Major Devaluations across the board for Axis Bank Credit Cards (effective April 20, 2024)

Axis Bank wanted to close the financial year with a bang, so as the financial year 2024 was rounded up to a close, the bank has put their customers on notice for a large number of changes that the bank will carry out on almost all their credit card products in the coming days. Many notices have gone out over the evening of March 19, 2024, and all the changes will come through as of April 20, 2024. This means you have till April 19, 2024, to salvage whatever you can from this round of Axis Bank Credit Card devaluations.

a man in a suit looking at a large screen

Axis Bank Credit Card Devaluations effective April 20, 2024

Axis Bank has chopped off all sorts of lifestyle features from its credit card portfolio to save its bottom line. There is an impact on all types of credit cards, including entry-level cards such as Flipkart co-brand and high-level co-brand cards such as Vistara Infinite. Not only that, but this round of cost-cutting has impacted even the creme-de-la-creme cards for Axis Bank, such as the Reserve, the Burgundy Private and the recently introduced Magnus for Burgundy. Also, Axis Bank has dropped the hammer on their much-loved travel credit card (Atlas), which it protected the last time. I’m not sure if these instructions came from the board or the top management, but Axis Bank Credit Cards has had to reverse course on most of the progress it made over the past two years with the phenomenal success of its cards.

Axis Bank will introduce ten kinds of devaluations to its credit card portfolio. If I discussed everything in one post, it would become huge. So, I will put out a summary here and then cover each part in a separate post wherever needed, organising it by the kind of cards. Here goes:

  1. Meet & Greet services are essentially going away.
  2. Lounge access on the cards is connected with minimum spending, even on premium credit cards.
  3. Concierge Services offered by the bank will be going away.
  4. Airport Transfers are being discontinued.
  5. Discounting schemes such as Swiggy codes are being fine-tuned, while Book My Show discounts (Buy one, Get one free) on Movie tickets are disappearing.
  6. Mileage Transfer Features are being made even more complicated, with the transfer partners being categorised into two lists with different conversion caps through the calendar year.
  7. Axis Bank will also add more categories to the list of things that won’t count towards earning points, such as fuel and gold/jewellery. The Bank has also classified which MCC codes will be discounted for earning points and milestone spends.
  8. Capping of accelerated rewards on travel spends on the Atlas.
  9. They are downsizing the annual renewal benefits on Axis Atlas and taking them away on Reserve and other Credit Cards.

Are there any broader trends I missed?

While I try to classify the impact on the significant Axis Bank Credit Cards, here is a list of the cards where the effect will be seen:

If you have the T&Cs for any Axis credit Cards, feel free to post them in the comments section.

What do you make of the big swings of benefits and rewards taken away by Axis Bank Credit Cards? Do share what impacts you the most.


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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. Hi Ajay – this is such a rip-off and disappointment from Axis. I have personally had terrible services from them at their branches and now their credit card portfolio also feels shortchanged. Would love your recommendations to switch to an alternate travel card that has a stable policy and is rewarding.
    It is bizarre that in a competitive market with many private/public banks, none of them truly reward their customer spends.

  2. As a bank they have the right to change the product features. The issue is a new round of devaluation every 6 months and highly unpredictable bank in India for sure. I hope they credit March AEP before 20th April so that M4B consumer atleast can get the advantage of utilising Accelerated points soon.

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