Fee
Joining Fee: Rs 3500/FYF with referrals
Annual Fee:
5000+GST
Type
Rewards
Return
1%-5%
Rating
Payment Network
AMEX
The American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card is issued free for the first year with referrals and has a renewal fee of ₹5,000 + GST. It provides maximum benefits for annual spends of ₹4 lakh through its milestone rewards. Amex MRCC and Gold Charge cards offer bonus Membership Rewards points when you make transactions of ₹1,500 x 4 or ₹1,000 x 6 each month. However, if you typically make larger payments, these cards might not be as beneficial. This is where the American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card shines.
Eligibility and Applying for the American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card
The list of cities in which Amex is serviceable are as follows. Make sure your city is serviceable before applying the card.
Agra
Ajmer
Aurangabad
Amritsar
Allahabad
Ambala
Chittoor
Dehradun
Goa
Guwahati
Guntur
Jodhpur
Trivandrum
Kozhikode
Kanpur
Kolhapur
Madurai
Kurnool
Meerut
Patiala
Rajkot
Raipur
Ranchi
Trichy
Thrissur
Udaipur
Ahmedabad
Bhopal
Bangalore
Bhubaneshwar
Chennai
Chandigarh
Cochin
Coimbatore
Cuttack
Cochin
Delhi NCR
Ernakulam
Hyderabad
Jaipur
Indore
Pune
Mumbai
Surat
Vijayawada
Vadodara
Ludhiana
Vizag
Mysore
Nashik
Nagpur
To be eligible for the Amex Platinum Travel credit card one must have a personal annual income of Rs. 6 Lacs or above (for both Salaried, Self Employed). Amex team will verify the bank statements and salary slips once after application is done. Those who are self employed can provide last year ITR return statement as a proof of income.
AMEX now offers a host of extra benefits if the card is applied via a referral link.
- 2000 Bonus Membership Rewards(MR) points when you spend INR 5,000 within 90 days of Cardmembership
- First Year Fee Free (Saving INR 3,500)
- A set of Limited-Edition Explorer's Kit if the application is received during offer period
Currently the offer is available till May 31, 2024. This offer was extended twice by AMEX so there is high chance that they might extend it again.
Apply for the AMEX Platinum Travel Credit Card
Fees
| Joining Fee | 3500+GST |
| Welcome Benefits | 10,000 Membership Rewards points |
| Annual Fee | 5000+GST |
| Annual Fee Waiver | NIL |
If you are applying the card without using a referral link then you will be charged a joining fee of Rs 4130 including GST. However you will receive 10,000 MR points redeemable for Flipkart voucher or Pay with Points option in Amex Travel Online worth Rs. 3,000. You need to make a spend of Rs 15000 within 90 days of card activation in order to be eligible for the welcome benefit. Still you are in loss of Rs 1130 as joining fee. So we recommend applying through the referral link always.
It is worth noting that the Platinum Travel card does not offer any annual fee waiver criteria. But you can try negotiating with AMEX customer care via in app chat. They may offer certain conditions: for example, 15K MR points if you pay the fee, or get a fee waiver if you burn 10K MR points, or spend a couple of lacks in the coming two months and get an annual fee waiver. Please keep in mind that this completely depends on your relationship with AMEX and they don’t mention this anywhere in the terms&conditions.
Base Rewards on American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card
Earn 1 Membership Rewards Point for every ₹50 spent, except on fuel, insurance, utilities, cash transactions, and EMI conversions at the point of sale.
| Spend Category | Rewards | Return |
|---|---|---|
| Retail spend(Both online and offline) | 1 MR point / 50 Rs | 0.3%-1.2% |
| fuel, insurance, utilities, cash transactions, and EMI conversions | NIL | 0% |
The base rewards return seems very low for a card with annual fee of 5000. But the real benefit of American Express cards lies on the milestone spends.
Milestone Benefits of AMEX Platinum Travel Credit Card
AMEX Platinum Travel offers 2 milestone benefits each on spend of 1.9L and 4L as follows.
| Milestone | Regular MR Points | Bonus MR Points |
|---|---|---|
| Spend Rs 1.9L in an year | 3800 | 15000 |
| Spend Rs 4L in an year | 4200 | 25000 |
| Cumulative spend of 4L | 8000 | 40000 |
You will also a receive a Taj Stay voucher worth Rs. 10,000 from Taj, SeleQtions and Vivanta Hotels. This voucher will be mailed to you immediately once you reach the spend threshold of Rs. 4 Lacs.
