travelwith.cc
RSS

The devaluation & revaluation tracker

Every nerf and buff, dated.

A running record of Indian travel-rewards changes — every devaluation, fee, lounge cut and partner move, plus the occasional genuine improvement. What changed, when, and how badly. Sorted newest first.

Announced effective-dates land where you'll see them — subscribe to these dates as a calendar →

Spot an error? Report it →

249 events since 1961 · severity: major moderate minor

2026 31 events

10 Jul 2026
Partner moderate IndiGo

BluChip ↔ Accor ALL ratios surface — 6:1 in, 3:2 out, live 13 July

Corridor 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%.

read the story →
5 Jul 2026
Devaluation moderate Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott quietly reprices awards up 2–16% overnight

Weekend-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Over the first weekend of July 2026 Marriott pushed through another no-notice, unpublished-chart devaluation — spotted first on Chinese frequent-flyer forums, then confirmed across the points blogs.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.

read the story →
1 Jul 2026
Devaluation moderate HDFC Bank

HDFC caps SmartBuy brand-voucher rewards

Voucher earn inside the full SmartBuy cap → Max 3,000 accelerated points/month on vouchers

The easiest SmartBuy value — gift-voucher stacking — now tops out at 3,000 accelerated points a month. Hotels and flights still earn, but the voucher arbitrage that padded Infinia and Diners Black returns is capped.

read the story →
1 Jul 2026
Lounge minor HDFC Bank

Regalia Gold's domestic lounge access goes spend-gated

Domestic lounge visits complimentary, no spend condition → 3 domestic visits/quarter require ₹60,000 of prior-quarter spend

From 1 July 2026 HDFC bolts a ₹60,000 prior-quarter spend gate onto Regalia Gold's domestic lounge access — three visits a quarter, and only if you spent enough the quarter before. The 6 Priority Pass international visits a year stay untouched. It lands weeks after the mid-May earn cut, so the card keeps shedding small pieces of value at every review.

read the story →
1 Jul 2026
Lounge minor HDFC Bank

Diners Club Privilege ties its lounge vouchers to prior-quarter spend

Quarterly lounge vouchers, no ₹60,000 spend gate → 3 vouchers/quarter (2 domestic + 1 international) need ₹60,000 of prior-quarter spend

From 1 July 2026 the ₹1,000 Diners Club Privilege only hands over its quarterly lounge vouchers — two domestic, one international — if you spent ₹60,000 the previous calendar quarter, and the vouchers are usable only in the following quarter. It's the same spend-gate HDFC applied to Regalia Gold the same day; the airport doors now open for the bank's steadier spenders, not every cardholder.

read the story →
1 Jul 2026
Devaluation moderate HSBC

HSBC TravelOne guts its welcome offer for new applicants

₹10,000 spend unlocked welcome perks + 3,000 RP at ₹1L → ₹25,000 spend needed; 3,000 RP milestone scrapped

New TravelOne applicants from 1 July 2026 need 2.5x the spend just to see the same cashback, PostCard voucher and EazyDiner Prime — and the 3,000-point bonus for hitting ₹1L in 90 days is gone entirely. Existing cardholders are untouched, but the card that undercut HDFC and Axis on entry-level accessibility just got a lot less generous to acquire. HSBC quietly listed the change on its own T&C page with no press release.

read the story →
30 Jun 2026
Partner major American Express

Amex India cuts Etihad Guest as an MR transfer partner

MR 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.

read the story →
18 Jun 2026
Devaluation moderate IDFC FIRST Bank

Mayura's app-travel multipliers cut to 40X hotels, 25X flights

60 RP/₹150 on app hotels, 40 RP/₹150 on flights (Jun-2025 boost) → 40 RP/₹150 hotels, 25 RP/₹150 flights; movie BOGO needs ₹20k/month; rewards capped at credit limit

The Jun-2025 boost is rolled back: IDFC's 18-Jun-2026 notice re-states the app bonus as '20%/10% Bonus Reward Points' — 30 and 15 bonus RP per ₹150 — dropping hotel bookings from a 20% effective return to 13.3% and flights from 13.3% to 8.3% at the ₹0.50 travel value. The same notice gates the BOGO movie perk on ₹20,000 of previous-month spend and stops rewards on spends beyond your credit limit. The 0% forex and 5X/10X base survive untouched.

read the story →
18 Jun 2026
Partner moderate Axis Bank

Axis adds IndiGo BluChip to the EDGE transfer roster

No IndiGo route from EDGE Miles or Reward Points → Group B: Miles 2:1, points 5:1 (intro 2x better till 17 Aug)

Two months after gutting the partner list, Axis adds one back: IndiGo BluChip, at the new-partner ratios (1:2 intro on Miles until 17 August 2026, then 2:1; points 5:2 intro, then 5:1). Lifetime-valid BluChips on India's biggest airline is genuinely useful — at the intro ratio. After that, do the maths before you move anything.

read the story →
18 Jun 2026
Devaluation moderate IDFC FIRST Bank

Ashva's app-travel multipliers cut to 40X hotels, 25X flights

60 RP/₹150 on app hotels, 40 RP/₹150 on flights (Jun-2025 'up to 50X Bonus' boost) → 40 RP/₹150 hotels, 25 RP/₹150 flights; movie BOGO needs ₹20k/month; rewards capped at credit limit

Ashva rides the same 18-Jun-2026 notice that hit its sibling Mayura: IDFC re-states the mobile-app Travel & Shop bonus as '20% Bonus Reward Points on hotels, 10% on flights' over the base earn — landing at 40 and 25 total RP per ₹150, down from the Jun-2025 boost's 60/40. At Ashva's ₹0.40 app-travel value that drops app hotels from ~16% to ~10.7% and flights from ~10.7% to ~6.7%. The same notice stops rewards on spends beyond the credit limit and gates the Buy-One-Get-One movie perk on ₹20,000 of previous-month spend. The 1% forex and 5X/10X base survive; the 15,000 bonus-RP/month cap is unchanged.

read the story →
15 Jun 2026
Fee moderate YES Bank

YES's ₹100 redemption fee reaches Marquee and Reserv

Marquee and Reserv exempt from the ₹100-per-redemption fee; card reissuance ₹100–₹200 by variant → ₹100 fee on every redemption request, premium cards included, plus a ₹99 booking fee on YES Rewardz flights; reissuance ₹199; fuel-surcharge waiver window revised

The exemption that let Marquee and Reserv holders pretend the ₹100 redemption fee was someone else's problem is gone. From 15 June 2026 every YES card pays ₹100 per redemption request, and booking a flight through YES Rewardz — the only place the points are worth their ₹0.25 — stacks a ₹99 booking fee on top. On a card whose whole pitch is settling 4.5% online earnings in portal travel, YES now charges you twice at the exit.

read the story →
1 Jun 2026
Partner moderate Air India

AU, YES and IndusInd points open transfers to Maharaja Club

AU/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.

read the story →
15 May 2026
Devaluation major HDFC Bank

Regalia Gold's earn rate quietly drops 6% under a new denominator

4 RP per ₹150 spent (~1.73% effective rate) → 5 RP per ₹200 spent (~1.625% effective rate)

HDFC didn't touch the headline '4 points per 150 rupees' framing that sells the card — it just moved the goalposts to '5 points per 200 rupees,' which sounds like more but pays out roughly 6% less per rupee spent. Add a new ₹199 reissuance fee and a bumped 1.75% DCC markup, and Regalia Gold's case as a starter travel card gets noticeably weaker. This is the same denominator trick HDFC has now run across its Diners/Marriott stable — check your statement, not the marketing page.

read the story →
15 May 2026
Buff minor HDFC Bank

Regalia Gold gets a new quarterly 'Boarding Edge' travel perk

No boarding-pass-linked travel perks → Upload a boarding pass, pick 2 of 4 quarterly perks

Alongside the earn-rate cut, HDFC bolted on Boarding Edge: upload any airline boarding pass to SmartBuy and pick two of spa access, an airport buffet, a hotel room upgrade or an airport transfer, once per quarter. It's a genuinely useful lifestyle perk for people who actually fly, but it's also cover — a shiny distraction bundled with a rate cut on the same effective date, so don't let it offset your read of the devaluation above.

read the story →
6 May 2026
Launch minor AU Small Finance Bank

AU relaunches its card range — Ananta tops a new four-card deck

AU's lineup led by Zenith+/Zenith/Vetta → Ananta (₹2,000), Lakshya, Tejas and Prathama join; Ananta gets 16 lounge visits and 50k milestone points

AU's 6-May-2026 portfolio reset puts Ananta on top: ₹2,000 fee, 16 domestic lounge visits a year, an 8,000-point welcome and up to 50,000 milestone points at ₹10L. The brochure is generous; the currency isn't — AU points still redeem at ₹0.25 in a closed catalogue, so the 5X headline is 1.25% and the lounge visits hide behind an AU Rewardz flight-booking gate.

read the story →
5 May 2026
Buff moderate BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda)

Eterna's lifetime-free window rolls forward yet again

₹2,499 joining + ₹2,499 annual fee (LTF offer due to lapse) → Zero joining and annual fees for new applicants, extended to 30 Jun 2026 — since pushed to 31 Jul

