Air India SBI Platinum Card
Keep2 Maharaja Points per ₹100 for ₹1,499 — the cheapest direct line into Air India's programme, and SBI stopped selling it.
a year at ₹40,000 a month, after the fee
Skip the arithmetic — the board, ranked → · nothing to sign up for
What it's worth to you, after the fee
Welcome: 5,000 Reward Points on payment of the ₹1,499 fee, credited within 15 days, plus complimentary Air India Maharaja Club membership. Closed to new applications, so this is a museum piece unless you already hold the card.
Priced on the everyday mix — 30% groceries · 10% utilities · 20% travel · 6% fuel · 34% everything else — with this card's published category rules applied: it earns nothing on utilities and fuel here, so that spend is dropped, not paid at the headline, and stops pacing milestones and the waiver. Plus milestones, minus the fee. No accelerator credit — the ranking model on /compare adds ~20% of spend at the card's best accelerator, so its ₹ for this card reads higher.
How these numbers are computed — and why the rankings show a bigger one →
Spend tiers, milestones and fee waivers included, at our house ₹/point. Portal and category multipliers can push higher — run your exact number →
Pays from the first rupee
At ₹1,000 a month — ₹12,000 a year — on the everyday mix this card returns ₹1,800 gross (earn ₹200 + milestones ₹1,600) against its ₹1,499 fee = ₹300 net — at or above ₹0 from the first rung we price. The ladder runs in ₹1,000 steps to ₹1,00,000 a month and ₹10,000 steps to ₹5,00,000; figures are rounded to the hundred, and the accelerator is never credited.
3 notes on the card itself: how it is issued · the network variants · why it ranks #692
Why #692 Parked at the tail for the same reason as the Signature above it: SBI's own live catalogue flags this card isOnline "no" and its page ships no Apply Now button, so nobody can get one. For the holders who already have it, 2 Maharaja Points per ₹100 at ₹1,499 is the cheapest direct line into India's flag carrier that has ever existed — we price it honestly and rank it where a card you cannot buy belongs.
The 1.6% assumes you convert to Air India Maharaja Points — 1 RP = 1 Maharaja Point, our ₹0.80 mark — and that conversion is fenced three ways. You must be enrolled in the Maharaja Club, you must have completed one flight activity with Air India (until then SBI's own FAQ says your membership reads "Prospect" and every conversion request is rejected), and the transfer runs in blocks of 5,000, takes up to 7 working days, and cannot be undone. Skip it and the points sit in SBI's catalogue, where the same balance is worth a fraction of the airline number. The good figure on this card is a decision, not a default.
The take
The Signature's ₹4,999 buys 4 points per ₹100; this one buys 2 for ₹1,499, and that is the better arithmetic for most people who ever held it. At our ₹0.80 Maharaja mark it is a 1.6% everyday card and 4% on Air India tickets bought direct — Super Saver fares included, for yourself or anyone else — and every point walks across to Maharaja Points 1:1 with no ratio haircut. Then there is the part that decides it: a 2,000-point anniversary gift every year with no spend condition attached, worth ₹1,600 against a ₹1,499 fee. The card pays for itself before you swipe it. Add 5,000 welcome points, 5,000 more at ₹2 lakh of annual spend and 10,000 at ₹3 lakh, and a moderate Air India flyer is comfortably ahead. So keep it — and know that you cannot replace it, because SBI's own catalogue flags the card isOnline "no" and has done since the Vistara merger closed. What to watch instead is the fine print, which is unusually punitive. Points you transfer to Air India die 12 months later, on the last day of the twelfth month, and that clock is SBI's, not the airline's. The accelerated 5 points on tickets only post if your Maharaja Club number was recorded at booking. Fuel, rent, government payments and wallet loads earn nothing. Four lounge visits a year sounds fine until you read the list: SBI put this card in Set A, a cut-down roster of sixteen rooms in eight cities, from 10 January 2026. And the ₹1,499 has no spend waiver, ever. A good card, quietly withdrawn, with a short fuse on its own currency.
Your renewal — keep, downgrade or cancel
This card covers its own renewal fee at any spend we model — the question is what else you hold, not whether to keep it.