So if you spend wisely and hit the sweet spot of 4 Lacs per annum you will receive a total of 48000 MR points and Taj voucher worth Rs 10,000.
Value of 1 MR point and redemption options
From the Platinum Travel rewards catalogue, the top redemption options for MR points are Flipkart or Taj gift vouchers. However, if you also hold an MRCC or Gold Charge card, you gain access to the 18K and 24K Gold Collection. This provides a wider range of redemption options with better value per MR point. Value of 1 MR point is as follows:
- Flipkart or Travel Voucher: 30 paise per MR point
- Taj Voucher: 50 paise per MR point
AMEX has several options to redeem the MR points. In a nutshell, below are the available options to redeem your MR points.
- Purchase instant gift vouchers - Many options starting at value of 1 MR point = 0.15 Rs
- Cover card charges - Pay for some of your recent card spend at 1 MR point = 0.25 Rs
- redeem for flights, hotels and more from AMEX Travel
- Pay with points at checkout - Several merchants available such as Amazon, Ajio and Air India at 1MR point = 0.25 Rs
- Transfer points to airmiles
Amazon Pay instant GV is available but the conversion rate is too low. i.e., 1MR point=0.23 Rs roughly. Flipkart is the available best option if you plan to redeem as instant gift cards. Flipkart GV offers a conversion rate of 1MR point=0.3 Rs.
The highest value gift voucher is the Taj voucher, redeemable at 1 MR point = ₹0.5. If you don’t plan to use your points for Taj or Flipkart, we found that redeeming points at merchant checkouts or to cover card charges is a very useful option.
We have written a detailed post on the most useful redemption options for AMEX. Check it out if you are interested in various redemption options such as airmiles conversion and the conversion rate.
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Spend based offers round the year
The Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card offers more than just regular rewards. Throughout the year, Amex runs multiple promotional offers, boosting your reward rate significantly. Plus, enjoy instant discounts on top shopping sites like Amazon and Flipkart during special promotions. This helps elevating the reward rate further more.
Other benefits of AMEX Platinum Travel Credit Card
- Get 2 free domestic airport lounge visits per quarter with a list of available lounges included.
- Enjoy 0% convenience fee, means zero surcharge, at HPCL fuel pumps with the American Express Platinum Travel credit card. These spends will not earn regular MR points but you can spend less than Rs 5000 per transaction on HPCL to potentially hit milestones and earn bonus MR points!
Should You Apply for the AMEX Platinum Travel Credit Card?
As we have seen on the above table, we earn 48000 MR points if we hit the sweet spot of 4 Lac spend in an year. If you redeem it for Flipkart you are getting 3.6% return. If you consider the 10k Taj voucher also into consideration the return is 6.1%.
If you are redeeming all your points for Taj vouchers, the you are getting voucher worth Rs 34000 which is a whopping 8.5% return. This is huge if you are a regular traveler and go for a Taj vacay once or twice in an year. Keep in mind that the spend based AMEX offers will again add up to this if you spend the card wisely. The Reward Realm thinks that the AMEX Platinum Travel is definitely a great card for travellers.
The Reward Realm Score
FAQ
Membership Rewards Points accumulated on your American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card will remain valid as long as the card remains active and in good standing. However, if the card is canceled, either by the Cardmember or American Express, the Membership Rewards Points will be forfeited within 30 days of the cancellation
You won’t accumulate Membership Rewards Points when opting for EMI at a merchant’s website, such as Amazon or Flipkart, or at a merchant’s terminal, like a Chip and PIN transaction at Croma retail store. However, you’ll still earn Membership Rewards Points on EMI transactions through American Express SafeKey and on post-purchase EMI conversions
From my personal experience all the most common shopping websites do accept AMEX without any issues. Some utility payment applications and e-wallets do not accept AMEX yet but it is expected to improve. At offline, most of the brands and hotel chains do accept AMEX however smaller restaurants and some specific machines at fuel stations shows hassle for payment. Ask the fuel station executive to use a different machine if you face any issues. That worked for me.
