Why I chose not to avail the 135k MR points offer to upgrade to AMEX platinum charge

[Swastik]

Sorry, this is not making sense. Are we saying that its difficult to acquire indian super premium cards like infinia, so one should aspire for amex platinum charge?

I could take that argument the otherway also that if a card is hard to acquire and has more demand, shouldn’t that should be the aspiring one? Additionally, with minumum 25 lakhs of income criteria for platinum charge also doesn’t make it targeted towards UHNI

If a card is difficult to acquire because of it's level(income or expense) is above mine, i can aspire for it
If a card is difficult to get just because the bank doesn't know whom to give it and gives it according to their own prerogative and pleasure, then i've no idea what to aspire for,

Few months back i called back my HDFC Preferred RM to get me infinia and she was willing to take all sorts of deviation like spends, credit limit, income etc as long as i buy a Ulip from her,

It's not the income criteria that makes plat charge difficult to get, as amex knows their many in india who's actual income is much higher then their ITR,
It's who can get value out of it

 

[Swastik]

Sure bro.. if you are so convinced about this card then so be it! Kudos to Amex for this.

Lot of examples you gave really aren't worth the card, like base category room upgrades and all. You can easily get them if you are elite member. Lalit / Leela updates are also easy to get via status match these days. And if you are really rich, you will have a human EA to do all concierge things. Why depend on Amex for this?

As for argument on Infinia - It is the exclusivity and making it difficult to get is what is keeping the card alive. When everyone gets it, it won't be premium at all. See what happened with Magnus? It should be hard to get. Infinia is surviving via exclusivity and Amex is surviving via brilliant "marketing" and joining / renewal fees

P.S: member you mentioned spends 60L / year and gets 1.35 MR as renewal. I have read his posts. Again - this is best card if you have business spends

I'm not taking it anytime soon anyhow

Perhaps it might be easy to get higher status with these properties, getting room upgrades free breakfast and all, I'm not aware of this myself,
All i want to say that he gets preferential treatment because of this card

He must be having an assistant i suppose, but having an organization like American Express with all their contacts and resources providing you with personal assistance is whole different thing then an office assistant of your own

Infinia isn't hard to get, as i said there are plenty who got and can get it through unconventional methods, and yet out of reach for many deserving,
Magnus was bound to die of its own burden,
And Amex is good at marketing and customer support, so I'll give you that

Sorry about 20L instead of 60L ,i was mis-remembering

 

[Swastik]

See I'm not here to argue with anyone, and maybe I'm wrong, maybe with time I'll change my mind on this

But for now i think it's not a bad product overall,
And i think those who don't see it's value, it's just not a card for them,
These are the people who'd cancel it after 1st yr or stay away from it altogether and criticize it upon every chance

This is just my two cents...

 

[bikramnitj]

Overall lets admit in terms of rewards earning the platinum charge card is totally useless and reap in rewards even lower than an entry level card. So what do we get on this upgrade? - indirectly we are just buying 135k MR points.

So what am i doing instead?

My platinum travel is due for renewal, ill look in for a retention bonus. Heard they compensate with 10k points . I have also referred the same to my wife which has collectively given 30k bonus. (12k - wife, 8k me for ref and 10k retention) .. all that for a fees of ~10k incl gst( 4k for joining fees, 6k for renewal fees)

So in total i spend 4lakh each (including tax payments n nps thats Doable) , i get total 80k points benefit on two platinum travel . Platinum charge will give shit on that spend.

So the math says, 10k fees and 8 L spends gives us 110k MR points + two 10k taj vouchers, much better than paying 70k for 135k MR points


What i plan to do with MR points?
- convert them into marriott bonvoy for each of the accounts. Bonvoy allows points transfer so i can easily club benefits for both the cards.

What other cards I got in my portfolio - infinia/atlas/vistaras .. leverage them as well - infinia for smartbuy .. atlas n infinia for usual spends to balance between air tickets n accor .. vistara for nps/tax again

Apart from the above I do have other cards such as AU zenith , icici amazon, but rarely use them

Let me know if this makes sense or I am missing anything here.

A further twist, that I have been able to negotiate AMEX of full fee waiver(refund) on spending 1.5 Lakhs in next 90 days for my platinum travel. That is like dual benefit of a fee waiver on top of spend based milestones. Hence I confirmed & opted for it. There are some expenses which I can pre-pone on the card.

 

[akiratoriyama]

A further twist, that I have been able to negotiate AMEX of full fee waiver(refund) on spending 1.5 Lakhs in next 90 days for my platinum travel. That is like dual benefit of a fee waiver on top of spend based milestones. Hence I confirmed & opted for it. There are some expenses which I can pre-pone on the card.

How would you spend this much though? All gift cards?

 

[bikramnitj]

How would you spend this much though? All gift cards?

