American Express has been building features towards adding more value to the American Express Platinum Charge Card over the past couple of years. Be it newer experiences for members such as lounges at various musical events, or more unique partnerships such as the one with WeWork.
Now, there is one more benefit that has been added for American Express Platinum and Centurion cardmembers. Amex has now partnered with a new car rental company Hype Mobility to offer members an opportunity to rent luxury cars for self-drive or chauffeur drive at a discount. In terms of the vehicles on offer, Hype promises to have everything between a Toyota Land Cruiser to a Maserati Ghibli and a Rolls Royce Ghost. Here are some of the cars I could find listed across a couple of cities across India.
Signing up
I would expect American Express to send out mailers to eligible members, but if you’d like to jump the gun, you can go to the benefits dashboard and check out the link customised for yourself in the offers section. Sign-up is easy. This is the first screen that comes up:
Complimentary Credits for American Express Platinum & Centurion Cardmembers
Hype will offer members who have signed up via the co-branded partnership link exclusive credits for twelve months.
- American Express Centurion Cardmembers will get INR 12,500 credits every month to be offset against their bookings on Hype.
- American Express Platinum Cardmembers will get INR 7,500 credits every month to be offset against their bookings.
After signup, I logged in, and I could see my INR 7,500 credits immediately.
Complimentary Hype Platinum Tier membership
Amex Platinum and Centurion Cardmembers can receive a complimentary Platinum Tier membership for one-year via their signup links present in their American Express Benefits dashboard. The Platinum Tier membership allows cardmembers to get 25% off on car rentals. Besides, the other benefits included with the Platinum Tier membership are:
- Free pickup & transfer for all self-drives (25 Kilometres radius from the garage, within city limits)
- A 25% discount on all cars and all drives from the second booking onwards. You will need to choose between your 25% discount or using the credit that Hype will provide you every month.
- Membership is valid at all places in India where Hype operates.
- Zero Cancellation & Rescheduling charges.
Hype Rentals started as low as INR 10,000 per day, with refundable security deposits ranging between INR 30,000 to INR 5 lakh per rental. American Express cardmembers in Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad and Mumbai will be able to sign up for this benefit.
Applying the credits was easy, as I tried making a dummy booking to test the benefits.
I think this is one more benefit in the suite of benefits offered by American Express Platinum Charge Card for the members. While this is not an everyday use benefit, it is something to keep in your pocket anyways.
Let’s be honest not all AMEX Plat. + Cent. holders would need a luxury car anyways in their city. What will be great if HYPE can offer chauffeur airport transfer in the future, would give it a try then.
Anyways, a good addition to existing perks. Looking forward towards addition of an Airline Memberships etc by Amex Plat
@ESB there is an airport transfer option already. Check it out
Thanks Ajay.
The option is on the website which isn’t available on the app (iOS for me). Surprisingly, 8 hour chauffeur vs airport transfer, both are priced the same !
I’d rather have the car for 8 hours makes more sense.
I got an email last week. A bit of a bummer that it’s not auto Platinum status. Which means I’ll be paying to drop charges and pick up charges on first ride. One can only choose between 25% discount and 7500 credit. So technically Amex benefit only makes sense on cheaper rides. It would be nice if it was implemented as 7500 statement credit on total billing of Hype every month.
I would have been very happy with this if Hype’s airport transfer rates made any sense. Currently, the company that Citi worked with for transfers charges around a third to half of what Hype charges and they have more options for cars. The examples you have used, if you Google there are other providers who are giving out the same car at 10K to begin with. Hype is woefully overpriced.
I’ll try Hype next week and see if the pricing really reflects the better service they promise. If it does and if this offer brings Hype pricing to market rates for us, then it’s still something.
Seems a very nice concept. Just that the kms are restricted to 150 per day. If you are paying for the fuel, why the restriction and after 150 kms you pay Rs 74 per km with your own fuel. Also the distance is counted from Garage to garage. so can easily deduct say 10-15 kms.