IndusInd Avios Visa Infinite card
#26

IndusInd Avios Visa Infinite

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The only Indian card that earns Avios straight into your BA or Qatar account — no transfer, no haircut.

IndusInd Bank·Visa·super-premium
Visa
1.5%
Effective reward rate
₹5,000 + GST
Annual fee
None
Fee waiver

What it's worth to you — net annual value

₹36,000
at ₹1L/month
₹90,000
at ₹3L/month
₹1,26,000
at ₹5L/month

Welcome: 20,000 bonus Avios as a joining benefit (same for the Qatar or BA track)

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

Avios is the rare Indian co-brand that skips the middle currency entirely: you pick British Airways Executive Club or Qatar Privilege Club at signup and every Avios lands directly in that account, worth a clean ₹1 at our anchor with real Qsuite and short-haul sweet spots on top. The engine is 3 Avios per ₹200 on everyday spend — a modest 1.5% — but it stacks: 20,000 Avios to join, 5,000 every renewal that roughly cancels the ₹5,000 fee, and two 18,000-Avios milestones at ₹8L and ₹16L that push a ₹3L-a-month spender past 2.5%. Push spend onto the BA or Qatar site (2.5%) or a preferred international POS (3% with 1.5% forex) and it earns like a premium card should. The catch is the ₹10,000 joining fee and the single-alliance lock-in — brilliant if you fly oneworld, dead weight if you don't. Utilities, insurance, government and education crawl at 1 Avios/₹200, so keep the household bills off it.

What's good

  • Direct Avios earn — points land in your BA or Qatar account, no transfer step or ratio haircut
  • 20,000 Avios welcome + 5,000 Avios every renewal (offsets most of the ₹5,000 annual fee)
  • Up to 36,000 milestone Avios a year at ₹8L + ₹16L annual spend
  • 1.5% forex at preferred international destinations (3.5% elsewhere) + 3 Avios/₹200 there
  • 2 domestic + 2 international lounge visits per quarter (complimentary Priority Pass)

Watch out

  • ₹10,000 joining fee, then ₹5,000 a year — no spend-based fee waiver
  • Everyday earn is only 1.5% (3 Avios/₹200); the value needs BA/Qatar-site or overseas spend
  • Utilities, insurance, government and education earn a token 1 Avios/₹200
  • One-alliance lock-in: you choose BA or Qatar up front and the Avios flow there
  • 1% fee on utility spend >₹25k, wallet loads >₹20k and education (third-party) >₹45k per cycle

What earns, what doesn't

Fuel excluded — No Avios on fuel; 1% surcharge waiver ₹400–4,000, and 1% fee on fuel >₹50k/cycle (MITC)
Rent & property management excluded — Earn on rent not published — most IndusInd co-brands exclude it (flag); the 1% third-party-rent fee is NOT levied on Avios (MITC)
Government / tax reduced — 1 Avios/₹200 (reduced bucket) — official benefit guide
Utilities (electricity/water/gas) reduced — 1 Avios/₹200 (reduced bucket); 1% fee on utilities >₹25k/cycle (MITC)
Insurance reduced — 1 Avios/₹200 (reduced bucket) — official benefit guide
Education reduced — 1 Avios/₹200 (reduced bucket); 1% fee on third-party education >₹45k/cycle (MITC)
Wallet loads excluded — Wallet loads earn nothing (flag); 1% fee on wallet loads >₹20k/cycle (MITC)
Groceries & supermarkets full — Base 3 Avios/₹200 — not in the reduced bucket (inferred, flag)
Telecom full — Base 3 Avios/₹200 — telecom is NOT in the reduced utilities bucket (benefit guide lists only utilities/insurance/govt/education)
Jewellery / gold full — No published earn restriction (flag)
Forex / international spends full — Base 3 Avios/₹200 abroad, 6/₹200 at a preferred POS; 1.5% forex at preferred destinations, 3.5% elsewhere
UPI (RuPay-on-UPI only) not applicable — Visa Infinite — no RuPay variant, UPI not supported
EMI conversions / merchant EMI excluded — EMI conversions forfeit Avios — community, flag
  • Fuel · excluded No Avios on fuel; 1% surcharge waiver ₹400–4,000, and 1% fee on fuel >₹50k/cycle (MITC)
  • Rent & property management · excluded Earn on rent not published — most IndusInd co-brands exclude it (flag); the 1% third-party-rent fee is NOT levied on Avios (MITC)
  • Wallet loads · excluded Wallet loads earn nothing (flag); 1% fee on wallet loads >₹20k/cycle (MITC)
  • Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · reduced 1 Avios/₹200 (reduced bucket); 1% fee on utilities >₹25k/cycle (MITC)