BOBCARD keeps extending the deadline on its best acquisition offer: Eterna — 3.75% statement-credit value on online spends and unlimited domestic lounges — stays lifetime-free for new applicants. The offer opened in early 2026 with a 31-March fuse and has been rolled forward twice; every extension is a louder hint that the ₹2,499 fee isn't coming back soon. Sign before the music stops.

read the story →
10 Apr 2026
Lounge minor AU Small Finance Bank

AU more than doubles its domestic-lounge spend gate to ₹50,000/quarter

Complimentary domestic lounge visits gated at ₹20,000 prior-quarter spend → ₹50,000 prior-quarter spend required (bank-wide: Zenith, Vetta, Xcite Ace/Ultra, SPONT, NOMO, ABCL Pro)

AU's 10 April 2026 'Revision of Usage Terms & Conditions' lifts the prior-quarter spend needed to keep complimentary domestic airport-lounge access from ₹20,000 to ₹50,000 a quarter, across the Zenith, Vetta and Xcite range. The visit allotments are unchanged (Zenith 2 domestic + 2 Priority Pass international per quarter, Vetta 1+1), but the bar to earn them more than doubles — the kind of quiet, spend-gated clawback that keeps a closed-loop points card drifting toward downgrade territory.

read the story →
2 Apr 2026
Partner major Axis Bank

Axis purges Marriott, Accor and Qatar from its transfer list overnight

Marriott, 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.

read the story →
1 Apr 2026
Buff moderate Air India

Maharaja Club gets cheaper awards and faster crediting

Higher 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.

read the story →
1 Apr 2026
Fee moderate BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda)

BOBCARD reprices rail, toll and app-routed education

No processing fee on railway/toll/bus bookings; telecom (MCC 4814) earned zero points → 1% fee on railway bookings ≥₹30k, all toll & bus ≥₹5k, and education via Cred/Paytm/PhonePe-type apps; telecom now earns core points

BOBCARD's April-2026 notice gives with one hand and clips with the other. Telecom spends finally earn core points (3 RP/₹100 on Eterna), but big-ticket rail bookings, every toll and bus charge over ₹5,000, and tuition routed through third-party apps now carry a 1% fee — and the notice restates the long zero-earn MCC list, from supermarkets to hospitals. One, Uni and the Scapia co-brand are explicitly exempt.

read the story →
1 Apr 2026
Devaluation major HDFC Bank

HDFC adds an ₹18L/year retention rule to keep the Infinia

No annual spend required to retain the card (only ₹10L to waive the fee) → ₹18L/FY spend (EMI excluded) OR ₹50L HDFC relationship value, else downgrade/closure

From 1 April 2026, holding onto an Infinia takes real spend: ₹18 lakh a year (EMI transactions excluded) or a ₹50 lakh relationship with HDFC, or the bank can downgrade or close the card in 2027. This is separate from — and steeper than — the ₹10L fee-waiver bar, and it quietly reprices who the card is actually for. The earn rate didn't move; the cost of keeping the metal did.

read the story →
1 Apr 2026
Devaluation major Axis Bank

Axis closes the Atlas to new applicants

Open to new applications → Closed to new applicants — existing cardholders unaffected

Confirmed in early 2026: Axis has stopped issuing its flagship mid-tier travel card to new applicants. First flagged by a September-2025 rumour of internal distributor communication (a '1 September' cutoff), it became real with no press release — the Atlas simply left the application pipeline, and Axis customer care later confirmed the closure. Existing holders keep the card, their EDGE Miles balance, and lounge access; nothing changes for them. But a bank that stops issuing a card rarely invests in it afterwards. There is no confirmed replacement at the Atlas price point.

read the story →
28 Mar 2026
Devaluation moderate Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

KrisFlyer quietly cuts its own dynamic 'Access' award rates

Access 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.

read the story →
9 Mar 2026
Devaluation major American Express

Amex Platinum Travel pushes its Taj voucher milestone to ₹7L

22,500 MR + ₹10,000 Taj voucher at ₹4L annual spend → Same reward requires ₹7L annual spend

The milestone ladder gets a third rung — 7,500 MR at ₹1.9L, +10,000 MR at ₹4L, +22,500 MR and the ₹10,000 Taj voucher only at ₹7L — meaning the flagship Taj perk now needs 75% more spend than before. Amex softened the blow by making milestone credits automatic instead of a manual claim, and anyone who cleared ₹4L before 9 March 2026 keeps the old terms. But for anyone starting fresh, this is a straightforward devaluation of the card's single best-known redemption.

read the story →
27 Feb 2026
Devaluation moderate Federal Bank / Scapia

Scapia doubles the lounge bar and kills its easiest earn

Unlimited domestic lounges at ₹10k prior-month spend; insurance and utility payments earned coins and counted → Lounge gate doubled to ₹20k/month; insurance, utility, rent and fuel earn nothing and don't count toward the gate

Scapia's first real devaluation lands on both sides of the same trade: the unlimited-lounge threshold doubles to ₹20,000 a month just as the insurance and utility spends that most easily cleared it stop earning or counting at all. The card is still lifetime-free with 0% forex — but the era of paying your electricity bill for a lounge pass is over.

read the story →
1 Feb 2026
Partner minor American Express

Amex retires Gyftr, moves Reward Multiplier to ShopWise

Gyftr e-voucher portal → ShopWise e-voucher portal

The 5X–10X voucher engine that makes Indian Amex MR worth holding switches platforms from Gyftr to ShopWise. Same 200+ brands, same mechanics — but bookmark the new portal before you chase a milestone.

read the story →
1 Feb 2026
Devaluation minor ICICI Bank

ICICI gates its BookMyShow movie perk behind quarterly spend

Complimentary BookMyShow ticket offer, no spend condition → Needs ₹25,000 spend in the preceding quarter

ICICI didn't kill the BookMyShow benefit outright — Instant Platinum loses it entirely from 1 February 2026, while other cards keep it only if you've spent ₹25,000 in the prior quarter. It's a small perk on paper, but it's part of the same February devaluation wave that also killed several reward categories, and it signals ICICI is done handing out 'free' lifestyle perks with no spend attached.

read the story →
15 Jan 2026
Devaluation major ICICI Bank

ICICI caps transport rewards and excludes rent, tax, fuel spends

Emeralde/Sapphiro earned on unlimited transport; 1.99% DCC → Transport rewards capped at ₹20,000/month; DCC to 2%

From 15 January 2026, Emeralde, Emeralde Private, Sapphiro and Rubyx only earn points on the first ₹20,000 of monthly transport spend, and government services, fuel, rent, tax and third-party wallet loads earn nothing at all — categories that used to be reliable point-farming ground. Layer on a DCC fee hike to 2% and a new ₹3,500 add-on card fee, and this is one of the broadest single-day devaluations any Indian issuer has run across its premium metal tier.

read the story →
10 Jan 2026
Lounge moderate SBI Card

SBI Card splits domestic lounges into tiers, adds entry fees

Uniform 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.

read the story →
6 Jan 2026
Launch moderate IDFC FIRST Bank

IDFC FIRST launches zero-forex Diamond Reserve card

No 0%-forex travel card at the ₹3,000 fee tier → Diamond Reserve: 0% forex, 4 lounge visits/quarter

IDFC FIRST's Diamond Reserve, launched 6 January 2026 at ₹3,000+GST, undercuts the premium travel-card field with genuinely 0% forex markup, 60 RP per ₹150 on app hotel bookings and 40 RP per ₹150 on flights (both worth ₹0.25/point), plus 2 domestic and 2 international lounge visits every quarter and lifetime-valid points. In a year dominated by devaluations from HDFC, Axis, ICICI and SBI, this is one of the rare cards actually adding value at a mid-premium fee point rather than taking it away.

read the story →
5 Jan 2026
Launch moderate BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda)

BOBCARD and Etihad Guest deal two co-brands — the last pipe in

Etihad Guest earn from Indian card spend dying with the SBI co-brands (closing 31 Mar 2026) → Guest (₹2,500) and Guest Premium (₹5,000): 2 miles/₹100, 0% forex, double welcome miles for sign-ups till 28 Feb

As SBI walked away from Etihad and Axis prepared to drop the transfer route, BOBCARD picked up the whole franchise: two Mastercard co-brands earning Guest miles directly, with the Premium doing 2 miles/₹100, 6 on etihad.com, 0% forex and a milestone ladder to 40,000 miles a year. Launch-window sign-ups before 28 February got doubled welcome miles. For anyone flying AUH out of India, this is now the only game in town.

read the story →

2025 20 events

29 Dec 2025
Launch minor IDFC FIRST Bank

IDFC FIRST unveils Gaj, an invite-only ₹12,500 metal flagship

Private banking metal tier topped out below super-premium → Gaj: launched atop Ashva-Mayura-Gaj trilogy, ₹12,500 fee

Gaj: is invite-only for IDFC FIRST Private Banking clients, carries a ₹12,500+GST joining and annual fee, and offsets it with 12,500 Reward Points (1RP=₹1) redeemable on in-app travel bookings — plus 0% forex and 1:1 earn rate. It's a niche launch that won't matter to most readers, but it signals IDFC FIRST is chasing the HNI segment HDFC Infinia and Axis Reserve have owned for years, right as those two incumbents are busy cutting benefits.

