Travel (general)

Axis Bank Atlas

5 EDGE Miles/₹100 on direct airline, hotel and Travel Edge bookings (2/₹100 elsewhere). Miles transfer 1:2 to Air India, KrisFlyer, Flying Blue, ITC, IHG and more

₹5,000 + GST, no spend-based waiver

Tier milestones add up to 10,000 bonus miles/year plus lounge access.

Group A partners (KrisFlyer, Aeroplan, JAL) are capped at 30,000 EDGE Miles a year and Group B at 1.2 lakh. British Airways, Finnair and Vietnam transfer at a poor 2:1. The 5x travel earn is capped at about ₹2 lakh of travel spend a month. Fuel, rent, wallet, government and utility spends earn nothing, so this is a pure travel-and-shopping card.

HSBC TravelOne

4 points/₹100 on travel and forex, transferring 1:1 to 20+ airline and hotel programs. The widest mostly-1:1 partner list in India

₹4,999 + GST, waived on ₹8 lakh annual spends

High monthly caps (50,000 accelerated points) and 6 domestic + 4 international lounge visits.

Turkish and United transfer at 2:1, and ratios are not guaranteed. The 3.5% forex markup eats most of the 4x on overseas swipes. HSBC issues in limited cities and underwriting is conservative.

HDFC Bank Infinia Metal

3.3% base return everywhere, 5X flights (16.5%) and 10X hotels (33%) on SmartBuy at ₹1/point, plus mostly-1:1 airline mile transfers

₹12,500 + GST, waived on ₹10 lakh annual spends

India's most valuable card for high spenders: an unbeatable base rate, SmartBuy flight and hotel multipliers, unlimited lounge access, and a deep transfer-partner list as backup.

Effectively invite-only, with steep income requirements of roughly ₹4 lakh a month salaried or ₹42 lakh ITR, so treat it as the aspirational pick. SmartBuy brand-voucher earning is capped at 3,000 points a month and overall accelerated earn at 15,000 points a month.