Move from Amex Plat Travel to Plat Reserve

[neogen]

I have Amex Plat Travel that is up for renewal next month. Haven't been able to use the card much due to Magnus & VI binge.

Question & decision advice needed:
1. should I renew Plat travel - yes or no?
2. should I move from Plat Travel to Plat reserve - Yes or No? advantages & disadvantages

Please help me decide.

 

[beingmohit]

I have Amex Plat Travel that is up for renewal next month. Haven't been able to use the card much due to Magnus & VI binge.

Question & decision advice needed:
1. should I renew Plat travel - yes or no?
2. should I move from Plat Travel to Plat reserve - Yes or No? advantages & disadvantages

Please help me decide.

With the huge Magnus devaluation, I think you can now move a lot of your spends to the Plat Travel. I would suggest renewing it as it can give around 7% returns for spends of 4l/year.
Platinum Reserve is just a status symbol without much of a value TBH. You can read threads about the current status of Platinum Reserve and make a better decision

 

[neogen]

Ok, cool. Perhaps time to haggle with Amex to waive of the renewal or reduce it. Any merit in paying renewal through accumulated MR points?

 

[sxchzy]

Amex travel is for points based on milestones.
While reserve is for amex lounges.

 

[neogen]

Amex travel is for points based on milestones.
While reserve is for amex lounges.

Is access to Amex lounges unlimited with Reserve? Their lounges in Del Mum are good what I have heard of.

I mostly travel Vistara, so the business class lounge come for free with that. Wondering whether Amex lounges are worth?

 

[navam]

Is access to Amex lounges unlimited with Reserve? Their lounges in Del Mum are good what I have heard of.

I mostly travel Vistara, so the business class lounge come for free with that. Wondering whether Amex lounges are worth?

@neogen I've been to the amex lounges in Delhi and Mumbai and they are definitely better than your general lounges in terms of both quality and crowds, but wit the platinum charge card you kinda need to do the math on if you can make it worth the money e.g. I took it when they offered 125k points as joining so getting the joining fee back was easy, hence I splurged but did not bother continuing post the 3rd year.

 

[chaitanyamella]

Ok, cool. Perhaps time to haggle with Amex to waive of the renewal or reduce it. Any merit in paying renewal through accumulated MR points?

They usually offer points against the full fee for Plat travel. That's most sought option. Plat reserve was useful to access the Amex lounges at Mumbai and Delhi but effective Sept 1 even that's going away.

 

[sxchzy]

Is access to Amex lounges unlimited with Reserve? Their lounges in Del Mum are good what I have heard of.

I mostly travel Vistara, so the business class lounge come for free with that. Wondering whether Amex lounges are worth?

they are 3 per qtr 12 per year only for primary card.
they are way better thanother lounges because of 0 to less crowd.
you can shift to plat charge if it is lucrative for you.
on plat charge it is unlimited access to amex lounges gloabbly as well

 

[neogen]

They usually offer points against the full fee for Plat travel. That's most sought option. Plat reserve was useful to access the Amex lounges at Mumbai and Delhi but effective Sept 1 even that's going away.

They have completely devalued Reserve now. No point in considering.

 

[chaitanyamella]

They have completely devalued Reserve now. No point in considering.

Plat travel + MRCC + Gold charge, this is the best combination. Plat charge can be considered if you get the reward points as joining bonus instead of the Taj vouchers.

 

[yashvijay]

@neogen I've been to the amex lounges in Delhi and Mumbai and they are definitely better than your general lounges in terms of both quality and crowds, but wit the platinum charge card you kinda need to do the math on if you can make it worth the money e.g. I took it when they offered 125k points as joining so getting the joining fee back was easy, hence I splurged but did not bother continuing post the 3rd year.

Hi, I'm currently getting an offer to upgrade to Amex plat charge for 135k points. I don't see traveling abroad much this year and mostly travel would be in India. Considering vistara as their flight partner, the redemption rate is very poor. Also transferring to MB is a bit too much. If you used the card for 2 yrs, can you tell me how best did you get the value out of it?

 

[navam]

Hi, I'm currently getting an offer to upgrade to Amex plat charge for 135k points. I don't see traveling abroad much this year and mostly travel would be in India. Considering vistara as their flight partner, the redemption rate is very poor. Also transferring to MB is a bit too much. If you used the card for 2 yrs, can you tell me how best did you get the value out of it?

Ya apparently I got the same offer lol, not sure what are they upto.

Anyway to your question, frankly I was living a very wasteful (but fun) life back then and was travelling a lot for work, so for me the lounge access and hotel memberships were very helpful, I did get some savings on flight tickets but those are primarily first class and sometimes business.

I don't recommend this card to anyone who doesn't travel frequently, but for the first year you can make up with the MR so maybe try it out.
Also back when I was using it they did not have the 20x reward multiplied maybe that makes it worth it now to make normal spends, I was using Infinia for normal spends (still do).

Hope this helps, btw this amex experience thing is just marketing they had like one event back when I had the card and now they claim they have a lot more but... They can't tell me what they are sooo I don't trust them.

 

[ALOAK]

Hi, I'm currently getting an offer to upgrade to Amex plat charge for 135k points. I don't see traveling abroad much this year and mostly travel would be in India. Considering vistara as their flight partner, the redemption rate is very poor. Also transferring to MB is a bit too much. If you used the card for 2 yrs, can you tell me how best did you get the value out of it?

If there is no travel now it is ok as points don't expire in amex u can use it when u travel still a good option

 

[Indian]

Now They offer 1000 amazon voucher on upgrade

 

[SSV]

Now They offer 1000 amazon voucher on upgrade

Yes, I too received the same offer on my 5 month old Plat Travel card..

 

[yashvijay]

Ya apparently I got the same offer lol, not sure what are they upto.

Anyway to your question, frankly I was living a very wasteful (but fun) life back then and was travelling a lot for work, so for me the lounge access and hotel memberships were very helpful, I did get some savings on flight tickets but those are primarily first class and sometimes business.

I don't recommend this card to anyone who doesn't travel frequently, but for the first year you can make up with the MR so maybe try it out.
Also back when I was using it they did not have the 20x reward multiplied maybe that makes it worth it now to make normal spends, I was using Infinia for normal spends (still do).

Hope this helps, btw this amex experience thing is just marketing they had like one event back when I had the card and now they claim they have a lot more but... They can't tell me what they are sooo I don't trust them.

20x reward multiplier is on very selected brands that you wouldn't shop with very often. Also currently I'm using gold card that gives 1000 bonus points on doing 6 transactions of ₹1k each so that makes more sense to me, I don't think I'll be able to generate as many regular points as I can using Amex trifecta. And you rightly mentioned that the price charged is good only for those who travel very frequently but I don't see that happening very much in next 1 year so I belive in be blocking 70k for these points.

 

[drsel]

Amex just now phoned to offer me Platinum charge card and then they offered me platinum reserve.
Are these cards worth applying for ?

 

[SSV]

Amex just now phoned to offer me Platinum charge card and then they offered me platinum reserve.
Are these cards worth applying for ?

A Big Massive NO , considering you calculate earn rate per every Rs 100 spent , including recover % of JF and AF ...