Kotak Air
Keep₹999 for a ₹1 mile, ₹10,000 of travel vouchers and four lounge visits — the cheapest honest travel card Kotak makes.
What it's worth to you — net annual value
Welcome: 1,000 Air Miles (₹1,000) on joining-fee payment, credited within 120 days — plus 1,000 Air Miles at every renewal
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
Air is Air+ with the volume turned down, and at ₹999 that is a bargain rather than a compromise. It earns the exact same Kotak Air Miles as the ₹25,000 Solitaire — a flat ₹1 each against flights and hotels on Kotak Unbox — at 1 Air Mile per ₹100 everywhere and 3 on Unbox travel (accelerated earn capped 5,000 Air Miles a statement cycle). A clean 1% that redeems at face value into actual travel beats most ₹999 cards outright. Two things make it: 1,000 Air Miles on joining and again at every renewal, so the fee is already ₹1,000 of the way paid, and a ₹5,000 travel voucher for every ₹2.5 lakh you spend, twice an anniversary year — ₹10,000 a year for a ₹5L spender. Lounge access is thin and conditional: four domestic visits a year, two a quarter, and only if you put ₹60,000 through the card the previous calendar quarter, with a ₹2 charge at the door. The real drags are a 3.5% forex markup that makes this a domestic-only proposition, a long exclusion list (rent, fuel, utilities, education, government, wallets, EMI all earn nothing), and airline transfers that run 2:1 to 3:1 — worse than simply redeeming at ₹1 on Unbox, so ignore them. For a domestic flyer who books travel through Unbox, this is the cheapest way into a ₹1 mile in India.
What's good
- Same ₹1 Kotak Air Miles as the ₹25,000 Solitaire, for a ₹999 fee
- 3 Air Miles/₹100 (3%) on Kotak Unbox flights & hotels; 1/₹100 (1%) everywhere else, uncapped
- ₹5,000 travel voucher for every ₹2.5 lakh spent, twice a year — up to ₹10,000
- 1,000 Air Miles on joining and again at every renewal (₹1,000 — most of the fee back)
- 4 complimentary domestic lounge visits a year (max 2 per quarter)
- 1% fuel-surcharge waiver on ₹500–₹5,000 transactions, capped ₹3,500 a year
Watch out
- Lounge access is spend-gated — you need ₹60,000 through the card in the previous calendar quarter, and pay ₹2 at the door
- 3.5% forex markup — this is a domestic card, not a travel-abroad card
- Long no-earn list: utilities, telecom, insurance, education, government, rent, fuel, wallet loads, EMI, gaming, cash advances
- Unbox 3x earn caps at 5,000 Air Miles a statement cycle
- ₹999 annual fee recurs with no spend-based waiver
- Airline/hotel transfers run 2:1 to 3:1 — strictly worse than the ₹1 flat Unbox redemption; vouchers pay only ₹0.50
- Air Miles die 3 years from accrual; minimum 500 to redeem, and points can cover at most 80% of a booking
What earns, what doesn't
Air earns 1 Air Mile/₹100 base and 3/₹100 on Kotak Unbox flights/hotels (accelerated earn capped 5,000 Air Miles/statement cycle). Published no-earn list: Utility/Telecom, Insurance, Education, Government, Rent, Fuel, Wallet Loading, EMI, Online Gaming, Cash Advance (verified 2026-07-25). Unlike Air+, international transactions are NOT on the published no-earn list — but Kotak does not affirm they earn either, so forex is left unresolved. Air Miles valid 3 years.
- Fuel · excluded Fuel in the published no-earn list; 1% surcharge waiver on txns ₹500–₹5,000, max ₹3,500/year
- Rent & property management · excluded Rent in the published no-earn list
- Wallet loads · excluded Wallet Loading in the published no-earn list
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · excluded "Utility/Telecom" in the published no-earn list
per Kotak Mahindra Bank T&C · rank every card by spend category →
Where the miles go
Ratios read card points : partner miles — 2:1 means 2 points become 1 mile. Never the other way round.
every Kotak Mahindra Bank route, side by side → · the Kotak Air Miles hub →
Lounge access
Gate: ₹60k spend in the previous calendar quarter
Opens 72 of 746 tracked lounge doors across 40 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.
Direct application — no invite list, no banking relationship required.
Open to apply — Kotak lists Air alongside Air+ and Air+ Prime on its public credit-card page. The official fee schedule shows ₹999 + GST joining and ₹999 + GST annual with waiver "not available"; Kotak's own card-comparison list currently shows the joining fee at ₹0, and CardInsider reports a limited-time joining-fee waiver — treat any fee-free offer as promotional and confirm it before you apply. The ₹999 annual fee recurs regardless. Kotak publishes no separate income or age cutoff for Air.
