Disclaimer: All views are personal, with my experience of holding Amex Platinum Charge Card for 4 years in a row.
American Express India has recently announced that they’re hiking the joining/annual fee of the American Express Platinum Charge Card, which is the flagship product of the issuer. And in turn they’re not only adding new benefits, but also revoking some existing benefits on the card.
So are the changes positive? Absolutely not.
Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming changes to Amex Platinum Charge Card that goes live eff. 8th Oct 2024.
New Benefits
- Renewal benefit: 35,000 INR Voucher (Taj, Luxe, Postcard Hotels)
If you’re an existing Amex Platinum Cardholder, you would know that you would anyway get closer to 30K INR worth of benefits as a retention offer.
So this one doesn’t add any value, especially because the spend requirement is also kept unrealistically high.
While spending 20L may not be a problem for those holding the card, the concern is that the reward rate on the card is way too low compared to the competition.
- Complimentary OTT memberships
I don’t know who on earth decided to provide Amazon Prime “lite” membership for a Plat Charge cardholder.
Seriously? It reminds me of this scene:
Avoiding all these unnecessary memberships and just giving Netflix Premium alone would have done a much better job.
- Complimentary Hotel Memberships: Accor plus, Postcard Hotels, iPrefer
Accor Plus is definitely valuable, however one can get the same with Amex Reserve Credit Card or just by burning Accor points itself. So no point in adding overlapping benefits here. At-least they could have thought of adding 1/2 nights to it.
Also, having spoken to over 50+ Plat charge cardholders personally, I can say that most of them do not prefer Accor hotels.
Postcard Hotels Platinum tier is fine, except that most of their hotels are expensive and I feel it’s maybe of centurion standard, so no point in adding it to the platinum.
iPrefer Titanium is good, but again there are very few hotels under iPrefer, making it tough to get any value out of it.
Instead of these benefits, giving just Marriott Platinum membership alone would have made the card sell like hotcakes.
Benefits going away
While the changes on lounge access for supplementary cardholder is just fine, revoking birthday benefit / 10K Taj Voucher is certainly not.
So is Amex Plat worth 66K INR?
For most cardholders, these changes generally means 10K Taj voucher is going away and the fee gets a hike of 6K INR. That’s a 16K INR loss on an already expensive product.
So for most, this is a negative change.
I feel that whoever refreshed the benefits “failed” to understand the “UHNI” segment and added benefits just like anyone would do for a 5K fee “retail” card.
Such mistakes are common with newbies in the industry but it’s shocking to see it happen with American Express.
The changes are not of AMEX Standard in any way and even the email itself is not Amex Standard, as it’s misleading. For ex, the Apple/Lalit offers are short-term offers and it should not be on this email content body, even though the t&c has all info of them.
These changes going live simply means that Amex Plat Charge is heading towards a slow death. I wish Amex Global steps in to see what’s going wrong with Amex India.
I got 2 cards in the family, My dad’s card will get renewed in December. Can we take all the new memberships before the renewal and close the card or they are ava only after the payment of the increased fees?
Hi Vipul,
U can ask them to cancel the membership till 2 months after the renewal.
I was just researching this card 15days back and was about to order one. With this, I have decided not to go ahead with Amex Plat. I get all these benefits in cheaper CCs. Why pay so much?
Hi Ramesh,
I am holding this amex platinum card from past 5 years and yes the membership charge is way too much compared to orher banks flagships CCs, but believe me if ur spend are good throughout the year, it is totally worth it, using the lounge at Mumbai and Delhi airport has a different feeling in all, and if you use amex experience app, they have crazy discount on many brands and experiences which totally makes it worth it!
😀 I went to AmexLounge in Delhi, just stepped in and stepped out in 30 second. It is known fact that it is a micro lounge, and was jam packed. They said we have to share the table with someone, I asked, instead if there is a sandwitch or something to quick bite, we can take it, they had nothing of that sort. So instead we just moved out. So 70K+ for Amex lounge… so totally not worth it.