per IndusInd Bank T&C (community-sourced) · rank every card by spend category →

Lounge access

2/quarter
Domestic
2/quarter
International
Guests

Opens 588 of 644 tracked lounge doors across 245 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.

Route Direct application
Income · salaried not published
Income · self-employed not published
Age band not published

Direct application — no invite list, no banking relationship required.

IndusInd 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 IndusInd 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.

Forex markup 1.5% at preferred international destinations, 3.5% all other + GST
APR 3.00%/mo (36%/yr)
Late fee Nil ≤₹100; ₹100 (₹101–500); ₹500 (₹501–1,000); ₹600 (₹1,001–5,000); ₹750 (₹5,001–10,000); ₹900 (₹10,001–25,000); ₹1,100 (₹25,001–50,000); ₹1,300 (>₹50,000) — master SOC eff 15-Jun-2026 (the co-brand T&C PDF still shows the pre-June slabs)
Cash advance Waived — Avios is on IndusInd's cash-advance-fee-waived list (master SOC + co-brand T&C)
Add-on card Nil (add-on waived)
Overlimit 2.5% of over-limit amount, min ₹500
Redemption fee Avios accrue directly to the chosen BA Executive Club / Qatar Privilege Club account — no separate transfer fee

Joining ₹10,000 + GST, annual ₹5,000 + GST (charged after 12 months), no spend-based waiver. Rent-payment 1% fee NOT levied on Avios; but 1% fee on utilities >₹25k, wallet loads >₹20k, third-party education >₹45k and fuel >₹50k per statement cycle. Co-brand with Avios Group (AGL) Ltd and Qatar Airways Group. Income/age not published in the MITC — shown as not published.

per the official IndusInd 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.

  • 25 Mar 2025
    Fee moderate IndusInd Bank
    IndusInd hikes redemption fee to ₹149, caps cash-outs at 50%
    ₹100 + GST per redemption; full points balance redeemable as statement credit; fractional points on multiplier spends ₹149 + GST per redemption (Avios, Pioneer and EazyDiner cards exempt); cash redemption capped at 50% of balance; fractional accrual gone; points clawed back on unpaid dues

    IndusInd found four ways to shave the same rewards program at once: the redemption toll rose ₹100 to ₹149 + GST, cash redemptions now stop at half your points balance, fractional accrual on multiplier spends quietly ended, and points earned on a statement you don't pay get rescinded. Pinnacle and Legend holders take the full hit; the Avios card — where the points leave for BA and Qatar anyway — is pointedly exempt.

  • 7 Mar 2025
    Lounge major IndusInd Bank
    Legend loses lounge access entirely
    1 complimentary domestic lounge visit per quarter No complimentary lounge access at all

    A year after halving Legend's lounge visits, IndusInd came back and took the rest. From 7 March 2025 the card offers no complimentary lounge access, domestic or otherwise — on a product still marketed with a ₹5,000 joining fee. The lifetime-free Legend crowd shrugs; anyone who paid for this card on the strength of its airport perks got a two-step lesson in how IndusInd sunsets a benefit.

