To own a Platinum Charge Card

The reason I am writing this post is to provide clarity to the people who are in the market to get the American Express Platinum (charge) Card. I applied for my card after receiving emails from Amex for several months with "1,25,000" points benefit on application approval. The only reason I waited for as long as I did was because I couldn't justify the Rs 60,000 (at the time) annual fee; sometimes I told myself to think of it as a monthly subscription of Rs 5000 and other times I told myself to wait a year to get it. Even though I have been with Amex since 2012, I waited until 2024 to get it

So, here's (almost) everything I have earned from this card till date. Kindly note after each line item, I have mentioned the discount I received (and not the price I paid).

• Taj Epicure Membership: Provided complimentary
  • Free birthday cake on my birthday: Rs 2000
  • 25% discount on a meal, an additional cake we bought, and drinks and spa during a Taj stay: Rs 5000
  • Room upgrade: We got a room upgrade during a Taj stay but it is possible they gave an upgrade because of availability and not exclusively because of Epicure. Nevertheless, I like to hope that that was Epicure magic. As per the Taj website, the suite we were upgraded to cost an additional Rs 12000 per night: Rs 36000
• Amex FHR: As far as I recall, you can only get access to this one with the Platinum whereas even the Platinum Reserve gives you access to THC. I admit that we had to spend a little extra for FHR and we would have been content at cheaper hotels but I think the experience is worth the additional money.
  • We stayed in 3 different FHR hotels during our foreign trip. The $100 room credit can be valued at that amount, although it was not sufficient to cover a proper lunch/dinner at the hotel. The room upgrade (whose price I haven't checked on the hotel website) and the breakfast should be at least another $200 in value per night: $1300 ≈ Rs 1,09,694.00 (includes 5 nights)
  • We also stayed at an FHR property in India. Although the offer is gone now, we were able to secure an additional offer of $225 (Rs 18,985.50) for spending on their amenities. Again, we could have gone with a cheaper hotel and the FHR hotel was very far from the airport and the main city but the hotel had all the amenities you could possibly want. The room cost us Rs 20000 per night (which I feel is the bare minimum you would pay at a 5* these days); upon checkout we had to pay an additional Rs 2000. With $325 credit we were able to cover 3 meals and spa. Assuming a value of $200 for the room upgrade and breakfast per night coupled with the credit: $925 = Rs 78,051.50
• Jewelry: We spent 10L on jewelry from a brand with 10X points and received roughly 2,50,000 points which should be great for a standard room at a 5* Marriott for 5 nights.

These are just the big spends which would make sense to you. There's obviously other restaurant discounts and memberships that provide a lot of value as well. The reason I have written this down is to not only convince you that this card actually works for non-billionaire types but also to show you that other paid cards (regardless of annual fee) will also provide value to you if you can spend correctly.

Now, I only wonder how Centurion card holders are able to derive value from their card.