Updated 15 January 2021
The American Express Platinum Travel Card fits the bill for the frequent domestic traveller and is a worthy companion for a traveller’s wallet. With bonus rewards and Taj Vouchers, you get sweetly rewarded for your normal daily spends. The annual fee pales in comparison to the super savings and makes it your worthy companion.
Note: The post has been updated with current card information.
American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card Overview
From Indigo vouchers to Spicejet vouchers and now to Domestic Travel vouchers, American Express has been changing the way it allows the card users to redeem their earned rewards. With the discontinuation of Spicejet vouchers, Amex has paved the way for its card users to redeem reward travel vouchers for domestic hotels and vouchers on their site. What I like it with Amex is that you can even pay the taxes, fees and surcharges with your reward points.
Who can benefit from Amex Platinum Travel card?
If you can achieve annual spends are in the range of ₹4 lacs per year on this card and if you can make good use of the travel vouchers redeemed from American Express various offered reward points, then this card can help you for a truly rewarding travel experience. For a modest fee, you get a premium travel experience as it lets you earn generous Milestone Bonus Reward points on reaching spending limits along with the regular Membership reward points as well. These bonus reward points are redeemable for Travel vouchers with flexibility to convert points to air miles along with other reward options. As per LBTs calculations, on spends of 4 lacs p.a., you’ll get an awesome ~6.6% return rewards in the first year and a generous ~5.3% from second year onwards.
What is the current Welcome Offer?
The American Express Platinum Travel card is presently offering 5,000 Milestone Bonus Membership Rewards Points (for the first year only) redeemable for Travel Vouchers worth ₹3,500. Check out the table below for the various reward point conversion ratios.
What are Amex Platinum Travel cards’ travel benefits?
The Amex Platinum Travel card offers following benefits, which overshadows the modest fee of ₹3,500+GST in the first year (₹5,000+GST from second year onwards) by miles :
- Domestic Travel Vouchers: You’ll get ₹5,000 Travel Vouchers (redeemed from 7,500 Spend Milestone Bonus Membership Rewards Points) on spends of ₹1.90 Lacs in a year & additional ₹8,000 Travel Vouchers (redeemed from 10,000 Spend Milestone Bonus Membership Rewards Points) on spends of ₹4 Lacs in a year.
- Taj Experiences E-Gift Card: You’ll also get Taj Experiences E-Gift Card worth ₹10,000 from Taj, SeleQtions and Vivanta Hotels on spends of ₹4 Lacs in a year. I don’t mind a free night’s stay at the Taj!
- Airport Lounge Benefits: You get 4 complimentary domestic airport lounge access per year. The benefits are extendable to 2 supplementary card members however the total lounge access cannot exceed 4 visits each year. However when it comes to International lounges, although you do get a Complimentary priority pass worth $99 but the international lounge access itself will be chargeable at $32 per visit for you and your guest as well. I guess as this card is specifically designed with the needs of the Domestic traveller in mind so International Lounge access does not fall in this cards purview.
- Zero Card Liability : If any unauthorized transactions have taken place on your card, your liability to American Express shall be Nil if you report within 3 working days. If you report the fraud after 3 days, your liability will be a maximum of ₹1,000.
- 24×7 Personal Concierge : Their customer care have been giving a great service and Emergency Card Replacement, anywhere in the world.
Related Reading: My Best Travel Credit Cards for 2020 in India
What kind of rewards can I earn?
Along with a decent welcome bonus, you’ll earn 1 Membership Rewards Point earned for every Rs. 50 spent except for spend on Fuel, Insurance, Utilities (which includes Water, Gas and Electricity bill payments), Cash Transactions and EMI conversion. This converts to 0.80% reward rate which by itself is not enough to turn heads. But coupled with various spend based milestone bonus rewards and Taj Vouchers, the overall reward rises nicely to a solid eye catching ~6.6%.
Also, with the American Express Rewards Multiplier Program, you can earn 3x Membership reward points when you shop on your favorite brands like Amazon, Flipkart among a whole lot of other brands pushing the reward rate to a kind of decent ~2.4%.
What is the rewards conversion rate?
