KrisFlyer SBI Card
KeepIndia's only direct line into KrisFlyer — 1.1% on your life, 2.75% in the air, and miles worth ₹2+ in a Saver Business seat.
What it's worth to you — net annual value
Welcome: 3,000 KrisFlyer miles on joining-fee payment; complimentary KrisFlyer Elite Silver status on ₹2.5L annual spend
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
This is the single card in India that earns Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles straight to your frequent-flyer account — no transfer step, no ratio haircut. That matters because KrisFlyer is the points geek's favourite premium-cabin target: a Saver Business seat to Singapore or Europe routinely returns north of ₹2 a mile, more than double what these miles cost you to earn. The catch is the earn rate itself. General spend pays a thin 1 mile per ₹100 (about 1.1% at our ₹1.10 mark), with Singapore Airlines, Scoot and international spends lifting to 2.5 (roughly 2.75%); fuel, rent, utilities, government and wallet loads earn nothing at all. A ₹2,999 fee with no spend waiver, a 3.5% forex markup and a hard three-year expiry on the miles mean this is emphatically not an everyday earner. Carry it if you fly SQ and want to feed a real premium-cabin habit; pair it with a card that actually earns and let this one collect the welcome, the milestone miles and the Elite Silver runway. For anyone who doesn't fly Singapore Airlines, there is nothing here.
What's good
- The only Indian card that earns KrisFlyer miles directly — no transfer, no ratio cut
- 3,000 welcome miles + 3,000 more at ₹3L annual spend
- Complimentary KrisFlyer Elite Silver on ₹2.5L spend — lounge, priority and bonus-mile perks
- 2.5 miles/₹100 on Singapore Airlines, Scoot & international spends
- 4 domestic (1/quarter) + 4 international lounge visits via complimentary Priority Pass
Watch out
- General earn is 1 mile/₹100 (≈1.1%) — everyday spend belongs on another card
- ₹2,999 fee has no spend-based waiver; 3.5% forex markup
- KrisFlyer miles expire a hard 3 years from accrual — no activity extension
- Fuel, rent, utilities, government and wallet loads earn nothing
- ₹99 + GST redemption fee per request
What earns, what doesn't
Base 1 KrisFlyer mile/₹100 (2 miles/₹200); Singapore Airlines Group & international spends 2.5/₹100 (5/₹200). SBI's published exclusion set — fuel, rent, utility, government and wallet loads earn zero. Visa card, so no UPI.
- Fuel · excluded Zero miles — in SBI's published exclusion list
- Rent & property management · excluded Zero miles — in SBI's published exclusion list
- Wallet loads · excluded Zero miles — wallet loads in SBI's exclusion list
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · excluded Zero miles — in SBI's published exclusion list
per SBI Card T&C (community-sourced) · rank every card by spend category →
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.
Openly available to apply on SBI Card's site (the product page runs a live 'Apply Now' flow). SBI publishes no separate KrisFlyer-specific income floor beyond its standard travel-card underwriting; the ₹2,999 fee has no spend waiver, so only the welcome and milestone miles offset it.
per the official SBI Card 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 Signature. Fee ₹2,999 + GST, no spend waiver. Forex 3.5%+GST. Miles accrue directly to KrisFlyer (hard 3-year expiry). Earn: 2 miles/₹200 general, 5/₹200 on Singapore Airlines Group & international; fuel/rent/utility/government/wallet excluded. APR, late-fee slabs and cash-advance follow SBI Card's standard MITC — not separately machine-verified for this co-brand; verify before quoting.
per the official SBI Card MITC (community-sourced) · 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.
- 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 Nov 2025SBI adds 1% on third-party education and wallet loadsNo fee on education / wallet loads → 1% fee via third-party apps
Pay tuition straight to the college and you're fine; route it through CRED/Paytm and SBI now clips 1%. Wallet loads get the same treatment. Another door on manufactured spend quietly shut.
- 15 Jul 2025SBI Card pulls free air accident insurance from its top cards₹50L–₹1Cr complimentary air accident cover on top cards → Cover discontinued entirely, no replacement offered
SBI Card Elite, Miles Elite, Miles Prime, Prime and Pulse all lost their complimentary air accident insurance on 15 July 2025 — cover that ran as high as ₹1 crore on the top-end cards. No like-for-like replacement was offered; it's a straight benefit removal that quietly thins out what used to be a genuine differentiator for SBI's premium travel lineup versus HDFC and Axis.
- 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.)
- 15 Apr 2024SBI Card kills reward points on rentRent earned reward points → MCC 6513 excluded — zero points
After 15 April 2024 no SBI card earns on rent, from SimplySAVE to Aurum. The rent-MCC exclusion is now industry standard; SBI just made it explicit and total.
- 1 Jul 2023SBI kills reward points on rent across its co-brand cardsRent payments earned normal Reward Points → Rent payments earn zero Reward Points
Effective July 1, 2023, SBI Card cut off reward-point accrual on rent payments across a wide swath of its co-branded lineup — Aditya Birla, Apollo, BPCL, the metro cards, Fabindia, IRCTC and Ola Money SBI Cards all lost the category in one stroke. Rent-via-credit-card had been one of the last easy manufactured-spend levers on SBI's ecosystem; this closed it a full nine months before rivals followed with their own rent crackdowns.
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 Official SBI product page — KrisFlyer SBI Card, ₹2,999 fee, 3,000 welcome miles, KrisFlyer Elite Silver, Priority Pass lounge access (JS-rendered) checked 21 Jul 2026
- community CardInsider — ₹2,999 fee, 5 miles/₹200 on SIA & international / 2 miles/₹200 general, 3,000 welcome, ₹2.5L Elite Silver + ₹3L 3,000 miles milestones, 4 domestic + 4 international lounges, 3.5% forex, ₹99 redemption fee checked 21 Jul 2026
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