YES Bank: Domestic Lounge Access on Credit Cards will be restructured from April 1, 2024

YES Bank has long been easy come, easy go in the Credit Card issuers list. Back in the day, the meltdown of the Bank may have cut short their ride as a major Credit Card issuer, but they are now trying to come back. I’ll talk about that later. However, with significant P&L comes the great responsibility to protect it. And 2024 is the year when YES Bank will work more on increasing the bottom-line contribution of the business. One of the moves towards this was put out with little fanfare.

a group of credit cards

Changes to Lounge Access Benefits on YES Bank Credit Cards, effective April 1, 2024.

YES Bank has now reshuffled the domestic lounge access benefits. For all their credit cards, YES Bank has notified that cardmembers must spend at least INR 10,000 INR in the current quarter to receive lounge access as per the card features in the next quarter. As I’d explained earlier, lounge access is a costly benefit to offer, and just holding a “free” credit card no longer cuts it with the banks to give it away to customers.

Here is the communication from the Bank.

a screenshot of a phone

This new change will impact the following credit cards, amongst others:

  1. YES Marquee (6 Complimentary Lounge Visits Per Quarter)
  2. YES SELECT (erstwhile YES Prosperity Edge) (1 Complimentary Lounge Visit per Quarter)
  3. YES Reserv (erstwhile YES First Exclusive) (3 Complimentary Lounge Visits Per Quarter)
  4. YES First Preferred (2 Complimentary Lounge Visits Per Quarter)
  5. YES Bank ELITE (erstwhile YES Premia) (2 Complimentary Lounge Visits Per Quarter)
  6. YES BYOC (1 Complimentary Lounge Visit per Quarter)
  7. YES Wellness Plus (2 Complimentary Lounge Visits per Quarter)

INR 10,000 over a quarter looks good; it is just a shade over INR 3,000 monthly. Since the change goes live on April 1, 2024, people would have to spend in the December 21, 2023 – March 20, 2024 Quarter to receive the benefit in April/May/June 2024.

Bottomline

YES Bank has notified new lounge access policies on their credit cards effective April 1, 2024. The lounge access on their cards has been made subject to a minimum spend of INR 10,000 per quarter. This will, hopefully, at least cover the cost of lounge access (domestic) for the Bank.

What do you make of the move from YES Bank Credit Cards to rationalise Lounge Access?


Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay. Every contribution helps cover the cost of the content generated for your benefit.

(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. For international transactions, use Paypal to process the transaction.)

We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.

About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

More articles by Ajay »

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *