[tejas08]

Originally Posted by iamitp

Note - Reposting on this thread

Seeking suggestions for Business Class hacking with Credit Card points

I have long dreamt of flying Business Class. Sadly, my employer wouldn't pay for the seat and I could never muster the resolve on all previous domestic/short international flights.

Now an opportunity presents itself. A 2-week trip to Europe for Christmas 2021. My first visit to the continent.

Here's my conundrum. After Jet Airway's closure, I am unable to find a suitable Airline co-branded credit card to rack up enough miles for getting an upgrade voucher (or an award ticket).

I hardly travel on work and don't have any planned flights this year. My credit card expenses add up to Rs. 1.3 Lakhs/month with about Rs. 60,000 for utilities and the rest on dining, shopping and leisure.

I considered the Axis Bank Vistara cards, which are great for domestic upgrades/awards but not for international routes. I'm avoiding the SBI-Air India cards as Air India would be my last choice of transport.

Other co-branded cards such as Axis Bank Miles & More, Standard Chartered Emirates, ICICI Bank British Airways and travel-focused cards such as the Citibank Premier-miles & Citibank Prestige (which comes with a Rs. 20,000 + tax fee) don't seem to offer a conversion ratio that would get me enough miles for an upgrade voucher with my spending capacity.

Shall be grateful for your valuable suggestions.

Ah! My favourite topic for the past couple of years.

I have been raking in a lot of miles since December 2019 through various credit cards. The key here is knowing which are cards offer which Airline Miles redemption. Personally I am against co-branded credit cards unless you regularly fly a specific airline.

So here are the list of cards which have the highest number of International Airline carrier redemptions:

1. Citibank Prestige
2. Citibank Premier Miles
3. Amex (All Cards except Platinum Travel)

I am going to leave HDFC Infinia and DCB out of this for a moment.

The above listed cards have around 8-10 international airline partners for redemption.

HDFC on the other hand has only three now of which only one is useful for full fledged international travel viz. Singapore Airlines. British Airways used to be an option but its no longer available.

HDFC Infinia / DCB is key for fast Reward Points accumulation. I have raked in 2.75 Lac Reward Points (equal to 2.75 Lac Miles) in about 18-20 months.

From among the Indian credit card scene, Singapore Airlines gets the most redemption options:

1. HDFC Infinia / DCB
2. Citi Prestige / Premier Miles
3. Amex (Except Platinum Travel)
4. HSBC Visa Platinum

Singapore Airline being a Star Alliance partner, it allows you to book Star Alliance Airline Flights with KrisFlyer Miles.

The other ways of raking in quick miles is Signup bonus routes.

Citi Prestige gives 2500 Reward Points (10,000 Miles) against annual fee and Amex gives 100,000 + Referral Bonus (about 55,000 Miles) on the Platinum Charge card as a welcome gift. You can consider this as buying miles but you will definitely get much more value when flying business class than what you paid for buying the miles .

The miles game is a huge topic and difficult to sum up in a single post.

DM me or post here if you want to understand more on this topic. I can help you out plan this.

[iamitp]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Ah! My favourite topic for the past couple of years.

DM me or post here if you want to understand more on this topic. I can help you out plan this.

I am so glad to see your reply, Tejas

Keeping in with GTO's mantra, a PM would help me but a post on this thread will help many more in learning from your expertise.

An additional info - My monthly credit card spends are around Rs. 1.3 Lakhs (including rent and utilities)

I do hold an Amex Plat Reserve & Plat Travel, but don't find their MR redemptions for international flight booking worthwhile with 1:4 conversion ratio on most airlines. The Plat Reserve has been my default payment option for a while now and I do have 25K points in the reserve.

I considered getting the Plat charge card, as you mentioned but a bit confused as to how it will convert to 55K miles. Won't the 1 lakh MR convert to 25K miles? Are you also counting the referral bonus and reward multipliers?

The cheapest business class ticket on the Delhi-Frankfurt route is (currently) Gulf Air @ Rs. 66K, so I'm trying to do the math and see if the Amex Plat charge can be a better deal.

The Delhi-Frankfurt route business class seems to require between 60K to 90K miles on Star Alliance and Oneworld.

Also tried to calculate the RoI on Citi Prestige, but assuming that the Rs. 10K Taj/ITC voucher is good to have but unnecessary, I'll still be short 50K miles after paying the Rs. 20K annual fees. Assuming Rs. 1.3 Lakh monthly spends (non-flying), I don't think I'll be able to rack up enough miles for my trip (?)

Similar problem with Citibank Premier miles, which has a much lower joining fee, but won't get me that Business Class ticket.

