AMEX Platinum Travel Credit Card Review

AMEX Platinum Travel as the name suggests is a travel-based card for all AMEX enthusiasts. I would call this another no-brainer card from the AMEX stable. I have reviewed the other AMEX cards like AMEX Gold Charge and AMEX MRCC here.

Let’s check out what is so tempting about this card!

Charges and Welcome Benefits

AMEX doesn’t give you a spends-based fee waiver but you may get a waiver or a retention offer to keep you in the loop. Especially if you hold other AMEX cards then AMEX really values the overall relationship. Even then the rewards of this make up for the fee very easily.

Application through referral is a clear-cut winner due to the extra NIL Joining fees. Check out the link for detailed referral benefits information. You can apply for any of the six AMEX Cards available in India via this link.

Disclaimer: I will receive a referral bonus for anyone who applies for and is approved for the card through the above link.

If you face any problems in the application process you can contact me on Technofino Community.

You can choose to apply for any AMEX card from the link in the banner. To choose and apply a card of your choice simply click on the View All Cards option and select one. All the information for that particular card is readily available on the website.

Regular Reward Accrual

• *Spends exclude Insurance payments, Utilities and Fuel but are counted for milestone spends.
• Reward points never expire.
• You get to earn MR points even on wallet loads.

Milestone Benefits

• You can get up to 48000 MR points on completing both milestones.

Technofino Tip: Credit of AMEX points on completing the milestones is not automatic. After completion of the first milestone, you will get 7500 MR points automatically and the rest of the points will need to be requested from AMEX and same goes for the 4L milestone.

AMEX Reward Multiplier

AMEX has a Rewards Multiplier portal just like HDFC SmartBuy from where you can purchase gift vouchers or do affiliate shopping and get 3X the usual reward points.

Reward Redemption

Statement Credit/ Pay with Points

AMEX allows you to take a statement credit on eligible transactions or pay with points on select merchants while entering OTP for your transaction at a value of 25p/point. Most of the new AMEX cardholders use this redemption method but trust me there can’t be a method worse than this to use your MR Points. They are much more valuable than this so kindly ignore these two options.

Travel With Points

Another method to redeem your MR points. With this, you can purchase flights, prepaid hotels, car rentals, and more on AmexTravel. Again this gives you a value of 25p/MR point and is highly not recommended.

Insta Vouchers

AMEX further offers you a huge variety of instant vouchers against your MR points which have different values for different brands.

Clearly, this card is meant for travel only since MR points are better redeemed for Taj Stays Voucher or Marriott Transfer since that is where the value lies.

TechnoFino Tip: Since the MR points are credited into a common pool so if you hold either an AMEX MRCC or an AMEX Gold Charge then you can redeem them for AMEX Gold Collection Vouchers which will you a much better value.

Like redeeming a 24K Taj Voucher will give 58p/MR Point and Amazon Pay/ Flipkart Voucher will give you just 37p/ MR Point.

Transfer Points

Now, this is the hottest redemption option for MR points and if you can play well with this you can yield values of even greater than a rupee per point.

Airlines Transfer Partners

AMEX allows you to transfer points to 8 different airline partners and some of them are so unique that none of the Indian credit cards allows you to transfer points to them like Asia Miles. We have a curated list of all AMEX airline transfer partners here. For booking award tickets using points, you can refer to this post on the TechnoFino Community.

Hotel Transfer Partners

Now, this is the most sought redemption option since anyone with a Platinum or Gold status with Marriott Bonvoy can just extract a value of more than 1Re/MR point by transferring a 1:1 ratio with suite upgrades, Breakfast and lounge access with complimentary drinks are an added plus. Since AMEX is the sole transfer partner to Marriott Bonvoy, many points miners use MR points only for transfer to Marriott.

Other than this you can transfer to Hilton Honors also but the value is not that great as compared to Marriott. We have curated a complete list of AMEX hotel transfer partners here.

It takes about 0-5 days to transfer Amex MR Points to various loyalty programs so transfer them well in advance to use them.

TechnoFino Maximum

This card is good for just ₹4L spent in a year and after that, the spending can be put on other cards.

