RBL Nova
KeepA quarterly-milestone machine: ₹40,000 a year in vouchers, if you can feed it ₹3 lakh a quarter.
What it's worth to you — net annual value
Welcome: ₹12,500 Taj Experiences or Luxe gift card on joining-fee payment — refunds the fee in year one
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
RBL's first genuine points-transfer card arrives swinging. The ₹12,500 metal Visa Infinite opens with a ₹12,500 gift card that wipes the fee in year one, then a quarterly milestone that pays ₹10,000 for every ₹3 lakh you spend in a calendar quarter — up to ₹40,000 a year, roughly 3x the fee. Everyday earn is a flat 2% (4 Reward Points per ₹200 at a genuine ₹1 a point), rising to a headline 6% on flights and hotels booked through RBL's own portal. And unlike the closed-loop points on RBL's older cards, Nova points finally leave the building — 2 points to 1 mile into Air India Maharaja Club, Singapore KrisFlyer, AirAsia and Qatar Avios. The asterisks are real: those 2:1 transfers are worse than simply redeeming at ₹1, the base 2% is ordinary for a ₹12,500 card once the welcome is spent, and the whole thing only sings if you can clear ₹3 lakh every quarter. Hit that bar and funnel your travel through the portal, and Nova is one of the better-value new premium cards of 2026.
What's good
- ₹12,500 Taj/Luxe welcome gift card refunds the joining fee in year one
- ₹10,000 gift card every quarter you spend ₹3 lakh — up to ₹40,000 a year
- 6% value back on flights & hotels via the RBL Nova portal; flat 2% everywhere else
- Nova points transfer 2:1 to Air India Maharaja, KrisFlyer, AirAsia & Qatar Avios
- 12 domestic + 12 international lounge visits a year, plus 4 international guest visits
Watch out
- 2:1 airline transfers (₹0.50/mile) are worse than redeeming points at the flat ₹1 — transfer only for a specific award
- The ₹40,000 milestone needs ₹3 lakh EVERY calendar quarter (₹12L/year); miss a quarter, lose that ₹10,000
- Base earn is a flat 2% — ordinary once the year-one welcome is spent
- 2% forex and no spend-based fee waiver — the ₹12,500 recurs every year
What earns, what doesn't
Nova earns 4 RP/₹200 base and 12 RP/₹200 (6% at ₹1) on flights/hotels via the RBL Nova portal. RBL doesn't publish Nova's MCC exclusion table; the rows below follow RBL's standard exclusions (fuel/rent/government/wallet) — verify. Visa Infinite.
- Fuel · excluded No RP; 1% fuel surcharge waiver — RBL standard, community, flag
- Rent & property management · excluded Rent (MCC 6513) excluded — RBL standard, community, flag
- Wallet loads · excluded Wallet loads excluded — RBL standard, community, flag
- Government / tax · excluded Government/tax excluded — RBL standard, community, flag
per RBL Bank T&C (community-sourced) · 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 RBL Bank route, side by side → · the RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) hub →
Lounge access
Opens 606 of 662 tracked lounge doors across 251 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.
Nova launched on 17 November 2025 as the entry into RBL's new premium line and, per the launch coverage and the product page's application flow, is open to apply — though some early aggregator write-ups tagged it invite-only, so confirm the route when you apply. The ₹12,500 fee has no spend-based waiver; only the year-one welcome gift card offsets it. RBL publishes no separate income or age cutoff for Nova.
RBL 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 RBL 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.
Visa Infinite metal card, launched 17 Nov 2025. Fee ₹12,500 + GST, no spend waiver (year-one ₹12,500 welcome gift card offsets it). 2% forex. Quarterly milestone: ₹10,000 gift card per ₹3L spent in a calendar quarter, up to ₹40k/yr. 6% value back on the RBL Nova travel portal, 10% dining savings, complimentary golf. Nova points transfer 2:1 to Air India Maharaja / KrisFlyer / AirAsia / Qatar Avios. Full MITC/KFS not separately machine-read; APR/late-fee slabs follow RBL's card schedule — verify against the bank-wide MITC. RBL publishes no income/age criteria for Nova.
per the official RBL 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 28 Mar 2026KrisFlyer quietly cuts its own dynamic 'Access' award ratesAccess dynamic awards priced as launched in Nov 2025 → Access rates cut up to 10.9% (economy/PE), 3.9% (J/F)
Barely five months after introducing dynamic 'Access' award pricing alongside a broader Saver-chart devaluation, KrisFlyer moved the goalposts again on 28 March 2026 — this time devaluing the dynamic tier itself by up to 10.9% in economy and premium economy. For Indian cardholders funnelling HDFC Infinia, Axis Atlas or ICICI points into KrisFlyer, this is the second haircut in under half a year on the same currency, and it came with the usual zero warning.
- 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.
- 1 Nov 2025KrisFlyer devalues premium and Star Alliance awardsOld saver/advantage rates → Biz/First Saver +5%, Advantage +15%, Star Alliance +5–12%
The single most important transfer target for Indian points — HDFC, Axis, Amex and HSBC all feed it — got pricier. Business and First saver awards rise 5% (Zone 10 up to 20%), Advantage awards jump 15%, and Star Alliance redemptions cost 5–12% more. The ₹2/mile sweet spots just got harder to reach.
- 1 Jul 2025RBL gates domestic lounges behind ₹35k a quarterComplimentary domestic lounge visits on World Safari, Icon and Platinum Maxima with no spend condition; add-on cards included → ₹35,000 of prior-quarter retail spend unlocks the next quarter's visits; add-on cardholders excluded; nothing in the issuance quarter
RBL joined the spend-gate club: from 1 July 2025, World Safari and Icon holders must put ₹35,000 of retail spend through the card each quarter to keep the next quarter's domestic lounge visits. Add-on cardholders lose access outright, and new cardholders wait out their first quarter at the food court. For World Safari — a card people carry precisely for airports — the free-with-the-fee era is over.
- 25 Mar 2025IndusInd 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.
- 1 Dec 2024HSBC TravelOne arrives — a 20-partner airmiles cardNo 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.)
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 RBL Bank launch press release (17 Nov 2025) — Visa Infinite metal, ₹12,500 fee, 6% travel-portal value back, 10% dining, golf checked 21 Jul 2026
- official Official product page — ₹12,500 fee, ₹12,500 welcome gift card, ₹10k/quarter milestone at ₹3L, 2:1 transfers to Maharaja/KrisFlyer/AirAsia/Qatar Avios checked 21 Jul 2026
- community CardInsider — 4 RP/₹200 base, 12 RP/₹200 travel, 1 RP = up to ₹1, 4 transfer partners at 2:1, 12+12 lounges, 2% forex checked 21 Jul 2026
- official Air India Maharaja Club — RBL Reward Points transfer partner page checked 21 Jul 2026
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