HDFC Infinia/DCB does seem like the best options (vis-a-vis Citi and Amex cards considered), assuming the higher conversion ratio and booking Krisflyer miles on Star Alliance partners. What's the best way to get these (LTF/fee waiver/discount if possible)? I do hold a Regalia (with an annual limit of Rs. 3.4 lakh) but don't see any upgrade offers on the Netbanking page.

Looking forward to learning more.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by iamitp

I am so glad to see your reply, Tejas

Keeping in with GTO's mantra, a PM would help me but a post on this thread will help many more in learning from your expertise.

An additional info - My monthly credit card spends are around Rs. 1.3 Lakhs (including rent and utilities)

I do hold an Amex Plat Reserve & Plat Travel, but don't find their MR redemptions for international flight booking worthwhile with 1:4 conversion ratio on most airlines. The Plat Reserve has been my default payment option for a while now and I do have 25K points in the reserve.

I considered getting the Plat charge card, as you mentioned but a bit confused as to how it will convert to 55K miles. Won't the 1 lakh MR convert to 25K miles? Are you also counting the referral bonus and reward multipliers?

The cheapest business class ticket on the Delhi-Frankfurt route is (currently) Gulf Air @ Rs. 66K, so I'm trying to do the math and see if the Amex Plat charge can be a better deal.

The Delhi-Frankfurt route business class seems to require between 60K to 90K miles on Star Alliance and Oneworld.

Also tried to calculate the RoI on Citi Prestige, but assuming that the Rs. 10K Taj/ITC voucher is good to have but unnecessary, I'll still be short 50K miles after paying the Rs. 20K annual fees. Assuming Rs. 1.3 Lakh monthly spends (non-flying), I don't think I'll be able to rack up enough miles for my trip (?)

Similar problem with Citibank Premier miles, which has a much lower joining fee, but won't get me that Business Class ticket.

HDFC Infinia/DCB does seem like the best options (vis-a-vis Citi and Amex cards considered), assuming the higher conversion ratio and booking Krisflyer miles on Star Alliance partners. What's the best way to get these (LTF/fee waiver/discount if possible)? I do hold a Regalia (with an annual limit of Rs. 3.4 lakh) but don't see any upgrade offers on the Netbanking page.

Looking forward to learning more.

As much as I want to write on this topic, there is no one size fit all in this topic. Neither are there just a few options to choose from. This topic can actually have a full blown forum section of its own on a Credit Card lovers forum.

This topic in my opinion requires discussions over phone at times to explain things.

From what I read, I can give you some quick advices:

1. Amex Reward Points to Miles Conversion is 2:1 and not 4:1. So if you get 100,000 welcome bonus & 20,000 referral bonus, you habe 60,000 Miles instantly.
2. To get upgraded on HDFC credit cards, you need to accept Credit Limit enhancements as they come. DCB requires 5 Lacs Credit Limit and Infinia requires 8 Lacs credit limit on ur existing HDFC credit card.
3. Since you plan to travel in December-2021, you dont have much time in accumulation, else I would have advised MRCC + Gold Charge Combo too. 2200 Points (1100 Miles) on spends of 10,000 Rs.

1.3 Lacs a month is a significant amount of spending and the required number of miles are easily achiveable.

[iamitp]

Originally Posted by tejas08

As much as I want to write on this topic, there is no one size fit all in this topic. Neither are there just a few options to choose from. This topic can actually have a full blown forum section of its own on a Credit Card lovers forum.

This topic in my opinion requires discussions over phone at times to explain things.

From what I read, I can give you some quick advices:

1. Amex Reward Points to Miles Conversion is 2:1 and not 4:1. So if you get 100,000 welcome bonus & 20,000 referral bonus, you habe 60,000 Miles instantly.
2. To get upgraded on HDFC credit cards, you need to accept Credit Limit enhancements as they come. DCB requires 5 Lacs Credit Limit and Infinia requires 8 Lacs credit limit on ur existing HDFC credit card.
3. Since you plan to travel in December-2021, you dont have much time in accumulation, else I would have advised MRCC + Gold Charge Combo too. 2200 Points (1100 Miles) on spends of 10,000 Rs.

1.3 Lacs a month is a significant amount of spending and the required number of miles are easily achiveable.

You are right about the 1:2 ratio on Amex, my bad.

I guess I could call and try to revise my HDFC card limit upwards.

Really appreciate your inputs and yes, this is indeed a vast topic which needs case-to-case understanding. I shall PM you, if your generous guidance offer is still standing

[logicalidiot]

Bought something on EMI last month with my HDFC credit card but cancelled it the next day as I wanted to change the payment method. The refund for the product was credited back but the EMI processing charge of 199/- hasn't been reversed in the statements. Any luck on getting this solved or should I forget about the processing charge?