  • 1 Dec 2024
    Launch moderate HSBC
    HSBC TravelOne arrives — a 20-partner airmiles card
    No mainstream HSBC airmiles card in India ₹4,999 card, 4X travel/forex, 1:1 to Avios & KrisFlyer

    HSBC's serious play for Indian miles chasers: 4 points per ₹100 on flights, travel aggregators and forex, and instant 1:1 transfers to British Airways and Qatar Avios plus ~20 airline/hotel partners including KrisFlyer and Air India — all from the app. A genuine sub-₹5k alternative to Atlas. (Welcome-offer window opened 1 Dec 2024.)

  • 1 Mar 2024
    Devaluation moderate IndusInd Bank
    Legend halves lounge visits, cuts cash value to ₹0.50
    1 RP = ₹0.75 as statement credit; 2 domestic lounge visits per quarter 1 RP = ₹0.50 as cash (₹0.75 on non-cash redemptions excluding airmiles); 1 domestic visit per quarter

    The lifetime-free Legend got the classic double cut on 1 March 2024: cash redemptions dropped a third to ₹0.50 a point — the second cash devaluation in two years — and domestic lounge visits halved to one a quarter. The airmiles route kept its value, a quiet nudge toward transfers over statement credit. Anyone holding points for cash should have read the memo and emptied the tank in February.

  • 18 Oct 2023
    Devaluation major British Airways
    British Airways ties Avios earning to fare, not miles flown
    Avios earned per mile flown, by fare class and tier Avios earned per £1 of base fare, 6-9 per tier

    October 18, 2023 killed the old BA Executive Club math for good: distance-based earning is gone, replaced by 6 to 9 Avios per pound of base fare depending on tier. Cheap long-haul tickets — long a favorite hack for stuffing an Avios balance — now earn a fraction of what they used to, while expensive short-hop business fares earn more. It's the airline-industry-standard revenue model finally catching up to BA, years after most rivals switched.

  • 17 Aug 2023
    Launch minor IndusInd Bank
    IndusInd launches the Avios card — BA and Qatar in one
    No Indian card earned Avios directly Avios Visa Infinite: earn Avios on every swipe, pick a BA Executive Club or Qatar Privilege Club home, up to 36,000 bonus Avios a year in milestones, tier fast-track

    A first for India: a metal Visa Infinite that earns Avios natively, with the cardholder choosing whether the points live with British Airways Executive Club or Qatar Airways Privilege Club. Milestones add up to 36,000 bonus Avios a year and Qatar throws in a tier fast-track. For a market whose premium cards all funnel into the same few transfer partners, a direct Avios pipe — Qsuites money — was genuinely new plumbing.

  • 3 Aug 2023
    Launch minor IndusInd Bank
    IndusInd's lifetime-free Tiger prowls in
    IndusInd's lounge-and-forex perks locked behind ₹5,000-fee cards Tiger: lifetime free, tiered rewards up to 6X, 1.5% forex, complimentary domestic and international lounge visits, golf

    IndusInd and Tiger Fintech (a Bajaj Capital company) launched a card that shouldn't exist at ₹0: lifetime free with domestic and international lounge access, 1.5% forex against the 3.5% default, golf games, and a tiered rewards ladder that climbs to 6X. The base earn is forgettable and the best rates need serious annual spend — but as a free card you keep for the airport doors and the border crossings, the Tiger rewrote the entry-level maths.

  • 9 Dec 2022
    Devaluation major British Airways
    BA Avios long-haul redemptions jump up to 92% outside UK/US
    Lower long-haul Avios pricing for non-UK/US members Up to 92% (typically 45-60%) more Avios for long-haul

    British Airways rewrote its long-haul reward pricing and buried the ugliest hikes on members booking from outside the UK and US — India included. A UK Amex-voucher holder barely felt it; anyone redeeming Avios out of Delhi or Mumbai got quietly fleeced.

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.

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