Keep, downgrade or cancel
₹1,499/yr at stake · 5 spend bands
The charge ₹1,499/yr
Break-even It clears its own fee at every spend we model, from ₹1,000 a month up. The question here is whether you use it, not whether it pays.
At your spend
₹8,100 a year, net of the fee, at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend
₹20,200 a year, net of the fee, at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend
₹28,200 a year, net of the fee, at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend
₹60,500 a year, net of the fee, at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend
₹92,700 a year, net of the fee, at ₹60,00,000 of annual spend
Everyday earn plus milestones, minus the fee — the same model as the value panel above, so the two cannot disagree. run your exact spend →
Your copy of this card
You hold this card.
Kept on this device, in your browser. It is never sent to us, never synced, and nothing else on the site reads it yet.
The downgrade
SBI Card publishes no document naming a card you can step down to, so we name none — an invented product change is a phone call you would waste. That leaves keep or cancel, and the numbers above are the whole of it.
What has changed under this card
- 23 Sep 2026 Axis EDGE brings Accor back, drops ITC, and adds Cathay, Miles & More and Hilton a program these points reach
- 25 Aug 2026 Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles opens a broad SkyTeam status match — up to Elite Plus a program these points reach
- 20 Aug 2026 IHG Hotels & Resorts becomes a Maharaja Club earning and conversion partner a program these points reach
We price what is in force today — a change that has not happened yet is not in these numbers. the full archive for this card →
If you call to cancel
What the bank offers to keep you is the one fact this desk cannot compute. We are collecting those reports — dated, and only in aggregate — before publishing any: an offer one reader was made is not one you are owed. Called about this card? Tell us what they offered →
The desk publishes subscribable .ics feeds for the dates it knows — offer deadlines, devaluations, expiry audits. Your renewal date is not one of them: only your statement knows it.
What's good
- 2 Reward Points per ₹100 on everything — 1.6% at our ₹0.80 Maharaja mark, for a ₹1,499 fee
- 5 RP/₹100 on Air India tickets booked direct (self or others, Super Saver included) ≈ 4%
- 1 Reward Point = 1 Air India Maharaja Point — a straight 1:1, no transfer haircut
- 2,000 Reward Points every anniversary with no spend condition — ₹1,600 against a ₹1,499 fee
- 5,000 bonus RP at ₹2 lakh of annual spend and 10,000 more at ₹3 lakh, up to 15,000 a year
- Complimentary Air India Maharaja Club membership, with the membership number embossed on the card
- 4 complimentary domestic lounge visits a year, maximum 1 per quarter
Watch out
- Closed to new applications — SBI's live card catalogue flags it isOnline "no" and the page ships no Apply Now button; existing holders only
- ₹1,499 every year with no spend-based waiver — SBI's MITC prints a reversal clause for its BPCL and Tata Neu cards and none for this one
- Points transferred from SBI Card to Air India are valid 12 months only and lapse on the last day of the 12th month — SBI's own conversion FAQ
- You cannot convert at all until you have completed one flight activity with Air India — until then Maharaja Club reads "Prospect" and every request is rejected
- The 5 RP/₹100 on Air India tickets only posts if your Maharaja Club number was recorded at the time of booking
- RP→Maharaja conversion is irreversible, minimum 5,000 points in multiples of 5,000, up to 7 working days
- Lounge access is SBI's cut-down Set A list from 10 Jan 2026 — 16 lounges in 8 cities, not the full Visa network
- Fuel (MCC 5172/5541/5542/5983), rent (6513), government (9399/9311) and wallet loads (6540/6541) earn zero points
- 3.5% forex markup — SBI's schedule of charges exempts only AURUM, ELITE, Prime NRI Secured, Tata Neu Infinity and the MILES tiers
- Merging two Maharaja Club accounts costs 2,222 Maharaja Points, debited from the surviving account
What these points actually fly
No live transfer route takes Air India Maharaja Points into a programme that publishes an award chart. These points buy catalogue and portal redemptions, not award seats — so this page has no flight to show you, and will not invent one.
what the cards that DO reach a chart can fly — 2,196 corridors priced →
What earns, what doesn't
5 sourced rules · 4 pay zero
Base 2 Reward Points per ₹100, explicitly "for Domestic as well international transactions" (T&C §11.4a) — there is no international accelerator and no international penalty, just the 3.5% markup on top. 5 Reward Points per ₹100 on Air India tickets bought through Air India's own website, mobile app, booking offices or call centres, Super Saver fares for self and others included, w.e.f. 31 Mar 2025. The exclusion rows below are the T&C's own MCC list, and the rent and government exclusions are named for the PLATINUM specifically. Visa card, so no UPI linkage.
