I love the way American Express is becoming aggressive in the travel space since last year. They have offered some fantastic offers in the past year of so. For instance, INR 5,000 cash back on every INR 20,000 you would spend at Hilton Hotels, applicable for 10 bookings. There is a current offer that expires end of July 2019, where you just need to book your Hilton Hotel for stay anytime later, and you get a cashback. That is a huge saving for someone planning a vacation or business travel and stays with the Hilton Hotels.

Last year, they also came up with a promotion for their consumer cards, which allowed everyone to get 10X Membership Rewards points on AmEx cards made via their Amex Travel portal, through March 2019.

Another promotion to promote American Express Travel Booking India has been launched this past week. It first popped up in my American Express account last week, but there were no terms and conditions to be found. Now we have more information.

Now, between July 14 and August 31, 2019, American Express is offering the following bonus Membership Reward Points on booking your travel with your American Express Credit Cards/Charge Cards:

• Card members will earn a total of 10 Membership Rewards points on every INR 50 spent on hotel bookings on the American Express travel portal (domestic prepaid hotel bookings) instead of the usual earning of 1 Membership Rewards point on every INR 50 spent.
• Card members will earn a total of 2 Membership Rewards points on every INR 50 spend on airline bookings on the American Express Travel portal instead of the usual earning of 1 Membership Rewards point on every INR 50 spent.

American Express has put out this promotion on the following cards:

• The American Express Platinum Reserve Credit Card
• The American Express Gold Card
• The American Express Membership Rewards Credit Card (Currently Free)
• The American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card (Currently Free)
• The American Express Gold Credit Card
• The Every Day Spend American Express Gold Credit card

All the above cards usually offer 1 Membership Rewards point for every INR 50 spent, so in this case, you get:

• 2 Membership Rewards Points for every INR 50 spent booking domestic flights
• 10 Membership Rewards Points for every INR 50 spent booking hotels (domestic)

The Accelerated Membership Rewards points will hit your account 7 days after you make a transaction with amexindiatravel.com. No promotion codes are required. Here are the full T&C.

Remember, every Membership Rewards point converts to 1/2 mile, so in this case, you get 2 miles/INR 100 spent on flight bookings, and 10 miles/INR 100 spent on domestic hotel bookings.

Bottomline

This is a very good attempt by American Express to get people to start using American Express for their travel more often. Amex is the world leader in corporate travel, but in India, only the big companies use them. Time for them to make a play in the broader market as well!

How do you plan to maximise the use of the new 10X Amex Membership Rewards Travel promotion?