Nps , advance tax .. gift cards is all infinia

 

[hrish88]

Amex doesn't even have any official tie up with Oberoi, Lalit or Leela, yet he got preferential treatment anyhow
Oh Btw he also has an Infinia

no actually oberoi is one of the main partner with amex.infact this should be the only reason you should take plat charge because it offers very good deal with oberoi.

also oberoi may upgrade you once a while its not the norm.usually, you get only level upgrades depending on availability.

The problem with amex it does not come with any other luxury benefits and now it has increased the fee by 8k and removed the taj 10k voucher and added amazon prime lite membership as if people paying 70k really cared for that.

even a 195 USD founder card gives you better benefits than amex plat charge.

 

[Swastik]

no actually oberoi is one of the main partner with amex.infact this should be the only reason you should take plat charge because it offers very good deal with oberoi.

also oberoi may upgrade you once a while its not the norm.usually, you get only level upgrades depending on availability.

The problem with amex it does not come with any other luxury benefits and now it has increased the fee by 8k and removed the taj 10k voucher and added amazon prime lite membership as if people paying 70k really cared for that.

even a 195 USD founder card gives you better benefits than amex plat charge.

I see, didn't know about Amex oberoi tie up

Yes the card has been devalued recently, for the worse

I'm not aware of founders card, will research on it

 

[sourpai]

Posting from T-BHP... see the plight of Amex Plat charge users 🙂.. A direct feedback from people who live such lifestyle

 

[shashankrt]

Posting from T-BHP... see the plight of Amex Plat charge users 🙂.. A direct feedback from people who live such lifestyle

View attachment 69937

This is exactly the point I am trying to make. To all ppl justifying lifestyle benefits.. Amex can at best be your secondary card and that too for very few edge cases such as ppl travelling for 50 days or more per year on business travel.
Yes you can buy an Audi with Amex car (without the discounts) however u can't pay the restaurant bill as even some high end restaurants don't accept Amex.

Also if Amex plat charge is so called lifestyle card, then why does it offer Uber cash benefits in US? Are they expecting their private charter clients to use Uber?

This proves Amex is just milking Indian customers and this is coming from current user of Amex plat.

 

[Lobogris]

Well said,
This card is more of an aspirational thing for me,
Too rich for my blood for now, but maybe someday

Ofcourse being a Plat Travel holder 2 yrs i couldn't agree more woth OPs logic here

*there are other retention offers then 10k points, i got 50% off straightaway on my renewal fee, no points spent, consider that option

Absolutely. I am always tempted to get this card even though it offers no real benefit. 70 or 80k per year isn't that much of a concern for me. So I have to try and make my brain control my heart and not go for it. If I didn't have the Infinia, I would have definitely gone for it, just for the unlimited lounge access as I travel quite a bit.

 

[ujjwal2024]

This is right. People don't really understand the Amex Plat charge. A majority of people on this forum are points / miles / cashback hunters and benefit maximisers. And none of these are Amex Plat Charge's target customers. Those people are in a different league. This card is for people who are so rich that they don't care about points, because collecting and redeeming and keeping track of it all isn't worth the hassle for them. They take it exactly for the un-hassle it offers. The coincerge, the lounges, the luxury benefits and tieups it offers. Not points. You might think that "isn't it's acceptability problem a hassle?" Well, the people this card is meant for those who usually only move in places where it's accepted.

I and you won't find it useful because it was not made for us. It's like how Moneyback would feel to an Infinia holder.

All this said, OPs strategy is spot on. I am going to do the same thing when my Play Travel comes up for renewal 🙂.

Yes..it is not for me then...I am happy with Platinum Travel card

 

[nandieux]

So confused now. Had almost upgraded for 66K+ taxes which is their latest price. But no one else is giving me a premium card :-(

 

[shashankrt]

So confused now. Had almost upgraded for 66K+ taxes which is their latest price. But no one else is giving me a premium card :-(

There is nothing premium abt Amex charge card except lounge access.. Those so called premium hotel memberships are actually middle tier and no one cares abt those.
You are better off targeting MB or Infinia etc

 

[coolguy1]

So confused now. Had almost upgraded for 66K+ taxes which is their latest price. But no one else is giving me a premium card :-(

Plat Charge is not a magical card that will fix all your life problems.
If the annual fee seems like a big amount, skip it.

If you live the lifestyle of a travel nomad staying in premium places requiring luxury, then that's the card you should hold.

If you're new to the AmEx ecosystem, get the Amex Plat Travel and Amex Gold card and MRCC trifecta, divide your expenses, see how the points are adding up and when you start liking it, then you can always upgrade to the Platinum Charge card.

 

[ujjwal2024]

Even if you value the points at 40 paisa, then it's worth only 54000 so you have to lose 16800 (based on the old price 60000 + 10800 tax)

In some premimum cards like icici emeralde and axis M4B you loose whole of 36k joining bonus...here at least they give something...