Changes coming to Amex JP credit card

With effect from October 20, 2014, you will no longer earn 6 JPMiles on every Rs.100 spent on all categories (except for bookings on Jet Airways website) and 12 JPMiles on every Rs.100 spent for bookings on www.jetairways.com or www.jetkonnect.com.
Whenever I hear something on the lines of "you will no longer...", I start to worry, because you can rarely expect a positive surprise after that. And it was no different in this case.



Spends on Amex JP Platinum card will now earn 8/16 JP miles on every Rs 150 spend, as opposed to 6/12 miles for Rs 100 spent. That's a 11% devaluation on earnings. Here's the revised JP miles earnings schedule:
  • 8 JPMiles for every Rs.150 spent on all categories, excluding those listed below
  • 16 JPMiles for every Rs.150 spent for bookings on www.jetairways.com or www.jetkonnect.com
  • No JPMiles on insurance, fuel (ncludes petrol, diesel, CNG from Oil Marketing Companies) and utility services (Includes providers of household/domestic electricity, gas and water. These providers can be government departments and agencies including local, state, municipal organisations; public housing societies and apartment associations)
Overall, I find that this card is much less efficient now. (It is a different matter that even with this devaluation, this is 25% more than the HDFC JP World MasterCard, and just a wee bit better than ICICI Sapphiro, but is nowhere close to the Jet Airways IndusInd Bank Odyssey Credit card that offers 8 JPMiles per Rs 100 spent.) However, they've added some sweeteners, on the lines of the following:

  • Unlimited complimentary access at 10 Domestic lounges across 10 cities in India. This also includes 2 American Express proprietary lounges at Delhi and Mumbai airport respectively. The lounges covered are at: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Baroda, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.
  • Complimentary membership along with 2 room upgrade vouchers at 9 Trident Hotels. This is to the gold tier, valid for 2 years from enrolment.
  • A complimentary night's stay on a minimum stay of 3 nights with Oberoi hotels and resorts. This is valid at specific properties in Agra, Mumbai, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ranthambore and Shimla.
As a points and miles collector, I hate devaluations - be it when earning or when burning - and this is a devaluation, all right. Personally, the lounge access isn't much of a balm for me. Trident Hotels upgrade vouchers and extended stays at Oberoi hotels may be good, but I rarely stay at Trident properties (YMMV), and the Oberoi benefit is at limited properties.


I'm not entirely certain as to the root cause of this devaluation. I could make a few guesses - not necessarily educated ones - but the overall profitability in general, JP being spun off into a separate entity, and Etihad's involvement - all of these come to mind readily.


What's your take? Will you continue spending on the Amex JP card?




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