Amex Trifecta - Optimal Usage Guide

[SubhankarSubhankar is verified member.]

Sometimes back I wrote a handwritten note on how to maximise the utilisation of AMEX Trifecta and shared over Twitter, so here's the guide. Hope it helps

The Cards used here are the followings:

1. AMEX Membership Rewards Credit Card
2. AMEX Platinum Travel Credit Card
3. AMEX Gold Charge Card

As per the talks, AMEX ban is suppose to get lifted "soon enough", this guide may help you to make your choice on with which card you'd like to go for and how to maximise the MR points accumulation without breaking the bank


A huge chunk of contribution of it came from Sujit Kumar Hota ( @Skh27 ) and if you want maximise the use of MR points into airmiles, you can check this compact guide by Tejas Ghongadi ( @Tejas ) : AMEX MR Points' Utilisation in Airmiles






Apply For An Amex Credit Card - Click Here

 

[dominic1229]

I believe you are wrong with your MRCC milestone understanding. I just checked the website and confirmed with the customer care. There are 2 individual milestones as opposed to only 1

Correct. You get 1K on 6K spent (should be 4 transactions of minimum 1500 each) and also additional 1K on minimum 20K total of all transactions spent in a month. So, if one did 4 transactions of 5000 each in 1 month then they will get 1K+1K = 2K additional points.

 

[helloworld]

I believe you are wrong with your MRCC milestone understanding. I just checked the website and confirmed with the customer care. There are 2 individual milestones as opposed to only 1

I didn't mentioned anything related to points, I only mentioned max purchase that you can do on these cards before reducing actual reward rate.

4x1500+14k means 4x1500 you get some points and if you spend remaining 14k in that month you get some more points.

And my answer is for 20k (if you can spend every month on MRCC like above way) and 6x1000 with gold card to get some more points = 26k max. you can spend on these cards to get optimal benefits.

And 26k is not the ideal spends for Infinia card which is my answer to your question.

Again, its my opinion and it includes all the benefits these cards provided.

 

[yashvijay]

Hi guys,

I was looking at this trifecta after magnus devaluation.
My major spends are for rent payment through RG/payzapp (46k/m), 70k/yr insurance and then a little bit of swiggy/zomato/zepto/Amazon close to around 10k-30k/month. I was using this & was crossing the 1L mark in magnus for few of the months.

Upon reading this thread I see that payzapp RG won't accept Amex so I plan to route it through DCB (got it recently FYF) and also Amazon voucher is discontinued from reward multiplier.

So can any of you help me with a strategy through which I can maximize my rewards earning through this card.

Also if we compare magnus' airmiles transfer parterns & transfer ratio to Amex's partners & ratio, how good/bad is it?

Thank you so much for your response in advance and thank you for all the earlier posts, they were really insightful and helpful! Glad to know people are getting upto 15% return!!

 

[amitr29]

Hi Guys,

Can we use Platinum Travel card points for transfer to air miles? The Amex website says, it can be used only for Flipkart or Pay with points on Travel online. Any idea?

 

[dominic1229]

Hi Guys,

Can we use Platinum Travel card points for transfer to air miles? The Amex website says, it can be used only for Flipkart or Pay with points on Travel online. Any idea?

Yes, that seems possible. Just tested on Amex Mobile app and I was seeing option to transfer to air miles when I select Plat Travel card. Amex points' max value is on Marriot Bonvoy though. You lose a lot when going to airmiles path.

Example:
900 RP = 300 Club vistara points OR 900 Marriot Points
Marriot points value ranges from 0.75 to 1.50 mostly, so lets take 1.00 as avg. value. Also, keep in mind that you usually get 5x nights stay at the price of 4x nights in Marriot.
So CV points as Rs.1 and Marriot Pt as Rs. 1.
900 RP = Rs. 300 (CV)
or, 900 RP = Rs. 900 (Marriot)
so, loss of 66.7% with vistara.

 

[Zacobite]

I believe you are wrong with your MRCC milestone understanding. I just checked the website and confirmed with the customer care. There are 2 individual milestones as opposed to only 1

yes.. 1k points for 4 transactions of atleast 1500 rs + additional 1k for total spend if 20k in one calendar month + normal MR points
So if u spend 20k in one txn then you only get 1k MR bonus

 

[amitr29]

T

Yes, that seems possible. Just tested on Amex Mobile app and I was seeing option to transfer to air miles when I select Plat Travel card. Amex points' max value is on Marriot Bonvoy though. You lose a lot when going to airmiles path.

