Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card Review 2023: The American Express Platinum Travel credit card is probably one of the best travel credit cards in India. It has 7% rewards rate post annual fee, which is probably unmatched in the industry. Below we give you a detailed review of the American Express Platinum Travel credit card.
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Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card Review 2023
Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card Fees:
- There is a fee of 3500+GST for the first year, which is 4130. Starting from the second year onwards, the fee is 5000+GST which is 5900. The joining benefit is 10,000 MR points.
- For the first year, if you apply using the link above, you will receive a free Amex Platinum Travel credit card. In addition, if you spend 5000 within the first 90 days with your card, you will receive 2000 bonus MR points. In the first year of this credit card, you are able to enjoy it without any fees, but in the second year, you have to pay a fee based on your spending.
Rewards and Benefits:
- Base Reward Rate: There is a reward point for every INR 50 spent, with the value of a reward point equal to 50p, which means that 1% are being awarded (Considering the redemption value of Taj vouchers). There is no reward point for spending on fuel, insurance, utilities and cash withdrawals.
- Accelerated Reward Rate: You will receive 3MR points for every INR 50 that you spend on the Amex Reward Multiplier portal (similar to the HDFC Smartbuy portal).
Milestone Rewards:
- If you spend 190,000 in a year, you will get 15,000 MR points. At 50p a point, that’s 7.5k in Taj vouchers. This is a straight 4% reward rate (7500/190000).
- You get 25,000 MR points on spending 400,000 in a year in addition to the 15,000 MR points that you previously received. Therefore, you get a total of 40,000 MR points on 400,000 in milestone spending alone. This translates into an overall reward rate of 5%.
- On top of that, there is a 10,000 Taj voucher within the milestone benefit for those who spend 400,000 MR points, so all in all, you get 40,000 MR points + 10k Taj voucher on spending 4k. This translates into a whopping 7.5% reward rate on an annual spend of 4k.
- You end up with a reward rate of 7% even after accounting for the regular MR points you get from your spending and the annual fee of 5900 per year.
A review of the Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card by American Express
Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card Review 2023 – Positive:
If you spend a lot of money on an annual basis, this is the card for you
The Amex Platinum Travel credit card is a great card for those lumpy annual spends (like insurance) that you have to deal with every year. The milestone benefits of this credit card differ from those of the Axis Magnus credit card (apply now), as they are based on an annual spend. Therefore, this credit card can be used to pay lumpy annual expenses like insurance premiums and help you easily reach milestone spending levels.
In my opinion, this credit is the most convenient one for me when it comes to insurance spending. Although insurance spending does not qualify for reward points with this credit card, the spending is considered toward the annual milestone. As an added bonus, if you use Amazon Pay to make the payment, you will get reward points at times. Not to mention the fact that American Express generally offers insurance payment offers during the months of January and March. As a result, you should apply for this credit card right now and be prepared to take advantage of it.
The other great thing about this card is that you can also use it as a reward card for fuel purchases along with other purchases. So you end up earning a cool 7% reward rate for fuel purchases as well.
On this card, any offer you receive from Amex will automatically double dip as a result
There are no limits to the offers offered by Amex when it comes to the Amex Platinum Travel credit card. It is a double dip in terms of the benefits offered by Amex. In other words, if you use this Amex card and the offer says, “Spend 2k and you will receive vouchers worth 10k.” If you spend 2k with this card, you will earn 10k vouchers plus 15k MR points on spending 1.9k.
There is always a benefit to making a phone call when renewing your membership
You should always call customer service during renewal to inquire about whether you will be eligible for a spend-based fee waiver with the Amex Platinum Travel credit card. In my experience, they will often offer you some sort of deal such as adjusting your reward points against the annual fee, or giving you extra reward points for making the payment. If you spend more than the threshold, you may even be eligible for a fee waiver.
Points are multiplied by 3 when the reward multiplier is used
In comparison with the MRCC credit card you receive 2x MR points on your purchases on the Amex Reward Multiplier website compared to 3x on the Amex Reward Multiplier website.
Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card Review 2023 – Negative:
There is no access to the Amex lounge at this time
It is one of the most annoying things about having this credit card is that it does not provide access to the prestigious Amex lounges. I mean, they could easily give one month or even two years access to their own lounges if they wanted to.
A manual conversion of bonus MR points must be performed in order to convert them into regular MR points
There is one strange rule with Amex. The milestone MR points aren’t automatically converted into regular MR points. You need to talk to customer service or call to get those 40k points. The customer didn’t know about this, and as a result, the customer’s last three years of bonus MR points were converted into regular MR points in one shot. The customer received 120k MR points in total as a true bonus.
It is only on Taj vouchers or Marriott transfers that the reward rate is maximized
It is important to keep in mind that if you are not someone who enjoys traveling then this card might not be of interest to you. In terms of redemption, the best option is to redeem either a Taj voucher or to transfer to Marriott Bonvoy. However, if you are looking for the pure statement credit alone, this card may not be the right fit for you.
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There is a comparison between Amex MRCC, Axis Magnus, and HDFC Infinia
Listed below is a dynamic benefits calculator for you to see how the Amex Platinum Travel credit card compares to Amex MRCC, Axis Magnus, and HDFC Infinia, all of which are available for application right now.
The Amex MRCC and Amex Plat Travel combo can be very beneficial for you if you have a total annual spending of approximately 5-6k. If you optimize these cards for spending, they can offer a total reward rate of 6%+ post-annual fees if you spend at this level. In case you aren’t interested in cashback then the Amex MRCC+ Amex Plat Travel combination would be rated higher than the Amex MRCC+ SBI Cashback+Axis Ace combo. Apply here, and you can receive the Amex Platinum Travel credit card free for the first year if you use the link below.
You should also remember that the above calculation includes fuel and insurance spending as well. Hence, you are seeing a whopping return of 6%+ on gasoline and insurance spending as well.
Conclusion
The American Express Platinum Travel card is a highly rewarding card, probably the best redemption option in the travel industry. At four thousand dollars spent on the card, you get rewards worth 28 thousand post fees, which is good enough to accommodate a 2-3 night stay at a Taj hotel within the country or abroad.