A few weeks ago, I wrote about the transition of some major Citi Credit Cards to Axis Bank’s product portfolio. Since 2023, Axis Bank has managed the portfolio for Citi products in India after transferring the assets and liabilities to its books. Now that the bank has shifted the Citi banking products to Axis Bank products, it is focussing on transitioning the credit card products. Citi PremierMiles becomes Axis Bank Horizon, for instance.

Citi Prestige to transition to Axis Bank Olympus

The new name of the card that will transition from Citi Prestige will be Axis Bank Olympus (whenever the transition happens). Axis Bank has published the details of the new card, and the card will be the same, or even better, than earlier on in terms of features. The card has been “Axisified” regarding reward features, though, and that is that. Citi left the card alone in most shapes and forms for the decade of its existence, so it would be much appreciated if the acquiring bank follows the same theme. For now, it looks like the Olympus is a souped-up version of the Citi Prestige, not down (Conditions Apply, Wink)

Let us go one by one on the product features and note what changed and what remains the same.

• Fees: The card continues to clock the joining and annual fee of INR 20,000 + GST per annum
• Rewards Earning:  The card continues to earn 1 Point per INR 100 on domestic spending and 2 Points per INR 100 on international spending. For the reference of the Axis Bank Terminology, these points will be referred to as EDGE Miles, but Axis Bank is carving out a special category for the Olympus Credit Card EDGE Miles. This will allow for the transfer of Citi Prestige/Axis Bank Olympus Card EDGE Miles in the same ratio of 1 EDGE Mile = 4 miles transferred as earlier.
• Welcome/Annual Benefit: Citi Prestige offered an INR 10,000 voucher (choice between Taj and ITC Hotels), which will continue with the transition to Axis Bank Olympus. Further, instead of 2,500 Reward Points, 2,500 EDGE Miles will be credited on activation of the card every year.
• Golf Privileges: Citi Prestige offers four complimentary golf rounds & four golf lessons every year at over 15 golf clubs in India. Additional rounds are offered based on multiples of INR 50,000 spent on your Citi Prestige Credit Card. In the case of Axis Olympus, the eight rounds and lessons have been made fungible, but essentially, it remains the same benefit. One Guest is allowed on a complimentary basis from here on; I don’t know if this was the case with Citi Prestige.
• Complimentary Stay Programme: One of the global features of Citi Prestige used to be a buy three get four nights, which you could use two times per annum.  With the transition to Axis Bank’s Olympus, this programme will offer the third night complimentary (as long as three nights are booked), thus making it better than the earlier version. The statement credit will be an average of one night out of the three on the back of an average of three nights’ pricing, excluding taxes.
• Lounge Access on card: While Citi Prestige, unlimited domestic lounge access is offered to primary and add-on card members when you present the card for lounge access at select lounges in India. On the MasterCard variant, it is unlimited, and on the Visa variant, it is eight visits per quarter. All Olympus cardholders, primary and add-on, will be eligible for unlimited domestic lounges at select airports in India. The cardholders are eligible for 20 complimentary guest visits per calendar year.
• Buy One Get One Free: A new benefit will be introduced on the transition to Olympus. On every movie ticket bought on the BookMyShow website/Mobile App, customers will get up to INR 650 off and on every non-movie ticket, up to INR 1000 off on the second ticket two times every month.
• Airport Meet & Assist: Another new introduction by Axis Bank is that all primary cardholders of Axis Bank Olympus Credit Card will be eligible for eight complimentary airport concierge services in one calendar year. This used to be a benefit of Citi Prestige many years ago, and it was taken away.
• Airport Transfers: Another new introduction by Axis Bank is that all primary cardholders of Axis Bank Olympus Credit Card will be eligible for two airport transfers in one calendar year. This was a benefit of Citi Prestige many years ago, and it was also taken away.
  • Luxury airport transfers (Merc/BMW/Audi): Valid across Delhi, NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata
  • Sedan airport transfers: Valid across Delhi, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Navi Mumbai, Cochin, Goa, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Chandigarh, Agar, Amritsar, Lucknow, Udaipur, Nagpur, Mangalore, Mysore, Madurai, Bhopal, Gwalior, Patna, Jodhpur, Leh, Srinagar, Pondicherry, Jammu, Vishakhapatnam, Trivandrum, Indore, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Dehradun, Aurangabad, Coimbatore, Nasik & Mangalore
• Unlimited Priority Pass: Citi Prestige grants an unlimited use Priority Pass for primary and add-on guests. This feature will be transitioned to the Olympus Card.
• Taj Epicure: Another Citi Prestige product feature, which will be transitioned to the Olympus Credit Card.

Rewards Programme

Coming to the rewards partners, here are the partners that continue to stay and the ones that leave in the future:

• Accor ALL (New)
• AirAsia Rewards (New)
• Air Canada Aeroplan (New)
• Air France KLM Flying Blue (Existing)
• Air India Flying Returns (Existing)
• Air Vistara Club Vistara(New)
• Ethiopian Airlines Sheba Miles (New)
• Etihad Airways Etihad Guest (Existing)
• IHG One Rewards (Existing)
• ITC Green Points (New)
• Japan Airlines Mileage Bank(New)
• Marriott Bonvoy Points (New)
• Qantas Frequent Flyer Miles (Existing)
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios (Existing)
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles(Existing)
• SpiceJet SpiceClub (New)
• Thai Airways Royal Orchid Miles (New)
• Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles (Existing)
• United Airlines Mileage Plus (New)
• Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (New)

Here are the partners that go away because Citi’s Rewards System moves to Axis Bank TravelEDGE:

• InterMiles
• Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles
• British Airways Executive Club Avios (although replaceable by Qatar Airways Avios)
• Taj Inner Circle
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Red Points

One of the disadvantages of the transition, apart from losing these credit card transfer partners, is also the fact that Axis Bank’s transfer partner capping will be applicable. A generous capping of 750K points transfer per annum is in order.

Bottomline

The transition of the Citi Prestige Card will be done to the Olympus Credit Card from Axis Bank, which will retain the features of the Citi Prestige Card but will change some parts to comply with Axis Bank rules, in terms of capping rules and so on. As you will note, some other features make a comeback as well. The Axis Bank product team has done an excellent job with the product transition, as intended. The primary motivation is to keep the high-rollers from Citibank engaged (this was one of the primary motives for buying the Citi Retail Assets in India.)

Before this goes to market, the Axis Bank Sales Team and Risk Management take a deep look inside and decide not to hand out this card like Candy as they did with the Reserve and Magnus. The one thing that kept the Citi customers happy was the non-fussed nature of Prestige and bang for the buck. If Axis changes the equilibrium, they’d be gone in 60 seconds. I hope the transition is complete, and only then they focus on sales efforts.

What do you make of the transition of Citi Prestige to Axis Olympus, whatever we know of it so far? Questions, Comments. Drop it all in the box below. 

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