On completing both the milestones you will have 48000 MR points in your kitty along with a Taj Voucher worth ₹10,000.

Now with a value of 50p/MR point when redeemed for travel one would get a ₹34,000 worth (including TAJ voucher) reward value on completing both milestones which converts to an 8.5% reward rate. I mean what more can one ask for?

If you are not into travelling and will redeem the points for Flipkart vouchers then the value drops to ₹24,400 and the reward rate comes out to be nearly 6.1% which is also not bad in my opinion.

And if you hold any of the gold collection cards along with this card then with 58p/ MR Point value on a 24K Taj Voucher redemption you can easily earn up to a 9.5% reward rate. Even for cash-back lovers 18,000 worth of cash equivalent Amazon Pay vouchers along with a ₹10K Taj Voucher the reward rate translates into 7%!!!

Other Benefits

Airport Lounge Access

You are eligible to access only third-party airport lounges using AMEX Platinum Travel since to access AMEX Proprietary lounges you need to have an AMEX Platinum Charge card.

For International lounges only the Priority Pass membership is complimentary and all access will be chargeable. Also, access is restricted only to primary cardholders.

Fuel Surcharge Waiver

• 0% for HPCL transactions less than ₹5,000,1% fee per transaction is applicable for all HPCL transactions on and above ₹5,000.
• 1% of the transaction value subject to a minimum of ₹10 + applicable taxes, will be charged as a convenience fee at fuel stations operated by the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies BPCL and IOCL.
• 2.5% of the transaction value subject to a minimum of ₹10 + applicable taxes, will be charged as a convenience fee at fuel stations of all other Oil Marketing Companies (except HPCL, BPCL and IOCL).

Forex Markup Charges

• Forex Markup charges are standard 3.50% + GST.

Eligibility Criteria

• For the AMEX Platinum Travel card an income proof of a minimum gross ₹6LPA is required whether you are salaried or self-employed. AMEX doesn’t process applications on a Card-to-Card basis.
• Your CIBIL score should be a minimum of 750.
• You must have an address proof of any serviceable area. 
• Serviceable City List- Guntur, Hyderabad, Krishna, Medak, Rangareddy, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Bardoli, Surat, Vadodara, Ambala, Jhajjar, Panchkula, Bengaluru, Kochi, Bhopal, Indore, Mumbai, Pune, Raigad, Thane, Bhubaneswar, Khurdha, Mohali, Chennai, Coimbatore, Erode, Kanchipuram, Krishnagiri, Salem, Tiruvallur, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Hooghly, Howrah, Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Vijayawada, Ernakulam, Secunderabad, Aluva, Ropar, Hosur, Sriperumbudur, Tiruppur, Baramati, Navi Mumbai, Lucknow, Trivandrum, Mysuru, Nasik, Nagpur, and Ludhiana.

AMEX has recently started serving the following Tier 2/3 cities as well

Agra, Ajmer, Allahabad, Ambala, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Chittoor, Dehradun, Goa, Guntur, Guwahati, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Kolhapur, Kozhikode, Kurnool, Madurai, Meerut, Patiala, Raipur, Rajkot, Ranchi, Thrissur, Trichy and Udaipur.

Application through referral is a clear-cut winner due to the extra NIL Joining fees. Check out the link for detailed referral benefits information. You can apply for any of the six AMEX Cards available in India via this link. Even better, you can also get another 2000 Bonus MR Points by spending ₹5000 within 90 days of membership.

TechnoFino Recommends

AMEX Platinum Travel is one of their best credit cards which provides an exceptional reward rate of 8.5% and is one of my go-to cards till I complete its milestone for the year. The only issue with AMEX cards is low acceptance but if you swipe your cards in premium places then there is nothing to stop you from clinching all of those milestones.

Isn’t AMEX Platinum Travel a no-brainer for all? Feel free to share your tricks in the comments below.

Bhavye Goel

Chief Editor, TechnoFino.
Personal finance nerd! Physics enthusiast and trainer. When not into Physics, he is minting points and hunting for the next best credit card for himself.