Let’s see how the various rewards offered by this travel card and their conversions to Domestic Travel vouchers fare up with each other :
| Type of Reward Points | Earned by | Membership Reward Points Earned | Conversion Ratio | Redeemable for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome Bonus | Spending ₹5,000 within 60 days of joining card membership (for the first year only) | Earn 5,000 Milestone Bonus Reward Points | 1 Milestone Bonus Reward point = ₹0.70 | ₹3,500 worth Domestic Travel vouchers |
| Regular Membership Reward Points | Normal daily spends | Earn 1 Membership Reward Point per ₹50 spent except Fuel, Insurance, Utilities (electricity, water and gas bills), Cash & EMI So for ₹4 Lac annual spends, earn 8,000 Reward points | 1 Regular Membership Reward point = ₹0.40 | ₹3,200 worth Domestic Travel vouchers (Reward Rate 0.8%) |
| Rewards Multiplier Program | Shopping on American Express Rewards Program | Earn 3x Membership Reward Points | 1 Regular Membership Reward point = ₹0.40 | (Reward Rate 2.4%) Value of Domestic travel vouchers depends on amount shopped |
| Spend Membership Bonus Reward Points | Spending ₹1.9 Lacs in a year |
Earn 7,500 Spend Milestone Bonus Membership Reward points |
1 Spend Membership Bonus Reward Point = ₹0.67 | ₹5,000 worth Domestic Travel vouchers |
| Spend Membership Bonus Reward Points | Spending ₹4.0 Lacs in a year | Earn 10,000 Spend Milestone Bonus Membership Reward points | 1 Spend Membership Bonus Reward Point = ₹0.80 | ₹5,000 worth Domestic Travel vouchers Spend |
| *Based on the above, on spends of ₹4 Lacs per year, the Overall rewards rate comes to a solid ~6.6% when redeemed for domestic travel vouchers. | ||||
How can I redeem the reward points?
- Domestic Travel Vouchers : This gives the maximum value for the various reward points offered by this travel card. The updated conversion rate is mentioned in the table above. The Domestic Travel vouchers can be redeemed for booking domestic hotels and domestic air travel through the dedicated American Express Domestic Travel website. What works when redeeming a travel voucher is that you’ll be able to pay the applicable taxes as well.
Note: It may sometimes be more rewarding to transfer miles to your airline of choice or convert points to hotel points which brings us to the next way of redeeming points i.e. Transfer points to Travel partners:
- Transfer points to Travel Partners : You’ll be able to convert reward points to various Airline miles and Hotel points of your choice. Airline partners include British Airways Avios, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Intermiles, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines Kris Flyer among others with a 2 Membership Reward points = 1 Air Mile conversion rate. The newest addition to the list is Club Vistara with a conversion rate of 3 Membership Reward points = 1 Air Mile. Hotel Partners include Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy.
At times I feel, transferring this is a better way to redeem points however I have not been able to make my mind as yet. There are times, when transferring miles has given better value for money. With Club Vistara joining the list of airline partners having ₹0.33 per reward point conversion rate it might just become my favorite option (after Coronavirus times of course) to redeem miles.
- Shop with points : During these times of Coronavirus, since Travel is not the first thing that comes in anyone’s mind, you may choose to redeem points for shopping from a wide array of commonly known brands such as Apple, Central, M&S, Flipkart, Big Basket, Myntra. Although for shopping, 1 Membership Rewards Points = ₹0.25 which decent but not as great as when redeemed for domestic travel vouchers.
- Convert to Shopping Vouchers : You’ll be able to convert points to instant shopping vouchers for various brands. The conversion rate varies and can range from ₹0.25 to ₹0.33 per reward point from brand to brand. Its not the best way to redeem points but if on a particular day one is not in the mood to spend out of pocket, then the option is there!
- Pay Card charges with points : If travel is off the cards (like it is in these Corona times right now), you can use your collected reward points to pay your card charges at 1 Membership reward points = ₹0.25. Again not the best use of points but in times like the one we are now, the option is there!
Is Amex Travel Platinum suitable for international spends?
With a high foreign exchange markup fee of 3.5% + Service Tax, Amex Travel Platinum is not the best card suited for international spends. When it comes to international spends, Yes First Exclusive and Yes First Preferred credit card offer a foreign exchange markup fee of 1.75% + Service Tax. However, I recently gave up my Yes First credit cards to avoid the Yes Bank mess and I am not sure I even want to go back to Yes Bank products in the future. After Yes Bank, HDFC Bank cards such as Infinia, Diners Black, Regalia, Diners Club Prestige & Premium including Club miles give a good foreign exchange markup of 1.99% + Service tax. Also, with the Global Value program, you get 1% cashback on HDFC bank cards with which you can even gain a little bit of value. But the card which stands out in this range is HDFC Diners Club Premium as it offers 10x Reward points (~13.33% reward rate) on international spends.
Related Reading: My Best Travel Credit Cards for 2020 in India
Which other cards compete with Amex Travel Platinum?
There is a lot of competition in this range of travel credit cards but Amex Travel Platinum with its exclusive concierge service with ease of redemption options makes it hard to miss! Although, HDFC Regalia, SBI Club Vistara and even SBI Prime Club Vistara charge lower annual fees when compared to Amex Travel Platinum, all fall slightly short of Amex Travel Platinum when it comes to return back reward rate in spite of the higher fees charged by Amex. Moreover, one would need higher annual spends to achieve those reward rates. Although HDFC Regalia has been devalued over the years, but there are many who still are happy with it as it has higher limits of complimentary domestic and international lounge access. But when compared with Amex Travel Plat, they would need annual spends to the tune of ₹8 Lacs to get close to ~5.3% reward rate. Some who regularly travel in Air Vistara and prefer a premium flying experience, are happy with SBI Prime Club Vistara although they would need annual spends to the tune of ₹8 Lacs to get close to ~6.13% reward rate. Then there are some who are happy with miles that never expire offered by CitiPremier Miles card and 32 complimentary domestic lounge visits a year doesn’t disappoint either. As such there is no annual spend requirement in CitiPremier Miles and many are happy for using it to mint accelerated miles (~4.5% reward rate) for airline and hotel bookings. With 10x reward points on international spends, HDFC Diners Premium provides huge value for those who regularly spend internationally. Ultimately, these cards each offer a very different set of perks that will appeal to different people. Those looking for higher reward rate until annual spends of ₹4 Lacs with Taj vouchers and other travel vouchers as added perks will prefer Amex Travel Platinum, while Vistara frequent flyers will do better with SBI Club Vistara card.
What’s not so good with Amex Travel Platinum credit card?
We know of some close friends who had shifted from Citi PremierMiles to Amex Travel Platinum as it didn’t have the lounge visit restriction for add-on card members but although the complimentary domestic lounge access is extendable to 2 supplementary card members (which was good for them), the complimentary access is limited to 4 visits in a year which in effect means families get restricted for its usage perhaps only once per year. That is a mood kill for some like us who would like to travel a little more often than once a year. For families like us who would like to travel a bit more frequently, would have to then rely on other debit cards or perhaps on super premium credit cards with better perks like HDFC Diners Club Black or HDFC Infinia Card. Also, no international lounge access along with high foreign markup fee restricts its usage abroad. Then what could be a deterrent for some would be the annual fees as not all would like to pay it in spite of the awesome rewards and vouchers. It does make complete sense to go for Amex Travel Platinum but for us it is HDFC Infinia Card which does the trick. Amex Travel Platinum is definitely not for someone looking for an abundance of luxury benefits as cards providing those will charge higher annual fees or a higher relationship value with the bank as is the case with HDFC Infinia.
Bottom Line
Despite the competition, Amex Travel Platinum suits the domestic frequent traveller and the Taj vouchers is like an icing on the cake for families to enjoy! If your annual spends are in the range of around ₹4 lacs, you will be able to maximize the perks offered. If one can look past the annual fee, the rewards are right there to enjoy!
Apply here for the American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card.
How is your experience with American Express Travel Platinum card? Have you been able make the most out of this card or were there any issues? Do let me know in the comments section below!
