What’s Inside: 2023/24 AMEX Platinum Charge voucher pack

Upon approval or renewal of an AMEX Platinum Charge, cardholders will receive a membership pack in the mail. This consists of a welcome letter, benefits guide, and a set of travel, dining and lifestyle vouchers (and of course your card, for new cardholders).

Regardless of whether you’re a new or renewing cardholder, the voucher pack is the same. I’ve just received my pack for the 2023/24 membership year, which contains a total of 26 vouchers.

Of course, not all vouchers are equally useful. That’s why I sort them into three piles:

• Keep: Vouchers I’m definitely using
• Maybe: Vouchers I don’t have immediate plans for, but keep around just in case
• Throw: Vouchers I’d give away to anyone who asks

Here’s my assessment of this year’s voucher pack.

AMEX Platinum Charge Vouchers: Keep

Complimentary 1-night hotel stay

The biggest prize of the lot is the Complimentary 1-night Hotel Stay voucher. The list of participating hotels changes throughout the year, but at the time of writing includes:

Breakfast for two adults is included at all hotels (except the St. Regis Singapore, which will offer free breakfast for stays till 31 December 2023; stays after this date will not receive free breakfast).

All bookings are non-changeable and non-refundable, so confirm your plans before making a reservation.

For maximum value, you should probably avoid the Angsana and Cassia properties. I redeemed my most recent voucher at the Banyan Tree Kuala Lumpur, and thought it was an altogether pleasant stay- a very different vibe from the chain’s usual far flung locations.

S$100 Tower Club voucher

The S$100 Tower Club voucher can be spent at any of the club’s three dining venues, namely Atlantic, Ba Xian or Straits Bar. Advance reservations must be made via the AMEX Platinum concierge.

Do note that AMEX cardholders and other non-Tower Club members pay a 10% mark-up on everything (on top of the usual service charge and GST), so the actual value of this voucher is closer to S$91.

I think the food at Atlantic is extremely underwhelming, and Ba Xian is tricky to book (everyone wants to visit on Saturday when discounted dim sum is offered), so I invariably use my voucher at Straits Bar. On Fridays, Laurent Perrier Brut champagne is 1-for-1 (S$26++ for two glasses), though the happy hour oysters now cost S$4 a piece (they were S$2 when I first started visiting Tower Club pre-COVID). 

You can browse the menus for Tower Club’s dining venues here.

S$100 Restaurant JAG voucher

New this year is a S$100 voucher for Restaurant JAG, which holds one Michelin Star. This voucher can be used for:

• Dinners from Tuesdays to Thursdays
• Lunch on Fridays and Saturdays

Reservations must be made at least 48 hours in advance, and you should inform the restaurant at the time of reservation that the voucher will be used. No minimum number of diners or minimum spend is required, and blackout dates for public holidays and special occasions like Valentine’s Day apply. 

There is a limit of one voucher per visit (and you only get one voucher per renewal pack anyway), which makes this much better than the 2x S$50 Basque Kitchen vouchers it replaces (these had a minimum requirement of two diners and a maximum of one voucher per visit). 

Restaurant JAG’s menus can be found here.

Complimentary cake or wine vouchers

The 2x complimentary cake or wine vouchers at Fairmont Singapore/Swissotel The Stamford require a minimum order of one dine-in item.

What I typically do is order a coffee or single scoop of gelato, then redeem both vouchers at the same time. The cake or wine can be taken to go; there’s no need to consume it at the restaurant.

If you’re opting for the cake, call two working days in advance because they need time to prepare it.

As for the wine, let’s just say it’s nothing special. The white option is a Lascar Classic Sauvignon Blanc 2022 (3.4/5 on Vivino), and the red option is a Lascar Classic Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 (3.4/5 on Vivino). Use them for cooking, or as housewarming gifts for housewarmings you don’t really want to go to.

AMEX Platinum Charge Vouchers: Maybe

30% off Wan Hao voucher

The 30% off Wan Hao Restaurant voucher isn’t stackable with Love Dining benefits, but remember:

• Love Dining privileges don’t apply to drinks, while the 30% off voucher does
• Love Dining privileges don’t apply to the dim sum menu, while the 30% off voucher does
• Love Dining offers 50% off for parties of two, but the 30% off voucher is valid regardless of party size

Basically, if you’re dining as a group of four or more, this could be useful.

Complimentary bottle of wine at Wan Hao

If your bill at Wan Hao exceeds S$200 (before GST and service charge), you can redeem a complimentary bottle of house wine.

I’ve been told the current option is The Harbour Shiraz, with a commanding score of 3.3/5 on Vivino. 

S$100 Wooloomooloo voucher

The S$100 Wooloomooloo voucher requires a minimum spend of S$250 before GST and service charge, and does not stack with Love Dining discounts.

That said, it may still come in useful because Love Dining discounts only apply to a specific Love Dining set menu that costs S$168++ per person. If you prefer to order a la carte (or if you’re dining with a larger party where the discount is <50%), then getting S$100 off S$250 would be a better deal.

50% off Asian Market Café

The 50% off Asian Market Café voucher is valid for groups of 8-10 adults.

I don’t think much of the food quality here, but if I were hosting a large group and needed a fuss-free option, then this would probably be it. This halal-certified buffet costs S$84-98++ per adult (and there’s oysters on weekends).