I have already ordered for cancellation of AMEX platinum. Can’t live with something charging 66k +offering 2 points for 100 spend that too when lot of cards are there where I have to achieve yearly milestones.
I have kept amex platinum travel card though.
Your article says 16.5 k loss. This should have been written as 17.2 k loss as GST will also be applicable
FM Madam gave 17K tax saving and Amex will take it away.
I was just in the process of making up my mind on whether to retain or give up this useless card. Now Amex has made things easier for me. All tangible benefits removed and fee hiked ! Good going Amex. I would even say that stopping guest access in Amex lounges for supplementary cardholders is not cool.
Problem with lounge access for Supp cards is that the lounges are getting fully packed lately. I’ve visited the Mumbai lounge couple of times in the last 6 months and they were almost always running at 90% occupancy.
So I don’t think they’ve an option. They’re just forced to do this. It’s for the same reason access via Reserve was revoked sometime back.
Let them reduce the fee then, instead of increasing it. And by the way, what prompted them to take away the Taj voucher ? Is Taj also overloaded ?
The Delhi lounge is also not very far away gone are the pizza’s or the physical menu. The centurion area is now guarded with a pin based lock and they dont let plat members in at all which they used to 2 years back.
Food has definitely reduced in choices but the quality is still there e.g. I had the fried fish from the centurion menu and it was very yum. Now with air indias lounge becoming std for gold+ members lets see what they can offer.
I really didn’t like the Amex Longe at either Mumbai (it was very dull) nor in Delhi (food choice is just ok)
They are like free canteen for Amex card holders. I wonder why they didn’t have it in International terminal instead of Domestic.
We have 100 times better Longue in Mumbai and Delhi for domestic than Amex.
It’s just gimmicks, they really are not bothered about facility to card holders.
You said it all man. I literally had the same thoughts about the “lite” membership and the birthday benefit going away.
I got 35k taj vouchers last time I renewed my platinum. So, this card doesn’t offer anything special now. I think amex will see too many card closure requests in the coming year!
The hike in fees doesn’t justifies the benefits. It would have been good if Accor explorer membership would have been given instead of Accor travellers . And who gives Amazon Prime Lite instead of full membership. Also they shouldn’t have stopped 10K taj vouchers on birthday.
Just a clarification on complimentary OTT memberships, it is actually TIME Prime Ace membership that will be complimentary and through which one would be able to subscribe to the OTT subscriptions as well.
The biggest challenge I see is the continued non acceptance of the cards even in local stores in countries such as US, Hong Kong, South Korea. Further moat lounges do not accept amex platinum. The price hike is indeed a negative.
Seems Amex acceptance is a global problem. What do they accept in us/hk/korea ?
This seems to be a very cheap stunt by Amex India. After reading the entire email and understanding the changes, all I can say is that this has been pulled off by someone extremely Non-HNI, someone who has just no understanding of what an HNI life means. Very very poor business move. Time to look at HDFC, AXIS, etc. now.
What a joke. At one end there is growing rejection of Amex cards everywhere and then Amex IN pulls out this cheap trick of minimum spends of Rs. 20,00,000/year (Twenty Lakhs). Recently, while in Spain I swiped my card at the American fast food giant McDonalds and guess what, McDonalds rejected my Amex card informing me that they do not accept American Express cards. Wao! Just goes to show the acceptance level of Amex Cards.
Just got an email on update of Membership T&C where now “The Bank may outsource/assign activities (including the sales, marketing, servicing etc. of its products) to any service provider, whether located in India or overseas, and whether to any of the Bank’s affiliates or a third party at its sole discretion, in accordance with the applicable guidelines of the RBI.
I think they will now start being more aggressive in marketing insurance products – from 2 calls a month to a call everyday I guess…
I had taken this card last Feb as an upgrade, in my calculations had built in the 10k taj voucher as a birthday bonus, but with this upgrade that voucher is no longer available for me, what a scam. FYI my birthday is in december 😥
Existing card holders will get 10k Taj. You won’t be eligible from next renewal for 10k Taj. Obviously benefits are tard for the fee hike. Worst benefits they have made. Keeping 20lakhs spend for 35k Taj is another down side.
