Amex Platinum Travel vs HDFC Regalia Gold Credit Card

Thinking which is the better card to get when it comes to Amex Platinum Travel vs HDFC Regalia Gold? American Express Platinum Travel and HDFC Bank Regalia Gold are both premium offerings from their respective issuers. The HDFC Regalia Gold comes with an annual fee of Rs 2500 while the Amex Platinum Travel comes at a higher price point of Rs 5000. With 2X the annual fee, does it make sense to take the Platinum Travel over the Regalia Gold? Let us compare Amex Platinum Travel vs HDFC Regalia Gold to find out which is better card among the two in rewards and benefits.

Fees

	Amex Platinum Travel	HDFC Regalia Gold
Joining Fee	Rs 3500+GST	Rs 2500+GST or FYF
Welcome Benefit	12,000 MR points with referral	Rs 2500 GV if fee is paid
Welcome Memberships	None	Annual Swiggy One and MMT Black Elite memberships
Annual Fee	Rs 5000+GST	Rs 2500+GST or LTF
Renewal Benefit	None	None
Annual Fee Waiver	None	On Rs 4 Lakh annual spends

In terms of fee, the Regalia Gold does fare better. But, Amex Platinum Travel does provide better rewards than Regalia Gold as we will see soon. So, paying 2X the fee for Plat Travel may still be a good option.

Rewards

Spend Category	Amex Platinum Travel	HDFC Regalia Gold
Retail Spends	1 MR point/Rs 50 ~0.8%-1.2%	4 RP/Rs 150 ~1.3%
Accelerated Spends (Marks & Spencer, Myntra, Reliance Digital and Nykaa)	1 MR point/Rs 50 ~0.8%-1.2%	20 RP/Rs 150 ~6.7%
Insurance & Utilities	No Rewards	4 RP/Rs 150 ~1.3%
Fuel Spends	No Rewards	No Rewards

Amex Platinum Travel does have a lower base earn rate than Regalia Gold with the MR points system. But, the real strength of Platinum Travel is with its milestone benefits.

Amex Platinum Travel vs HDFC Regalia Gold – Milestone Benefits

The American Express Platinum Travel credit card gives you a 8% plus return when you spend Rs 4 Lakh in a year. The HDFC Bank Regalia Gold can give you a maximum return of 3.4% if you fulfil all the target milestone spends and spend Rs 7.5 Lakh in a membership year. We have covered this in detail in the below section.

HDFC Bank Regalia Gold Credit Card Milestone Benefits

Spend Target	Benefit
Rs 1.5 Lakh spend per calendar quarter	Rs 1500 Brand Gift Vouchers
Rs 5 Lakh spend in anniversary year	Rs 5000 Flight Gift Voucher
Rs 7.5 Lakh spend in anniversary year	Rs 5000 Flight Gift Voucher

• The options for the brand gift vouchers are Marriott, Myntra, Marks and Spencer or Reliance Digital.
• The ‘flight voucher’ seems to be a coupon code that can be used on SmartBuy when booking flights. So, only voucher can be applied during booking and both cannot be clubbed. It would have been nice if both could be clubbed to get maximum benefit.

Assuming you can spend Rs 7.5 Lakh in a membership year and also achieve the Rs 1.5 Lakh spend per calendar quarter, this is a total benefit of Rs 16,000. That makes it an extra return of 2.1% over the base reward rate. We can redeem these milestone benefits on the SmartBuy portal.

Amex Platinum Travel Milestone Benefits

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. Even though spends in fuel, insurance and utilities are excluded from regular MR points, all of those count for the milestone benefits.

Milestone	Regular MR Points	Bonus MR points
Spend Rs 1.9 Lakh in a year on Amex Plat Travel	3800	15000
Spend Rs 4 Lakh in a year on Amex Plat Travel	4200	25000
Cumulative MR Points on Rs 4 Lakh Spend	8000	40000

• 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 34,000 including milestone benefits. This makes the reward rate an amazing 8.5% on the American Express Platinum Travel credit card and is enough to cover the stay expenses for a mini-vacation. You can also redeem MR points for other options where you will get a value from 40 paise to Rs 1 for air mile transfers.

HDFC Bank SmartBuy vs American Express Reward Multiplier

	American Express Platinum Travel Card	HDFC Bank Regalia Gold Credit Card
Approximate return excluding milestone benefits	All Partners: 2.4% – 3.6%	5X partners: 6.6% 10X partners: 13.3%
Approximate return including milestone benefits	All Partners: 8.5% – 11.5%	5X partners: 6.6% 10X partners: 13.3%

Reward Redemptions

For Amex Platinum Travel, the best option is to transfer out points to Marriott Bonvoy or redeem them for Taj GV. You can even choose to redeem them for Gold Collection if you have the MRCC or Gold Charge.

For Regalia Gold, you can transfer out points to Accor to get the best value or use them to book flights on SmartBuy.

Redemption Option	Value of 1 MR point	Value of 1 RP
Flights/Hotels	30 paise	50 paise
Airline/Hotel Loyalty Transfers	0.5 to 1 partner points	0.3 to 0.5 partner points
Rewards Catalogue (Including Vouchers)	25 paise	Up to 65 paise
Statement Credit	25 paise	20 paise

Airport Lounge Access

This is where the Regalia Gold is better than the Amex Platinum Travel. Regalia Gold gets you international airport lounge access if you need it.

	American Express Platinum Travel Card	HDFC Bank Regalia Gold Credit Card
Domestic Airport Lounge Access	8 visits/year	12 visits/year
International Airport Lounge Access	None	6 visits/year

Acceptability

You may have few issues for online spends, but the Regalia Gold is going to have a much better acceptability offline than the Amex Platinum Travel. So, if you have high offline spends then you may check out the Regalia Gold.

Final Thoughts

If you can spend Rs 4 Lakh on the Amex Plat Travel, it is a much better option over the Regalia Gold. MR points are quite versatile and you will get the best benefit if you use it for travel redemptions like points transfer.

If you prefer a direct redemption for flights, then the Regalia Gold is a better option. You can use reward points at 50 paise each for SmartBuy flights.