S$50 off Mikuni or Willow Stream Spa massage

I originally put this voucher in the “keep” column, but having studied it more carefully, I now think it just barely scrapes into “maybe”. 

This voucher gives you S$50 off Mikuni or S$50 off a 90-minute body massage.

Mikuni is ridiculously overpriced. It’s as if all the dishes assume a 50% discount, and I really pity whoever pays full price. Since you can’t stack the voucher with Love Dining benefits, the best you could do is treat it as a subsidy for a lunch set- though keep in mind the cheapest option is S$80++, so you’d still be paying S$44 all-in.

And forget the spa option. The cost of a 90-minute body massage at Willow Stream Spa is a jaw-dropping S$280++, so you’d still pay S$282 after the voucher!

AMEX Platinum Charge Vouchers: Throw

Spa vouchers

Once upon a time, the AMEX Platinum Charge came with several complimentary spa treatment vouchers. These were completely free, provided you were willing to sit through a brief sales pitch at the end.

Unfortunately, these have now been replaced with cash vouchers that require minimum spends:

• S$100 Adeva Spa (min. spend S$180)
• S$100 Spa Rael (min. spend S$180)
• S$130 The Spa By The Ultimate (min. spend S$180)
• S$130 The Ultimate (min. spend S$180)

If you’re the sort who already visits these places, and if you enjoy the service there, then by all means keep the vouchers and value them accordingly. But if you’re like me, they’ll just take up space in your drawer.  

Fairmont/Swissotel discounted rates and upgrade vouchers

There are three vouchers for discounted weekday/weekend nights at the Fairmont Singapore and Swissotel The Stamford.

Each voucher can be used for up to two consecutive nights:

• Weekday rate of S$230++ at Fairmont Singapore/Swissotel The Stamford
• Weekend rate of S$280++ at Swissotel The Stamford 
• Weekend rate of S$300++ at Fairmont Singapore

These cannot be used during blackout dates or “dates of high occupancy” (which isn’t defined). 

Given the current rates at the Fairmont Singapore/Swissotel The Stamford, you could potentially be getting a good deal- provided the “high occupancy” clause doesn’t strike. But since I have no intention of doing a staycation here, these vouchers are essentially worthless to me.

Should you decide to stay nonetheless, there’s also 5x vouchers for a room upgrade valid on Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights. 

2x S$50 JAAN vouchers

The JAAN vouchers have improved from last year, but still aren’t much good to me.

In the previous year’s membership pack, you were limited to one voucher per visit with a minimum of two diners. This year’s vouchers have removed the limit of one voucher per visit, while keeping the minimum of two diners. 

To set the scene, lunch at JAAN starts at a whopping S$198++ per person for lunch, and S$388++ per person for dinner (when I wrote this article last year, it was S$138++ for lunch and S$318++ for dinner).

So, yeah, I guess it’s an improvement, but even S$100 won’t really put a dent in the cost of a two-person meal. If JAAN is on your bucket list, by all means try it once and use this voucher to offset some of the pain. Otherwise, this shouldn’t be seen as an enticement to visit.

Though if you could accumulate enough JAAN vouchers on the secondary market…

S$50 Crossroads Buffet voucher

Am I the only one who can’t figure out how the S$50 Crossroads Buffet voucher makes sense?

The buffet normally costs S$65-78++ per adult, and this voucher requires a minimum spend of S$100 before GST and service charge. But this venue is also on Love Dining, and if we take lunch as an example:

So there’s really no scenario in which the voucher makes sense, unless perhaps you’re a single diner who then orders drinks to bring your spend amount to the S$100 minimum (drinks are not eligible for Love Dining discounts).

Current AMEX Platinum Charge welcome offer

As a reminder, American Express is offering one of the best welcome offers we’ve seen in a long time, with up to 132,500 bonus MR points for just S$6,000 of spending.

This offer is available for approvals by 31 January 2024.

AMEX Platinum Charge
Apply Here
	New Customers	Existing Customers
Spend S$5,000 (Mo. 1-3)	5K	5K
Spend S$6,000 (Mo. 1-2)	127.5K	80K
Base Points from S$6,000 (@ 2 pts/S$1.60)	7.5K	7.5K
Total Spend	S$6K	S$6K
Total Points	140K	92.5K
S$1,728 annual fee must be paid
New customers are defined as those who: Have not cancelled an AMEX Platinum Charge in the past 24 months Do not currently hold an existing principal American Express consumer card (AMEX cards issued by Citi/DBS/UOB do not count, nor does the AMEX HighFlyer Card) Existing customers are defined as those who: Have not cancelled an AMEX Platinum Charge in the past 24 months

This makes the first year of membership particularly lucrative, especially since cardholders enjoy two sets of Platinum Statement Credits with a single annual fee. I’ve laid out the case for the first year sweet spot, which you can read about more in the post below.

The AMEX Platinum Charge first-year sweet spot

Conclusion

The latest AMEX Platinum Charge voucher pack comes with 26 vouchers this year, though as always, not all of them are equally useful!

Of course, my definition of useful might not be the same as yours, so if you’re keen to sniff around my throw pile (that came out wrong) then it’s available on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Which vouchers are in your keep, maybe and throw pile?