No, this is not supposed to be an April Fools Day joke, but a public service announcement actually. The Indian credit card scenario for mileage earning is changing rapidly, and just yesterday there were three changes that kicked in. I just thought I’d post in a reminder so that you know what cards you’d like to use and which ones not.
- Citi Prestige changed their benefits since yesterday. This means, no more Etihad Guest Gold membership, discounts at various hotel chains and spas and partner airlines.
- HDFC Diners Club’s excellent 10x program which got you up to 1/3 of your product value back as points from various vendors is now closed. Of course, transferring those points is a pain in the backside anyways.
- IndusInd Bank’s JP Cards are also changing their weekend earning. No more earning tonnes of JPMiles for booking with Jet Airways over the weekend.
Of course, the big daddy of all these changes is going to come in another ten days. SBI Card will devalue the Air India co-branded card by a lot then.
Just a friendly reminder from your neighborhood miles and points blogger 
Join over 5000 people who check-in daily to find out about the best in travel.
Free emails (once-a-day) | RSS Feeds | Facebook Updates | Twitter | Instagram
Can you please post your credit card strategy for 2016?
I have held Citi PM for 3 years now and its up for renewal this May. I also been out of country for the last 2 years and maintained the card by paying bills etc at my home.
I do not think the card is worth 3k annual fee now. I moved 100k miles before the devaluation to British Airways EC account and made the best use of it in the US for short haul flights.
I may be left with 10k miles which I’m thinking to transfer and close this account. I dont have the need for Prestige at the moment, since i carry the US version of Citi Prestige.
Any suggestion in regards to transferring the remaining points? I have plenty in miles in BAEC and I dont fly any of the other airlines. Hilton perhaps?
HDFC has updated their website. Their website now says that Diners Club 10X program is still there till 30th April, 2016. But the partners have been updated.
1) Flipkart
2) Snapdeal
3) Cleartrip
4) Goibibo
5) Bookmyshow
Out of these, bookmyshow’s own website says that the 10X offer is till April 1, 2017. Goibibo and Cleartrip’s website says the offer is till 30th April and I could not find any updates about the offer on Flipkart/Snapdeal/Yatra’s own website.
So, what should the Credit Card Strategy for 2016 look like with all these changes happening?
Bookmyshow.com has Diners 10X rewards offer till 1st April 2017.
Link: https://in.bookmyshow.com/offers/hdfc-diners-credit-card-offer/DINERSCARD
I wonder why banks take so much time in updating their websites with the offers while the merchants on the other hand are quicker than them. It makes it hard to know what offers are going on on your card currently.
Had not been for reading here, there’s no way I would have known that Cleartrip has Diners 10X rewards extended till 30th April 2016.
I think Premiermiles has also undergone some changes in T&C. Waiting to see what does Diners Black 10X benefit gets replaced with before converting my jet diners to diners black.
The Diners club deal is still on at cleartrip. They seem to have extended the deal by a month !!
Does it say anywhere that it’s still valid on cleartrip
Here – http://www.cleartrip.com/offers/india/hdfc-diners-club-credit-card
Goibibo also has the offer of 10X points extended till 30th April, 2016.
http://www.goibibo.com/offers/hdfc-bank-diners-club/
Yes sir – all of these make Indian loyalty scenario back to ground zero 🙁