- Fuel · excluded Zero points — MCC 5172, 5541, 5542, 5983 in the T&C's exclusion list; the 1% fuel-surcharge waiver on ₹500–₹4,000 transactions (max ₹250 per statement cycle) is all you get
- Rent & property management · excluded Zero points — MCC 6513, discontinued for this card w.e.f. 15 Apr 2024
- Wallet loads · excluded Zero points — e-wallet loading under MCC 6540 and 6541 since 1 Jul 2020
- Government / tax · excluded Zero points — MCC 9399 and 9311, discontinued for this card w.e.f. 15 Jul 2024
Does your spend count toward the milestones?
not published — and we say which
A different question from the one above — earning points and counting toward a threshold are separate rules, and issuers write them separately.
Not published. SBI Card states what the Air India SBI Platinum Card earns and does not earn, but has not published which spend categories count toward the milestones . We won't guess it from the earn table or from a sibling card: Axis published three cards' rules on one day and all three lists differed. If you hold this card and have it in writing from the issuer, send us the document and we'll source it.
Lounge access
16 of 793 tracked doors
Gate: No spend gate — but the Set A roster is the gate that matters: from 10 Jan 2026 this card opens 16 doors, not the whole Visa network
Opens 16 of 793 tracked lounge doors across 8 airports — see the full map →
Can you get it?
the route in — no cutoffs published
The cutoffs and the actual route in — not the "apply now" button, the door that opens.
Closed to new applications — existing cardholders keep the card; there is no way in.
There is no way in. SBI's live card catalogue carries the Air India Platinum (productType AIPD) with isOnline "no", and its product record ships a "SEE BENEFITS" button where every open SBI card on the same template ships "APPLY NOW" — the same machine-readable shape that closed the Signature tier. Both Air India co-brands stopped sourcing in late 2024 as the Air India–Vistara merger closed, and India has not been given a replacement Maharaja Club co-brand since. If you want to feed Maharaja Points today, do it through a transferable currency instead.
SBI Card publishes no income or age cutoffs for this card. Blank means blank — we don't invent numbers to fill a grid.
per the official SBI Card MITC — figures marked (community) aren't in the PDF; the issuer won't say · filter the board by what you can get →
The fine print
7 of 7 MITC rows published
What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.
Fee ₹1,499 + taxes as both the annual charge at issuance and the renewal charge, with NO spend-based reversal — SBI's MITC fee table prints a bare "1,499 / 1,499" for this card while the BPCL OCTANE, Tata Neu Infinity, Tata Neu Plus, SimplyCLICK and Flipkart rows on the same pages all carry an explicit "(Waived off on annual spends of …)" parenthetical. Earn 2 Reward Points per ₹100 on domestic and international spend alike, and 5 per ₹100 on Air India tickets bought through Air India's website, mobile app, booking offices or call centres on the primary or add-on card, Super Saver fares for self and others included — the accelerated rate was cut from 15 to 5 w.e.f. 31 Mar 2025. 1 Reward Point converts to 1 Air India Maharaja Point, minimum 5,000 in multiples of 5,000, within 7 working days, and the conversion cannot be reversed. Points transferred to Air India are then valid for 12 months only and lapse on the last date of the 12th month. Conversion is blocked outright until the holder completes one flight activity with Air India after Maharaja Club enrolment, and the accelerated ticket points only post if the Maharaja Club number was recorded at booking. Zero points on fuel (MCC 5172, 5541, 5542, 5983), rent (6513, from 15 Apr 2024), government payments (9399, 9311, from 15 Jul 2024), e-wallet loads (6540, 6541), cash advances, balance transfers, Flexipay and merchant EMI. Milestone years run 12 months from the account creation date. Lounge access is SBI's Set A roster from 10 Jan 2026 — 4 domestic visits a year, max 1 a quarter, across 16 rooms. Fuel-surcharge waiver 1% on ₹500–₹4,000 transactions, max ₹250 per statement cycle. Lost-card liability cover ₹1 lakh. Closed to new applications: SBI's live catalogue flags the card isOnline "no".
per the official SBI Card MITC · reviewed 10 Jul 2026
What's changed for this card
8 dated changes
Devaluations and buffs that touch this card directly, its issuer, or the points and programs it earns and transfers to. Every one is dated here; the tracker carries each one's before → after and the write-up.