[Tourer]

Any idea if HDFC bank is upgrading cards right now? My brother is holding a Regalia card and wants to upgrade to Infinia. He satisfies all the criteria for the same both in terms of earnings and spends and has a credit limit of over a million INR.

I have been told by our personal banker that HDFC is unable to issue new cards due to ban by Supreme court. While I am aware of the ban for issuing new cards, I am not sure if upgradations have also been put on hold. Can someone confirm the same?

Also, which card is best amongst Infinia and Diners Black in terms of rewards. His expenses are mostly on e-commerce, dining and utility payments. Rewards accumulated would be used mainly for booking flight tickets.

[logicalidiot]

Originally Posted by logicalidiot

The refund for the product was credited back but the EMI processing charge of 199/- hasn't been reversed in the statements.

Nevermind. Soon after I raised a complaint, got it reversed.

Originally Posted by Tourer

Any idea if HDFC bank is upgrading cards right now? My brother is holding a Regalia card and wants to upgrade to Infinia.

Yes, they are upgrading cards. The ban seems to be only for new customers I guess. Though not Infinia, I got my HDFC credit card upgraded last week.

[gupta_chd]

AMED MRCC terms and conditions have been changed to award 1000 points on four transactions each of Rs. 1500 instead of Rs. 1000 from 01 April,2021

Silver lining is that you can earn 1000 additional points every month on spending Rs. 20000 or above cumulatively in a particular month. Enrollment for availing this benefit is required separately. So it may be a limited time deal.

[Guite]

Originally Posted by logicalidiot

Yes, they are upgrading cards. The ban seems to be only for new customers I guess. Though not Infinia, I got my HDFC credit card upgraded last week.

I got an upgrade offer by mail but can't avail because, in spite of many attempts, I am unable to access HDFC Bank netbanking.

[Pancham]

Originally Posted by Guite

I got an upgrade offer by mail but can't avail because, in spite of many attempts, I am unable to access HDFC Bank netbanking.

I have the exact same issue. I have forgotten my net banking password and the email ID where they send the OTP is the one from my previous organisation. Despite changing my email ID once (after writing repeated emails and what not) they still send the OTP to my previous ID. So I have not been able to log into my net banking for more than a year and consequently, could not upgrade my card last week when I received an automated call for card upgradation.

[UPS_Guru]

Any idea which lifetime free credit card from IDFC FIRST Bank is the best?

• FIRST Millenia Credit Card
• FIRST Classic Credit Card
• FIRST Select Credit Card
• FIRST Wealth Credit Card

Also, wonder what is the catch in the interest free cash withdrawal from ATMs for upto 48 days?

[Guite]

Originally Posted by Pancham

I have the exact same issue. I have forgotten my net banking password and the email ID where they send the OTP is the one from my previous organisation. Despite changing my email ID once (after writing repeated emails and what not) they still send the OTP to my previous ID. So I have not been able to log into my net banking for more than a year and consequently, could not upgrade my card last week when I received an automated call for card upgradation.

HDFC customer care call does not provide option for speaking directly to human representative. Yesterday and today is bank holiday. I have not been able to retrieve my own customer ID from their website, which is required to reset netbanking credentials. So I am pretty stuck. Still keeping HDFC card due to the regular discounts on online shopping and on Reliance Digital, Croma stores etc.

American Express seems to have good offers. So I have applied for ICICI AE card, after blocking previous ICICI card, on which there was multiple wrong CVV number attempts. And feedback on AE would be appreciated.

[VWAllstar]

Do you all use Creed for CC payments? What are the advantages and disadvantages, if any? Most importantly is there a security issue to align your CC with a third party application?

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by Guite

American Express seems to have good offers. So I have applied for ICICI AE card, after blocking previous ICICI card, on which there was multiple wrong CVV number attempts. And feedback on AE would be appreciated.

Amex has a rewards card that works quite well. The only thing is amex is not widely accepted and so you end up needing another card anyway. I use amex for certain known purchases and thus able to generate a decent amount of points as well as keep it free (I think you need a annual spend of 1.5L to keep it free). PM me if you want to know more.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by Guite

HDFC customer care call does not provide option for speaking directly to human representative. Yesterday and today is bank holiday. I have not been able to retrieve my own customer ID from their website, which is required to reset netbanking credentials. So I am pretty stuck. Still keeping HDFC card due to the regular discounts on online shopping and on Reliance Digital, Croma stores etc.

American Express seems to have good offers. So I have applied for ICICI AE card, after blocking previous ICICI card, on which there was multiple wrong CVV number attempts. And feedback on AE would be appreciated.

HDFC Customer care is not working 24 / 7 nowadays under the pretext of Covid-19. So you need to call them in the office hours types.

If you are looking for Amex, stick to direct cards from Amex instead of the likes of ICICI Amex ones.