Lounge visits, vouchers, travel insurance: Credit cards that offer goodies for domestic travel
The domestic travel credit cards offer airport or railway lounge access, discounts on travel-related purchases, and rewards or air miles that can be redeemed against flight and hotel bookings
A travel credit card offers benefits in the form of a complimentary airport or railway lounge access, deals and discounts on travel-related purchases, co-branded benefits with travel websites, and rewards or air miles that can be redeemed against flight and hotel bookings. For those who are looking for credit cards that offer significant value back on domestic travel expenses, Paisabazaar has identified the best credit cards for domestic travel.
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Image Source: ICICI Bank | MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Signature Credit Card offers complimentary MMTBLACK membership and Rs 1,500 my cash plus as welcome benefits, MakeMyTrip holiday voucher worth Rs 2,500 and complimentary MMT cabs benefits. It offers four complimentary domestic airport lounge access and four domestic railway lounge access per year. The annual fee is nil on this card.
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Image Source: IDFC First Bank | IDFC First Select Credit Card offers four complimentary domestic airport lounge access and four domestic railway lounge access per quarter. The cardholder gets comprehensive travel insurance worth Rs 22,500. It offers 6x and 3x reward points on offline and online purchases of spends up to Rs 20,000. On spends above Rs 20,000 it offers 10x reward points. You can redeem the accumulated reward points against travel offers. The annual fee is nil on this card.
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Image Source: SBI Card | IRCTC SBI Card Premier offers one percent saving on railway ticket bookings and 1.8 percent saving on airline ticket bookings. It also offers eight domestic railway lounge accesses per year. The cardholder gets 10 percent value back as reward points on booking tickets in the AC coaches and chair car via IRCTC app or website. The annual fee is Rs 1,499 on this card.
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Image Source: SBI Card | SBI Card Prime offers complimentary Trident Privilege Red Tier Membership and Club Vistara Silver membership. It offers eight complimentary domestic airport lounge accesses in a calendar year. It provides 10 reward points per Rs 100 spent on dining, groceries, departmental stores and movies. The annual fee is Rs 2,999 on this card.
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Image Source: Axis Bank | Axis Vistara Signature offers complimentary club Vistara Silver membership to customers and four complimentary premium economy tickets on achieving milestones in spending. It also offers four club Vistara points for every Rs 200 spent. The cardholder gets two complimentary domestic airport lounge accesses per quarter. The annual fee is Rs 3,000 on this card.
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Image Source: Citibank | Citi Premier Miles Credit Card offers eight domestic airport lounge visits per calendar quarter and 20 percent savings at partner restaurants. You get to earn 10 miles per Rs 100 spent on airline expenses. You can redeem miles over 100 hotels and airline partners. The accumulated air miles never expire. The annual fee is Rs 3,000 on this card.
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Have a disciplined approach to your credit behaviour. It is critical that you use your credit cards smartly and responsibly. Since credit cards offer a significant interest-free period, there may be a tendency to over-spend while traveling with a family on vacations or over-spend from co-branded partners. If you spend more than you can repay and cannot pay your credit card bill timely, you will incur hefty interest charges ranging from 28-49 percent per annum, along with late payment fees.
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To shortlist the best domestic travel credit cards, Paisabazaar compared the features of all credit cards available within the segment. They selected all the cards based on the primary travel benefits offered by each card for domestic travellers. All credit card information is sourced and updated as of April 21, 2022. We arranged these credit cards according to the least annual fees.
Hiral Thanawala is a personal finance journalist with 9 years of reporting experience. Based in Mumbai, he covers financial planning, banking and fintech segments from personal finance team for Moneycontrol.