- 23 Sept 2026Axis EDGE brings Accor back, drops ITC, and adds Cathay, Miles & More and HiltonAccor and Marriott off the grid since 2 April 2026; Club ITC live; no Cathay, Miles & More or Hilton → Accor live at the punished rates; ITC removed; Cathay, Hilton and Miles & More live; Marriott still gone
Axis's own Travel EDGE terms, re-read 25 September 2026, already show the grid that went live on 23 September. Accor ALL is back, and not at the old Atlas 1:2: EDGE Miles convert at 2:1 (Olympus 1:2) and EDGE Rewards at 5:1, with Magnus for Burgundy at 5:2 and only Burgundy Private still at 5:4. Club ITC is off the table. Three partners are new. Cathay Asia Miles sits on that same punished grid. Hilton Honors is the ordinary one: EDGE Miles 1:2, EDGE Rewards 5:2, Burgundy 5:4. Lufthansa Miles & More is the exception on Atlas, which converts 1:1 there while every other standard airline on that card is 1:2; the EDGE Rewards side of Miles & More is the ordinary 5:2. Marriott stays removed. Qatar Privilege Club was already back. Flying Blue, Air India and Qantas moved into Group A, which is the capped group. The Axis Rewards credit card's Amex network is advertised as joining-fee and annual-fee nil for a limited period; there is no separate Amex variant on this board, so that offer is not modelled as a fee change.
- 25 Aug 2026Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles opens a broad SkyTeam status match — up to Elite Plus
- 20 Aug 2026IHG Hotels & Resorts becomes a Maharaja Club earning and conversion partner
- 6 Aug 2026MaxCoins' full transfer catalogue surfaces — Accor at 2:1 re-prices the coin to ₹1.08
- 3 Aug 2026SBI drops Etihad Guest from the MILES transfer table — the last SBI door into the programme
- 2 Aug 2026Flipkart SuperCoins into Maharaja Club improve to 2:1
- 26 Jul 2026Air India's quiet network retreat: Tokyo moves, Paris and San Francisco go, Malé pauses
- 1 Jul 2026PhonePe SBI SELECT BLACK stops paying on UPI outside PhonePe
Every SBI Card change we've dated → 19 events since 1998, 13 of them nerfs — worst year 2025.
Verified against SBI Card's own documents on · the net-annual-value engine, at our house ₹/point
Every document behind this page — 7 of them, each with the day we read it
- official SBI's own product record — ₹1,499 annual and renewal, 2 Reward Points per ₹100, 5 per ₹100 on Air India tickets, a 2,000-point anniversary gift, 4 domestic lounge visits, and isOnline "no"
- official The card's own Terms & Conditions — 2 Reward Points per ₹100 on the Platinum against 4 on the Signature, the 5 RP/₹100 Air India accelerator effective 31 Mar 2025, and the MCC exclusion list
- official SBI's Reward Point conversion FAQ — a minimum of 5,000 points in multiples of 5,000, 7 working days, irreversible, and blocked entirely until your first Air India flight activity
- official SBI's Maharaja Club enrolment FAQ — one flight accrual to redeem for yourself, five for family or friends, and the accelerated ticket points need the membership number recorded at booking
- official SBI's MITC — Air India SBI Platinum Card ₹1,499 annual and ₹1,499 renewal with no spend reversal, and a 3.5% foreign-currency transaction fee
- official Airport Lounge Access — the Air India SBI Platinum Card is in Set A, the cut-down 16-lounge domestic list effective 10 January 2026
- official SBI's live card catalogue — the Air India Platinum row reads isOnline "no", the only status shared with the Signature tier among SBI's travel cards