Is a travel card still a travel card once the lounge needs ₹1 lakh of spending behind it? An American Express advance notice dated 10 August 2026 leaves Platinum Travel holders with that question. This is the second Amex Platinum Travel devaluation of 2026, and unlike March's revision, which pushed the top reward from ₹4 lakh of spend to ₹7 lakh, it does not relocate value. It removes most of it.
A personal note first: the notice reached my own inbox because I hold the card, and the email sits further down this page.
The second Amex Platinum Travel devaluation of 2026
Two dates matter. From 10 September 2026, the ₹1.9 lakh spend milestone stops paying its 7,500 bonus Membership Rewards points, the ₹4 lakh milestone keeps its 10,000 points untouched, and the ₹7 lakh milestone drops its 22,500 points in favour of a ₹20,000 Taj Experiences e-Gift Card. From 1 October 2026, complimentary domestic lounge access turns into something a cardholder qualifies for each quarter.
Eligibility runs on posting date, not transaction date. Spend posted on or before 9 September 2026 is judged under the current milestones, so the next four weeks are the last window in which the old ladder pays.
The milestone ladder, before and after
Add the ladder up. Until 9 September, ₹7 lakh of spend collects 40,000 points plus a ₹10,000 Taj voucher. From 10 September, the same ₹7 lakh collects 10,000 points plus a ₹20,000 voucher. At a plain redemption value near ₹0.25 a point, ₹20,000 of reward becomes ₹22,500, which is why the notice reads like housekeeping.
It is not housekeeping. The ₹10,000 that moved out of points and into voucher moved from flexible to locked. Membership Rewards points transfer to airline and hotel partners, and during a transfer bonus 40,000 of them have been worth closer to ₹28,000 than to ₹10,000. A Taj e-Gift Card is worth ₹20,000 at Taj and nothing anywhere else. A footnote caps Taj vouchers at ₹20,000 per membership year, so anyone who already collected ₹10,000 at the ₹4 lakh milestone on or before 8 March 2026 receives ₹10,000 here, not ₹20,000.
Quietest casualty of the three tiers is ₹1.9 lakh. It now pays nothing.
The lounge survived March. It does not survive this one.
In May we wrote that March's revision left airport lounge access alone. That no longer holds. Amex publishes the benefit today as 8 complimentary domestic visits a year, two a quarter, no minimum spend. From 1 October 2026 the count survives and the absence of a spend test does not: two visits in a quarter require ₹1,00,000 or more of net eligible spend, after merchant refunds, in the quarter before.
Keeping all eight visits means routing ₹4 lakh a year through this card in an even quarterly rhythm, a stricter demand than simply spending ₹4 lakh. Miss a quarter and two visits are gone, with nothing carried forward. October to December 2026 gets a gentler ₹70,000 test across July to September, a transition rather than a concession.
Who actually loses here
A household already putting ₹7 lakh a year on one Amex keeps a reward of roughly the same face value, loses the ability to turn it into a flight, and clears the lounge bar without noticing. A household spending ₹2 lakh to ₹4 lakh loses the ₹1.9 lakh bonus outright and now plans lounge visits quarter by quarter against a threshold it was never asked to clear. Against a ₹5,000 annual fee plus taxes, that second household has a decision to make.
Why the Platinum Reserve now reads better
None of this makes the American Express Platinum Reserve Credit Card cheap, at ₹10,000 plus GST a year against Platinum Travel's ₹5,000. What it removes is the annual cliff. Reserve's milestone is monthly: ₹50,000 of spend inside a calendar month returns a ₹1,000 voucher across Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, Myntra, BookMyShow, PVR and Shoppers Stop, worth ₹12,000 over a full year of qualifying months. Fall short one month and the cost is that month alone, where a ₹7 lakh annual target missed by ₹40,000 costs the whole top milestone. Its 12 domestic lounge visits a year carry no spend test at all, and Accor Plus Explorer, Taj Epicure and EazyDiner Prime memberships arrive with the card rather than being earned at ₹7 lakh. Mechanics in full on our American Express Platinum Reserve page.
What we would do before 9 September
Anyone whose card year and spending land near ₹7 lakh should pull spend forward: a top milestone posted in August is worth materially more than the identical one posted in October. Anyone spending nearer ₹2 lakh has almost no case left for a ₹5,000 renewal, because the tier they were actually reaching now pays zero and the lounge they kept the card for starts asking ₹1 lakh a quarter. Wanting an Amex without wanting this one is a reasonable place to land, and ₹50,000 in a month is far easier to hit on purpose than ₹7 lakh in a year. For where this sits against every other issuer, our 2026 credit card devaluations roundup keeps the running list.
Sources
- American Express: Platinum Travel Credit Card
- American Express: Platinum Reserve Credit Card
- American Express Banking Corp. India, Card Member advance notice "Changes to your Card Benefits", 10 August 2026 (reproduced above)
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Frequently asked
What is changing on the Amex Platinum Travel card in September 2026?
From 10 September 2026 the ₹1.9 lakh milestone loses its 7,500 bonus Membership Rewards points, and the ₹7 lakh milestone loses its 22,500 points in exchange for a ₹20,000 Taj Experiences e-Gift Card. The ₹4 lakh milestone keeps its 10,000 points unchanged.
Does the Amex Platinum Travel still have free lounge access?
Yes, but it is spend-gated from 1 October 2026. Two complimentary domestic visits in a calendar quarter now require ₹1,00,000 or more of net eligible spend in the quarter before. For October to December 2026 only, the bar is ₹70,000 spent between July and September 2026.
Is the ₹20,000 Taj voucher worth more than 22,500 Membership Rewards points?
Only on paper. The voucher carries a higher face value but spends at Taj and nowhere else, while Membership Rewards points transfer to airline and hotel partners at rates that have reached ₹0.70 a point during a transfer bonus. Flexibility is what the swap removes.
Should I move from the Amex Platinum Travel to the Platinum Reserve?
Consider it if spending is uneven month to month. Platinum Reserve pays a ₹1,000 voucher on ₹50,000 of spend in any calendar month, so a weak month costs only that month. Its ₹10,000 annual fee against Platinum Travel's ₹5,000 is the trade to weigh.
Card devaluations, reward maths, and rate changes the day they land.
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