read the story →
1 Nov 2025
Devaluation major Singapore Airlines

KrisFlyer devalues premium and Star Alliance awards

Old 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.

read the story →
1 Nov 2025
Fee minor SBI Card

SBI adds 1% on third-party education and wallet loads

No 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.

read the story →
1 Sept 2025
Buff moderate IHCL (Taj)

Taj InnerCircle–NeuPass expands to Shangri-La, oneworld and more

Largely Taj-only earn and benefits → Reciprocal perks with Shangri-La Circle, MyMillennium, oneworld

India's marquee hotel loyalty programme grows up. Taj InnerCircle–NeuPass adds marketing tie-ups with Shangri-La Circle and MyMillennium and a oneworld partnership, while Copper/Silver tiers earn 4–5 NeuCoins per ₹100. More reasons to keep spend inside the Tata Neu orbit.

read the story →
15 Jul 2025
Devaluation moderate SBI Card

SBI 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.

read the story →
1 Jul 2025
Fee moderate HDFC Bank

HDFC slaps 1% fees on rent, wallet loads and gaming spend

Rent, wallet top-ups and gaming spends were fee-free → 1% fee (cap ₹4,999) on each; no rewards on gaming

From 1 July 2025, HDFC charges 1% (capped at ₹4,999 per transaction) on credit-card rent payments and on wallet loads above ₹10,000/month excluding PayZapp, and adds the same fee plus a total reward-earning ban on skill-gaming spends over ₹10,000. Rent and wallet-load runs were a well-known way to manufacture spend toward milestones on Infinia and Diners Black; this closes that loophole across HDFC's whole portfolio in one move.

read the story →
1 Jul 2025
Devaluation minor HDFC Bank

HDFC swaps daily insurance-reward caps for tighter monthly ones

Daily reward caps on insurance-category spend → Monthly caps: 10,000 pts (Infinia), 5,000 pts (Diners Black)

Effective 1 July 2025, HDFC replaced its daily insurance-spend reward cap with a flat monthly ceiling — 10,000 points for Infinia, 5,000 for Diners Black, Diners Black Metal, H.O.G. Diners Club and BizBlack Metal. Insurance premiums (LIC, health cover renewals) were a favourite low-effort way to hit big point totals; a monthly ceiling closes most of that gap regardless of how the spend is timed across the month.

read the story →
1 Jul 2025
Lounge moderate RBL Bank

RBL gates domestic lounges behind ₹35k a quarter

Complimentary 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.

read the story →
20 Jun 2025
Devaluation moderate Axis Bank

Axis caps the Magnus 35-per-₹200 tier at your credit limit

35 EDGE RP/₹200 uncapped above ₹1.5L/month → Accelerated earn capped at (credit limit + ₹1.5L)/month

The loophole that let heavy spenders recycle payments through Magnus and Burgundy for uncapped 35-points-per-₹200 earn is closed: accelerated earn now stops at your credit limit plus ₹1.5 lakh in a statement month, then drops back to 12/₹200. Reserve's international 2X got the same credit-limit ceiling. Organic heavy spenders barely notice; the manufactured-spend crowd noticed immediately.

read the story →
12 Jun 2025
Devaluation minor American Express

Amex stops earning MR points on fuel

Fuel earned Membership Rewards → No MR on fuel (still counts to milestone)

Fuel spends stop minting Membership Rewards from 12 June 2025. The one saving grace: the spend still ticks toward the monthly milestone, so your ₹20k target isn't harder to hit — you just don't earn on the way there.

read the story →
12 Jun 2025
Devaluation moderate American Express

Amex tightens MRCC's monthly bonus and devalues Gold Collection

1,000 bonus MR/month, no spend trigger; better vouchers → Bonus needs ₹10,000 spend; points expire in 3 years

Same effective date as Amex's fuel-earning cut, but a separate hit: MRCC's monthly 1,000-point bonus now requires ₹10,000 in spend to trigger, and unused MR points on inactive accounts start expiring after three years — a first for a card that used to tout no-expiry points. The Gold Collection redemption menu got worse too, now pricing a ₹6,000 Amazon/Flipkart voucher at 18,000 points and ₹8,000 at 24,000, both worse ratios than before.

read the story →
1 Jun 2025
Devaluation major Kotak Mahindra Bank

Kotak guts Privy League Signature and pulls it from sale

On open sale; ₹0.25/point cash redemption; ungated quarterly lounge visits; 2.49%/month interest → Closed to new applicants; cash redemption cut to ₹0.20 (min 2,000 points); lounge access gated on ₹75k/quarter; earn caps on education, insurance, utility, govt, gaming and wallet; interest 3.5%/month

Four months after the RBI let Kotak issue cards again, it took the knife to Privy League Signature: the cash value of a point falls 20%, the free quarterly lounge visits now demand ₹75,000 of spend a quarter, six spend categories get earn caps, rent earns nothing, and the interest rate jumps from 2.49% to 3.5% a month — all while the card quietly leaves the shelf for new applicants. Existing holders keep a lounge pass; the rewards story is officially over.

read the story →
1 Jun 2025
Fee moderate Kotak Mahindra Bank

Kotak's June-2025 fee wave washes over the premium deck

No transaction fees on utility/fuel/wallet spends; no DCC fee; fuel surcharge waiver on bigger fills → 1% fee on utility >₹75k, fuel >₹50k, wallet & gaming >₹10k per cycle and app-routed education; 2% DCC fee on White Reserve, Privy and Infinite; fuel waiver only on transactions up to ₹7,500

The same 1-June notice that gutted Privy reprices the whole Kotak premium row. Heavy utility, fuel and wallet spends now carry a 1% toll, tuition through Cred or PhonePe gets clipped, paying in rupees abroad costs a fresh 2% DCC fee even on the ₹12,500 White Reserve, and interest rates step up across cards. Kotak's message to spenders is unambiguous: the bank wants your milestones, not your manufactured spend.

read the story →
9 Apr 2025
Partner moderate IndiGo

IndiGo BluChip and Accor ALL agree two-way points conversion

No airline↔hotel points corridor in India → BluChip ↔ ALL two-way conversion agreed; ratios TBA

India's first airline–hotel loyalty pact: IndiGo BluChip and ALL – Accor Live Limitless commit to points sharing, co-branded loyalty and seamless two-way conversion. The conversion is expected to finally go live in July 2026 — and the unpublished ratio decides everything. If BluChip→ALL lands near 2:1, the Axis EDGE Miles intro window (1:2 to BluChip till 17 Aug 2026) quietly resurrects the EDGE→Accor corridor Axis killed on 2 April 2026 — at up to 90% of the old value.

read the story →
1 Apr 2025
Devaluation major American Express

Amex Platinum Travel kills Flipkart redemption, devalues Taj by 20%

Flipkart voucher redemption available; cheaper Taj vouchers → Flipkart gone; Taj vouchers cost ~20% more MR points

From 1 April 2025, Flipkart disappeared entirely as a Platinum Travel Collection redemption option, and Taj vouchers got pricier — a ₹5,000 voucher now costs 12,500 MR points and a ₹10,000 voucher costs 25,000, both roughly 20% worse than before. Amex threw in two new options, The Postcard Hotel and Air India vouchers, but neither matches Flipkart's everyday liquidity — this was the first of two Platinum Travel hits inside 12 months, with the milestone restructure following in March 2026.

read the story →
1 Apr 2025
Lounge moderate YES Bank

YES lounge gate triples to ₹1 lakh on Marquee and Reserv

₹35,000 of quarterly spend unlocked domestic lounge access → ₹1,00,000/quarter for Marquee and Reserv; ₹75,000 for First Preferred/Business; ₹50,000 for Elite+, Select and BYOC

The quarterly spend needed to keep domestic lounge access nearly tripled overnight — ₹35,000 to a flat ₹1 lakh on Marquee and Reserv. That's ₹4 lakh a year of spend just to hold on to a benefit the brochure still lists as complimentary. The unlimited international access survives, but the domestic doors now belong to YES's heaviest spenders only.

read the story →
1 Apr 2025
Devaluation minor YES Bank

Government and ad spends stop earning on 13 YES cards

Government, marketing and advertising transactions earned reward points → Zero points on those categories across Private, Marquee, Reserv, Elite+, Select and eight more; the overlimit facility dies 1 May 2025

Another quiet trim: from 1 April 2025, government, marketing and advertising payments earn nothing on thirteen YES cards, Marquee and Reserv included. A month later the bank switched off the overlimit facility entirely — transactions past your limit now simply decline. Individually small, but it's the fourth exclusion round in eighteen months, and the direction of travel is unmistakable.

read the story →
25 Mar 2025
Fee moderate IndusInd Bank

IndusInd 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.

read the story →
7 Mar 2025
Lounge major IndusInd Bank

Legend loses lounge access entirely

1 complimentary domestic lounge visit per quarter → No complimentary lounge access at all

A year after halving Legend's lounge visits, IndusInd came back and took the rest. From 7 March 2025 the card offers no complimentary lounge access, domestic or otherwise — on a product still marketed with a ₹5,000 joining fee. The lifetime-free Legend crowd shrugs; anyone who paid for this card on the strength of its airport perks got a two-step lesson in how IndusInd sunsets a benefit.

read the story →
12 Feb 2025
Buff moderate Kotak Mahindra Bank

RBI lifts Kotak's ten-month card-issuance ban

New credit-card issuance frozen since 24 Apr 2024 over IT-governance failures → Kotak can onboard digital customers and issue credit cards again

The RBI's April-2024 order had frozen Kotak's card business for ten months — no new cards, no digital onboarding — while the bank fixed the IT plumbing behind repeated outages. The 12-February all-clear reopened the pipeline to White Reserve and the rest of the deck. What followed the reprieve wasn't generosity: within four months Kotak repriced the entire premium row.

read the story →

2024 25 events

20 Dec 2024
Fee moderate Axis Bank

Axis slaps redemption fees on EDGE points and miles

Free EDGE portal redemptions and transfers → ₹99 portal redemption / ₹199 partner transfer

Axis's second cut of 2024. Redeeming EDGE points now costs ₹99, and converting to airline miles costs ₹199 a pop — a tax on the exact behaviour that made Atlas and Magnus worth holding. Finance charges also crept to 3.75%/month.

read the story →
20 Dec 2024
Devaluation moderate Hilton

Hilton quietly hikes award prices at its best hotels

Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos: 120,000 pts/night → Same room: 140,000+ pts/night, no announcement

Hilton dropped published award charts years ago, so devaluations now arrive as silent Friday-night price hikes instead of press releases. This one hit dozens of top properties by 5,000-10,000 points a night, with the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal jumping from 120,000 to 140,000 points overnight. If you're hoarding Hilton points via an HDFC Diners or Amex transfer, redeem before the next stealth reset — Hilton has done this before and will do it again.

read the story →
1 Dec 2024
Launch moderate HSBC

HSBC TravelOne arrives — a 20-partner airmiles card

No 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.)

read the story →
1 Dec 2024
Devaluation moderate YES Bank

YES caps travel redemptions at 70% of the invoice

Flights and hotels on YES Rewardz bookable fully with points → Points cover at most 70% of any booking; monthly redemption caps of 3 lakh (Marquee), 2 lakh (Reserv), 1 lakh (others); finance charges hiked to 3.99%/month on many cards

The one redemption that makes YES Rewardz points worth ₹0.25 — portal flights and hotels — now legally cannot settle a full booking: 70% of the invoice is the ceiling, so every redemption forces cash out of your pocket alongside the points. Monthly caps (3 lakh points on Marquee, 2 lakh on Reserv) box in the big balances, and finance charges quietly climbed to 3.99% a month. The earn rates YES advertises didn't move; the exits all narrowed.

read the story →
15 Nov 2024
Devaluation major ICICI Bank

ICICI's November purge: rewards, lounges and 1% fees

Broad earn; easy spend-based lounge access → Rent/gov/education excluded; grocery capped; 1% ed/utility fee; spend-gated lounges

The single worst day of 2024 for ICICI holders, Emeralde Private included. Rent, government and education spends stop earning and stop counting toward fee waivers, grocery rewards get capped, a 1% fee lands on third-party education/utility, and lounge access is restructured behind prior-spend gates.

read the story →
12 Nov 2024
Partner major Air India

Vistara flies its last; Club Vistara becomes Maharaja Club

Club Vistara (Vistara) → Maharaja Club (Air India), points 1:1

Vistara's final flight was 11 November 2024. Over 4.5 million Club Vistara members — and the single most-loved transfer target for Indian card points — folded into Air India's Maharaja Club at 1:1. The premium-cabin sweet spots Indian miles chasers plan around all moved house overnight.

read the story →
15 Oct 2024
Devaluation moderate RBL Bank

RBL strips points from education, government and wallet spends

World Safari and Icon earned base points on most categories; milestone counters included nearly all retail spend → No points on education-via-apps, government, contracted services, cash and Bills2Pay; milestones exclude 14 categories; 1% fees on utility spends past ₹50k/month, education apps and fuel past ₹10k

A portfolio-wide tightening dressed up as a T&C refresh: from 15 October 2024, RBL cards — World Safari and Icon included — stopped earning on education portals, government payments, wallets, and Bills2Pay, and the milestone counters that justify both cards' fees now exclude fourteen spend categories. Add 1% surcharges on big utility months, education apps and ₹10k+ fuel fills, and the effective reward rate on real-world spend dropped without a single headline number changing.

read the story →
15 Oct 2024
Lounge major Standard Chartered

EaseMyTrip card loses Priority Pass, domestic visits halved

1 complimentary domestic lounge visit per quarter + Priority Pass with 2 international visits a year → 2 domestic visits per calendar year; no Priority Pass, no complimentary international lounge access

The travel co-brand quietly stopped being a travel card: from 15 October 2024, Standard Chartered pulled Priority Pass from the EaseMyTrip card entirely and cut domestic lounge access from four visits a year to two. International lounges are now pay-per-visit at rack rates. What's left is a ₹350 EaseMyTrip discount coupon — which, to be fair, is what it always really was.

read the story →
1 Sept 2024
Devaluation minor HDFC Bank

HDFC caps utility, telecom and cable rewards

Uncapped earn on utility/telecom/cable → 2,000 reward points/month, combined

From 1 September 2024, utility, telecom and cable spends earn a combined maximum of 2,000 points a month. Small for most, painful for anyone who was routing big recurring bills through an Infinia for the points.

read the story →
25 Aug 2024
Buff minor Standard Chartered

Ultimate's forex settles at a clean 2% at posting

3.5% markup softened by a separately-posted 1.5% cashback — until 1 June 2024, when SC killed the cashback and left the full 3.5% → Flat 2% markup (2.36% with GST) charged at transaction posting

A rare devaluation that reversed itself into an upgrade. Standard Chartered scrapped the Ultimate's 1.5% forex cashback in June 2024, briefly leaving cardholders paying the full 3.5% — then re-priced the card at a flat 2% markup charged upfront from 25 August. Net-net you land where the old cashback dance left you, minus the waiting and the reconciliation maths. At 2.36% all-in, the Ultimate undercuts the 3.5% default most premium cards still charge.

read the story →
19 Aug 2024
Partner moderate American Express

Amex MR-to-Emirates Skywards transfer ratio gets clipped

1,000 MR points = 1,000 Skywards Miles (1:1) → 1,000 MR points = 750 Skywards Miles (4:3)

Emirates Skywards was one of the best reasons to hoard Amex Membership Rewards points — a straight 1:1 transfer with zero dilution. That ended on August 19, 2024, when the ratio dropped to 4:3, an instant 25% haircut on every mile moved. Platinum Charge and Gold Charge holders sitting on stockpiles for a first-class Emirates redemption should have moved fast; procrastinators just paid a real tax.

read the story →
1 Aug 2024
Fee moderate HDFC Bank

HDFC adds 1% fees on rent, big utility and third-party education

No surcharge on these spends → 1% fee, capped ₹3,000/txn

Rent via apps, utility bills over ₹50,000, and education routed through CRED/Paytm all pick up a 1% fee (capped ₹3,000) from August 2024. Pay education straight to the institution and it stays free — the fee is aimed squarely at fintech rent and round-tripping.

read the story →
15 Jul 2024
Partner minor Axis Bank

Citibank India credit cards fully migrate to Axis

Citi-branded cards and systems → Axis Bank platform

The Citi era in India formally ends: card numbers and limits stayed put, but statements, apps and rewards now run on Axis. The prized Citi rewards ecosystem effectively closed, pushing its loyalists into the Axis stack.

read the story →
3 Jul 2024
Devaluation moderate IHG Hotels & Resorts

IHG One Rewards quietly repriced its best hotels upward

InterContinental London Park Lane: ~120K pts/night cap → Same hotel: up to 160,000 points on peak nights

IHG runs dynamic pricing with no published chart, so it can move prices with zero notice — and in the first week of July 2024, it did exactly that. Asia properties got 15% pricier and US hotels 10% pricier in points terms overnight, with marquee InterContinentals blowing past their old unofficial caps. Anyone building an IHG stash via SmartBuy or a transfer partner just watched its purchasing power shrink without a memo.

read the story →
20 Apr 2024
Devaluation major Axis Bank

Axis Atlas takes its first big cut

Higher EDGE Miles earn and generous tier benefits → Reworked earn tiers and trimmed benefits

The purpose-built miles card's first real devaluation reshaped earn rates and tier thresholds and thinned the benefit stack. Still a genuine travel card — but the honeymoon rate that made it a no-brainer was over.

read the story →
15 Apr 2024
Devaluation moderate SBI Card

SBI Card kills reward points on rent

Rent 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.

read the story →
1 Apr 2024
Devaluation moderate AU Small Finance Bank

AU zeroes out rewards on fuel, rent, education and government

Fuel, rent, education and government spends earned points; utilities earned accelerated rates → Zero points on fuel/rent/BBPS/education/government; utilities and insurance base-rate only, utilities capped at 100 points per transaction

Notified on 1 March and live from 1 April 2024, AU's bank-wide exclusion list strips reward earn from fuel, rent, education, government and BBPS payments outright, and demotes utilities and insurance to the 1-point base rate — utilities with a 100-point-per-transaction ceiling for good measure. On cards already earning 0.25% at the catalogue value, the categories most households actually spend on now earn nothing at all.

read the story →
21 Mar 2024
Launch minor AU Small Finance Bank

AU unveils Zenith+ — a metal card built for the departure gate

AU's range topped out at the ₹7,999 Zenith → Zenith+ at ₹4,999: 0.99% forex, 16 domestic + 16 Priority Pass lounge visits, 4 Meet & Assist

AU's stainless-steel flagship gets the two numbers right that the rest of the lineup gets wrong: a 0.99% forex markup — lower than most full-service banks — and 32 lounge visits a year with airport Meet & Assist on top. The earn side stays AU: 1–2 points per ₹100 at a ₹0.25 catalogue value with no transfer partners, which is why this card is a lounge-and-forex tool, not a rewards engine.

read the story →
1 Mar 2024
Devaluation minor American Express

Amex Gold Card's Karat Collection catalogue gets thinner

18K/24K Gold Collection vouchers at pre-2024 values → Vouchers cut ~₹1,000 each, ~13-14% value erosion

The Gold Card's flagship redemption catalogue hadn't been touched since 2022, and on March 1, 2024 Amex quietly trimmed the value of its 18K and 24K shopping vouchers by roughly ₹1,000 apiece. A couple of new retail partners got added as cover, but the math is simple: 13-14% less value for the same points. Vistara gift cards had already vanished from the catalogue in late 2023 — a preview of the direction of travel.

read the story →
1 Mar 2024
Devaluation moderate IndusInd Bank

Legend halves lounge visits, cuts cash value to ₹0.50

1 RP = ₹0.75 as statement credit; 2 domestic lounge visits per quarter → 1 RP = ₹0.50 as cash (₹0.75 on non-cash redemptions excluding airmiles); 1 domestic visit per quarter

The lifetime-free Legend got the classic double cut on 1 March 2024: cash redemptions dropped a third to ₹0.50 a point — the second cash devaluation in two years — and domestic lounge visits halved to one a quarter. The airmiles route kept its value, a quiet nudge toward transfers over statement credit. Anyone holding points for cash should have read the memo and emptied the tank in February.

read the story →
23 Feb 2024
Devaluation moderate Etihad Airways

Etihad Guest overhauls pricing, adds cancellation penalties

Short-haul partner First: 14,000 miles; no hard expiry → Short-haul partner First: 35,000 miles; expires in 18mo

Etihad Guest's February 2024 shake-up landed as a mixed bag but leaned devaluation: short-haul first-class partner awards jumped 150% to 35,000 miles, miles now hard-expire after 18 months regardless of activity, and canceling a redemption within a week of departure now costs a 75% mileage penalty. The one bright spot — GuestSeat cash-and-points fares got up to 30% cheaper — doesn't offset the structural tightening for anyone parking Amex or HDFC Diners points here.

read the story →
5 Feb 2024
Devaluation moderate ICICI Bank

ICICI stops rewards on rent and wallet loads

Rent and e-wallet loads earned points → Zero reward points

ICICI's opening move of 2024: from 5 February, rent payments and e-wallet loading earn nothing. A quiet start to what became a brutal year for ICICI reward chasers.

read the story →
11 Jan 2024
Buff minor Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott swaps Suite Night Awards for Nightly Upgrade Awards

Suite Night Awards: 5 brands, request up to 5 days out → Nightly Upgrade Awards: 5 more brands, only 3 days out

Marriott's annual elite perk got a rename and a mixed bag of changes from January 11, 2024: Nightly Upgrade Awards now work at five additional brands including Ritz-Carlton and EDITION, with roughly 20% more upgrade inventory in the pool. The catch — requests now clear within only three days of arrival instead of five, squeezing the planning window for HDFC Marriott Bonvoy cardholders chasing a suite upgrade.

read the story →
10 Jan 2024
Devaluation moderate Emirates

Emirates hikes partner business-class award prices 25%

Partner business awards at pre-2024 Skywards rates → Partner business awards up to 25,000 miles more one-way

Emirates rolled out a fresh Skywards award chart on January 10, 2024, and partner business-class redemptions took the biggest hit — some routes now cost up to 25,000 more miles one-way, a jump of as much as 25%. Economy and first stayed untouched, so this was a targeted squeeze on exactly the cabin most miles-hoarders were saving for. Anyone routing Amex or ICICI points into Skywards for a partner business seat needed to recheck the math.

read the story →
3 Jan 2024
Devaluation moderate Axis Bank

Axis Vistara card cuts CV Points on govt and utility spends

Govt services & utility bills earned CV Points normally → Govt services & utility bills earn zero CV Points

From January 3, 2024, Axis Bank's Vistara-branded cards stopped awarding Club Vistara points — and stopped counting toward milestone benefits — for government services and utility bill payments. It was the second cut to the Vistara card lineup in four months, arriving right after the September 2023 transfer-ratio squeeze, and it closed off one of the easiest manufactured-spend categories loyalists used to hit their milestone thresholds.

read the story →

2023 21 events

15 Dec 2023
Devaluation minor OneCard

OneCard stops earning points on fuel

Fuel earned 1 point per ₹50 like any other spend → Zero points on fuel; the 1% surcharge waiver survives

OneCard joins the industry pile-on: from 15 December 2023, fuel spends earn nothing, leaving only the 1% surcharge waiver. On a card that pays 0.2% base into ₹0.10 cashback points, the rupee loss is small — but it's one more excluded category on a rewards program that was already the thinnest excuse for holding the metal.

read the story →
15 Dec 2023
Launch minor YES Bank

YES returns to super-premium with the Marquee

No YES Bank super-premium card since the bank's 2020 reconstruction → Marquee: ₹9,999 joining, 36 RP/₹200 online (18 offline), unlimited international lounge for primary and add-on, 6 domestic visits a quarter, 1% forex

YES Bank's statement that it intends to matter again: 36 points per ₹200 online is a 4.5% headline at the portal travel value, wrapped in unlimited international lounge access and 1% forex for a ₹9,999 door charge. The catch was visible on day one — the points settle inside YES's own ecosystem at ₹0.25 against travel, ₹0.10 as credit, with no real airline exit. The earn side embarrassed the establishment; the burn side was always the bet.

read the story →
28 Nov 2023
Buff moderate HSBC

HSBC Premier Credit Card returns as a metal card

Plastic Premier card, erratic capped reward categories → Metal card, flat 3 pts/₹100 everywhere, Taj Epicure incl.

HSBC relaunched its Premier Credit Card on November 28, 2023 as a metal card with no category exclusions — a flat 3 reward points per ₹100 on every spend, plus a free Taj Epicure membership and a ₹12,000 Taj voucher on activation. It was a rare unambiguous buff in an era of nerfs, though it's only ever been available to HSBC Premier banking clients, not the mass market.

read the story →
19 Oct 2023
Launch moderate HDFC Bank

HDFC ships the Diners Club Black Metal Edition

Diners Club Black: plastic, ₹10,000 fee, Infinia's shadow → New metal edition: same fee, built to rival Infinia

HDFC gave the ageing Diners Club Black a metal makeover, positioning it as a genuine alternative to the Infinia rather than a budget also-ran. The refreshed card kept the ₹10,000 joining/renewal fee but added heft — up to 10,000 points per ₹4 lakh of quarterly spend, unlimited access across 1,300+ lounges, and 24 golf games a year. For enthusiasts choosing between HDFC's two flagships, the gap just got narrower.

read the story →
18 Oct 2023
Devaluation major British Airways

British Airways ties Avios earning to fare, not miles flown

Avios earned per mile flown, by fare class and tier → Avios earned per £1 of base fare, 6-9 per tier

October 18, 2023 killed the old BA Executive Club math for good: distance-based earning is gone, replaced by 6 to 9 Avios per pound of base fare depending on tier. Cheap long-haul tickets — long a favorite hack for stuffing an Avios balance — now earn a fraction of what they used to, while expensive short-hop business fares earn more. It's the airline-industry-standard revenue model finally catching up to BA, years after most rivals switched.

read the story →
1 Oct 2023
Devaluation major Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles jacks up premium award prices

Business/First awards at pre-Oct-2023 Asia Miles rates → Same awards cost 20-40% more miles, some zones +33%

Cathay gave advance notice — rare generosity — before hiking Asia Miles award costs on October 1, 2023: premium-cabin redemptions rose 20-30% on average, with some distance zones spiking as much as 40% one-way. Economy stayed mostly untouched, so this was a direct shot at exactly the demographic that hoards Asia Miles for a business or first-class splurge. The silver lining: Cathay published a real award chart afterward instead of reverting to opaque pricing.

read the story →
30 Sept 2023
Launch major Axis Bank

Axis launches Magnus for Burgundy, the gutted Magnus's escape hatch

No Burgundy-exclusive Magnus variant existed → Magnus for Burgundy: lifetime-free, old 5:4 ratio kept

One month after taking a machete to the regular Magnus card, Axis quietly rolled out an escape hatch for its wealthiest clients: Magnus for Burgundy, offered lifetime-free through November 30, 2023 (later extended to December 31) to anyone in the Burgundy priority-banking tier. Crucially, it kept the old 5:4 EDGE-to-miles transfer ratio the mass-market Magnus had just lost — the September devaluation, it turned out, was a segmentation play, not a universal belt-tightening.

read the story →
1 Sept 2023
Devaluation major Axis Bank

Axis Magnus gutted — the enthusiast era ends

25k monthly milestone; 5:4 transfers; ₹10k fee → Milestone axed; 5:2 transfers; ₹12.5k fee, ₹25L waiver

The devaluation that broke a thousand spreadsheets. The 25,000-point monthly milestone vanished, the transfer ratio was halved from 5:4 to 5:2, and the fee rose. For anyone converting points to miles it was roughly a 90% haircut — Magnus went from India's best mileage engine to a cautionary tale.

read the story →
1 Sept 2023
Devaluation major Axis Bank

Axis Reserve loses half its miles-conversion value alongside Magnus

7,500 ER pts on ₹1L spend converted to 6,000 miles → Same spend now converts to just 3,000 miles

Reserve cardholders got hit even harder than Magnus in the September 1, 2023 purge: the ER-to-airmiles conversion on ₹1 lakh of spend was cut in half, from 6,000 miles down to 3,000. Axis also slashed the EDGE-to-partner transfer ratio from 5:4 to 5:2 and capped annual conversions at 5 lakh points per customer — unless you'd opened a fresh Burgundy Private relationship, in which case the old ratio survived. Reserve, already a niche golf-focused card, lost its last real reason to exist.

read the story →
24 Aug 2023
Launch major HDFC Bank

India gets its first co-branded hotel credit card

No Marriott co-brand card existed in India → Marriott Bonvoy HDFC card: 8x pts at Marriott, elite nights

HDFC and Marriott launched India's first co-branded hotel credit card on August 24, 2023, and it wasn't a token gesture — 8 Bonvoy points per ₹150 at Marriott properties, a free-night award worth up to 15,000 points, Silver Elite status, and the first credit card anywhere to earn elite night credits toward hotel status. Running on Diners Club, it gave Indian hotel loyalists a real reason to care about a co-brand card for the first time.

read the story →
17 Aug 2023
Launch minor IndusInd Bank

IndusInd launches the Avios card — BA and Qatar in one

No Indian card earned Avios directly → Avios Visa Infinite: earn Avios on every swipe, pick a BA Executive Club or Qatar Privilege Club home, up to 36,000 bonus Avios a year in milestones, tier fast-track

A first for India: a metal Visa Infinite that earns Avios natively, with the cardholder choosing whether the points live with British Airways Executive Club or Qatar Airways Privilege Club. Milestones add up to 36,000 bonus Avios a year and Qatar throws in a tier fast-track. For a market whose premium cards all funnel into the same few transfer partners, a direct Avios pipe — Qsuites money — was genuinely new plumbing.

read the story →
3 Aug 2023
Launch minor IndusInd Bank

IndusInd's lifetime-free Tiger prowls in

IndusInd's lounge-and-forex perks locked behind ₹5,000-fee cards → Tiger: lifetime free, tiered rewards up to 6X, 1.5% forex, complimentary domestic and international lounge visits, golf

IndusInd and Tiger Fintech (a Bajaj Capital company) launched a card that shouldn't exist at ₹0: lifetime free with domestic and international lounge access, 1.5% forex against the 3.5% default, golf games, and a tiered rewards ladder that climbs to 6X. The base earn is forgettable and the best rates need serious annual spend — but as a free card you keep for the airport doors and the border crossings, the Tiger rewrote the entry-level maths.

read the story →
11 Jul 2023
Launch moderate IDFC FIRST Bank

IDFC First and Club Vistara team up on a travel credit card

No IDFC First travel card tied to an airline programme → Club Vistara IDFC FIRST Card: CV Points, lounge, golf perks

IDFC FIRST Bank, Club Vistara and Mastercard announced a new co-branded travel card on July 11, 2023, bundling CV Points earning with lounge access, golf benefits and trip-cancellation cover. It was a modest entrant next to the HDFC and Axis Vistara cards already in market, but it gave IDFC First — still building out its premium lineup — a genuine travel-rewards product for the first time.

read the story →
5 Jul 2023
Devaluation major AU Small Finance Bank

AU Rewardz devalues vouchers 20% and tolls every redemption

E-vouchers at ₹0.25/point; free redemptions; uncapped Zenith earning → E-vouchers cut to ₹0.20/point; ₹99 + taxes per redemption; Zenith capped at 40k points/cycle (20k per category)

AU's first big rewrite of its points program hits from three directions at once: the e-voucher rate — the redemption most cardholders actually use — drops from ₹0.25 to ₹0.20 per point, every successful redemption now costs ₹99 plus taxes, and Zenith's earning gets a 40,000-point statement-cycle ceiling. A closed-loop currency with no transfer partners just got 20% smaller and pay-per-exit.

read the story →
1 Jul 2023
Devaluation moderate SBI Card

SBI kills reward points on rent across its co-brand cards

Rent 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.

read the story →
20 Jun 2023
Launch minor Federal Bank / Scapia

Scapia launches: 0% forex and unlimited lounges, for free

Zero-forex travel cards were a paid, premium privilege → Lifetime-free Federal Bank co-brand: 0% forex, unlimited domestic lounges, 10–20% coins on spends

A fintech co-brand on Federal Bank rails resets the entry price of the zero-forex trade to nothing: no joining fee, no annual fee, 0% markup abroad and unlimited domestic lounge access. The 10% 'rewards' headline is really 2% in coins that only spend inside Scapia's own travel app — but as a free forex-and-lounge tool, nothing at launch came close, and half the fintech card industry spent the next two years copying it.

read the story →
1 May 2023
Devaluation moderate SBI Card

SBI SimplyClick guts its two best accelerated-earn categories

10x pts on Lenskart, 5x pts on online rent payments → 5x pts on Lenskart, 1x pt on online rent payments

SBI's SimplyClick cards took two hits in quick succession in 2023: the 10x Lenskart rate was halved to 5x on April 1, then the 5x rate on online rent payments was gutted to a flat 1x on May 1. Together they stripped out the two easiest ways SimplyClick users padded their monthly reward totals, months ahead of SBI's broader July 2023 rent crackdown across its co-brand cards.

read the story →
2 Apr 2023
Devaluation moderate Standard Chartered

Ultimate cuts six categories from 3.33% to 2%

5 RP/₹150 (3.33%) on utilities, supermarkets, insurance, rent, schools and government; fuel earned points → 3 RP/₹150 (2%) on those six categories; fuel earns nothing (1% surcharge waiver, capped ₹1,000/month); 1% processing fee on rent

The first crack in India's best flat-rate card. From 2 April 2023, six everyday categories — utilities, supermarkets, insurance, rent, schools, government — dropped from the Ultimate's signature 3.33% to 2%, fuel stopped earning altogether, and rent payments picked up a 1% fee for the privilege. The headline rate on general spend survived untouched, but the lesson landed: Standard Chartered will trim this card when it suits them.

read the story →
23 Mar 2023
Launch moderate HDFC Bank

HDFC launches Regalia Gold, a new super-premium travel card

Regalia topped out HDFC's upper-mid travel lineup → Regalia Gold: global lounge access, CV Silver, MMT Elite

HDFC announced Regalia Gold on March 23, 2023 as its next rung into the super-premium category, sitting above the ageing Regalia with global lounge access, airmiles-focused milestone benefits, and complimentary Club Vistara Silver and MakeMyTrip Black Elite tiers thrown in. It gave HDFC a mid-tier travel card to point upgrade-seeking Regalia holders toward, ahead of the Infinia and Diners Black Metal at the very top.

read the story →
1 Jan 2023
Devaluation moderate HDFC Bank

HDFC Infinia excludes rent and govt spends, caps redemptions

Rent/govt spends earned points; no SmartBuy redemption cap → Rent/govt spends earn zero; SmartBuy capped at 1.5L pts/mo

January 1, 2023 was the first crack in Infinia's armor: HDFC stopped awarding Reward Points on rent, property-management and government-service transactions, and capped SmartBuy flight/hotel redemptions at 150,000 points a month, with a separate 50,000-point cap on Tanishq vouchers. The base 5-points-per-₹150 earn rate held for now, but the direction toward category exclusions and redemption caps was set a full 18 months before the bigger cuts that followed in 2024.

read the story →
1 Jan 2023
Devaluation major Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott Bonvoy goes fully dynamic, kills award price ceilings

Award nights capped within published category ranges → No caps — prices float daily, sometimes past old peaks

Marriott finished what it started in March 2022: from January 1, 2023, hotels no longer had to stay within their old category price bands, so an award night could cost whatever the demand-based algorithm decided on a given day. For HDFC Marriott Bonvoy cardholders converting free-night certificates or points, the safety net vanished — a property that cost 60,000 points on a slow Tuesday could cost double that on a peak weekend with zero warning.