Example:
900 RP = 300 Club vistara points OR 900 Marriot Points
Marriot points value ranges from 0.75 to 1.50 mostly, so lets take 1.00 as avg. value. Also, keep in mind that you usually get 5x nights stay at the price of 4x nights in Marriot.
So CV points as Rs.1 and Marriot Pt as Rs. 1.
900 RP = Rs. 300 (CV)
or, 900 RP = Rs. 900 (Marriot)
so, loss of 66.7% with vistara.

Thanks for detailed information. We do get 2:1 on other airlines like Qatar or British Airways?

 

[bonheur]

And 26k is not the ideal spends for Infinia card which is my answer to your question.

Curious why you say that?

 

[dominic1229]

T

Thanks for detailed information. We do get 2:1 on other airlines like Qatar or British Airways?

Yes, 2:1 on those 2 airlines and more airlines except Vistara.

 

[PRIYANSHU_]

suppose i apply for Amex MRCC and then do wallet load of 1500 X 4 and 20,000. Then pay my rent using Paytm wallet?

 

[dominic1229]

suppose i apply for Amex MRCC and then do wallet load of 1500 X 4 and 20,000. Then pay my rent using Paytm wallet?

It doesn't matter to Amex how you use your Paytm wallet. You can just do 5000 x 4 for Paytm wallet load, which will meet both targets (minimum Rs. 1500 in 4 transactions and 20K in total). After that, whatever you do with the 20K in your Paytm wallet, it doesn't matter to AmEx. For AmEx, it will not count as Rent Payment, it will be considered as Wallet Load Transactions.

 

[PRIYANSHU_]

It doesn't matter to Amex how you use your Paytm wallet. You can just do 5000 x 4 for Paytm wallet load, which will meet both targets (minimum Rs. 1500 in 4 transactions and 20K in total). After that, whatever you do with the 20K in your Paytm wallet, it doesn't matter to AmEx. For AmEx, it will not count as Rent Payment, it will be considered as Wallet Load Transactions.

is there any limit for transferring wallet balance to Paytm's bank?

 

[dominic1229]

is there any limit for transferring wallet balance to Paytm's bank?

I haven't tried transferring wallet balance to payment bank. But wallet to other bank account transfers has bad consequences for your paytm account/wallet (higher fees for adding money to wallet via credit card etc.). Not sure about the impact from paytm bank transfer.

I add money to wallet using amex cards and then I use it to pay CC bills.

 

[amit]

whats the current rate to load paytm wallet via amex cc from zomato/paytm etc,,,

 

[SSV]

I haven't tried transferring wallet balance to payment bank. But wallet to other bank account transfers has bad consequences for your paytm account/wallet (higher fees for adding money to wallet via credit card etc.). Not sure about the impact from paytm bank transfer.

I add money to wallet using amex cards and then I use it to pay CC bills.

My loading rate went from 2.3% to 4.5 % on CC loads..

 

[SSV]

whats the current rate to load paytm wallet via amex cc from zomato/paytm etc,,,

I don't know about from Zomato / paytm particualry..
Generallay this varies from person to person.
You could also get 1.5% rewards up to 300 as paytm fuel wallet CB for loading paytm wallet using CC. You need to enable this before loading though

 

[ChurningNoob]

My loading rate went from 2.3% to 4.5 % on CC loads..

Mine is always above 3% is very expenisve to use CC to load

 

[SSV]

Mine is always above 3% is very expenisve to use CC to load

somewhere I read if we stoptransferring to bank for 2 to 3 months, it will come back to 2.3%

 

[ChurningNoob]

somewhere I read if we stoptransferring to bank for 2 to 3 months, it will come back to 2.3%

I have never trasferred to bank, I use it just to pay vendors

 

[dominic1229]

Mine is always above 3% is very expenisve to use CC to load

somewhere I read if we stoptransferring to bank for 2 to 3 months, it will come back to 2.3%

Mine is ~2.65%. I never transfer to my bank account.