American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card

American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card

Fee

Joining Fee: Zero/Rs 3500+GST
Annual Fee: Rs 5000+GST

Type

Airmiles, Rewards

Return

0.6% to 8.5%

Rating

4.5/5

Payment Network

American Express

Benefits

Milestone Rewards, Domestic Airport Lounge Access, Fuel Surcharge Waiver

Amex MRCC and Gold Charge cards offer bonus MR points on making Rs 1500 X 4 or Rs 1000 X 6 transactions every month. But, if you are making bigger payments then these cards may not be too useful. This is where American Express Platinum Travel credit card comes in. The Amex Plat Travel card issued FYF with referrals and has a renewal fee of Rs 5000+GST. The Plat Travel gives maximum benefit for spends of Rs 4 Lakh in a year with its milestone rewards.

American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card Eligibility

If there is one thing that has not changed with Amex over the years, it is the card design. It is the standard simple design with the card name on the right side and the ‘American Express’ brand on the top. Eligibility criteria for the American Express Platinum Travel credit card are pretty simple and actually lower than what other credit card companies ask for their premium credit cards.

LTF IndusInd Bank Credit Cards
  • CIBIL Score: Preferably 750 and above
  • Annual Income: Rs 6 Lakh and above

That’s it. If you have both, you can go ahead and apply for the card. If you already have another card from Amex, the approval for Plat Travel is just a formality.

Joining and Annual Fee

Joining FeeRs 3500+GST / Zero with referral
Welcome Benefit10000 MR Points with fee / 2000 MR points with referral
Annual FeeRs 5000+GST
Annual Fee WaiverNone
American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card Review: Fees

With ongoing referrals, it is pretty much an easy decision to apply with referral. You get a first year free card with 2000 MR points. That gives you time to use the card and evaluate if you want to continue with the card from the second year.

Rewards

Spend CategoryRewardsReturn
Retail Spends1 MR point/Rs 500.6% to 1.2%
Fuel, Insurance, Utilities, EMI TransactionsNo RewardsZero
American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card: Rewards

As in the case of MRCC and Gold Charge cards, the real benefit of the American Express Platinum Travel credit card lies in the milestone MR points. Even though spends in fuel, insurance and utilities are excluded from regular MR points, all of those count for the milestone benefits.

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Milestone Bonus Membership Rewards

Along with the regular reward above, the Amex Platinum Travel card provides bonus MR points for reaching the Rs 1.9 Lakh and Rs 4 Lakh spend milestones. Your spend progress to reach the milestone is shown on the Amex mobile app for easy tracking.

MilestoneRegular
MR Points
Bonus MR points
Spend Rs 1.9 Lakh in a year on Amex Plat Travel380015000
Spend Rs 4 Lakh in a year on Amex Plat Travel420025000
Cumulative MR Points on Rs 4 Lakh Spend800040000
American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card: Milestone Rewards

Important: Credit of Bonus MR Points

It is important to note here that the credit of bonus MR points is not fully automatic.For Rs 1.9 Lakh milestone, we will get 7500 MR points automatically. We need to call/chat with customer support to get another 7500 MR points. Similarly, for the Rs 4 Lakh milestone, we will get 12500 MR points automatically. We need to call/chat with customer support to get another 12500 MR points.

Rewards Redemption

American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card: Redemption Options
American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card: Redemption Options

From the Platinum Travel rewards catalogue, the best options for redeeming these MR points are either a Flipkart or Taj gift voucher. But, if you also have a MRCC or Gold Charge card, you get access to the 18K and 24K Gold Collection too. That will give you many more redemption options at a better value per MR point.

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  • Flipkart or Travel Voucher: 30 paise per MR point
  • Taj Voucher: 50 paise per MR point

Overall Reward Rate of 8.5% with Taj Vouchers

  • On spending Rs. 1.9 Lakh in a year: Earn 15000 MR Points redeemable for Flipkart/Travel Vouchers worth up to Rs 4500 or Taj Vouchers worth Rs 7500
  • On spending Rs 4 Lakh in a year: Earn 25000 MR Points redeemable for Flipkart/Travel Vouchers worth Rs 7500 or Taj Vouchers worth Rs 12500
  • We also earn a Taj Experiences E-Gift Card worth Rs 10000 on achieving 4 Lakhs spend in a year. This one is sent as soon as you hit the milestone. There is no need to wait for the card membership year to be completed.
  • On spends of Rs 4 Lakhs in a year, we also get regular 8000 MR points which are redeemable for Rs 2000 worth of Travel/Flipkart vouchers or Rs 4000 Taj gift vouchers.

For spends of Rs 4L in a year, we get Taj Experiences gift vouchers worth Rs 34000 including milestone benefits. This makes the reward rate a whopping 8.5% on the American Express Platinum Travel credit card and is enough to cover the stay expenses for a mini-vacation. 🙂

The rewards are aimed at travellers and hence the name of the Platinum Travel credit card.

