Axis Bank from being the least rewarding cards, becomes the highest rewarding cards of the current times after the introduction of the Loyalty Program transfer option of Edge Points, as well as they brought the Atlas card with a completely different Point System, called Edge Miles.
The best of the loyalty program conversion comes to the HNI cards, such as Axis One, Reserve, Magnus and ofcourse the Atlas with Edge Miles. Now let's see if you're having Reserve, Magnus and Atlas together, what you can achieve in terms of cost vs reward.
Please do note this trifecta is useful for the high spenders, or I should say, significantly high spenders. You'll be paying significant amount in fees as well.
Sweet Spots:
💳 Reserve:
1. Flat 6% reward rate
2. 2x RP on forex spends which also do earn 12% reward rate, the highest among all credit cards in India
3. 4 Airport Transfers (few with Merc, BMW, Audi) and 8 Meet and Greet service
4. 12 Guest Visit both on domestic and international lounge along with Unlimited access, even on add-on card and add-on cards' Priority Pass
5. 1.5% forex markup
6. Hotel Memberships like ITC Culinaire, AccorPlus Silver where AccorPlus comes with 2 free night of stay instead of 1 in standard memberships
7. 50K Edge Points both on joining and renewal irrespective of annual fee paid or not
💳 Magnus:
1. Flat 4.8% reward rate
2. Bonus 25K RP on monthly 1L spends which can give return of 24.8%
3. 5x RP on Travel Edge and Gift Edge with no cap on bonus RP earned
4. Markup is 2%, forex spends will earn significant amount of return only when hitting more than 1L monthly spending mark
💳 Atlas:
Makes good sense only if you can spend 15L in a year and has revenue flight booking
1. 5K Edge Miles on joining, 10K EM on renewal if hitting Platinum tier of 15L spending
2. Bonus 10K EM on 15L spends
3. 5x EM on booking through Airline’s website & Travel Edge
Note:
1. Effective from mid of December 2022, Atlas will be earning 2 Edge Miles instead of 1 Edge Miles per ₹100 spent, which makes it direct competitor to Citi Prestige and gives us a hint that Citi Prestige holders may get Atlas after the complete shifting of Citi Bank's business to Axis Bank.
2. You can pay directly to hotels and earn 5x Edge Miles.
3. The milestone is coming is 2,500 , 5,000 , 10,000 Edge Miles, so as stated above, it'd earn 17,500 bonus Edge Miles in total if you spend 15L on you card in a year.
The total Edge Miles earned will be 30K + 17.5K + 5K = 52.5K which will translate into 1,05,000 Loyalty Program points (except Marriott Bonvoy)
Now if you have all of these 3 cards together, you’re paying 65K + GST as fee and for waiver of fee which is applicable only on Magnus & Reserve and you’re looking at 40L of spends on these two cards only for the fee waiver milestone.
Adding Atlas in the trifecta, to get the ideal value, you’re looking at another 15L spends. Accumulating 55L of spends altogether.
Yes, the spends are crazy high, and I had already mentioned it’s for specific set of people only. But very few can hit the ideal spending mark. So alternative?
Now let’s see when you should and shouldn’t get the specific card of this trifecta.
Considering you’re not doing THE IDEAL SPENDING on each of the card.
💳 Reserve:
Makes sense only if you’re a high spender. People with minimum 2-4L of monthly spends.
Have a significant amount of forex spends. 2x the RP. Lower markup of 1.5%. Even after the markup it’s a 10.23% flat return which is still the highest so far among all the cards.
Looking for lifestyle benefits. Be it airport transfers, Meet & Greet, Guest Visit for both Domestic and International airport lounge.
Hotel memberships of ITC Culinaire, AccorPlus Silver which comes with 2 free nights instead of 1. It’s an added benefit from Axis itself.
Keeping it along with Magnus, post 1L put all the spends on Reserve for 6-12% of value back.
Even if you don’t hit the 25L spending milestone and end up paying the fee, you get compensated with 50K Edge RP + renewal of all the other benefits.
💳 Magnus:
Do I even need to explain?
Get this card only if you can pull off 1L spending for at least 4-6 months (no forced spending, please be responsible). I took time to take the card only for this reason as there was not excess 1L spending consistent every month earlier.