Kotak Mahindra 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 Kotak Mahindra 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.
Entry rung under Air+. Official fee schedule: ₹999 + GST joining and ₹999 + GST annual, waiver "Not Available" — but Kotak's own card-comparison list currently shows joining ₹0 and CardInsider reports a limited-time joining-fee waiver, so treat fee-free offers as promotional. Base 1 Air Mile/₹100; 3/₹100 on Kotak Unbox flights & hotels, accelerated earn capped 5,000 Air Miles/statement cycle. Welcome 1,000 Air Miles (credited within 120 days of issuance) and renewal 1,000 Air Miles (within 30 days of fee payment). Milestone ₹5,000 travel voucher or equivalent Air Miles per ₹2.5L, up to twice an anniversary year (₹10,000/yr) — CardInsider, not on the official page. 4 complimentary domestic lounge visits a year (max 2/quarter), gated on ₹60,000 spend in the previous calendar quarter, ₹2 charged at the lounge. Fuel-surcharge waiver 1% on ₹500–₹5,000, capped ₹3,500/yr. Air Miles valid 3 years from accrual. APR/cash-advance from CardInsider; late fee, add-on fee and income/age criteria are not published — left blank rather than guessed.
per the official Kotak Mahindra 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.
- 10 Jul 2026BluChip ↔ Accor ALL ratios surface — 6:1 in, 3:2 out, live 13 JulyCorridor announced Apr 2025; no ratios published for 15 months → 6,000 BluChips → 1,000 ALL points (6:1); 3,000 ALL → 2,000 BluChips (3:2); live 13 Jul 2026
India's first airline↔hotel points corridor finally has numbers: ratios spotted on the Accor ALL site ahead of the 13 July joint launch. 6,000 BluChips buy 1,000 ALL points — a respectable 60% of value retained at house values, making Accor the best BluChip exit that isn't an IndiGo seat. The reverse leg (3,000 ALL → 2,000 BluChips) torches 81% of ALL's fixed stay value; use it never. And the fantasy of resurrecting the dead Axis EDGE→Accor route through BluChips dies at this ratio: even inside Axis's intro window the chain recovers just 30%.
- 5 Jul 2026Marriott quietly reprices awards up 2–16% overnightWeekend-of pre-hike dynamic award prices (no published chart) → Award costs up 2.4–15.6% (most 3–8%); ~5–10% average across sampled hotels
Over the first weekend of July 2026 Marriott pushed through another no-notice, unpublished-chart devaluation — spotted first on Chinese frequent-flyer forums, then confirmed across the points blogs. Increases ran 2.4% to 15.6% with most properties 3–8% pricier: the Athenee Bangkok went 32k→37k, the London EDITION 107k→115k, the Ritz-Carlton Maldives 168k→176k. Post-hike, sampled Bangkok redemptions cleared only ~0.56¢/point after taxes and fees — one more reason Bonvoy's house value keeps drifting toward its floor. It follows the 2025 round that lifted the Cat-5 ceiling to 76,000 points, a 90% climb from early-2022's 40k.
- 30 Jun 2026Amex India cuts Etihad Guest as an MR transfer partnerMR points transferable to Etihad Guest Miles → Etihad Guest transfer route closed for good
Membership Rewards points could move to Etihad Guest only until 30 June 2026, 11:59 PM IST — after that the route is dead, part of a global Amex-Etihad wind-down already hitting the UK, US, Canada and Germany. Neither side explained why, but Etihad's generous Etihad Guest sweet spots (especially A380 First redemptions) were a favourite MR outlet for Indian cardholders, and this closes one of the better ones with no replacement announced. Points already transferred are unaffected — only future transfers stop.
- 1 Jun 2026AU, YES and IndusInd points open transfers to Maharaja ClubAU/YES/IndusInd points locked in closed loops → Maharaja routes: IndusInd Tiger 1:1 (Pinnacle 2:1, Legend 4:1); AU Zenith+ 3:2, other AU cards 6:1; YES Marquee/Reserv 15:1
Three banks joined Air India's transfer roster at once — and the ratios are the whole story. The lifetime-free IndusInd Tiger gets the only honest 1:1 (capped 25k/month); AU Zenith+ lands a genuinely good 3:2 that triples what AU points were worth; everything else — Pinnacle 2:1, Legend 4:1, the AU 6:1 crowd, YES at a punitive 15:1 — is a decoy dressed as a partnership.