Transfer to Airlines/Hotel Loyalty Programs

Amex MR points are also one of the most versatile ones when it comes to using them for airline and hotel loyalty programs. We get multiple transfer partners. If planned well, points transfer can give you a better value for your MR points. The best transfer partner is Marriott Bonvoy where we get a 1:1 transfer ratio.

PartnerConversion Rate
Asia Miles800 Points = 400 Asia Miles
Club Vistara900 Points = 300 Club Vistara Points
Emirates Skywards800 Points = 400 Emirates Skywards Miles
Etihad Guest1600 Points = 800 Etihad Guest Miles
Hilton Honors1000 Points = 900 Hilton Honors Points
Marriott Bonvoy100 Points = 100 Marriott Bonvoy Points
Qatar Privilege Club500 Points = 250 Avios
Singapore KrisFlyer800 Points = 400 KrisFlyer Miles
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club800 Points = 400 Virgin Points
American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card: Transfer Partners

Round-the-Year Offers

The rewards above are not all the Amex Platinum Travel credit card offers. Around the year, Amex also runs multiple promotional offers which end up giving a reward rate far more than the 8.5% mentioned above. For example, I got a Flipkart shopping offer that gave me 10% cashback up to Rs 2500, and an Amazon shopping offer that gave me 10% cashback up to Rs 2000. These offers also help in meeting the annual spending required for this card.

Complimentary Airport Lounge Access

  • Domestic Airport Lounge Access: 2 complimentary visits per quarter. Here is the list of lounges for complimentary lounge access.
  • International Airport Lounge Access: Not Available

Fuel Surcharge Waiver

American Express Platinum Travel credit card gets a 0% convenience fee for HPCL fuel pumps. This is valid for all transactions of value less than Rs 5000. So, you can potentially use your Amex Plat Travel card at HPCL fuel pumps to hit the milestone. You will not get regular MR points but you will get the milestone bonus MR points.

Other Benefits & Charges

Annual Fee Waiver

Amex does not have an official annual fee waiver criteria for the Platinum Travel credit card. However, it does offer some waiver or reduced annual fee options for reaching out to customer care. I reached out to CC after the annual fees were charged to my card at the end of the first year and got the below options for an annual fee waiver:

  • Spend 2L in 60 days and get an annual fee waiver
  • Get an annual fee waiver in lieu of 10K MR points
  • Pay an annual fee and get 15K MR points

American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card

Card Maven

Joining / Annual Fees
Rewards
Features and Benefits
4.5
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27 thoughts on “American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card”

  1. Till 1.9L, it was showing me tracking for milestone however now it’s not showing me. Is there any change in 4L milestone?

    1. Card Maven

      It may be gone due to maintenance. It has happened before and we can contact Amex on chat to get latest spend totals.

    1. Card Maven

      It is still good when you use it with wallet offers where we get 1.5% to 2% back in fuel wallet.

  2. charges applied on Paytm wallet load ,Please correct now. Thanks for the detailed reviews of CC

  3. Hi,
    After reading your review, wanted to apply through your link but need to know how can I manage my monthly rent pay through this Amex platinum CC? Share your thoughts

  4. Karthik Karavadi

    Hey do we have 1500×4 spends offer in the platinum travel card like we have in MRCC?

  5. This is a completely useless card.
    Neither it has the travel rewards of Axis Atlas/Signature/Magnus or the cashback rewards of SBI Cashback/Axis Ace/ BoB Eterna/Millenia. Nor it has the benefits of AmEx platinum like insurance.

    Lounges can be availed in dozens of cards – even LTF ones.

    Not to mention low acceptance in offline merchants, and mediocre acceptance in online merchants. AmEx concierge is nothing more than a hype.

    Totally avoidable

  6. The only thing keeping me from applying for this card is my LTF Diners Club Privilege. I feel the acceptance at PoS terminals would be similar to the Diners network. Kindly correct me if I’m wrong.

  7. i feel this card is only for those, who like to stay at only Taj/ITC/Vivanta properties while travelling.

    For other MRCC is still best for purchases upto 1.5L

  8. Vivek Sehgal

    Isn’t it better to directly apply this card instead of using the referral link? 3500+tax gives you 10000 MR points. While if referral link used will get only 2000 points. Unlike MRCC and Gold where using referral link is beneficial here it is not beneficial in my view.

    1. Different way to look at it. On paying 3500+GST=Rs 4130 as a fee, you get 10K MR points. This means you are buying each MR point at 41 paise. Can you get a better value for those MR points when you redeem them? It is possible but needs effort after doing a points transfer. With Marriott Bonvoy devaluing next year, the value of each MR point for that redemption will likely decrease.

      In the second case, you get 2000 MR points for free with no money outgo from your pocket.

      1. VIVEK SEHGAL

        Yes depends on how efficiently one can use transfer partners. Thanks for the reply.

        Do write on Marriot Bonvoy changes in 2023. If it gets devalued drastically Amex points value can go down significantly as only on Marriot there is 1:1 conversion. For airline partners anyways it is 1:0.5 conversion.

        1. Yes, very low expectations from Marriott going forward in 2023. Will have to see if they decide to still keep it a rewarding program.

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