Try to maximise with Gift Edge by buying vouchers of your necessary retailers. RP Multiplier, a fast rack way to gather pts.
Even if you don’t hit 15L milestone for fee waiver you get to choose between 10K Tata Cliq voucher & Flight ticket. Well compensated.
💳 Atlas:
A card if properly used can fetch 10% value back if used in the right segment.
Only get if you can put minimum 7.5L spends separately to it to get the Gold Tier. For 5K joining and annual fee you get: 5K + 5K = 10K Edge Miles which translates to 20K loyalty pts except Bonvoy.
This card is super useful for the domestic frequent flyer unless you’re flying Visara. For Vistara, get the Vistara Infinite.
It gives 2x the RP if you’re making reservation through respective airline’s website. Which can fetch 10% return easily.
Note:
Effective from mid of December, 2022, you can pay directly to the hotel to get the 5x Edge Reward Points.
Now, let’s calculate a scenario and total pts earned and convert them to everyone’s favourite KrisFlyer at 5:4 for Magnus and Reserve and at 1:2 for Atlas.
I’m going to take the least amount of expected spending from the respective card holder going by their spending power.
💳 Reserve:
Let’s consider the annual spending 15L. So you’re paying both the fee.
From joining to first year’s renewal:
50K Edge RP x2 = 100K Edge RP
Considering 5L forex spends out of 15L annual spends.
So for 5L forex spends total Edge RP = 75K Edge RP
For the rest of the 10L spends the Edge RP you’ll earn is = 75K
Total Edge RP Earned: 1,00,000 + 75,000 + 75,000 = 2,50,000
KrisFlyer Miles Earned: 2,00,000
Total Fee Paid (including GST): ₹1,18,00
💳 Magnus:
Let’s consider the annual spending is 10L on it and you’re hitting the 1L spending milestone at least 5 times in a year.
If hitting 1L milestone 5 times the total Edge RP you’ll earn = 1,25,00
For 10L spends the total Edge RP earned = 60K
Total Edge RP Earned: 1,25,00 + 60,000= 1,85,000
KrisFlyer Miles Earned: 1,48,000
Total Fee Paid (including GST): ₹23,600
💳 Atlas:
Considering you’re hitting Gold tier by spending 7.5L and you’re doing 3L worth of airline transactions. For 3L spend you’re getting 5x EM. So you’re getting 15K EM for 3L airline spends.
For the rest 4.5L worth of spend total EM earned = 4.5K (Effective from mid of December 2022, you'll be getting 9K Edge Miles instead of 4.5K Edge Miles in this specific spending)
You get 5K Edge Miles as joining benefit
As you’re hitting Gold tier, you’ll get 5K Edge Miles at the time of renewal as well
Adding to that you'll be getting 2 tier milestone of 2.5L and 7.5L spending which are 2.5k Edge Miles and 5k Edge Miles respectively
Total Edge Miles earned: 15K + 4.5K + 5K + 5K +2.5K +5K= 37K (Effective from mid of December 2022, you'll be getting 41.5K Edge Miles instead of 37K Edge Miles in this specific spending)
KrisFlyer Miles Earned: 74,00 (Effective from mid of December 2022, you'll be getting 98K KrisFlyer Miles instead of 74K KrisFlyer Miles in this specific spending)
Total Fee Paid (including GST): ₹11,800
The Trifecta:
Total Fee Paid: ₹1,53,400 (Joining + Annual including GST)
Total KrisFlyer Miles Earned: 4,07,500 (Effective from mid of December 2022, you'll be getting 446K KrisFlyer Miles instead of 407K KrisFlyer Miles in this specific spending)
For the sake of illustration, that’s about 3 times round trip in Singapore Airlines in F class in BOM/DEL 🔁 SIN route and 1 time BOM/DEL ➡️ SIN one way F class
If you check the revenue cost of this route at same class, the single round trip alone costs 3L which most of us will never pay. In total the points will be 10.5L worth of flight fare.
The fee you pay is high but the reward is HUGE. Not to forget you’re spending 32.5L.
This trifecta is going to serve a lot of people who’ve this amount of spends. If you’re a frequent flyer of Vistara, go grab the Vistara Infinite instead of Atlas.