My simple calculation 20 lac @ 3.3% returns with Infinia or 3% with ICICI Emeralde, or even Axis Atlas will get us 60k above hard cash equivalent rewards!
And also, next year renewal free!
lol @ AMEX, not sure why they are still living in LALA Land
If you had taken the card in Feb last, they have no business to refuse the voucher in your case at least this year. Ask them to refund ₹ 10,000 straightaway or give you the voucher. They should be dragged to ombudsman if they don’t listen.
Amex, just pulled an axis here .
I think Amex is just trying to kill itself. First of all spend based offer have become unlucrative now adays and now this poor benefits with such a high fees. Not worth it. If a person is spending such a high value to make some gains out of this card then surely he will not go with Accor or Amazon lite membership which are available with other low fees card. Amex needs to think big to attract HNI customers. looks like I have to remove this card from wish list now and be content with DCB and Infinia.
Dear Siddarth,
Please don’t whitewash Amex. You should be an independent reviewer. Whitewashing any credit card issuer would undermine your credibility.
1. Amex has “downgraded” their benefits. A management jargon like “refresh” doesn’t absolve Amex, but puts a question mark on your credibility.
2. Did Amex issue any reason why they are revoking companion access on Supplementary card? Strangely, you (in comments) have come up with a nice excuse on their behalf. If the visitors are increasing, should the lounge area be increased or should the access be restricted while increasing the annual fees?
Please be independent.
You are spot on. I don’t understand why the author of this article is advocating for Amex. Good
The problem AFAIK is that metro airports don’t allow to expand the lounges, stating that there is no space.
It used to be my dream card. Even though I’d never have been able to put it to good use I wanted to hold it for a year at least. When it went up from 50k to 60k, I already lost some interest. Now 66k, I don’t think I’d ever think about it.
Like some other users here pointed out, Amex acceptance issues have become worse. Many restaurants say they’ll charge extra if we pay using an Amex card. Even many big stores don’t take Amex. And from what I heard, Amex’s India’s customer base is shrinking too. I think most of their card holders hold the MRCC. The Platinum Reserve has taken a huge hit and most who hold that only have it as a companion card for their Platinum Charge card. And they’re not doing anything to improve it. Are they planning to leave too? I won’t be surprised if so.
It looks like this is their OTT offering, quite bad: americanexpress.com/content/dam/amex/in/benefits/Times_ace.pdf
Request everyone to start Tweeting on X to @AmexIndia on how disappointed we all are ( I just did).
Another card becoming a bullsh*t one.
Rating- 1/5
They just killing the card. There are no iprefer Hotel….in india.. it is a waste membership. Instead they could have given Air india membership or given Taj Gold membership and contiuned with Taj vouchers for birthdays. All this OTT is a waste for this card. OTT could have been given to smart earn card. They are just killing the value of Plat chg. keeping spend limit on chg card is a waste… instead they could have kept renewal benefits of 30k or 50k MR points.
Amex is no longer what Amex stood for.
After Being on the amex platform since 2011.
I finally gave up on the card despite the amazing call centre helpdesk.
They just kept diluting the benefits unapologetically year after year.
It’s one thing to skim the milk but it’s another thing to skim the milk further and further mid year and defeat the very purpose of the having the card.
Retaining a customer is also not really a focus area which is simply essential.
When you don’t focus on existing customer the end is not far off.
Thank god I am not the only one who feels that way.
I closed my Platinum charge card last month and am relieved that I made the right decision. While I understand that many people get value out of this card, the fee charged by Amex is absurdly high given the benefits. The Delhi Centurion Lounge is usually crowded, and the offers are not particularly good.
Bang on! What a demotivating refresh by Amex India.. To add to the misery that you’ve already highlighted, they’re not even willing to honour the 10k Taj Birthday voucher for existing customers whose b’day comes after the new T&C effective date or any alternative benefit in lieu of the same.
I have already written a strong email expressing my disappointment to their customer service head. Yet to receive any revert!
What are the equivalent or better alternatives to this card? Any thoughts ?