In our review of the Altitude Gold, we lamented the absence of travel inconvenience cover and a longer interest free period. We felt these were the only two shortcomings of what could be the best travel credit card range available today and we eagerly anticipated these features in the Altitude Platinum.
Sadly, we are disappointed.
Let us first say the Altitude Platinum is still a good card. While it does not include travel inconvenience cover and the interest free period is still 45 days, it does offer incremental extensions of existing benefits (for example, purchase security will cover purchases for four months instead of three).
But that's part of the problem. In the step-up from the standard Altitude to the Altitude Gold, the $50 increase in annual fee bought a huge leap in included features - travel insurance, transit accident cover, purchase security etc. From the Gold to the Platinum, a $145 increase in annual fee delivers very little.
For an annual fee of $295 per year, the Platinum offers 15,000 bonus Altitude points on your first spend (up from 10,000 bonus points on the Gold), three points per dollar spent on the American Express (an increase from two points on the Gold), travel insurance cover for trips up to six months (up from three months on the Gold) and an additional year of extended warranty protection.
In new features, the card offers a concierge service and Rental vehicle excess insurance which covers the cost of any excess (up to $5,500) on a claim you make for a vehicle rented in Australia. To be eligible, you must have used your Westpac Altitude Platinum to rent the car and taken the optional comprehensive insurance cover offered by the rental car company.
For all other features, the Platinum is identical to the Gold. It comes with two cards, an American Express and your choice of a Visa or Mastercard. The purchase rate is still 17.74% for purchases and 19.99% on cash advances. You'll still earn one point per dollar spent on the Visa or MasterCard and points aren't capped and don't expire.
Westpac are also offering a balance transfer deal of 3.99% for six months.
Bottom line: the Altitude Gold seems to have hit the cost/benefit sweet spot. While the Platinum's features are more comprehensive, they struggle to justify such a large increase in annual fee. Unless you're planning on crashing a rental car, you're better off with the Gold.
