ICICI Bank launches invite-only Emeralde Private Metal card
ICICI launched the invite-only Emeralde Private Metal with 3% uncapped value-back, unlimited lounge and golf access, and a bundled Taj Epicure membership. It is ICICI's first real contender in India's super-premium travel-card fight.
ICICI has finally built a card that can sit at the same table as the Infinia and the Magnus. The new Emeralde Private Metal is invite-only, actually metal, and leads with the number that matters: 3% uncapped value-back.
The rest of the package is a straight super-premium checklist — unlimited lounge access, unlimited golf, and a Taj Epicure membership thrown in for good measure. Until today, “super-premium ICICI travel card” wasn’t a real category; the 2019 Emeralde wedged above Sapphiro but never seriously threatened HDFC’s top end. This one is aimed squarely at it.
The invite-only gate is doing double duty: it manufactures scarcity, and it keeps the 3% economics from being arbitraged by every points optimizer in the country on day one.
Our take: 3% uncapped is Infinia-class earning, and India’s super-premium tier just went from a two-horse race to a genuine fight. If ICICI already knows your salary account well enough to invite you, take the call — a third credible player at the top means everyone’s cards have to try harder.