One of the best ways to maximize the value of American Express Membership Reward Points is by accumulating them and redeeming through the American Express Gold Collection.
Why Gold Collection?
Amex Gold Collection is historically the best way to get more value for points because it lifts the point value to as good as 58ps/MR point.
Gold Collection lets you redeem 24,000 or 18,000 MR points at once for selected eVouchers, offering a convenient option with a good reward rate – without the hassle of diving deep into the complexities of the points and miles game.
This Gold Collection redemption option is enabled only if you either have Amex Gold Charge Card (or) the Amex Membership Rewards Credit Card (MRCC).
That said, you may also link any other Amex credit cards (like Reserve, Plat Charge) to one of these gold cards and enjoy the gold collection benefit, except the Platinum Travel Credit Card (which some are able to link into one a/c as well).
Now as you know a bit about American Express Gold collection, here are the available redemption options under Gold collection at the moment:
18K Gold Collection
| Voucher Brand | Voucher Value | Value per MR Point |
| Taj Voucher | Rs. 9000 | 0.50 INR |
| Tata CLIQ / Shoppers Stop / Myntra | Rs. 7000 | 0.38 INR |
| Amazon / Flipkart / Reliance Digital | Rs. 6000 | 0.33 INR |
Most prefer Amazon Vouchers in this segment as it’s almost cash equivalent, but you can get little more value if you can choose Myntra Vouchers (44Ps) over Amazon (39Ps) as you can see above.
24K Gold Collection
| Voucher Brand | Voucher Value | Value per MR Point |
| Taj Voucher | Rs. 14,000 | 0.58 INR |
| Shoppers Stop | Rs. 10,000 | 0.41 INR |
| Tanishq / Tata CLIQ | Rs. 9,000 | 0.37 INR |
| Amazon / Flipkart / Reliance Digital | Rs. 8,000 | 0.33 INR |
As you can see, redeeming for 24,000 Points usually gives the best value, especially for Taj Vouchers as it can give a handsome value of 0.58 INR per MR point.
Note that most redemptions are instant and you should be able to see the vouchers immediately generated and displayed on screen as soon as you redeem.
Hence, apart from transferring Amex MR Points to Marriott, redeeming for 24K Gold collection is the best way to get a better value for your American Express Membership Reward Points.
Which is your favourite Amex Gold Collection redemption? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.
Wait, if we apply for platinum travel then we can’t hold either mrcc or the gold charge card?
Or just there points won’t be combined?
Can be applied, it’s just that the points can’t be combined into on MR account.
I hold both amex mrcc ans plat travel card.. Surprising in amex app.. They don’t show different points for mrcc earned points or plat travel earned points… They only show total.. So it seems that can be combined.. Just want to confirm that…
Generally not allowed to combine these 2 Cards. But for some reason this happens rarely. Have heard of one such instance before.
Even in my case, points are shown as combined for both plat travel & mrcc. To confirm, I went to redeem points, even there I can redeem all points from gold collection even though some of points are earned from plat travel.
I Have all three cards of AMEX , MRCC , Gold Charge and Platinum travel and points shown are in combined way ( you need to manually calculate if needed for individual cards ) but now latest news is they are considering total accumulated points including Platinum travel also for 24k and 18k collection rewards . That means i can redeem gold collection vouchers (24k and 18k ) with the points accumulated through platinum travel also , which wasn’t the case earlier.
Yes, this is being reported by some in the past few years.
So I called Amex today and was told that it gets auto-linked for the new cards getting issued lately and for old cardmembers they’re working on it to give the ability to all to link everything into one bucket.
Can the linking be done via customer care for old members?
I am using card past 7 years earlier you used to give cash credit of 10k against 18k points that you have stopped. Increased bonus points transaction from 1000 to 1500. Your charges are high while adding to Paytm wallet. your card is not acceptable in most of outlets.
One thing your customer care service are fantastic.
Surprisingly, this is more than Travel card, which gives 0.5 which they claim is the best 🙂
Surprisingly, Gold collection redemption is giving more value than Travel card (Taj Redemption), which gives 0.5 which they claim is the best 🙂
Tanishq redemption is restricted to diamond jewellery as per Amex website.
thank you , i was about to redeem tanishq voucher and stopped when i read your comment.
Yes, i confirmed from Support, only Tanishq Diamond collection you can redeem…
Thanks for sharing this Manish.
Hello Sid, everyone!
I have a question regarding the Taj vouchers.
I am told if we use these vouchers, then we will not be eligible for any other special discounted prices that Taj offers of Neu (or TIC) members – Is this true??
Yes. That’s true as per my experience. These vouchers are redeemed against full price/listed price of the room. So effective reward rate is much lesser.
I have used these vouchers at 50% discounted rate, taj chia kutir, bekal, vivanta sikkim, taj yeshwantpur
Just used at Taj Nashik , they removed 10% member discount which i got at the time of booking.
I have used these Taj Vouchers for my stay @ Taj Bekal @Taj Chia Kutir @Taj Kovalam with my Taj Membership with a 10% discount. They didn’t remove that 10% discount at the time of billing.
I wish i could do so as thinking to utilize my Amex points for gold collection taj vouchers, but Taj Helpline support did confirm to me that i can book only on standard rates as vouchers will be applied on standard rates, even I have shareholders 25 % discount voucher code from Taj and that too I can’t utilize. I am thinking to utilize Taj Amex voucher for room booking on standard rates and then utilize my shareholder voucher code to get 25 % discount on dining.
Also can I do this way that i book room on member rates and then try to apply Amex voucher at the site to take a chance? Anyone tried that way?
While Taj phone support would deny, technically it will accept at the property and most are still using it.
Exception is at some property where they’re very strict, especially in Goa. It’s sort of soft rule. Comments on this Taj booking article might help.
I would say “hope for the best, prepare for the worst”. 🙂
Got platinum travel in December, I have MRCC previously. Now it is showing combined membership rewards points for both. Even for redeeming total points are shown. So I think now MRCC can be linked with Platinum Travel.
For some it does, while for most (like me) it doesn’t. Bit tricky and I’m unsure how it’s decided.
Vistara vouchers are no longer available for redemption. Is this new?
Quoting “you can get little more value if you can choose Myntra”.
Didn’t follow; please clarify.
Was referring to Myntra vouchers. I’ve updated the line, thank you!
How is the offline acceptance of Gold cards at retail outlets?
Gold collection has further devalued. Now you get 6000 amazon/FK voucher for 18k and 8000 voucher for 24k points. Please update.
Just came here to say the same!
Updated, thanks to both.