Is this trifecta going to be useful for you according to your spends? Let me know!
The best of the loyalty program conversion comes to the HNI cards, such as Axis One, Reserve, Magnus and ofcourse the Atlas with Edge Miles. Now let's see if you're having Reserve, Magnus and Atlas together, what you can achieve in terms of cost vs reward.
Please do note this trifecta is useful for the high spenders, or I should say, significantly high spenders. You'll be paying significant amount in fees as well.
Sweet Spots:
💳 Reserve:
1. Flat 6% reward rate
2. 2x RP on forex spends which also do earn 12% reward rate, the highest among all credit cards in India
3. 4 Airport Transfers (few with Merc, BMW, Audi) and 8 Meet and Greet service
4. 12 Guest Visit both on domestic and international lounge along with Unlimited access, even on add-on card and add-on cards' Priority Pass
5. 1.5% forex markup
6. Hotel Memberships like ITC Culinaire, AccorPlus Silver where AccorPlus comes with 2 free night of stay instead of 1 in standard memberships
7. 50K Edge Points both on joining and renewal irrespective of annual fee paid or not
💳 Magnus:
1. Flat 4.8% reward rate
2. Bonus 25K RP on monthly 1L spends which can give return of 24.8%
3. 5x RP on Travel Edge and Gift Edge with no cap on bonus RP earned
4. Markup is 2%, forex spends will earn significant amount of return only when hitting more than 1L monthly spending mark
💳 Atlas:
Makes good sense only if you can spend 15L in a year and has revenue flight booking
1. 5K Edge Miles on joining, 10K EM on renewal if hitting Platinum tier of 15L spending
2. Bonus 10K EM on 15L spends
3. 5x EM on booking through Airline’s website & Travel Edge
Note:
1. Effective from mid of December 2022, Atlas will be earning 2 Edge Miles instead of 1 Edge Miles per ₹100 spent, which makes it direct competitor to Citi Prestige and gives us a hint that Citi Prestige holders may get Atlas after the complete shifting of Citi Bank's business to Axis Bank.
2. You can pay directly to hotels and earn 5x Edge Miles.
3. The milestone is coming is 2,500 , 5,000 , 10,000 Edge Miles, so as stated above, it'd earn 17,500 bonus Edge Miles in total if you spend 15L on you card in a year.
The total Edge Miles earned will be 30K + 17.5K + 5K = 52.5K which will translate into 1,05,000 Loyalty Program points (except Marriott Bonvoy)
Now if you have all of these 3 cards together, you’re paying 65K + GST as fee and for waiver of fee which is applicable only on Magnus & Reserve and you’re looking at 40L of spends on these two cards only for the fee waiver milestone.
Adding Atlas in the trifecta, to get the ideal value, you’re looking at another 15L spends. Accumulating 55L of spends altogether.
Yes, the spends are crazy high, and I had already mentioned it’s for specific set of people only. But very few can hit the ideal spending mark. So alternative?
Now let’s see when you should and shouldn’t get the specific card of this trifecta.
Considering you’re not doing THE IDEAL SPENDING on each of the card.
💳 Reserve:
Makes sense only if you’re a high spender. People with minimum 2-4L of monthly spends.
Have a significant amount of forex spends. 2x the RP. Lower markup of 1.5%. Even after the markup it’s a 10.23% flat return which is still the highest so far among all the cards.
Looking for lifestyle benefits. Be it airport transfers, Meet & Greet, Guest Visit for both Domestic and International airport lounge.
Hotel memberships of ITC Culinaire, AccorPlus Silver which comes with 2 free nights instead of 1. It’s an added benefit from Axis itself.
Keeping it along with Magnus, post 1L put all the spends on Reserve for 6-12% of value back.
Even if you don’t hit the 25L spending milestone and end up paying the fee, you get compensated with 50K Edge RP + renewal of all the other benefits.
💳 Magnus:
Do I even need to explain?
Get this card only if you can pull off 1L spending for at least 4-6 months (no forced spending, please be responsible). I took time to take the card only for this reason as there was not excess 1L spending consistent every month earlier.
Try to maximise with Gift Edge by buying vouchers of your necessary retailers. RP Multiplier, a fast rack way to gather pts.
