Going to take my first travel card - Axis Atlas, need some inputs.

[cardio_guycardio_guy is verified member.]

So after a lot of time spent on cashback cards and exploring a lot about travel cards, I finally decided to take the plunge and get into the world of travel card.
I had been avoiding Axis for some reasons all this while, but finally decided to take the Axis Atlas card.

Most importantly these days my bookings have changed, I usually book from direct airlines website or app, and hotels can be booked from traveledge.
So this gives me a chance to try my luck with Axis Atlas.

My travel and hotel stay is mostly domestic. My current cards do not give any good value on flight or hotel booking.
But Indigo flights are the one where I am stuck without any returns. (or may be 1.5% base returns)

I was shortlisting some of the other cards in this league:
- Amex Plat Travel: Amex not issuing cards now and low offline acceptance held me back
- HSBC Travel One: The advantage over Atlas is that OTAs are included but with Traveledge, I decided to go with Axis.
- HDFC Regalia Gold - I will be get this card sometime this year. When I get it, I will relook at my strategy.

Another thing that I considered is validity of edge miles and accor points.
I understand that Edge miles are valid for 3 years, but Accor points validity keeps extending as and when we transfer in points.

Use case of the Edge miles is stay in Accor hotels and nothing else.
In the next 1-2 years, I want to take my family to good places, and stay in good hotels, and I believe this will be a good choice.


I want to know the following things -
1. I don't have an Axis bank account. Will they give this card for people who doesnt have an account?
2. How is traveledge portal for booking hotels? (not accor or mariott kind of, but local ones)
3. I haven't considered anything about vouchers yet. Is it possible to play the voucher game with this card? If yes, how?
3. Did I mss anything else?

 

[nh124001]

2nd milestone hit. 7.5L spends.
Recd 2500 EM milestone benefit as well.
Total spend so far: 8L
Total EM earned so far incl both milestones: 27800
Transferred full to accor.
55600 accor points
1.12L INR
13.9% returns.

Reached this spend in 4 months of getting the card. Will continue to use it till next milestone.
Used accor points for 5 nights stay this year. Good usage of points.
Overall, satisfied so far.

bhai last 5-6 months mein..kuber ka khazana mil gaya hai?.. joo dhana dhan cc spend kar rahe hoo

 

[Aniket Sharma]

bhai last 5-6 months mein..kuber ka khazana mil gaya hai?.. joo dhana dhan cc spend kar rahe hoo

That's not a big issue now.

Only the issue comes when multiple card gets reported of more than 10 lakhs cc payment in a financial year.

 

[cardio_guycardio_guy is verified member.]

bhai last 5-6 months mein..kuber ka khazana mil gaya hai?.. joo dhana dhan cc spend kar rahe hoo

Sorry bro I dont understand Hindi/urdu. Will try to translate and reply later.

 

[cardio_guycardio_guy is verified member.]

bhai last 5-6 months mein..kuber ka khazana mil gaya hai?.. joo dhana dhan cc spend kar rahe hoo

Brother, did you find Kuber's treasure in the last 5-6 months? (Because of which) you are spending so much on your credit card -- if this is the approximate meaning, then -- we are a family of 6 and all (means all, everything) our expenses go on credit card. Easily one month's bill comes above 2-2.5L on an average across all cards.. (Also, monthly income can easily justify this, so not to worry too much).

 

[Cardzmania]

Here are my existing cards and their usage and plan for new cards.

Card​	Usage​	Fees
ICICI Amazon Pay	Only for Amazon purchases (5% cashback) Amazon purchases have reduced considerably.	LTF
ICICI Sapphiro	Only for BMS B1G1 - 500x2 per month	LTF
HDFC Swiggy	Only for Swiggy, Instamart, and Dineout (10% cashback)	LTF
HDFC Freedom	Keeping it for getting upgrade	500
HDFC Mariott Bonvoy	Only for lounge access for add-on card holders + FNA + Silver Elite + Some offline spends - insurance etc.	3540
Federal Celesta	Only for movie offer + Any bank specific offer.	LTF
Indusind Tiger	Only for lounge access + movie offer + Any bank specific offer.	LTF
IDFC First Wealth	Only for Visa Infinite + Card specific offers.	LTF
HDFC Tata Neu Infinity	UPI (1.5%), utilities, recharges, insurance, gas (5%) and Bigbasket grocery (10%).	LTF
Axis Atlas	Offline Swipes, Fuel vouchers, Indigo flight booking, direct hotel booking	5900

Future plan to optimize returns:

Card	Usage	Fees
HDFC Regalia Gold	Move Excluded category spends of Atlas to here. + Insurance + Othre spends. Or Close Atlas and move all atlas spends here. Consolidate all spends here. May not need Atlas and RG both together.	FYF / 2950

Things to consider:

• Atlas and Regalia Gold - Both or either one of them? -- Spends are less. So getting both would be an overkill. Maynot be able to meet fee waiver milestone if spends are spread across both.
• Vouchers - Plan to start buying vouchers for spends.
• Consolidate spends on LTF cards and move most of them to paid cards, so that fee waiver and milestones can be achieved.
• So in short RG and Atlas will become primary cards for offline and miscellaneous uses.

@cardio_guy Very informative, almost on similar boat (having Atlas, Tata Neu, Amex PT, HDFC Freedon and currently making every effort to acquire a Regalia Gold ) Could you please update your CC strategy with your latest addition of CC

 

[nh124001]

@cardio_guy Very informative, almost on similar boat (having Atlas, Tata Neu, Amex PT, HDFC Freedon and currently making every effort to acquire a Regalia Gold ) Could you please update your CC strategy with your latest addition of CC

bro i think if your spends are over 11.5L (7.5 atlas + 4 pt) only then think of hdfc rg

 

[cardio_guycardio_guy is verified member.]

@cardio_guy Very informative, almost on similar boat (having Atlas, Tata Neu, Amex PT, HDFC Freedon and currently making every effort to acquire a Regalia Gold ) Could you please update your CC strategy with your latest addition of CC

Thanks and good to know it helped you.
Yes, I am just working on something else now. Also waiting for some more card related changes.
I have planned to post the 2026 card strategy post sometime next week.

 

[akiratoriyama]

Thanks and good to know it helped you.
Yes, I am just working on something else now. Also waiting for some more card related changes.
I have planned to post the 2026 card strategy post sometime next week.

I'm also slowly thinking of doing this. Cashback is good no doubt but I want to travel more next year. No axis for me since they clamp down on business spends (not sure if that matters if it's a sole proprietorship but who knows).

 

[Cardzmania]

bro i think if your spends are over 11.5L (7.5 atlas + 4 pt) only then think of hdfc rg

Thanks bro.. Yeah I have this in my mind

 

[Cardzmania]

I'm also slowly thinking of doing this. Cashback is good no doubt but I want to travel more next year. No axis for me since they clamp down on business spends (not sure if that matters if it's a sole proprietorship but who knows).

Cashback cards are always good with less headache but we can extract limited value out of it... If someone has decent expenses (10-15 lakh annually) on CC, then definetly give it a try to explore rewards orientated CC to extract extra value

 

[Cardzmania]

Thanks and good to know it helped you.
Yes, I am just working on something else now. Also waiting for some more card related changes.
I have planned to post the 2026 card strategy post sometime next week.

Posting the 2026 card strategy next week sounds good....

 

[akiratoriyama]

Cashback cards are always good with less headache but we can extract limited value out of it... If someone has decent expenses (10-15 lakh annually) on CC, then definetly give it a try to explore rewards orientated CC to extract extra value

Yeah I've used kiwi and sbi cashback as much as I could. As good as the cashback feels, the rewards being in miles and points would mean I use them to travel too. Warna it's just debit and credit.