In November 2024, Vistara merged with Air India. Similarly, Maharaja Club emerged as the programme that was the previous Flying Returns, taking Club Vistara into itself. The credit card contracts were also assigned to the Air India Maharaja Club. While Air India is working on launching their co-brand credit card partnership, the old card contracts will close out in the coming months.

To this effect, while Air India and the Banks will honour their current offering, this will change for all accounts renewed in the next financial year. The first such announcements have now been revealed.

IDFC First Bank announces changes to the Vistara co-brand cards renewed after March 31, 2025.

IDFC FIRST Bank has informed Club Vistara IDFC FIRST Credit Card members that Air India discontinued annual benefits in lieu of fee payment and milestone ticket vouchers after March 31, 2025. Cardmembers can continue to use their credit cards and earn spend-based Maharaja Points.

Maharaja Points will be earned on the card until March 31, 2026, when the card product is closed. The bank will waive the annual fee for cards renewed after March 31, 2025.

How I interpret this is that members will not get the following benefits after March 31, 2025:

And, of course, if you end up being due for a renewal fee after March 31, 2025, the card will be free for you for a year.

SBICards announces changes to the Vistara co-brand cards renewed after March 31, 2025.

SBICards has also informed cardholders that their benefits will change for cardholders due to pay the renewal fee after March 31, 2025.

As per SBICards, the Renewal benefit (1 Economy Ticket Voucher) and Milestone benefit (1 Economy Ticket each, on annual spend of INR 1.25 Lakhs, INR 2.5 Lakhs and INR 5 Lakhs) for all Club Vistara SBI Credit Cards due for renewal after April 1, 2025, will be discontinued. Similarly, the Renewal benefit (1 Premium Economy Ticket Voucher) and Milestone benefit (1 Premium Economy Ticket each, on annual spend of INR 1.5 Lakhs, INR 3 Lakhs, INR 4.5 Lakhs and INR 8 Lakhs) will be discontinued for all Club Vistara SBI PRIME Credit Cards due for renewal after April 1, 2025.

SBICards will waive the renewal fee of INR 1,499 for the base card and INR 2,999 for the PRIME variant when they come up for renewal after April 1, 2025. Cardmembers due for renewal in the coming month (through March 31, 2025) will pay the fee and be able to claim the benefits.

It is unclear for now what Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank do for their co-brand cardmembers. If the product features for their cards had changed, they would have sent similar notifications to their cardmembers on February 28, 2025. Also, the language for both IDFC First and SBICards is different.

SBICards states that there will be two kinds of cardmembers as of March 31, 2025: one who pays the fees and keeps the benefits and those who will not need to pay the fee and will get the card free as well for the next renewal cycle. And for the IDFC First Card, does it sound like they are saying all cardmembers will see their card benefits go away as of April 1, 2025?

Bottomline

SBICards and IDFC First Bank have notified their Vistara co-brand cardmembers that they will see a change in the features on their cards as of April 1, 2025. The card issuers have interpreted this differently, unless it is just the language that is different. These changes are being driven by Air India, which is preparing to launch a new range of co-brand credit cards. Essentially, cardmembers will no longer receive their complimentary tickets, which are for card renewal or achieving milestones, and in exchange, their cards are being made free.

What do you think of the move by SBICards and IDFC First Bank?

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