HDFC Bank has primarily worked on the premise of offering credit cards with a redemption portal, and made it attractive on the earn side, via the Smartbuy promotion/feature and various double points over the years. When Diners Club cards were added to the portfolio, HDFC Bank Diners Club had many transfer partners. This included the likes of Marriott Rewards, Hyatt and American Airlines. One fine day in 2016 all these partners went away.
Since then, HDFC has had a very varied approach to the card portfolio in terms of transfer partners. Even their top-tier cards had different transfer partners:
- HDFC Diners Club: InterMiles, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer,
British Airways Avios, Club Vistara,Trident Hotels Privilege - Infinia: InterMiles, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Club Vistara was offered as a transfer partner to Diners Club Black/ ClubMiles cards since 2017. However, this transfer partnership was not extended to any other HDFC Bank Credit Cards, until now.
HDFC Bank has now added Club Vistara to the Infinia, Regalia and Corporate credit cards as well, in the following transfer ratios:
To transfer your HDFC Bank Reward Points to Club Vistara Points, you must first register you Club Vistara membership ID with HDFC Bank. Follow these steps to register and then transfer:
- Log in to your Net banking account.
- Navigate to Credit Card section under Cards tab
- Click on Enquire and navigate to Redeem Points.
- Click on Airmiles tab and under Frequent Flyer Registration select Club Vistara to register your Club Vistara number.
- Mention the number of HDFC Bank Reward Points you wish to transfer to Club Vistara Points
- The Club Vistara Points will be credited within 10-15 days of the transfer request.
A minimum of 100 points is required to be transferred. While the transfer is deemed 15 days, it usually works out within a week, and even sooner like 2-3 days in my experience.
This is great news overall, but more so for the Infinia cardmembers as they have a third, and reliable option for points transfers. No doubt I love the INR 1 value the card gives per reward point, and the 10x promotion makes it possible to get a 33% cashback on various spends. However, there are many cases where you can use points over cash and get a ticket even cheaper, so why not use it.
What do you make about the new transfer partnership of HDFC Bank credit cards and Club Vistara?
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While doing Frequent Flyer registration of Club Vistara on HDFC bank website, we are supposed to enter the membership expiry date which is a mandatory field. But CV doesn’t have a membership expiry. So what should we enter in that field? Please advise. Thanks.
@A fellow travel enthusiast, any date will do.
I hold Regalia First Card
I don’t find Vistara option in my portal
Also no Rs. 99 card handling charges for Infinia and DCB.
S&S
Its nice that HDFC has another transfer partner in Vistara but I don’t see myself converting my Infinia points to Club Vistara points, and will stay with Kris Flyer as my preference. Reason being that redemption for CV on UK are really over valued (2X+) those available thru KF on Star Alliance carriers.
Some examples:
An India to Europe business class redemption thru KF on AI / LH / TK / LX / etc. is 54,500 KF Miles or 54,500 Infinia Points, while India to Europe business class redemption thru CV flying on UK is a whopping 120,000 CV points or 120,000 Infinia Points.
A Mumbai to Singapore business class redemption thru KF on SQ is 39,000 KF Miles or 39,000 Infinia Points, while Mumbai to Singapore business class redemption thru CV flying on UK (On a sub-standard A320 Business class in comparison to SQ) is a crazy 75,000 CV Points or 75,000 Infinia Points.
@AMit, yes, your point is valid. Having said that, most of Vistara’s network is domestic for now, and most people are flying domestic if any for the moment. So, I think this is a solid addition for those who would like to redeem since direct 1:1 ticket prices may be high
Amit Sir..
An India to Europe business class redemption thru KF on AI / LH / TK / LX / etc. is 54,500 KF Miles or 54,500 Infinia Points,
Iam new here..how to check or book this?
Pls guide
This is spooky I had just finished up a huge mail communications batch “15-20mails” with HDFC about the inablity of INFINIA transfer with Vistara CV on 1:1 as with my old DCB and was requesting them to give me a DCB as a floater but was denied due to both being same segment. 🙁
Anyway they did not tell me this was gonna happen after 5 days even after my mail’s were sent to the top people.
Rather than transfer to Club Vistara, isn’t it better to directly use infinia points for booking vistara through smartbuy portal? Is there any gain in transfer now unless one wants to travel in peak season with peak rates maybe?
I don’t see Vistara Flights on Smartbuy Portal
@Gkcards, the choice is always good. If I’m getting a revenue ticket, I’ll obviously take it, but like you said, when prices are high, redemptions work better.