monthly spends. It includes my NPS investment, monthly milk subscription, internet subscription etc
This way, I try to reach 20k a month on mrcc and 4lk a year on plat travel.
Thank you!
The referral link has expired. Request you to update it
Referrals are stopped by Amex starting 1st June