read the story →

2022 18 events

22 Dec 2022
Devaluation major Emirates

Emirates Skywards quietly hikes award miles by up to 20%

Stable Skywards award chart → Up to 20% more miles for first/business awards

Emirates rolled a stealth 20% mileage hike across first and business award redemptions right through the Christmas booking rush, with zero press release. Fuel surcharges on the same tickets kept climbing too, so a Dubai run that used to sting merely bruised now nukes your balance.

read the story →
9 Dec 2022
Devaluation major British Airways

BA Avios long-haul redemptions jump up to 92% outside UK/US

Lower long-haul Avios pricing for non-UK/US members → Up to 92% (typically 45-60%) more Avios for long-haul

British Airways rewrote its long-haul reward pricing and buried the ugliest hikes on members booking from outside the UK and US — India included. A UK Amex-voucher holder barely felt it; anyone redeeming Avios out of Delhi or Mumbai got quietly fleeced.

read the story →
29 Nov 2022
Partner major Air India

Tata Group announces Air India-Vistara merger

Vistara and Air India run as separate Tata carriers → Single merged airline planned by March 2024, SIA to invest

Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines announced they'd fold Vistara into Air India, with SIA investing ₹2,059 crore for a stake in the combined carrier. For Club Vistara and Flying Returns members this was the first signal that two separate loyalty programs were headed for a messy, multi-year merger.

read the story →
22 Nov 2022
Launch major ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank launches invite-only Emeralde Private Metal card

No true super-premium ICICI travel card → Emeralde Private Metal: 3% back, unlimited lounge/golf

ICICI finally built a card that could sit at the same table as Infinia and Magnus — invite-only, metal, 3% uncapped value-back, unlimited lounge and golf access, plus a Taj Epicure membership thrown in. It marked ICICI's real entry into India's super-premium travel-card fight.

read the story →
20 Sept 2022
Launch moderate NPCI / RuPay

RuPay credit cards go live on UPI

Credit cards couldn't touch UPI → RuPay credit cards linked to UPI QR

A structural shift: RBI-enabled RuPay credit-card-on-UPI launches, letting cards pay at millions of QR merchants. It reshaped where Indian card rewards could be earned and kicked off a wave of RuPay co-brands.

read the story →
24 Aug 2022
Buff major American Express

RBI lifts American Express's 15-month new-customer ban

Amex barred from onboarding new customers since May 2021 → Amex free to issue cards to new customers again

After 15 months of Amex India effectively being invite-only for existing cardholders, the RBI certified its data-localisation compliance and let it back into the new-customer game. For a points crowd that had been trading invites like contraband, this reopened the front door to the Platinum Charge Card.

read the story →
1 Aug 2022
Devaluation moderate Singapore Airlines

KrisFlyer kills the cheap Singapore stopover trick

Extended/paid stopovers in Singapore for as little as $100 → No free stopovers over 30 days; no paid stopovers at all

Singapore Airlines closed the beloved loophole where a $100 add-on bought you weeks of extra vacation time in Singapore mid-itinerary. It landed a month after the broader award-chart hike, confirming 2022 as the year KrisFlyer stopped being everyone's favourite soft target.

read the story →
5 Jul 2022
Devaluation major Singapore Airlines

KrisFlyer hikes Saver award chart ~10% across the board

Pre-2022 KrisFlyer Saver award pricing → All Saver awards up roughly 10%, more on Australia routes

Every KrisFlyer Saver award — on Singapore Airlines metal and on partners — got pricier overnight, with some Australia-Europe business runs jumping from 232,000 to 261,000 miles. For Indian Amex/HDFC Membership Rewards transferees who parked points for a Suites redemption, the math suddenly got a lot uglier.

read the story →
12 May 2022
Launch minor Kotak Mahindra Bank

Kotak quietly lists White Reserve — a card with no earn rate

Kotak's premium deck topped out at Infinite and the Privy tier → White Reserve at ₹12,500: zero per-swipe points, White Pass milestones to ₹2.5L, unlimited lounges, Club Marriott

Kotak's super-premium entry appeared on its website in spring 2022 with no launch fanfare and a genuinely unusual design: no points per transaction at all. Every rupee of reward is White Pass unlocked at annual spend milestones — about 2% back once you clear ₹10 lakh, scaling to ₹2.5 lakh of value at ₹1 crore — plus unlimited lounge visits for primary and add-on cards. A pure milestone machine, honest about what it wants from you.

read the story →
30 Mar 2022
Partner major Axis Bank

Axis Bank agrees to buy Citi India's consumer banking arm

Citi India winding down with no confirmed buyer → Axis to acquire Citi cards, retail bank for ₹12,325 cr

Axis Bank signed to take over Citi's ~2.5 million Indian credit cards, retail banking and wealth business for ₹12,325 crore — the biggest shake-up of India's premium card landscape since the RBI bans. Every Citi Prestige and PremierMiles holder now knew exactly whose EDGE Rewards ecosystem they'd eventually land in.

read the story →
29 Mar 2022
Devaluation major Marriott

Marriott Bonvoy scraps award charts for dynamic pricing

Fixed off-peak/standard/peak award-chart pricing → Revenue-linked rates (peak/off-peak bands thru 2022)

Marriott tore up its published award chart and moved toward Hilton/IHG-style dynamic pricing, though it kept min/max bands through the end of 2022 as a mercy period. Anyone hoarding Bonvoy points transferred from HDFC's Marriott Bonvoy card for that one aspirational Category 8 redemption just watched the goalposts start moving.

read the story →
28 Mar 2022
Partner major Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways Privilege Club ditches Qmiles, adopts Avios

Qmiles, incompatible with any other loyalty currency → Avios, transferable 1:1 across BA, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Qatar

Qatar Airways scrapped its closed-loop Qmiles and converted every member's balance 1:1 into Avios, suddenly making IAG's shared currency usable for Qsuites business class. Indian Amex Membership Rewards holders who'd been sitting on stranded Qatar miles could now pool them with British Airways Avios instead.

read the story →
17 Mar 2022
Devaluation moderate IHG

IHG One Rewards overhauls tiers, doubles Gold night requirement

Gold at 10 nights/10,000 points; old Spire top tier → Gold needs 20 nights/40,000 pts; Spire renamed Diamond

IHG relaunched as 'IHG One Rewards' with a new Silver rung and a rebranded Diamond top tier, but the fine print doubled what it takes to earn Gold. Existing Spire members got auto-upgraded to Diamond for free, a rare olive branch buried inside an otherwise harder ladder.

read the story →
15 Mar 2022
Devaluation moderate IndusInd Bank

Pinnacle's cash redemption cut from ₹1 to ₹0.75

1 RP = ₹1 as statement credit — 2.5% effective on online spends → 1 RP = ₹0.75 as cash; the online return drops to 1.875%

The quiet cut that ended Pinnacle's run as a top-tier cashback card: from 15 March 2022, IndusInd marked its reward point down from a clean ₹1 to ₹0.75 for statement credit, dragging the card's celebrated 2.5% online rate to 1.875% overnight. The same haircut swept across IndusInd's rewards cards, and it wouldn't be the last — Legend took a second cut to ₹0.50 two years later.

read the story →
20 Feb 2022
Fee minor OneCard

OneCard tolls app-routed rent and caps the fuel waiver

No OneCard fee on rent or wallet loads via third-party apps; uncapped fuel surcharge waiver → 1% fee on rent/wallet loads via Paytm, Cred, PhonePe and peers; fuel surcharge waiver capped at ₹400/month

The free metal card sprouts its first fees: routing rent or wallet loads through third-party apps now costs 1% on top of the apps' own charges (in-app rent payments carry a 1.5% convenience fee instead), and the fuel surcharge waiver gets a ₹400-a-month ceiling. Early proof that lifetime-free never means toll-free once the manufactured-spend crowd finds a card.

read the story →
18 Feb 2022
Launch major Axis Bank

Axis Bank launches Atlas, its dedicated air-miles card

No pure-travel EDGE Miles card from Axis → Atlas: EDGE Miles, airline/hotel transfers, tiered status

Axis rolled out Atlas as its answer to Citi PremierMiles and HDFC's miles cards — a mid-tier ₹5,000 card built entirely around EDGE Miles and transfer partners rather than lifestyle perks. It went on to become one of the most recommended air-miles cards in India within a year of launch.

read the story →
1 Feb 2022
Buff major Axis Bank

Axis Magnus adds its legendary 25k-point monthly milestone

No milestone bonus beyond base EDGE Reward Points → 25,000 bonus EDGE points (~₹5,000) per ₹1L spent monthly

Axis bolted a 25,000-point bonus onto every ₹1 lakh of monthly Magnus spend — worth up to ₹60,000 a year on top of base earn — and instantly made Magnus the best reward-rate premium card in India. This is the milestone era that later got gutted in 2023, but in early 2022 it was the single best deal in Indian plastic.

read the story →
27 Jan 2022
Launch major Air India

Air India returns to the Tata Group

State-owned, stagnant Air India → Tata-owned; the loyalty revival begins

The Tatas formally took Air India back after 69 years. It set up everything that followed for Indian travel points — the Vistara merger, the Maharaja Club revival, and Air India becoming the default premium-cabin transfer target.

