IDFC FIRST Gaj
KeepThe ₹12,500 invitation: 0% forex, ₹1 points and a flat 3.3% with no gate to clear.
Gaj redeems the IDFC point at ₹1.00 on flight and hotel bookings in the app's Travel & Shop section — DOUBLE the ₹0.50 house value and 2.5× Ashva's ₹0.40 — and ₹0.25 on vouchers, products or "pay with points". earn.base is scaled UP to that ₹1.00 reality; points can only cover 70% of a booking, and 1.5L a month / 3L a year of them.
What it's worth to you — net annual value
Welcome: 12,500 RP on joining-fee payment (₹12,500 at the ₹1 travel value) + a 25%-off 5-star hotel voucher worth up to ₹5,000 on ₹1L spent in 60 days — once per customer
How these numbers are computed →
Spend tiers, milestones and fee waivers included, at our house ₹/point. Portal and category multipliers can push higher — run your exact number →
The take
Gaj — IDFC stylises it "Gaj:" — is the top of the metal trilogy and the only rung you can't apply for: ₹12,500 + GST a year, by invitation, aimed at the bank's private-banking clients. What the extra ₹6,501 over Mayura buys is the point itself. Gaj redeems at ₹1.00 on in-app flight and hotel bookings, double Mayura's ₹0.50 and 2.5× Ashva's ₹0.40, and it earns a flat 5 RP per ₹150 on everything with no ₹20,000-a-statement gate to clear first — a genuine 3.3% on ordinary spend, the best everyday rate any IDFC card has ever paid. App hotel bookings run 50 RP per ₹150, which is the 33.33% the marketing shouts about, and it's real. The lounge sheet matches Mayura's (4 Indian including a guest, 4 global, plus 4 railway, all per quarter), the forex is the same 0%, and the extras are heavier: up to 24 golf rounds a year, a free 3rd night at ITC Hotels and Elivaas villas, ₹50,000 of trip-cancellation cover. The catch is IDFC's usual one — this is a closed loop with zero transfer partners, the ₹1 lives only inside the app, covers at most 70% of a booking, and collapses to ₹0.25 the second you cash out.
What's good
- ₹1 per point on in-app flight and hotel bookings — double Mayura, 2.5× Ashva
- Flat 5 RP per ₹150 on everything ≈ 3.3% — no ₹20k statement gate to clear first
- 50 RP per ₹150 on app hotel bookings ≈ 33.3%, the fattest closed-loop rate in India
- 0% forex on a metal Visa Infinite; 4 Indian + 4 global + 4 railway lounge visits a quarter
- Points never expire, and the FIRST Digital RuPay UPI add-on is free (₹199 on every other IDFC card)
Watch out
- Invite-only for private-banking clients — there is no public route that gets you approved
- Closed loop: zero airline or hotel transfer partners, like every other IDFC card
- The ₹1 is portal-locked and pays at most 70% of a booking; cash out and it's ₹0.25
- Bonus points cap at 15,000/month — LOWER than Mayura's 25,000 — and redemptions at 1.5L/month, 3L/year
- Lounges, golf and the multipliers all need ₹20,000 spent the previous month; the ₹12,500 fee is only waived at ₹10L annual spend
- 18-Jun-2026: no reward points on spends beyond your credit limit in a billing cycle
What earns, what doesn't
Gaj's rewards T&C publishes its own MCC table, so every row below is from the issuer rather than inferred. Base earn is a flat 5 RP/₹150 with no ₹20k statement tier — the categories below are the carve-outs from it.
- Fuel · excluded Zero RP (MCC 5172/5541/5542/5552/5983); 1% surcharge waiver on ₹200–₹5,000 txns, cap ₹300/cycle; 1% fee once fuel spends pass ₹30,000/cycle
- Rent & property management · reduced 1 RP/₹150 (MCC 6513) ≈ 0.67% at the ₹1 travel value; plus a 1% fee, min ₹249, on domestic rent txns
- Wallet loads · reduced 1 RP/₹150 (MCC 6540) — earns where most premium cards zero out, but at a fifth of base
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · reduced 1 RP/₹150 (MCC 4812/4813/4814/4816/4821/4829/4899/4900). Gaj is the ONLY IDFC card whose 1% utility fee starts at ₹50,000 a cycle — every other variant starts at ₹20,000
per IDFC FIRST Bank T&C · rank every card by spend category →
Lounge access
Gate: ₹20k spend in the previous calendar month
Opens 156 of 746 tracked lounge doors across 89 airports — see the full map →
Can you get it?
The cutoffs and the actual route in — not the "apply now" button, the door that opens.
Invite-only — there is no public application form. The bank calls you.
IDFC's own card listing badges Gaj "Invite Only" and the product hero says "By invitation only"; the launch announcement (29 Dec 2025) placed it squarely with FIRST Private Banking clients, one rung below the ₹50,000 FIRST Private. There is an application-and-approval flow behind the invitation, and it ends with an unusual step: the ₹12,500 + GST joining fee is charged upfront and must be PAID before the metal card is dispatched or the digital card activates — non-refundable, and the benefit is once per customer, so closing and reapplying forfeits the 12,500-point sweetener.
