Elite status without the grind.

Automatic on card activation; renews while the card is active (₹3,000 + GST fee)

benefitValueInr basis: Silver itself is near-zero on-property (10% bonus + priority late checkout, subject to availability); the ₹1,000 prices the 10 elite-night head-start for a holder who stays a handful of Marriott nights a year — worth ₹0 to someone who never stays at a Marriott. SILVER, not Gold — India's only hotel co-brand grants the ladder's most cosmetic tier. The 10 elite nights are the real gift: they leave you 15 stayed nights from Gold and 40 from Platinum every year.

Enrollment benefit — request via Amex; held as long as the card is active

benefitValueInr basis: 2pm late checkout + space-available room upgrades + welcome-gift points + 25% earn bonus, for a holder who stays ~5-8 Marriott nights a year; no breakfast or lounge at Gold, so priced well below Platinum. ₹0 for a non-Marriott sleeper. Skips 25 nights of staying. The strongest single hotel-status grant on any Indian card.

Enrollment benefit — enroll online or by phone; held while the card is active

benefitValueInr basis: daily continental breakfast / F&B credit in India + space-available upgrades + 80% earn bonus at a mid tier, for a holder with ~4-6 Hilton nights a year; breakfast for two at an Indian Hilton/Conrad is ~₹2,500 a stay. ₹0 if you never stay Hilton. Post-2026 this equals a 25-night tier (was 40) — and it is the tier with breakfast. The single most valuable line in the Amex Platinum benefit sheet for hotel sleepers.

Complimentary Accor Plus (Traveler) enrollment; all legacy tiers were upgraded to Explorer on 1 Oct 2025

Used to be Silver; the Oct-2025 ALL Accor+ rebrand made every membership an Explorer with 30 status nights — instant Gold, plus the Stay Plus free night and APAC dining discounts.

Complimentary enrollment while the card is active

Taj has no meaningful elite ladder to grant — Epicure IS the status at a Taj.

Complimentary for primary cardholders; renews yearly while the card is active

Same Explorer→Gold mechanics as the Amex grant — ₹19,499/yr of membership riding on a ₹50k-fee card.

Complimentary while the card is active

Culinaire is Club ITC's paid dining overlay, not a Green Points tier — but the 2+1 night certificate has real ₹ value.

Complimentary Accor Plus (Explorer) enrollment while the card is active; all legacy tiers folded into Explorer on 1 Oct 2025

Same Explorer→Gold mechanics as the ₹66k Platinum Charge, riding a ₹10k card — the cheapest Amex on-ramp to buyable ALL Gold. benefitValueInr null on purpose: the ₹ for this membership is priced whole in data/memberships.yaml (id accor-plus, honestValueInr ₹8,000); pricing the Gold-status slice again here would double-count.

Complimentary Epicure enrollment while the card is active

Taj has no meaningful elite ladder — Epicure IS the status at a Taj. benefitValueInr null on purpose: priced in data/memberships.yaml (id taj-epicure, honestValueInr ₹7,500).

Silver granted on card activation and held while the card is active; Gold is spend-gated (₹15L/yr, ₹50k of it on Emirates)

benefitValueInr basis: guaranteed Silver (priority check-in/boarding, +10-12kg baggage, +25% tier miles — no lounge on economy) is worth ~₹1,500 to someone who flies Emirates once or twice a year; nudged to ₹2,000 because a ₹15L-spending Emeralde holder realistically reaches Gold in year two, unlocking Emirates Business lounge access + a guest. ₹0 if you never fly the jet. Corroborated by the Emirates × ICICI partner page.

Silver granted in year one; retained each year you spend ₹5L on the card — no card path to Gold

benefitValueInr basis: Silver only (priority + extra baggage + 25% tier miles, no lounge on economy) for a holder who actually flies Emirates a couple of times a year; the ₹5L retention gate makes it conditional. ₹0 if Emirates isn't in your rotation.

