In the September 2023 version of Axis Bank devaluations, the bank had spared the up-and-coming Atlas Credit Card from any changes. After all, the card was designed for travellers (read review) and was a strongly designed proposition for them. However, I guess that it was also easy to get for those abusing their credit cards, and now we must all bear the response from Axis Bank. As I notified you earlier, Axis Bank has notified everyone about how they will devalue the card effective April 20, 2024.

Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card to be devalued on April 20, 2024

That some were abusing Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card came to light when the audit department started to shut down accounts or put them under review earlier in March 2024. Now Axis Bank has announced significant, across-the-board changes to this card, which change the nature of this travel card from a well-structured travel credit card to a Terms and Conditions apply travel credit card, effective April 20, 2024.

1. Category Exclusions for Mileage Earning

   • In addition to current category exclusions, spending on gold/ jewellery, rent, wallet, government institutions, insurance, fuel, and utilities will be excluded from EDGE Miles earnings.

2. Category Exclusions for Milestones and Tier Evaluation

   • As you know, Axis Atlas used to reward a unique EDGE Miles currency, with up to 17,500 a year as bonuses, depending on how much money you spent on the card in a year. The milestones/tiers kicked in at INR 3 Lakh spent annually, INR 7.5 Lakh spent annually, and INR 15 Lakh spent annually.
   • As of April 20, 2024, in addition to any current category exclusions, spends threshold for Milestone achievement and Tier evaluation will exclude transactions done on Gold/ Jewellery, Rent, Wallet, Government Institution, Insurance, Fuel, and Utilities merchants.
   • The following MCCs have been defined as the ones to be excluded:
     • Gold/ Jewellery: 5094, 5944
     • Rent: 6513
     • Insurance: 6300, 6381, 5960, 6012, 6051
     • Government Institutions: 9222, 9311, 9399, 9402
     • Utilities: 4814, 4816, 4899, 4900
     • Fuel: 5541, 5542, 5983

3. Capping on Accelerated EDGE Miles earned on Travel merchants:

   • Axis Bank earlier had no limits on the 5 EDGE Miles/INR 100 spent on the travel category (airlines and hotels), along with spends made with the TravelEdge portal. However, the consequence was some folks were using this in the travel trade to mint points. Now, to curtail those edge use cases, Axis is devaluing the card entirely for the generic public as well.
   • Here (April 20, 2024, onwards), there will be a cap of 5 EDGE Miles/INR 100 spent on Travel EDGE, airlines and hotel merchants up to INR 2 Lakh per calendar month. Beyond INR 2 Lakhs spent on this category per month, you earn just 2 EDGE Miles/INR 100 spent.

4. Milestone earnings changed to 10,000 EDGE Miles per annum from 17,500 EDGE Miles per annum.

   • In the current product construct, at INR 3L/INR 7.5L/INR 15L Annual spending being hit, milestone EDGE Miles were credited as 2.5K/5K/10K EDGE Miles, for a total of up to 17.5K EDGE Miles per annum. Under the new product construct, this will change to 2.5K/2.5K/5K EDGE Miles on hitting the INR 3L/7.5L/15L annual spending milestones. That is a straight-up loss of up to 7.5K points for the card members per annum.

5. Revision of Annual benefit

   • In the gamification of the Atlas product, when you earn a tier, you also keep it for the following year. The renewal benefit used to be granted basis the tier you would be in. For instance, if you spent INR 15L the prior year, Axis Bank would grant you 10K EDGE Miles towards payment of the INR 5K+taxes annual fee. Now, the new product construct will grant a renewal benefit as per the following tiers:
     • Silver: Not Applicable (from earlier 2,500)
     • Gold: 2,500 (from earlier 5,000)
     • Platinum: 5,000 (from earlier 10,000)
   • This is a straight loss of about 5,000 EDGE Miles per annum for the high-end spender on this card, who could spend up to INR 15 Lakhs per annum, a pittance for the HNIs who travel.

6. Axis Meet & Greet to be discontinued

   • Under the current card construct, cardmembers would get 2 Meet & Greet Services on qualifying for the Gold Tier and 4 Meet & Greet Services for the Platinum Tier annually. As of April 20, 2024, these are going away altogether as a card benefit. So, if you have any, make it a point to at least book them by April 19, 2024, even if you don’t use them by then.

7. Airport Transfers to be discontinued

   • Under the current card construct, cardmembers would get 2 Luxury Car Transfer Services on qualifying for the Platinum Tier annually. As of April 20, 2024, these are going away altogether as a card benefit. So, if you have any, make it a point to at least book them by March 19, 2024, even if you don’t use them by then.

What the card does not lose is the lounge access, which was granted based on your tier, both domestically and internationally.

Axis Bank to cap EDGE Miles Conversions on April 20, 2024

Another major change to the Axis Atlas Credit Card is the changes to the EDGE Miles programme. EDGE Miles are specifically for earning on the ATLAS credit card, and each point has a monetary value of INR 1 and can be transferred to 2 airmiles (except for Marriott Bonvoy, which is 2 EDGE Miles to one point only).

Axis Bank will create a two-tier list of partners in a change of events. While they’ve not openly said it, I can tell you that, out of experience, the grouping has been done based on how much money Axis Bank would have to shell out per point if converted. The groupings are as under:

• Group A
  • Accor Hotels (Accor Live Limitless)
  • Air Canada (Aeroplan)
  • Ethiopian Airlines
  • Etihad (Etihad Guest)
  • Japan Airlines (JAL Mileage Bank)
  • Marriott International (Marriott Bonvoy)
  • Qatar Airways
  • Singapore Airlines (Krisflyer)
  • Turkish Airlines (Miles & Smiles)
  • Thai Airways (Royal Orchid Plus)
  • United Airlines (MileagePlus)
  • Wyndham Hotels (Wyndham Rewards)
• Group B
  • Air France-KLM (Flying Blue)
  • Air India (Flying Returns)
  • Air Asia
  • ITC Green Points
  • IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG One Rewards)
  • Qantas Airways (Qantas Frequent Flyer)
  • SpiceJet
  • Vistara (TATA SIA Airlines Ltd)

The key change regarding EDGE Miles is that from now on; there will be a cap of 150,000 EDGE Miles, which can be converted into airmiles or hotel points per annum (calendar year). But even more interestingly, you can only transfer a maximum of 30,000 EDGE Miles per annum into Group A transfer partners and 120,000 EDGE Miles per annum into Group B transfer partners. By doing this, Axis Bank is hemming the flow of points to the major international carriers effective April 20, 2024.

While 30,000 points to Category A will still mean 60K points in the other programme, more is needed if you plan to travel with the family.

Bottomline

While this is not a massive blow to a mid-end card from Axis Bank, it affects the value proposition by removing all the lifestyle benefits associated with the card. I can understand that they were too good to be true for an INR 5,000++ annual fee card, but then, they shouldn’t have primed up the card so much in the first place and then thrown off people’s expectations afterwards.

The Mileage Transfer caps should be okay for the ordinary Joe and the capping on the EDGE Miles earnings because now you can no longer put your cards for other people’s spending, but rather just your own.

The new features go live on April 20, 2024, so if you want to use the existing benefits, use your card features/points by April 19, 2024.

What do you make of the changes and devaluations to Axis Bank’s Atlas Credit Card? I’d be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments section and a rating between 1-5 on the impact to you (1 being least impacted and 5 being heavily impacted). 

(Source: T&C)

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