IDFC FIRST Bank publishes no income or age cutoffs for this card. Blank means blank — we don't invent numbers to fill a grid.
per the official IDFC FIRST Bank MITC — figures marked (community) aren't in the PDF; the issuer won't say · filter the ranking by what you can get →
The fine print
What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.
Fee ₹12,500 joining and ₹12,500 annual, waived on ₹10L of eligible spend in the previous card anniversary year (net spends exclude fuel, EMI, fees, GST, loan-on-card, balance transfer, cash and reversals). Invite-only, and the joining fee must be PAID upfront before the metal card is dispatched — non-refundable. Metal card replacement ₹4,000. Fuel-surcharge waiver capped ₹300/cycle. Gaj is the ONLY IDFC card whose 1% utility fee starts at ₹50,000 a cycle rather than ₹20,000; rent draws 1%, min ₹249. The FIRST Digital RuPay add-on carries no joining, annual or add-on fee when attached to Gaj. IDFC publishes no income or age criteria for Gaj — left blank rather than guessed. MITC effective 18-Jun-2026.
per the official IDFC FIRST Bank MITC · reviewed 10 Jul 2026
What's changed for this card
Full tracker →Devaluations and buffs that touch this card directly, its issuer, or the points and programs it earns and transfers to.
- 18 Jun 2026Mayura's app-travel multipliers cut to 40X hotels, 25X flights60 RP/₹150 on app hotels, 40 RP/₹150 on flights (Jun-2025 boost) → 40 RP/₹150 hotels, 25 RP/₹150 flights; movie BOGO needs ₹20k/month; rewards capped at credit limit
The Jun-2025 boost is rolled back: IDFC's 18-Jun-2026 notice re-states the app bonus as '20%/10% Bonus Reward Points' — 30 and 15 bonus RP per ₹150 — dropping hotel bookings from a 20% effective return to 13.3% and flights from 13.3% to 8.3% at the ₹0.50 travel value. The same notice gates the BOGO movie perk on ₹20,000 of previous-month spend and stops rewards on spends beyond your credit limit. The 0% forex and 5X/10X base survive untouched.
- 18 Jun 2026Ashva's app-travel multipliers cut to 40X hotels, 25X flights60 RP/₹150 on app hotels, 40 RP/₹150 on flights (Jun-2025 'up to 50X Bonus' boost) → 40 RP/₹150 hotels, 25 RP/₹150 flights; movie BOGO needs ₹20k/month; rewards capped at credit limit
Ashva rides the same 18-Jun-2026 notice that hit its sibling Mayura: IDFC re-states the mobile-app Travel & Shop bonus as '20% Bonus Reward Points on hotels, 10% on flights' over the base earn — landing at 40 and 25 total RP per ₹150, down from the Jun-2025 boost's 60/40. At Ashva's ₹0.40 app-travel value that drops app hotels from ~16% to ~10.7% and flights from ~10.7% to ~6.7%. The same notice stops rewards on spends beyond the credit limit and gates the Buy-One-Get-One movie perk on ₹20,000 of previous-month spend. The 1% forex and 5X/10X base survive; the 15,000 bonus-RP/month cap is unchanged.
- 18 Jun 2026IDFC FIRST bolts a 24-month expiry onto reward points that were lifetime-validIDFC FIRST reward points never expired — lifetime validity was a headline feature → Points earned from 18 Jun 2026 expire 24 months from crediting (FIRST Wealth, Millennia, WOW! and more); existing WOW! points valid until Jul 2028
The same June-2026 revamp that clipped Mayura and Ashva's app-travel multipliers took a quieter but broader swing: IDFC FIRST's celebrated 'points never expire' promise is dead. Points earned from 18 June 2026 now carry a 24-month expiry from the crediting date across FIRST Wealth, FIRST Millennia, FIRST WOW! and the wider stack, with existing WOW! balances grandfathered only until July 2028. Pair it with the portfolio-wide move to stop earning beyond your credit limit and the ₹20,000-spend gate on the movie perk, and IDFC's whole 'lifetime-valid, low-friction rewards' identity is being sanded down. The lifetime-validity era is over — burn IDFC points, don't hoard them.
- 18 Jun 2026IDFC FIRST Select's 10X moves to categories, app travel bonus cut3X up to ₹20,000 a statement cycle and 10X on every rupee above it; 33% bonus RP on app hotels, 13% on flights → 10X only on dining, travel, international and birthday spends; 3X on everything else; app bonus cut to 20% hotels, 10% flights
IDFC rebuilt the free Select card's reward engine on 18 June 2026 and the answer depends on how much you spend. The old construct paid 10X (10 RP per ₹200) on the incremental spend above ₹20,000 a statement cycle, which rewarded volume; the new one pays 10X on dining, travel, international and birthday spends and 3X on the rest. At ₹50,000 a month that's a straight cut — roughly 0.9% blended down to 0.55% — while a ₹15,000-a-month diner comes out ahead. What isn't ambiguous is the travel portal: the bonus on app hotel bookings dropped from 33% to 20% and flights from 13% to 10%, taking app hotels from 8.25% to 6.25% at the ₹0.25 point. The same date capped rewards at your credit limit per billing cycle across the IDFC range.
