Best travel credit cards

Heads-up: The Rs. 3,000 annual fee is waived only on annual spends of Rs. 3,00,000 or more.

Heads-up: The Rs. 4,999 annual fee is reversed only on annual spends of Rs. 15,00,000 — the highest threshold on any SBI card.

Heads-up: No spend-based fee waiver is published, so the Rs. 999 plus GST fee is payable every year whatever you spend.

Heads-up: The Rs. 12,500 plus GST fee is waived only at Rs. 10,00,000 of spending in a card anniversary year, about Rs. 83,000 a month.

Heads-up: Gold and jewellery, rent, wallet loads, government institutions, insurance, fuel, utilities and telecom spends are excluded from milestone…

Heads-up: Rs. 5,999 plus GST — Rs. 7,079 — with no spend-based fee waiver, only a points benefit at Rs. 8 lakh or Rs. 15 lakh of annual spending.

Heads-up: The Rs. 4,999 plus GST fee is waived only above Rs. 8,00,000 of annual spending, about Rs. 67,000 a month.

Heads-up: Travel Credits are worth what the transfer partner gives them. SBI Card publishes no fixed rupee rate.

Heads-up: AU unlocks complimentary domestic airport lounge access on at least Rs. 20,000 of spending in a calendar quarter, in that same quarter, and…

Heads-up: This card is secured against a fixed deposit. The deposit is locked for as long as the card is held.

Heads-up: This is a DEBIT card, not a credit card. Spends are debited from the linked Bank of Baroda account, there is no credit limit, no statement…

Heads-up: This variant is secured against a fixed deposit of Rs. 50,000 or more. The deposit is locked for as long as the card is held.

Heads-up: Zero Vantage Points on ALL international spends, effective 10 July 2026 — a major devaluation from the earlier terms, which paid 8 points…

Heads-up: SBI Card discontinued new issuance of this card from 11 March 2025, and Etihad Guest co-branded benefits (including Miles earning) ended on…

Heads-up: Reward Points redeem only against train ticket fare on IRCTC. They cannot be taken as cashback or statement credit.

Heads-up: NeuCoins are spendable on Tata Neu and across Tata brands. They cannot be taken as cashback or statement credit.

Heads-up: Adani Reward Points redeem only through the Adani One portal or app. They cannot be taken as cashback, statement credit or airline miles.

Heads-up: SBI Card discontinued new issuance of this card from 11 March 2025, and Etihad Guest co-branded benefits (including Miles earning) ended on…

Heads-up: Scapia Coins redeem only against travel booked in the Scapia app. They cannot be taken as cashback, statement credit or airline miles.

Heads-up: ICICI Bank states the annual card charges cannot be waived. This is the only card in our catalogue with no waiver route at any spend level.

Heads-up: Rewards arrive only at monthly spend milestones. Individual transactions earn nothing, and a month under Rs. 5,000 earns nothing at all.

Heads-up: Blinkit is capped at Rs. 1,000 a month and five transactions; Zomato at Rs. 150 per transaction; Ola at Rs. 600 a month. Past those, the…

Heads-up: Minimum income of Rs. 25,00,000 a year — the highest published bar in the catalogue — and a minimum age of 28 rather than the usual 21.

Heads-up: All cashback stops at ₹1,500 a statement cycle, with online capped at ₹1,000 inside that. About ₹24,000 of online spend a month reaches the…

Heads-up: The redemption value is stated as up to Rs. 0.40 a point rather than as a fixed figure, so the return cannot be calculated exactly.

Heads-up: IndiGo does not publish a fixed value for a BluChip. Redemption is dynamic — roughly Rs. 0.40 to Rs. 0.60 a chip — so the headline earn…

Heads-up: Only 1AC, 2AC, 3AC, Executive Chair Car and Chair Car bookings earn the value back. Sleeper and general class do not.

Heads-up: No spend-based waiver is published for the Rs. 3,000 plus taxes renewal fee.