read the story →
2017–2021 61 events

2021 14 events

2020 12 events

  • 1 Jun OneCard launches India's first mobile-first metal credit card story →
  • 1 Jun HDFC guts SmartBuy 10X: Infinia and Diners Black points slashed story →
  • 1 Jun InterMiles resets the clock, drags elite status into 2021 story →
  • 25 Apr Club Vistara freezes status, gives points and vouchers a grace period story →
  • 8 Apr Marriott extends every 2019 elite status by a full year story →
  • 27 Mar RBI lets banks freeze credit card EMIs, but the meter keeps running story →
  • 25 Mar Hilton becomes the first hotel chain to freeze status and points story →
  • 22 Mar World of Hyatt bolts on peak pricing, dings Grand Hyatt Kochi story →
  • 16 Mar SBI Cards lists on Dalal Street in India's first card-issuer IPO story →
  • 15 Mar Amex India strips Membership Rewards points off EMI purchases story →
  • 4 Mar Marriott's 2020 category shake-up moves 1,686 hotels up, only 499 down story →
  • 27 Jan Government fires the starting gun on Air India's second sale attempt story →

2019 14 events

  • 3 Dec Accor scraps Le Club, soft-launches ALL - Accor Live Limitless story →
  • 14 Nov JetPrivilege drops the Jet, relaunches as InterMiles story →
  • 1 Nov HDFC Diners Club Black stacks on Prime, Zomato Gold, MMT Black story →
  • 16 Oct Taj InnerCircle flattens point values, axes a Platinum perk story →
  • 12 Oct Citi India guts reward earning on utilities, insurance, and tax story →
  • 19 Sept Etihad Guest kills its Royal Air Maroc mileage sweet spot story →
  • 18 Sept Axis Bank Launches Magnus, a Metal Card to Rival Infinia story →
  • 1 Sept Club Vistara nearly doubles the cost of a Business class upgrade story →
  • 6 Aug Vistara finally leaves India, opens Club Vistara to global miles story →
  • 17 Apr Jet Airways grounds its fleet; JPMiles left in limbo story →
  • 13 Feb Marriott Bonvoy launches as the unified loyalty brand story →
  • 25 Jan IHG quietly reprices 700 hotels; the US bears the brunt story →
  • 24 Jan KrisFlyer hikes premium-cabin award pricing roughly 10% across the board story →
  • 18 Jan ICICI Bank launches Emeralde, wedging above Sapphiro story →

2018 10 events

2017 11 events

2012–2016 39 events

2016 12 events

  • 8 Nov Demonetization forces India onto plastic overnight story →
  • 23 Sept Marriott swallows Starwood, becomes world's biggest hotelier story →
  • 1 Aug Hyatt reshuffles award categories, Grand Hyatt Mumbai gets cheaper story →
  • 16 Jul JetPrivilege rips up flat-rate miles, goes full fare-class story →
  • 1 Apr IndusInd JetPrivilege card kills weekend miles bonanza story →
  • 1 Apr HDFC Diners Club shutters its 10x rewards blowout story →
  • 1 Apr Citi Prestige strips Etihad Guest Gold and partner perks story →
  • 14 Mar SBI's Air India co-brand card doubles the goalposts story →
  • 26 Feb JetPrivilege hikes partner award chart, kills cheap short-hops story →
  • 17 Feb SpiceJet launches SpiceClub, first prepaid airline loyalty card story →
  • 26 Jan Air India Flying Returns drops a Star Alliance devaluation bomb story →
  • 20 Jan Starwood floods India with hotels, The St. Regis Mumbai debuts story →

2015 12 events

  • 1 Dec Air India Flying Returns switches to fare-class earning story →
  • 16 Nov Marriott announces $12.2B Starwood takeover story →
  • 24 Sept HDFC launches JetPrivilege Diners Club, a tier-point signup first story →
  • 14 Sept HDFC Diners Club drops a 10x points blowout on Flipkart, IRCTC, Yatra story →
  • 15 Jun Taj InnerCircle revamps: Platinum tier arrives, perks quietly vanish story →
  • 1 Jun JetPrivilege Signs Up Air Berlin as Its 25th Partner Airline story →
  • 1 Mar Amex India cuts Membership Rewards on fuel and utility bills story →
  • 1 Mar Vistara launches India's first 3-class domestic cabin story →
  • 16 Feb JetPrivilege Hikes Tier Bonuses, Restores Platinum Guest Lounge Access story →
  • 1 Feb Citi PremierMiles doubles the cost of transferring to airline partners story →
  • 29 Jan Vistara signs first-ever airline partnership, with Singapore Airlines story →
  • 9 Jan Club Vistara launches alongside Vistara's maiden flight story →

2014 3 events

  • 17 Dec SpiceJet grounded fleet as oil firms cut off fuel credit story →
  • 11 Jul Air India finally joins Star Alliance as 27th member story →
  • 5 Feb Etihad clears 50.1% buyout, JetPrivilege spun off standalone story →

2013 5 events

  • 16 May Marriott adds Category 9, bumps 36% of hotels up a tier story →
  • 24 Apr Etihad agrees to buy 24% of Jet Airways for $379 million story →
  • 24 Apr Etihad Buys 24% of Jet Airways, Pumps $150M Into JetPrivilege story →
  • 28 Mar Hilton HHonors blows up its award chart: 7 tiers become 10 story →
  • 25 Feb Kingfisher Stripped of International Rights and Domestic Slots story →

2012 7 events

  • 20 Oct DGCA suspends Kingfisher's licence, King Club miles go to zero story →
  • 25 Sept HDFC Bank relaunches Diners Club co-branded cards in India story →
  • 16 Jul Citibank kills Jet Airways co-brand, pivots to PremierMiles story →
  • 16 Jul Citibank Retires 13-Year Jet Airways Co-Brand, Launches PremierMiles story →
  • 27 Apr Amex quietly stops minting new Kingfisher First cardholders story →
  • 4 Feb oneworld Puts Kingfisher's Alliance Entry on Ice story →
  • 3 Feb Kingfisher's oneworld entry put on hold a week before launch story →
2007–2011 15 events

2011 3 events

2010 3 events

  • 1 Nov Kingfisher Completes ₹8,000-Crore Debt Restructuring story →
  • 26 Apr Jet Airways Launches Konnect Select, a Premium-Economy Hybrid story →
  • 24 Feb Kingfisher signs MOU to join oneworld alliance story →

2009 2 events

  • 4 Aug Competition Watchdog Opens Probe Into Jet-Kingfisher Alliance story →
  • 5 Mar Kingfisher Slams the Brakes on International Expansion story →

2008 3 events

  • 3 Sept Kingfisher Airlines Opens First Long-Haul Route: Bangalore-London story →
  • 29 Aug Air Deccan Vanishes Into Kingfisher Red story →
  • 1 Apr Kingfisher and Air Deccan Formally Merge Into One Company story →

2007 4 events

  • 1 Dec Air India Applies to Join Star Alliance story →
  • 1 Jun UB Group Buys 26% of Air Deccan for $135 Million story →
  • 16 Apr Air Sahara Reborn as JetLite After Jet Airways Buyout story →
  • 1 Mar Air India and Indian Airlines Merge Into One National Carrier story →
2002–2006 6 events

2006 3 events

  • 4 Aug IndiGo Launches With Zero Frequent-Flyer Program — On Purpose story →
  • 21 Jun Jet Airways' $500M Air Sahara Buyout Collapses story →
  • 18 Apr Kingfisher Announces India's First Domestic Business Class story →

2005 3 events

  • 4 Oct Jet Airways Orders 10 Boeing 777-300ERs for $2.53 Billion story →
  • 9 May Kingfisher Airlines Takes Off, Launches King Club Miles story →
  • 1 May Jet Airways Flies Its First Intercontinental Route: Mumbai-London story →
2001 & earlier — the pre-history 13 events

2001 1 events

  • 1 Dec HDFC Bank soft-launches its first credit cards in Chennai story →

1999 2 events

  • 1 Feb Singapore Airlines launches KrisFlyer, its first own FFP story →
  • 1 Jan Starwood Preferred Guest debuts with no blackout dates story →

1998 1 events

  • 1 Oct SBI and GE Capital launch SBI Card in New Delhi story →

1997 1 events

  • 6 May Marriott Rewards replaces Honored Guest Awards story →

1994 2 events

  • 1 Jan Air India launches Flying Returns, India's first FFP story →
  • 1 Jan Jet Airways starts JetPrivilege, first private-airline FFP story →

1993 2 events

  • 5 May Jet Airways flies its first flight, 9W321 Mumbai–Ahmedabad story →
  • 1 Jan American Express enters India's card market story →

1987 1 events

  • 1 Jan HSBC installs India's first ATM in Mumbai story →

1981 1 events

  • 1 Jan Andhra Bank issues India's first Visa-branded credit card story →

1980 1 events

  • 1 Jan Central Bank of India launches Centralcard, India's first credit card story →

1961 1 events

  • 1 Jan Kali Mody brings Diners Club to India, invitation only story →