- 18 Jun 2026Gaj stops earning past your credit limitReward points on every eligible spend in a billing cycle → Reward points only on spends up to your credit limit per billing cycle
The same 18 June 2026 sweep that cut Mayura's app multipliers left Gaj's earn structure alone — 5 RP per ₹150 flat, 50 and 25 RP per ₹150 on app hotels and flights, points still worth ₹1 on in-app travel — and took exactly one thing: pay down mid-cycle and re-spend, and the second lap earns nothing. IDFC's notice is explicit that rewards accrue only on spends up to your credit limit per billing cycle. On a card sold to private-banking clients with limits to match it is a small thing; on a card whose whole pitch is 33% back on app hotel bookings, it quietly caps how much of that you can farm in a month.
- 6 Jan 2026IDFC FIRST launches zero-forex Diamond Reserve cardNo 0%-forex travel card at the ₹3,000 fee tier → Diamond Reserve: 0% forex, 4 lounge visits/quarter
IDFC FIRST's Diamond Reserve, launched 6 January 2026 at ₹3,000+GST, undercuts the premium travel-card field with genuinely 0% forex markup, 60 RP per ₹150 on app hotel bookings and 40 RP per ₹150 on flights (both worth ₹0.25/point), plus 2 domestic and 2 international lounge visits every quarter and lifetime-valid points. In a year dominated by devaluations from HDFC, Axis, ICICI and SBI, this is one of the rare cards actually adding value at a mid-premium fee point rather than taking it away.
- 29 Dec 2025IDFC FIRST unveils Gaj, an invite-only ₹12,500 metal flagshipPrivate banking metal tier topped out below super-premium → Gaj: launched atop Ashva-Mayura-Gaj trilogy, ₹12,500 fee
Gaj: is invite-only for IDFC FIRST Private Banking clients, carries a ₹12,500+GST joining and annual fee, and offsets it with 12,500 Reward Points (1RP=₹1) redeemable on in-app travel bookings — plus 0% forex and 1:1 earn rate. It's a niche launch that won't matter to most readers, but it signals IDFC FIRST is chasing the HNI segment HDFC Infinia and Axis Reserve have owned for years, right as those two incumbents are busy cutting benefits.
- 11 Jul 2023IDFC First and Club Vistara team up on a travel credit cardNo IDFC First travel card tied to an airline programme → Club Vistara IDFC FIRST Card: CV Points, lounge, golf perks
IDFC FIRST Bank, Club Vistara and Mastercard announced a new co-branded travel card on July 11, 2023, bundling CV Points earning with lounge access, golf benefits and trip-cancellation cover. It was a modest entrant next to the HDFC and Axis Vistara cards already in market, but it gave IDFC First — still building out its premium lineup — a genuine travel-rewards product for the first time.
Go deeper
Sources
Every fact on this page is checked against these documents — the issuer's own paperwork first. Spot something stale? The PDF wins, and we re-verify.
- official Product page + FAQs (₹12,500 joining and annual, waiver at ₹10L; invite only; 0% forex; 4 Indian incl. 1 guest + 4 global lounges/quarter on a ₹20k previous-month gate; 4 railway/quarter; never-expiring points) checked 25 Jul 2026
- official Rewards T&C PDF (5 RP/₹150 base, 3 RP/₹150 international, 1 RP/₹150 on rent/utilities/govt/education; bonus 45/20 per ₹150 = 50/25 total on app hotels/flights; 15,000 bonus RP/month cap; 1 RP = ₹1 travel / ₹0.25 else; 70% of booking; 1.5L/month + 3L/year redemption caps) checked 25 Jul 2026
- official 18-Jun-2026 change notice PDF (rewards earned only on spends up to your credit limit per billing cycle) checked 25 Jul 2026
- official Bank-wide MITC (₹12,500/₹12,500; add-on ₹4,000 joining / ₹2,000 annual; NIL forex; ₹199 cash advance; ₹99 redemption fee; ₹4,000 card replacement; 1% utility fee past ₹50k/cycle — ₹20k on every other IDFC card) checked 25 Jul 2026
- official Benefits T&C PDF (VISA Infinite; ITC Hotels "stay 3 pay 2" via promocode ITCVIS — an offer, not a membership; Elivaas villas; up to 24 golf rounds/lessons a year on ₹20k/₹40k statement spend) checked 25 Jul 2026
- community Launch coverage, 29 Dec 2025 — invite-only for FIRST Private Banking clients checked 25 Jul 2026
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