If you travel frequently, whether for business or leisure, having a travel credit card would be a wise choice. Not only you might end up saving a lot of money as upfront expenses, you would also end up collecting travel miles or points that you can later redeem for travel or hotel bookings.
Typically, these features are not available on rewards or cashback cards, which is why using a travel focussed credit card is a better option when planning for holidays.
That said, these typically come with a price which could range from anything between Rs 999 and Rs 4,999, excluding goods and services tax (GST). The renewal fee also costs practically the same.
That said, these cards also offer a plethora of benefits, including complimentary access to international and domestic airport lounges, direct discounts on flights and hotel bookings at select portals, air miles, and low foreign exchange mark-up fees, to name a few.
In addition, they also provide other benefits , such as baggage insurance, discount on tickets, extra baggage allowance, priority check-in, and the like. Some may also offer fine dining privileges at top restaurants and personalised 24x7 concierge services for all bookings.
Co-Branded Travel Cards
Travel credit cards are often co-branded with popular airlines and travel portals. These are ideal for those who prefer a particular airline or travel booking platform.
Says Rohit Chhiber, senior director and head of credit cards, Paisabazaar, a digital consumer credit marketplace: “Travellers who prefer Vistara Airlines can go for Axis Vistara credit cards or Club Vistara SBI credit cards as they can get complimentary membership to Club Vistara, earn Club Vistara (CV) Points, and also get free flight tickets on meeting certain conditions. Similarly, consumers who prefer EaseMyTrip can get Standard Chartered EaseMyTrip credit card which offers instant discounts on flights and hotel bookings made via EaseMyTrip.”
There are also other types of travel cards, which are not linked to a particular brand, but extend benefits on expenditures across the entire spectrum.
“The Citi PremierMiles credit card allows users to earn air miles on all their expenses, which can be redeemed across multiple airline partners as well as travel portals. Some all-rounder cards with high reward rates can also be beneficial for travel if they allow conversion of the points to air miles,” adds Chhiber.
Things to keep in mind
Customers should ideally identify their travel preferences and accordingly choose a travel card that best suits their needs.
For those who prefer a particular airline or travel portal, a co-branded card would be more suitable. Otherwise, a card that offers benefits across all travel expenditures, would be better.
Consumers should also check the additional privileges offered on the card, such as complimentary membership, lounge access, low foreign exchange mark-up fee, etc. to narrow down their choices and find a card that gives the best perks to suit their preferences.
Most importantly, one should go for travel cards only if one intends to use them throughout the year. Otherwise, one might just end up paying a high annual fee, without taking the benefits that come with it.
It’s also important to remember that these benefits often come with a blackout date. In case, you do not redeem it by then, you will lose the offer.
Lastly, while you might get impressed with hotel suite upgrades and free breakfast offers, do remember that most rooms in premium hotels are practically the same, and breakfast is usually complimentary. Lastly, airline lounge access won’t be relevant if you travel just once or twice a year.