Heads-up: First Citizen Points are a Shoppers Stop currency — they redeem there and nowhere else, under that programme's own rules.

Heads-up: From 13 March 2025 the international lounge allowance is one complimentary visit a calendar quarter, down from the earlier Priority Pass…

Heads-up: IndiGo does not publish a fixed value for a BluChip. Redemption is dynamic — roughly Rs. 0.40 to Rs. 0.60 a chip — so the headline earn…

Heads-up: BluChips redeem only against IndiGo bookings, and IndiGo publishes no fixed rupee value — about Rs. 0.40 to Rs. 0.60 a chip.

Heads-up: The multiplier is set by annual spending: up to Rs. 1,00,000 earns only 1X, and the 6X rate needs more than Rs. 5,00,000 a year.

Heads-up: 2 Reward Points per Rs. 150 is a modest base rate, and the value depends entirely on which airline or hotel programme the points are…

Heads-up: A Reward Point redeems at about Rs. 0.07, so 8 points per Rs. 150 is an effective return of roughly 0.4%. The headline rate is not the…

Heads-up: This card is secured against a fixed deposit of Rs. 5,000 or more. The deposit is locked for as long as the card is held.

Heads-up: Access to the domestic Centurion American Express Lounges in Delhi and Mumbai was discontinued with effect from 1 September 2023.

Heads-up: Every reward bucket (PhonePe spends, select online brands, UPI Scan & Pay) is capped at 500 Reward Points per month EACH - heavy spenders…

Heads-up: New cards on the Mastercard network were stopped under RBI direction, so this card may not be open to new applicants. Confirm availability…

Heads-up: Access to the domestic Centurion American Express Lounges in Delhi and Mumbai was discontinued from 1 September 2023.

Heads-up: 3.5% foreign currency markup on the card whose 3x tier is international spending, so the accelerated rate is partly offsetting the card's…

Heads-up: A fixed deposit of at least Rs. 20,000 is required and is held under a lien until the card is returned.

Heads-up: Points cover at most 70% of a train fare, so the headline 5% is closer to 3.5% when you pay with points alone.

Heads-up: Reward Points redeem only against train ticket fare on IRCTC. They cannot be taken as cashback, statement credit or airline miles.

Heads-up: 5 Jewels are worth Re. 1, so the accelerated 2% category is a real 2% only because Jewels are quoted as a percentage of spend — check the…

Heads-up: 3.49% foreign currency markup, which eats into the card's own 12-point international rate.

Heads-up: Reward Points redeem only against train ticket fare on IRCTC. They cannot be taken as cashback or statement credit.

Heads-up: Adani Reward Points redeem only through the Adani One portal or app. They cannot be taken as cashback, statement credit or airline miles.

Heads-up: No airport lounge access. The lounge benefit is eight railway lounge visits a year.

Heads-up: The 40-point rail rate applies only to travel dates between 15 Jan and 31 Mar and 15 Jul and 15 Sep. Other dates earn 16 points, which is…

Heads-up: From year two the Rs. 499 fee is waived only on Rs. 8,00,000 of spending in a card year, about Rs. 67,000 a month — twenty times the…

Heads-up: SBI Card discontinued issuance of the Yatra SBI Card with effect from 28 March 2025. The welcome gift and all Yatra.com travel discount…

Heads-up: 4 Reward Points are worth Re. 1, so the 10X tier is an effective 2.5% back and the base rate is 0.5%.

Heads-up: Rs. 1,10,000 a year, the highest fee in this catalogue by a wide margin, with no spend-based waiver published at any level.

Heads-up: Value is paid at annual spend milestones rather than as a rate, so spending below Rs. 2,00,000 a year earns no White Pass value at all.

Heads-up: Reward Points are auto-credited as Paytm Gift Voucher balance to the Paytm wallet. They cannot be taken as cashback, statement credit or…