Devaluation Axis Atlas Credit Card Huge Devaluation Effective From 20th April 2024

[TechnoFinoTechnoFino is verified member.]

It’s time for Axis Atlas now! Axis Bank has announced a brutal devaluation of its Atlas Credit Card.

Here are the changes:

Revision of spend categories considered for EDGE Miles earn, Milestone spends & Tier Calculation:

Normal Spends: Spends done on gold/jewellery, rent, wallet, government institution, insurance, fuel and utilities will be excluded from EDGE Miles earning.
Milestone & Tier: Spends threshold for Milestone achievement and Tier evaluation will exclude transactions done on Gold/ Jewellery, Rent, Wallet, Government Institution, Insurance, Fuel, and Utilities merchants.

Capping on Accelerated EDGE Miles earned on Travel merchants:
Earn 5 EDGE Miles for every Rs. 100 spent on Travel EDGE, airline and hotel merchants up to cumulative transactions of Rs. 2,00,000 per month.
That means you can earn maximum 10,000 EDGE Miles from accelerated categories.
Then earn 2 EDGE Mile per INR 100 spent on cumulative transactions above Rs. 2,00,000 per month on Travel EDGE, airline and hotel merchants.

Revision of Milestone benefits:
Up to 10,000 EDGE Miles will be credited to cardholders’ EDGE Miles account upon achieving spends milestone. EDGE Miles credit will be as per the following:

Spends Milestone (in Rs)	Number of EDGE Miles
On Rs. 3,00,000 spends	2500
On Rs. 7,50,000 spends	Additional 2500
On Rs. 15,00,000 spends	Additional 5000

Revision of Annual benefit:

Up to 5,000 EDGE Miles will be credited to cardholders’ EDGE Miles account upon payment of Annual fee of Rs 5,000 and basis the current tier the customer is in. EDGE Miles credit will be as per the following:

Cardholder tier	Number of EDGE Miles
Silver	Not Applicable
Gold	2,500
Platinum	5,000

Revision of EDGE MILES redemption & MILES Transfer Program:

Total EDGE MILES that can be transferred to Partner Points in a calendar year is capped to 1,50,000 EDGE MILES per customer ID. For the year 2024, customer can convert 1,50,000 EDGE Miles from 20th April 2024 – 31st December 2024. From next year onwards, capping will be applicable from 1st Jan’25 to 31st Dec’25
All existing MILES transfer partners are divided in two groups (Group A & Group B). For redemption through Miles Transfer Program, the customer will be able to transfer maximum of 30,000 EDGE Miles per customer id cumulatively to partners in Group A and maximum of 1,20,000 EDGE Miles per customer id cumulatively to partners in Group B in a calendar year.

Following ATLAS Credit Card features will be discontinued:

1. Tier based benefit of Airport Meet & Assist and Airport Transfer Services.
2. 24*7 complimentary concierge services.

No doubt, the Axis Atlas credit card was one of the most rewarding air miles-focused credit cards. However, after this brutal devaluation, I can’t say the same thing about Axis Atlas. Still, it’s a very good card for international spends and travel bookings, as the capping on travel categories is decent enough for a normal person.
I think removing the utility category will hurt customers the most. Almost all customers pay their utility bills every month, and because of this step, customers will not be able to earn EDGE miles on their utility spends. It's strange that Axis excluded utilities, insurance, wallets, government payments, and a few more essential categories but did not exclude education payments. Very strange.

Jokes apart, Axis Atlas is still a very good card for travel bookings and international spends. But again, after all this Axis Bank drama every week, whether it's devaluation or card cancellation, will you be able to trust Axis Bank? I won't. I don’t recommend using an Axis Bank card as your primary card as long as they don’t stop this ongoing weekly circus.

 

[JSFinance]

IN easy language I want to ask, Is this card still good based on rewards rate if we hit 15 lakh in a year.

Nope. 7.5 Lacs is still good. 15 Lac is ok if you use accor hotels.

Axis ATLAS	Gold Tier	Platinum Tier
Welcome Miles	5000	5000
Milestone Miles	5000	10000
Spend Miles	15000	30000
Total Miles	25000	45000
Accor Points ( Miles * 2 )	50000	90000
Accor Value ( Points*1.8 )	90000	162000
Net Value back %	12	10.8

 

[rogerthat]

But eventually there is capping of 30K. So next year either you transfer to other partners or do a meticulous planning to be able to transfer max 60K EM.
Off topic : Is 60K Accor points enough for a decent domestic/international booking (not considering IBIS).

This one thing (30K cap) has made Atlas worthless for any large spends. That with the devaluation in milestones by 50% has practically made the card worthless for total transactions beyond 7.5 lakhs (Gold tier) per annum.

If you were to spend 30% of your spends on travel and 70% on others, you will end up hitting 30K Edge Miles at exactly 7 lakhs, making it useless for any further spends because you can't transfer it. Funny because in terms of absolute returns (4%), Atlas is still the most "rewarding" card on paper.

Axis did the balancing act quite effectively. While it didn't touch Atlas' rewards or lounges, it made it pointless (pun intended) to spend on.

 

[realSP]

Has anyone done transactions in the last few days in Atlas to reach the Platinum Tier and got milestone miles? I reached platinum tier, got base miles but not the 10k milestone miles. Usually milestone miles come really soon.

I reached the Platinum tier on April 16th in the morning, and I contacted chat support in the afternoon. The executive informed me to wait for 60 days for the 10k miles to be credited. I expressed my inability to wait that long, so I didn't disconnect the chat. Instead, I insisted that a complaint be registered. The executive escalated the issue to a higher level and provided me with a service request number. However, on the same night, the 10k miles were credited.