Amex Card - making the smart choice

About a month and half back I added another arsenal to my small cavalry of products which help me travel smart and also help me save as I travel. This wasn't typical gadget, but a humble yet powerful card - American Express Membership Rewards Credit Card. There was an offer on at the time (alas it's no longer there) and I got the card without any annual fee for the lifetime. Of course, I immediately grabbed the opportunity and have been using it and saving some bucks on the way.

Planning a trip with Amex card (Image credit: Amex Cards)

Over the last month or so, I have travelled extensively across India and have used the card for most of my travel needs - food, stay, flights, travel gear and so on, and in one word, my experience has been simply fabulous!

Read more: Five cities. Five Stories. One new travel companion.

But before we go ahead, an obvious question is, why Amex card and no other card?
Amex is known for it's service - no other brand comes close to it.

A little bit of trivia about Amex

Not many of you may know this but American Express was founded long time back in 1850, and they were the inventors of the Traveller Checks in 1891. It's now for everyone to see how these innovations revolutionised the travel industry then, and continues to do so even now.

How I use my Amex Card!

Well, I used the card pretty strategically with two key objectives - save money while booking and secondly earn points. So whenever I had to book a hotel, I did that with MakeMyTrip and got the discount immediately. However, in some cases there was no discount, yet I used the card to accumulate points.

However, there is a third factor too - some exclusive advantages that you get only if you have an Amex card.

Let me show you in detail how this works, with personal examples from my travels. Trust me I also learning about new features every time I use the card, and I will add on to the list below as and when I find something new :)

Savings with Amex cards

So let's start with something which is perhaps the most important thing for me as  traveller - save money on the go! But how does one save money using the card? Well, if you are new to these here are these simple tips to do this:

1. Get straight 20% off on dining
2. Upto 70% cashback on MakeMyTrip - use code MMTAMXGLD
3. Redeem Membership Rewards from catalogue
4. 3% Cashback on fuel with American Express Card
5. Ongoing Offers across Air Travel, Hotels, Retail, Dining, online offers and car rental
6. When you make you first booking at Airbnb and enjoy ₹2,500 off with your American Express Credit Card. 
7. Monthly Blockbuster Programme

Here are some examples about how I saved during my travels:

Flight from Delhi to Hyderabad



Last minute hotel in Gurugram



Savings on Food when I travel



Hotel stay in Delhi

Earning points with Amex Cards

Earn 1000 bonus membership reward points on using card 4 times for transaction above Rs 1000 per month. Now this was rather easy for me as I travel so extensively, but the benefits of doing this are rather cool too. What's different about these points is that they don't expire, like most other cards, including the ones I was using before shifting to Amex.

You can also pay in points; here's the simple math: 1000 Membership Rewards Points = Rs. 250.

Journeys are beautiful (Image credit: Amex Cards)

Other privileges with Amex Cards

As I mentioned above, it's not just saving money and earning points, but also a few other special privileges which make the card so special. Here are some :)

American Express eZeClick - It's lightning fast and saves time because it eliminates the need to enter Card number,  expiry date, security code, etc. during every online transaction. Read more.

Epay for paying utility bill - The InstaPAY option gives you the choice to make a payment to a payee who accepts adhoc payments immediately, without the need to register for the American Express EPAY service, though you may also use this functionality after registering.

SafeKey - Your Card account is already protected by American Express against theft and fraud every time you shop online. American Express SafeKey has been introduced to further enhance online transaction security. It is an added security measure to safeguard your online purchases for your peace of mind.

Taj Innercircle Membership

Quality of Customer care

During the second week itself, I lost my card, or I thought so. Thankfully, before I blocked the card and ordered a new one, I found it in my wallet itself (a tad embarrassed about that). However, I learnt about something interesting because of this little 'episode'. If you lose your card, it will be replaced within 48 hours, almost anywhere in the world!

Image if you are travelling in Sydney in Australia or Lilongwe in Malawi, and lose your card and have no cash at all to even pay for your meals. Well, in such a case there is a provision of 48 hours card replacement by Amex, no matter where in the world you are. As they say with Amex cards you have peace of mind, it's especially true when you are travelling.

Another time, when I posed about my experience with Taj Innercircle membership, another user on Twitter commented that he was not able to use his membership points. The customer care was quick to respond and updated us both - I was rather impressed with the quick resolution of this concern on social media itself. In fact, the organisation takes lots of pains to address customer complaints through social media and I think that might be the fastest way to get redressal to any concerns.

Commissioned art by Meg Hunt for Platinum Card

How to become a member of Amex Family?

So now that you are convinced about the benefits of becoming a member of the Amex family, let me tell you how you can do this. The simplest way to do this is to apply online, and this is exactly what I did. Once my application was approved, a customer care agent called me, confirmed the address and visited me for collecting the documents.

After five days I had the card in my hand, though it can generally take 10-15 days after you submit your application.

Apply now!