Silver auto-granted on first transaction; Gold triggered by any purchase on etihad.com within the first year

benefitValueInr basis: Gold is effectively guaranteed in year one (one etihad.com purchase) and is a real tier — Etihad lounge access at AUH, priority, +75% miles and extra baggage when flying Etihad — worth ~₹2,500 to a holder who flies Etihad once or twice a year. ₹0 if you never fly EY. Corroborated by CardExpert (Silver on first swipe, Gold on first etihad.com purchase).

Complimentary on joining AND on every renewal (recurs each card year)

Epicure IS the status at a Taj; the card-bundled "Plus" variant drops the complimentary room night. benefitValueInr null on purpose: priced in data/memberships.yaml (id taj-epicure, honestValueInr ₹7,500).

Complimentary Epicure enrollment on card activation (welcome benefit)

Epicure IS the status at a Taj. benefitValueInr null on purpose: priced in data/memberships.yaml (id taj-epicure, honestValueInr ₹7,500). Separate from HSBC's own banking "Premier" status, which is a banking tier, not a hotel/airline grant.

SPEND-GATED — complimentary Epicure only on ₹12,00,000 of net retail spend in a card anniversary year

The only hotel-programme grant anywhere in AU's deck, and the hardest to reach: ICICI Emeralde Private and HSBC Premier hand Epicure over on fee payment, Zenith+ makes you spend ₹12 lakh of NET RETAIL first (AU's exclusion list — utility, insurance, transport, rent, education/govt, fuel, cash, EMI — does not count). benefitValueInr null on purpose: priced in data/memberships.yaml (id taj-epicure, honestValueInr ₹7,500).

Typically a welcome/renewal benefit (Infinia and Diners Black bundle year one; Axis Reserve bundles it ongoing)

The single most common status confusion in Indian cards. Club Marriott = up to 20-25% off F&B and room rates in APAC. It carries zero elite nights, zero tier credit, zero Bonvoy benefits. If you want Bonvoy status from a card, the routes are the HDFC co-brand (Silver) or Amex Platinum (Gold) — nothing else.

₹19,499/yr in India (or 7,500-12,500 ALL points in periodic promos); status nights from subscriptions capped at 30/yr

The only major hotel status you can straight-up buy at retail. With the Stay Plus free night and dining discounts, it can pay for itself in two hotel weekends — before counting the Gold.

Proof of existing elite status (Marriott Gold maps to Hilton Gold) + evidence of a recent stay; applicants must be Hilton base/Silver; once per lifetime; reward nights do not count toward the challenge.

The chain Indian flyers should know — Amex Platinum → Bonvoy Gold → Hilton match → 12 paid nights → Hilton DIAMOND. Two card benefits and a fortnight of hotel nights buy the top mainstream tier of a second chain.

Held for as long as the card is; no spend or night qualification

Every other Taj row in this file grants EPICURE, the paid membership; this one grants the InnerCircle TIER itself, and at Platinum — above the Copper/Silver rungs the ladder section describes, which is why it is worth a row even though that ladder is thin. Published benefits are priority and early check-in, late check-out and a dedicated 24/7 Platinum service line, none of them guaranteed. benefitValueInr null for a DIFFERENT reason from the Epicure rows: InnerCircle is not sold standalone at any price, and the perks are availability-based, so there is no honest rupee to put here. The Chambers and Taj Club Lounge access, the unlimited upgrades and the 25% off the best available rate ride the CARD, not the tier — they are on data/cards/hsbc-taj.yaml.

Granted with the card; RETAINED by completing a transaction on Etihad.com within 6 months of issuance. Runs one year from the card's issue date, after which Etihad Guest's own retention milestones apply

NOT PRICED, deliberately. BOBCARD's FAQ is explicit that the base variant stops at Silver ("For the Base Variant: You start out with a complimentary Etihad Guest Silver Tier status. To retain it, complete your first card transaction on Etihad.com within 6 months of card issuance"), while the Premium's ₹2,500 row is priced on GOLD — Etihad lounge access at AUH, priority, +75% miles. Silver opens no lounge door, so the Premium's number cannot be inherited, and the desk has no rupee figure for Silver it could defend. Honest absence beats a number carried across from a different tier.