How to use American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card for Maximum Benefit

American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card is a travel credit card by American Express in the subpremium category. The card comes with a joining fee of Rs. 3,500 (annual fee of Rs. 5,000 applicable second year onwards) and offers a range of value-added benefits including complimentary airport lounge access, gift vouchers from luxury hotels, and many more. You also get Bonus Membership Rewards Points on achieving the stipulated spends milestone on your Platinum Travel Credit Card.

Before we discuss how to use your AmEx Platnum Travel Credit Card for maximum benefit, it is a good idea to first go through the key features of the card.

Key Features of American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card

• You get 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards Points as a welcome benefit on spending a minimum of Rs. 5,000 within the first 60 days of issuance of the card.
• The card earns you 2 Membership Rewards Points for every Rs. 100 spent on normal spends and 3X Membership Rewards Points (6 Points per Rs. 100) on spends via Reward Multiplier (accelerated Membership Rewards Points benefit applicable up to a maximum expenditure of Rs. 6,25,000 via Reward Multiplier).
• You get Bonus Membership Rewards Points on reaching the stipulated spends milestones- 15,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points on spending a minimum of Rs. 1.9 lacs in a membership year and 25,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points on spending a minimum of Rs. 4 lacs in a membership year.
• You are entitled to a Taj Stay voucher worth Rs. 10,000 from the Taj, SeleQtions and Vivanta hotels on an annual expenditure of Rs. 4 lacs.
• You are also entitled to a discount of up to 20% on dining bills at partner restaurants and a discount of 10% on shopping OnePlus devices at the official OnePlus online store.
• As far as airport lounge access is concerned, you get 8 complimentary visits to airport lounges at domestic airports across India and a complimentary membership to the Priority Pass lounge access program (worth USD 99) for lounge access at international airports.
• To be eligible for the Platinum Travel Credit Card, you must have an income of a minimum of Rs. 6 lacs per annum (applicable for both salaried as well as self-employed applicants).

American Express Reward Multiplier

Reward Multiplier is American Express’s offers and deals aggregator on lines of HDFC SmartBuy that allows you to earn Membership Rewards Points at an accelerated rate. As it is an aggregator portal, you do not make any actual purchases from Reward Multiplier, the portal only redirects you to the merchant’s website from where you can make the desired purchase and earn Membership Rewards Points at an accelerated rate.

Usually, you earn 3X Membership Rewards Points on purchases via Reward Multiplier, however, American Express frequently comes up with exclusive offers on Reward Multiplier under which you earn Membership Reward Points at an even higher rate- sometimes up to 20 Membership Rewards Points per Rs. 100.

The maximum Bonus Membership Rewards Points (the additional 2X Membership Rewards Points) that can be earned on the Platinum Travel Credit Card (or any American Express credit card for that matter) is capped at 25,000 Points per month. So, considering 3X reward rate on spends via Reward Multiplier, you must spend a minimum of Rs. 6,25,000 in a month to avail the maximum benefit of Reward Multiplier (25,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points + 12,500 normal Membership Rewards Points).

For more information on American Express Reward Multiplier, you may refer to this post

Redeeming American Express Membership Rewards Points

The Membership Rewards Points earned on American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card can be-

• redeemed for gift vouchers at popular e-commerce websites (like Flipkart), INSTA purchases at partner offline stores and against the card’s statement balance (under the Cash + Points scheme).
• transferred to partner airlines’ frequent flyer programs and certain hotel loyalty programs including British Airways Executive Club, Club Vistara, Asia Miles, Emirates, Skywards, Etihad Guest, Finnair Plus, InterMiles, Qatar Privilege Club, Singapore KrisFlyer, Virgin Points, Marriott Bonovoy and Hilton Honors.

The monetary value of the Membership Rewards Points varies depending upon the type of redemption (usually between Rs. 0.25 and Rs. 0.50). You get the highest redemption value on redemption of the Membership Rewards Points against Taj Stay Vouchers.

Optimizing American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card Spends for Maximum Benefit

As you can see, you earn Bonus Membership Rewards Points on your American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card on achieving certain stipulated spends milestones- annual expenditure of Rs. 1.9 lacs and Rs. 4 lacs (which translates into a monthly expenditure of Rs. 15,833 and Rs. 33,333 respectively).

On spending Rs. 4 lacs in a year, you not only get 25,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points (and 8,000 Base Membership Rewards Points), but also a Taj Stay Voucher worth Rs. 10,000. The maximum monetary value of the  Membership Rewards Points earned on the Platinum Travel Credit Card is on redemption against Taj Stay Vouchers (Rs. 1 = 2 Membership Rewards Points). Therefore, you get the maximum benefit on your AmEx Platinum Travel Credit Card if you spend a minimum of Rs. 4 lacs in a membership year and redeem the Membership Rewards Points earned against Taj Stay Vouchers.

The following table illustrates the various benefits (including Bonus Membership Rewards Points, Base Membership Rewards Points and complimentary voucher) that you get on your American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card on spending a minimum of Rs. 4 lacs in a membership year-

It has been assumed for the purpose of the above calculation that none of the spends on the card are via Reward Multiplier. If however, we assume that all that amount spent with the card is via Reward Multiplier, you can earn a maximum of 49,000 Membership Rewards Points on American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card with a maximum monetary value of Rs. 24,500 along with a complimentary Taj Stay voucher worth Rs. 10,000 (net monetary benefit of 34,500 with a reward rate of 8.63%) on spending Rs. 4 lacs in a membership year.

Bottom Line

As you can see, you can get a really high reward rate of up to over 8.5% on your American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card if you spend a minimum of Rs. 4 lakh in a card membership year and all your spends are via Reward Multiplier. Even if you don’t spend via Reward Multiplier, you still get a very good reward rate of 6.62%. Such high reward rates and additional benefits like complimentary airport lounge access and discounted rates at partner restaurants make American Express Platinum Credit Card one of the best travel cards in the market. However, there is a caveat- you should consider this high reward rate only if you are fond of staying at Taj/Vivanta hotels as otherwise, Taj Stay voucher is of no use to you.