American Express is the most recognized credit card brand in the world. It offers a wide range of credit cards, especially platinum cards such as the American Express Platinum card, American Express Platinum Travel card, and American Express Platinum Reserve. All these cards are unique and provide excellent value. The American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card is undoubtedly one of the best Travel credit cards in India at the moment.
Let’s know everything about India’s American Express Platinum Travel Card.
Overview: Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card
Here is a complete overview of Platinum Travel Credit Card Issues by American Express India:
| Type | Travel Credit Card |
| Joining Fees/Annual Fees | Rs. 5000 Plus Taxes |
| Welcome Benefits | 10000 Membership Rewards Points +4000 (If Applied via this Link) |
| Renewal Fees | Rs. 5000 Plus Taxes |
| Reversal of Annual Fees | Not Applicable |
| Renewal Benefits | No |
| Forex Markup Charges | 3.5% Plus Taxes |
| Default Reward Rate | 0.60%-6% |
| Maximize Reward Earn By | Achieving Milestones |
| Redemption Maximization | Transfer Points to Partners |
| Stand Out Feature | Milestone Awards |
Fees and Welcome/Renewal Benefits:
All American Express Credit Cards carry annual fees. However, Amex is known for being generous by offering to waive fees or offer membership rewards points.
Fees: The first-year fee is Rs. 5000 plus GST @ 18%, an increase from Rs. 3500 last year; next year, the fees are Rs. 5000 plus GST @ 18%.
Spend Rs. 10000 ninety days from activating the card, and you will get a welcome benefit in the form of 10000 membership rewards points. However, 10000 points are not eligible for second-year annual fees. You can earn 4K Bonus Points (limited period till 27/02/2025) over the 10K points when applied via this link.
How do you get a waiver for annual fees?
- The good thing about American Express is that it is the industry’s best customer support (India). Amex has a dedicated team for card cancellation, and they have come up with some options to either get a fee waiver or bonus points.
- Give Amex a call, and they will be happy to assist you. Recently, I was given an option of a 50% waiver or 10000 points instead of a fee waiver. This time, I went with the 10000 bonus points as I have some travel planned this year.
You can choose what you feel comfortable with. However, on most days, full fee reversal on spending is a good option.
Amex Plat Travel Card Reward Earning
Reward Earning
By default, the American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card earns 1 point per Rs. 50 Spent. However, Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card doesn’t earn any points on:
- Fuel
- Insurance
- Utilities
- Cash transactions, and
- EMI transactions
However, Amex used to give reward points on insurance once a year, which has not been offered for the last two years. Even though Insurance payments don’t have any reward points, they are counted towards milestones.
How do we increase the default reward points earned?
There are many ways to earn Amex Points in India, and Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card can help you earn a good amount of Amex Points since it is a milestone card with good milestone benefits.
Apart from that, the best way to increase the earning of reward points is by using a reward multiplier. You earn 3 reward points instead of 1 on using a reward multiplier.
Amex also sometimes allow you to earn 23 points per Rs—100 during the festive season, which is notified via email.
Milestone Rewards on AmEx Platinum Travel Credit Card
Very few Milestone-based Credit Cards in India are worth holding, and American Express Platinum Travel Credit is one of them. The milestones are not absurd but reachable.
Here is what you need to do to get Milestone Rewards:
- By spending Rs. 190K on your card anniversary year, you get 15,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points. There are no exclusions for milestone spending calculation. So, you can earn 18,800 reward points if you include a base reward of 3800 reward points, too.
- By spending INR 400K on the card in the anniversary year, you earn an additional 25000.
- In addition, you also get an INR 10K Taj Voucher after spending INR 400K in card anniversary year.
- So, you can earn 40000 milestone reward points and also 8000 base points on spending INR 400K in the card anniversary year Plus INR 10K Taj Voucher. In any case your earning of points will not be less than 40K Points if you spend INR 400K in a year.
- You also earn 10K Joining Benefits on spending INR 10K in 90 Days and additional 4K points if applied via this link.
Default Reward Rate
The default reward rate on American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card is 0.6%. You can use one reward point for Rs. 0.3 against flight or hotel bookings or getting a Flipkart voucher. So, you get a value of INR 0.3 as a reward for spending Rs. 50.
Default Reward Rate After Completing Milestone
- One value of Amex Points is equivalent to Rs. 0.3.
- So, 40K Points have a value of INR 12K Points. If you earn 48K points, 8K base points over 40K points, that will have a value of INR 14,400.
- Plus, the Taj voucher of INR 10,000 is also given, which means you can get the minimum total value of INR 22K on spending INR 400K in a year.
- This milestone benefit increases the reward rate from 0.6% to 5.5%, approximately a 10x increase. However, if you could only spend Rs. 190K, the reward rate would be between 2%-3%, a reasonable rate and 5x the default reward rate.
