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Thanks for the responses. So the variables are too many: card to card, sale to sale, merchant to merchant. I was trying to reduce the number of credit cards that I am holding. Seems like I will have to manage with both standard cards and co-branded cards.

Hi Tejas, count me amongst those who don't understand these things. What you just wrote above was news to me - I mean being able to travel so much just using credit card points.

I wanted to ask how many points does one need to enjoy travel deals as you have? I have an HDFC Infinia card and I see I have accumulated about 115k points - how many more points above this would I need?

Here are the options possible with 115K Infinia Points that I can instantly think of:

- 1 Return Business Class Ticket on Singapore Airlines to any of these countries - Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Phillipines, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei
- 1 One-Way Business Class Ticket to Australia / New Zealand on Singapore Airlines
- 1 Return Business Class to many destinations in Europe on Qatar Airways, Finnair or Etihad Airways
- 1 One-Way Business Class Tickets to North America on Qatar Airways or Air France / KLM

This is apart from regular Smartbuy Redemption of Flights & Hotels, Tanishq Vouchers, Apple Products that you can do @ 1 Reward Point = 1 Re.

But its also important to see whether you have utilized the HDFC Smartbuy portal effectively or not. If not, then you could potentially earn a lot more reward points than you currently are.

Thank you for the insight, I have never used the Smart portal. Will explore it now.

Hi @Tejas Sir. I have Infinia, ICICI Amazon and HDFC Tata Neu.

Couple of questions -

1. I have not optimized my international airmiles as I should. When I fly (say Air India and Thai), I provide my United Mileageplus number and collect miles on United. Is this a good idea? or is it always better to collect miles on the native airmiles? Or is this more nuanced and use case specific.

This year, I used my United miles to book hotel rooms in Copenhagen and Stavanger for my Denmark/Norway trip (using united.hotels.com). Not sure if this is the right approach. Have never booked an award travel with points as I find it confusing.

2. Last month, I was booking tickets from BLR to NRT. On Smartbuy portal I found 3 return tickets for 1.65 laks on JAL. I had 60k HDFC points, so I would have paid about 1 lak out of pocket.

At the same time, I found the same flight on amazon flights for 1.53 laks. And ended up booking on amazon flights and earned a cashback of 8k through ICICI amazon pay card. Was this the right choice? What would you have done with the same options. Just trying to understand how a #ccgeeks' brain works. :D

Appreciate your work on Team-BHP and Twitter.

If you not using smartbuy portal, you are missing out on "THE" benefit of holding HDFC Infinia. Please use the portal for your travel bookings, to buy certain products like apple or myntra, and to buy "gift vouchers via gyftr".

We mostly earn 5x returns (25 points per 150 rs) via smartbuy portal. IMHO the 15,000 daily+monthly cap on accelerated points is still liberal (post devaluation), and very few will hit the cap consistently. If my calculation is not wrong, we have to spend Rs 1,12,500.00 in a month via smartbuy to reach the cap.

EDIT: Some say flight ticket price is inflated on smartbuy (usually through 3rd party platform fees) but I found the cost usually similar to airlines or other aggregators. So its always better to check where we get best "effective" price.

These options mentioned are considering converting points to miles of the respective airlines or booking with points via Smartbuy ?

I understand that one can book Etihad and KLM/Air France via Flyingblue where the transfer ratio is 1:1. How can I book Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways?

The transfer ratio for 1 point is 0.5 Avios for Qatar Airways and British Airlines except for Finnair but Finnair does not operate from Mumbai and even from Delhi it doesn't show any award availability for North America next summer on Qatar.

I think you can transfer HDFC-> Finn Air -> British -> Qatar. Then book on Qatar.

Finnair has recently joined the Avios points program, so we can book flights on other operators that use it through them, including BA and Qatar. You can also transfer avios between these partner airlines.

1. Crediting points to common Program from multiple sources is the way to go. Choose a program which has Credit Card Reward Points Transfer option too. This helps build points much quicker than distributing points across 5 different programs and all of them becoming useless. Combine it with a little thought towards your next couple of travel destinations can point you towards the right program.

2. Smartbuy International Flight Rates are generally higher than others. For such instances I stick to Axis Atlas on Airline Website or Aggregator Website. Use Smartbuy for Instant Vouchers and Hotel or Domestic Flight bookings where it is extremely competitive.

Points Conversion to Miles.

Singapore Airlines is also a Transfer Partner. Its not via Smartbuy though. You have to go to the Rewards Portal from Netbanking.

Qatar Airways US Award seats are extremely difficult. For a simple reason - You are fighting against one of the biggest Credit Card Rewards Market in the world for one of the best Business Class experiences in the world. You just have to keep searching for multiple dates and multiple cities in US to get an award seat. Europe is relatively easier,

Hi, can anyone please advise best way to use Intermiles points? Stuck with some 20,000.

Hi Friends, I need some guidance.

In the last week of October, I dined at Bangalore airport and paid using my ICICI credit card. I got an SMS from ICICI stating that the debit had happened, but their POS machine did not print a confirmation receipt. The waiter asked me to pay using an alternate method and said that the failed transaction would result in a reversal of payment to my card within 24 hours. So, I paid again with UPI.

However, the reversal has not happened. I called the merchant, and he asked me to check with the card company. I sent a mail to ICICI, and they responded that the debit had happened and to confirm with the merchant the status of the funds. If the merchant has not received the amount, they asked me to provide details of the transaction. I have now sent mail to the merchant asking for confirmation of whether they have received the amount.

What are my options in the following scenarios?

1. The merchant has received the amount and confirms the receipt.
2. Merchant does not respond to my communication. I have no way to check if the credit happened to the merchant.

Thanks in advance for the guidance.

You can raise a dispute for the transaction from the iMobile app itself. Do not have high hopes from the merchant to help you out on this.

Alternatively you can also visit the nearest ICICI Bank and fill the Chargeback Dispute Form.

Refer to this reddit thread for pointers:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCardsIndia/s/3RggyqcyGD

ICICI is offering Rubyx credit card for LTF. Please suggest if it is anything good?