Even if you don’t hit 15L milestone for fee waiver you get to choose between 10K Tata Cliq voucher & Flight ticket. Well compensated.
💳 Atlas:
A card if properly used can fetch 10% value back if used in the right segment.
Only get if you can put minimum 7.5L spends separately to it to get the Gold Tier. For 5K joining and annual fee you get: 5K + 5K = 10K Edge Miles which translates to 20K loyalty pts except Bonvoy.
This card is super useful for the domestic frequent flyer unless you’re flying Visara. For Vistara, get the Vistara Infinite.
It gives 2x the RP if you’re making reservation through respective airline’s website. Which can fetch 10% return easily.
Note:
Effective from mid of December, 2022, you can pay directly to the hotel to get the 5x Edge Reward Points.
Now, let’s calculate a scenario and total pts earned and convert them to everyone’s favourite KrisFlyer at 5:4 for Magnus and Reserve and at 1:2 for Atlas.
I’m going to take the least amount of expected spending from the respective card holder going by their spending power.
💳 Reserve:
Let’s consider the annual spending 15L. So you’re paying both the fee.
From joining to first year’s renewal:
50K Edge RP x2 = 100K Edge RP
Considering 5L forex spends out of 15L annual spends.
So for 5L forex spends total Edge RP = 75K Edge RP
For the rest of the 10L spends the Edge RP you’ll earn is = 75K
Total Edge RP Earned: 1,00,000 + 75,000 + 75,000 = 2,50,000
KrisFlyer Miles Earned: 2,00,000
Total Fee Paid (including GST): ₹1,18,00
💳 Magnus:
Let’s consider the annual spending is 10L on it and you’re hitting the 1L spending milestone at least 5 times in a year.
If hitting 1L milestone 5 times the total Edge RP you’ll earn = 1,25,00
For 10L spends the total Edge RP earned = 60K
Total Edge RP Earned: 1,25,00 + 60,000= 1,85,000
KrisFlyer Miles Earned: 1,48,000
Total Fee Paid (including GST): ₹23,600
💳 Atlas:
Considering you’re hitting Gold tier by spending 7.5L and you’re doing 3L worth of airline transactions. For 3L spend you’re getting 5x EM. So you’re getting 15K EM for 3L airline spends.
For the rest 4.5L worth of spend total EM earned = 4.5K (Effective from mid of December 2022, you'll be getting 9K Edge Miles instead of 4.5K Edge Miles in this specific spending)
You get 5K Edge Miles as joining benefit
As you’re hitting Gold tier, you’ll get 5K Edge Miles at the time of renewal as well
Adding to that you'll be getting 2 tier milestone of 2.5L and 7.5L spending which are 2.5k Edge Miles and 5k Edge Miles respectively
Total Edge Miles earned: 15K + 4.5K + 5K + 5K +2.5K +5K= 37K (Effective from mid of December 2022, you'll be getting 41.5K Edge Miles instead of 37K Edge Miles in this specific spending)
KrisFlyer Miles Earned: 74,00 (Effective from mid of December 2022, you'll be getting 98K KrisFlyer Miles instead of 74K KrisFlyer Miles in this specific spending)
Total Fee Paid (including GST): ₹11,800
The Trifecta:
Total Fee Paid: ₹1,53,400 (Joining + Annual including GST)
Total KrisFlyer Miles Earned: 4,07,500 (Effective from mid of December 2022, you'll be getting 446K KrisFlyer Miles instead of 407K KrisFlyer Miles in this specific spending)
For the sake of illustration, that’s about 3 times round trip in Singapore Airlines in F class in BOM/DEL 🔁 SIN route and 1 time BOM/DEL ➡️ SIN one way F class
If you check the revenue cost of this route at same class, the single round trip alone costs 3L which most of us will never pay. In total the points will be 10.5L worth of flight fare.
The fee you pay is high but the reward is HUGE. Not to forget you’re spending 32.5L.
This trifecta is going to serve a lot of people who’ve this amount of spends. If you’re a frequent flyer of Vistara, go grab the Vistara Infinite instead of Atlas.
Is this trifecta going to be useful for you according to your spends? Let me know!