Redemption of Rewards Points:
You can use the points earned on the American Express Platinum Travel card in four ways. Here are the four options:
- Use them to pay for charges or spending (Rs. 0.3 value per point)
- Use them on Amex Travel Online Portal (Rs. 0.3 value per point) (Sometime Amex Also offers points back for using it on Amex Travel, I have received 30% back promotion last year)
- Use them to get a Flipkart Voucher (Rs. 0.3 value per point)
- Use them by transferring Points (check it out later in the post)
Pro Tip: The Membership Rewards Points earned on the Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card Never expire. So, if you don’t feel like using them now, sit back and relax and use them whenever you like, even after two years if the card is active. In two years, you can earn 96000 reward points Plus INR 20K voucher unless there is a change in this benefit.
How do you maximize the value of Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card Points?
The minimum value you get on an Amex Plat Travel credit card is Rs. 0.3. However, transferring your American Express platinum Travel Credit card points to transfer partners is best.
Value Via Airline Transfer Partners:
You can find here the airline transfer partners of American Express Credit Cards.
By transferring your points to airline partners, you can get value of one point between INR 0.5 [Economy Cabins] and INR 1 [Premium Cabins]. However, the value may also be above INR 1.
An INR 0.5 value will give a reward rate of 8.5%, and an INR 1 value will provide a reward rate of 14.5% if you earn base points and complete the INR 400K milestone.
Value Via Hotel Transfer Partners:
Marriott & Hilton are two hotel transfer partners of Amex India. I value Hilton points at INR 0.5 and Marriott points at INR 0.6. So, Amex’s use at Hilton will give a 7.65% reward rate, and Marriott will provide a 9.7% reward rate.
Even though Marriott’s points value gives a reward rate of 9.7%, Marriott and Amex often offer a bonus for transferring Amex points. However, this isn’t a feature of the card, and there could be no promotion, just like in 2024. Marriott also gives a fifth night free on redeeming points, increasing the reward rate to 15%.
Related: How do you find Marriott’s Best Points Redemption Rate?
Lounge Access on American Express Platinum credit card
| Card | Domestic Lounge | International Lounge |
| Amex Plat Travel | 8/ Yr [2 Per Quarter] | Nil |
After exhausting two lounge visits in a quarter, Discounted access fees of Rs. 500 excluding taxes on domestic departure lounges and Rs. 750 excluding taxes on international departure lounges and T1C domestic departure lounges.
The American Express proprietary Lounges at the airport can not be accessed with the Platinum Travel credit card.
American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card Other Benefits
You receive the following additional benefits on your AmEx platinum Travel Credit Card:
- Fuel Wavier: 0% Convenience fee on transactions less than INR 5K.
- 24×7 Platinum Assist
- Emergency Card Replacement, anywhere in the world
- Zero Lost Card Liability
- 15% Discount at Select restaurants.
How many points can you earn with Amex Platinum Travel Card?
- The maximum potential points earning of Amex Platinum Travel card in a year is 78K points worth INR 23400. However, from 2nd year the potential is 64000 points worth INR 19200. However, I recommened transferring Amex points to airline or hotel transfer partner.
- Just in case you missed it, the annual fees of this card is INR 5000 plus taxes.
| Particulars | 190K Spending | 400K Spending |
| Base Points | 3800 | 8000 |
| Reward Multipler (3x) Bonus | 7600 | 16000 |
| Milestone | 15000 | 40000 (15000+25000) |
| Sign-up Bonus (Via Referral) 1st year only | 14000 (Limited Period) (12K Regular) | 14000 (Limited Period) (12K Regular) |
| Maximum Potential | 40400 | 78000 |
| Taj Voucher | Nil | INR 10K |
| Minimum Reward Rate | 6.38% | 8.35% |
Apply Now
American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card is a great card. The first-year annual fee is INR 5K plus taxes, or INR 5.9K. Upon fee payment, you also get 10000 reward points. However, you can get 4000 bonus points when applying via referral.
| Particulars | Regular | Referral |
| Annual Fees [1st Year] | INR 5000 | INR 5000 |
| Second Year Fees | INR 5000 | INR 5000 |
| Joining Benefits | 10000 Bonus Points | 10000+4000 Bonus Points (Limited Period Till 27/02/2025) |
| Apply | Normal Apply | Via this Link |
Bonus: How do you access the Gold Collection with an Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card?
Not all Amex Credit cards can access the 18K and 24K gold collections. As the Amex Platinum Travel credit card is not eligible, you cannot redeem your points on the 18K or 24K gold collection.
But there is still a way. Suppose you hold another Amex credit card, such as the American Express Membership Rewards Credit Card or Amex Gold Card. In that case, you can club your two Amex accounts and use points interchangeably. That means you can get great vouchers from some prominent brands with a minimum value of Rs. 0.33 per point and a maximum value of Rs. 0.58 per point, giving reward rates of 7.62% and 9.5%.
Related: Amex Spend-Based Targeted Offer
Bottomline
The American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card is an excellent card with a reward rate of 8.5% if used for points transfer without thinking about where to spend because of its simple & great milestone-based rewards. It makes sense to hold an American Express Credit Card in India, and the American Express Platinum Travel credit card would be in the top 5 cards in India.
