Planning your summer holidays? Here are five credit cards offering travel goodies
Credit cards with travel benefits offer airport lounge access, discounts on travel-related purchases, and rewards or air miles that can be redeemed against flight bookings.
Summer is here and so is the anticipation of a long-awaited vacation. Be it an extended stay at a dream destination or a getaway to the nearest tourist hotspot, the right credit card can help you save money and enjoy exciting benefits. Credit cards with travel benefits like complimentary lounge access and hotel memberships are popular among users. Here’s a list of the top five credit cards that enhance your travel experience in India and overseas this season. Mastercard compiled the best credit cards taking into consideration rewards on travel, hotel memberships, complimentary lounge access, discounts on dining, and low forex markup fee.
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Image Source: Axis Bank | Axis Miles & More World credit card offers unlimited miles based on your spending habits and the accumulated miles don’t expire. Users can redeem the accumulated miles in numerous ways, including by booking flight tickets with airline partners, upgrading an existing flight ticket to a higher class, offers on hotel bookings, and shopping at partner stores or online partners. It additionally offers complimentary priority pass membership and four complimentary domestic lounge visits per quarter for Miles & More Axis Bank World credit card, subject to meeting the spends criteria. Credit cardholders can avail 40 percent off up to Rs 1,000 while dining at partner restaurants. The card charges 3.5 percent forex markup fee on all foreign currency transactions. There is an annual fee of Rs 3,500 plus taxes on this credit card.
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Image Source: HDFC Bank | HDFC Infinia credit card offers unlimited airport lounge access across the globe for primary and add-on members with complimentary priority pass membership. The cardholders get discounts of up to 15 percent at over 3,000 restaurants and 20 percent off at Marriott Hotels. The users get insurance cover of Rs 3 crore on air travel and a medical insurance of Rs 50 lakh. It also allows cardholders to earn up to 10X points on travel and shopping spends on Smartbuy, and 2X points on Infinia website, dining, and Air Vistara bookings, with the ability to convert these points to air miles for use with leading airlines. The bank charges a forex markup fee of two percent for payments in foreign currency. There is an annual fee of Rs 10,000 plus taxes on this credit card.
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Image Source: ICICI Bank | ICICI Emeralde Private Metal Card offers unlimited access to international and domestic airport lounges with Priority Pass membership, along with an extensive travel insurance coverage. There are no cancellation charges on travel bookings made with this credit card. The bank charges a forex markup fee of 2 percent for payments in foreign currency. There is an annual fee of Rs 12,499 plus taxes on this credit card. The fee will be reversed if you were to spend Rs 10 lakh or above on the card in the year.
Image Source: Axis Bank | Axis Bank Magnus credit card offers unlimited complimentary airport lounge access globally, along with concierge services. It offers a 15 percent discount at The Oberoi Hotels and Resorts and Trident Hotels in India, besides 40 percent discount at close to 4,000 restaurants across the country. The bank charges a forex markup fee of 2 percent for payments in foreign currency. There is an annual fee of Rs 12,500 plus taxes on this credit card. The annual fee gets waived off in case your spends have exceeded Rs 25 lakh in the preceding year.
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Image Source: HSBC Bank | This credit card offers unlimited free access to domestic and international lounges and concierge services. The users will get epicure membership across Taj hotels and a Taj experience gift card worth Rs 12,000 on activation of the card. It offers 1:1 conversion of reward points to airmiles across more than 20 domestic and international airlines. The bank charges a forex markup fee of 0.99 percent for payments in foreign currency. There is an annual fee of Rs 20,000 plus taxes on this credit card.
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Use your credit cards with travel benefits smartly and responsibly. Have a disciplined approach to your credit behaviour. Since credit cards offer a significant interest-free period, there may be a tendency to over-spend while travelling with family on vacations. If you spend more than you can repay and cannot pay your credit card bill on time, you will incur hefty interest charges ranging from 28-49 percent p.a., along with late payment fees.
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To shortlist the best travel credit cards, Mastercard compared the features of all credit cards available within the segment. All credit card information is sourced and updated as of May 7, 2024. Credit cards in this list have been arranged in the ascending order of annual fees.
Hiral Thanawala is a personal finance journalist with over 10 years of reporting experience. Based in Mumbai, he covers financial planning, banking and fintech segments from personal finance team for Moneycontrol.