- 2 Apr 2026Axis purges Marriott, Accor and Qatar from its transfer list overnightMarriott, Accor, Qatar Airways at Group A ratios → All three gone; BA, Finnair, Vietnam Airlines added at 2:1
With zero advance notice — despite Axis's own MITC requiring 30 days — EDGE Miles/Rewards cardholders woke up on 2 April 2026 to find Marriott Bonvoy, Accor Live Limitless and Qatar Airways Privilege Club stripped from the transfer partner list. The three replacements (British Airways Executive Club, Finnair Plus, Vietnam Airlines LotusSmiles) land in the worst tier: 2:1 on Atlas instead of the usual 1:2, and 5:1 on Magnus/Reserve instead of 5:2 — so you need up to 4x the points for the same miles. This guts Atlas and Magnus's best hotel-transfer sweet spots in one stroke and pushes the whole EDGE ecosystem toward airline-only redemptions.
- 1 Apr 2026Maharaja Club gets cheaper awards and faster creditingHigher award costs; slow points crediting → Domestic awards from 1,500 pts; credited within 2 hours
A rare buff. Air India's post-merger programme drops domestic award flights to 1,500 points, cabin upgrades to 4,000, credits Star Alliance miles within two hours, and eases Platinum to 60 flights. The transfer target Indian card geeks care about actually got better.
- 31 Mar 2026SBI kills both Etihad Guest co-brands and force-swaps holders into MILESEtihad Guest SBI Card (₹1,499) and Etihad Guest SBI Premier (₹4,999) earning Etihad Guest Miles directly — up to 6 miles/₹100 on etihad.com → Cards deactivated; holders reissued an SBI MILES card earning SBI Travel Credits instead
SBI's own product pages carry the notice: from December 2025 the Etihad Guest SBI Credit Cards were phased out and holders were issued 'an equally rewarding Miles SBI Credit Card', with the Etihad plastic deactivated either when the replacement was activated or on 31 March 2026, whichever came first. Spend already made on the Etihad card counts toward the new card's fee-reversal milestone in the same annual fee cycle — a decent piece of housekeeping around a bad outcome. The substance is that India's only direct 6-miles-per-₹100 line into Etihad Guest was replaced with a generic transferable currency, and Etihad Guest lost its biggest Indian issuer months after Amex closed its own Etihad transfer route. BOBCARD's two Etihad co-brands, launched January 2026, are now the only cards in the country that earn Guest Miles from the swipe.
- 10 Jan 2026SBI Card splits domestic lounges into tiers, adds entry feesUniform domestic lounge list, free swipe-in access → Set A/Set B lounge tiers by card, plus ₹2–25 entry charges
From 10 January 2026, SBI Card sorts its domestic lounge network into a Set A (top cards like Club Vistara SBI Card, Apollo SELECT) and a broader Set B (PRIME, Pulse, Titan SBI Card and others) — and bolts on a non-refundable ₹2 authorization charge plus a ₹25 validation hold on every visit. It's marketed as an expansion since more airports are covered, but the fine print is a two-tier system with new friction at the gate, right after SBI had already pulled complimentary air accident insurance six months earlier.
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 Kotak Air official product page — ₹999 + GST joining and annual (waiver not available), 3 Air Miles/₹100 on Kotak Unbox flights & hotels capped 5,000/statement cycle, 1 Air Mile/₹100 elsewhere, 1,000 welcome (within 120 days) + 1,000 renewal Air Miles, 4 domestic lounge visits/yr gated on ₹60,000 prior-quarter spend with a ₹2 charge, 1% fuel-surcharge waiver ₹500–₹5,000 capped ₹3,500/yr, 1 Air Mile = ₹1 on Unbox / ₹0.50 on vouchers, 3-year validity, 500-mile minimum, 80% booking cap, transfers min 1,000 miles / 1 lakh a year checked 25 Jul 2026
- official Kotak credit-card list — Kotak Air Credit Card annual fee ₹999 (joining currently shown as ₹0), alongside Air+ and Air+ Prime checked 25 Jul 2026
- community CardInsider — ₹999 fee (joining nil limited-time), 3/1 Air Miles, 3.5% forex, ₹5,000 travel voucher per ₹2.5L up to twice a year, lounge gate ₹60,000 prior quarter, partner transfers 2:1–3:1 (Air India and Marriott 3:1) checked 25 Jul 2026
- community CardInsider — Kotak Air milestone is a ₹5,000 travel voucher (or equivalent Air Miles) per ₹2.5L, up to twice an anniversary year (₹10,000/yr); Air+ is ₹5,000 per ₹1.5L a quarter checked 25 Jul 2026
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