How I love my American Express plastic is something I have talked about in the past. I’ve been using them only for a year and a half now almost, but along with my Citibank Premier Miles Credit Card, the American Express Gold Charge Card is my go-to card. I’ve written about my views on the American Express Gold Charge Card customer service and will do a full review on this card in my upcoming series on Travel Credit Cards for India.

LinkedIn and American Express India had tied up in September 2011 to source referrals for new American Express Kingfisher First Credit Cards and Platinum Reserve Credit Cards via existing LinkedIn members. Now, they are back.

Under the new promotion from American Express launched on 16th April and valid till 30th July 2012, for every application which has been been recommended by an existing card holder, the new card holder gets a discounted fee on the Platinum Reserve card, and the Gold Charge Card for free for the first year (which is their regular offer in the first place!)

The details of the offer are as follows:

• The applicant of the card gets the American Express Gold Charge Cardfor free for the first year. This is a lovely entry level American Express product, which allows you to earn 1,000 bonus MR points per month by just making a minimum of 4 INR 250 (USD 5) transactions in a month. In total, you have an opportunity to earn about 25K bonus Membership Reward points in a year which are over and above what you get for your spend (INR 50 earns you 1 Membership Reward point). The entry requirements are very low, so if you earn more than INR 8,00,000 per annum, you can apply for this card.
• The applicant for the Amex Platinum Reserve CC gets a 20% off on the Lifetime foundation fee of INR 50,000 (USD 950), so comes to INR 40,000 (USD 770). On approval of the application you get 65,000 Membership Reward points, which in my opinion, more than make up for the value of the Rs. 40,000 spent on the credit card fees (for a lifetime!). Apart from other privileges, you get access to the American Express Lounge at Mumbai and Delhi Airports (10 vouchers).
• In case the applicant wants to go with Amex Platinum Reserve CCwith an annual fee option, it is priced at INR 10,000 (~USD 190). Again, you get 22,000 Membership Reward points for approval which are almost double the cost of the card fees for the first year. You also get 2 lounge access vouchers to access the American Express Lounge at Mumbai and Delhi Airports.
• The holder of the existing American Express card gets 10,000 Membership Reward Points for the reference (on approval). Upto 15 references can be made per annum.  Alongside, various freebies are on offer such as travel vouchers, premium LinkedIn accounts, business card holders etc.

Overall, a win-win proposition for the applicant and the referrer. The applicant gets an Amex at a discount, and the referrer gets 10K Amex MR Points in India. Overall, 150K MR Points can be made with this offer.

For the benefit of my readers, I will be writing detailed reviews of various Travel Credit Cards in India very soon, and I will start with these ones. So watch out for that section.

If you’d like to help me travel a bit more, you sure can use my reference via LinkedIn and I’d appreciate your support . Drop me a mail on aj@livefromalounge.com with your key details (name, email address, city and which card you’d like to sign up for) and I’ll add you on LinkedIn and send you the card reference. Only Indian residents (including expats) can apply!

I would also invite readers, if they want to get a reference for themselves, to send me an email as well. Don’t put it in the comments since you’re inviting invasion of privacy, but I will try and put out a system to help you with some references as well.

Enjoy the benefits.

Related Posts:

• Why my American Express Gold Card is fast gaining walletshare!?
• 10,000 MR points/King Miles for referring Amex applications in India
• And now its American Express India’s turn to downgrade Membership Rewards
• Finally, a credit card which earns me lots of miles in India!

Disclosure: Take note that no commissions accrue to me when you sign-up for any credit cards around here or any other cards that I would write about in the future.

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Spicejet has quietly introduced a new promotional offer on its website a few weeks back using Quick Response codes. Under this promotion, SpiceJet reveals a new QR code on their website every morning, and also sends it around on their Twitter account @FlySpiceJet and their Facebook page. You have to use your smartphones to be able to read these QR codes and get the eventual discount code in the format SGDISxxx. If you don’t have a smartphone, you could use a website like www.onlinebarcodereader.com to access the contents of the code.

Once you have the code, you can apply these to any fresh reservations you make till 11 PM on the same night. You need to plonk the code in the Spicycode section on the payment page right before you give your Credit Card details for payment.

This QR code discount is valid per person per flight. So, if you were booking 6 passengers for a return trip, you’d get the discount promised for each passenger for each leg of their reservations. Which means, you could be potentially shaving off up to 10-15% of your ticket price using this QR code.

Want more discounts?

On return travels, SG already offers a round trip discount which is up to 10% discount from the original price of the ticket. You could add the QR code discounts on top of these return ticket discounts, and there you have it, a potential 20-25% savings on your trip costs.

The value of the discounts change daily, so there is no one way to determine what discount is offered which day. For instance, I was getting a discount code for INR 600 off a oneway ticket yesterday, and today, the discount code reads INR 450. So if you find something with a good discount and you feel like booking, just take it rather than waiting for another discount to come your way!

Hit me up with your questions and I’ll be happy to help you with this one!

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I thought I’d pop by to give all my readers a quick reminder on the contests that are underway right now courtesy of the various travel services, which could help you get yourself some privileges or free nights in case you choose to participate.

a) IHG Memorable Weekends contest: Like I mentioned in my post last week, Intercontinental Hotels Group is running a fantastic contest for its patrons in India, Middle-East Asia and Africa, where they are giving away free weekend packages for a family and 25 free nights at Holiday Inn and InterContinental properties in the regions. You could use the packages anytime up to December 31, 2012. As of now, only 50 entries are being voted upon at the Holiday Inn page. So, it could be a nice free vacation your way (with Breakfast and Dinner included!). Check here for more details. Contest open till March 15, 2012.

b) Star Alliance ‘Picture your Upgrade’ contest: The contest has now entered the 4th week. Like I posted a couple of weeks ago, Star Alliance is conducting a contest for the frequent travellers, where using a mobile app which you download on your phone, you complete a particular task assigned to you each week. Each task runs for a fortnight, and would be as basic as clicking 3 different departure boards. Each task has a grand prize ranging from MontBlanc bags to concierge services for a year. And yes, the grand prizes are Round The World tickets in Business Class on Star Alliance for 2, and a Gold Membership for 1 participant from each program. You can run for the grand prize even by completing only one task. So, get cracking. More details here!

Related Posts:

• Star Alliance ‘Picture your Upgrade’ Contest offers a chance to win RTW Biz Tickets and Gold Star Alliance Memberships
• Spanair members to be offered status match on their Star Alliance status
• IHG giving away free nights and weekend packages in India, Middle-East and Africa

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