Help me understand Infinia Points

[swipesmart]

Hi,

I was looking smartbuy which gives 16.5% as reward points considering 5X vouchers. But this 16.5% is not actually 16.5% monetary value right unless used at Tanishq or Apple right ?

Because other good option is to transfer miles and Accorr was most rewarding but now with Accorr it's 1 RP points = 0.5 Accor points.

I do agree that we have other airlines/hotel partner where it's still 1:1.

Can someone help me or I'm missing something

 

[helloworld]

Bhai ab jab card aa hi gaya hai to har scenario ka return pata hona chahiye. Mere ghar me we don't have much travel requirements. So Jo bhi maximum ho skega through smartbuy vouchers, vo kr lenge. Is there a thread in our forum, where detailed reward points have been shared for infinia ? If yes kindly share the link.

There are no tricky sides here, its as simple as in the image.

 

[Hemang]

There are no tricky sides here, its as simple as in the image.

Humare technfino valo ne loophole ni dhunde isme to max out the benefits😝😝. Rest I read them out earlier too.

 

[jonamdhar]

Well no one gives you free hotel
They might give hotel voucher for spends on hotel


Consider the following example:

I have 1000 points on my Infinia
I booked a flight costing me 7000 INR redeeming 1000 points and putting in 6000 INR
I will be getting 1000 points back

So now, effectively what's the price I had to pay for 7000 INR ticket?
6000 INR == 85.57% of total fare == 14.43% cost saved


Coming to your hotel example, if I'm getting 10k priced hotel room at 5k and I happen to procure a voucher for it, the value I see it as is 5k not 10k

Hope you understand what I'm trying to distinguish by the effective value I'm getting (vs) effective monetary equivalent I'm able to redeem them for

It's slightly different but worth consideration

There's a reason why Swiggy HDFC card getting 10% cashback into swiggy money and now as cashback into card account is a positive revaluation

Hope I could convey my perspective

The Rs. 1,000 example is just perfect. I think it explains the exact value of the points.

 

[Lobogris]

The Rs. 1,000 example is just perfect. I think it explains the exact value of the points.

No, it's not correct. The person chose an arbitrary number of 1,000. You could have redeemed 2k, 3k or 5k points as well and received an equivalent amount of discount. The value of points is 1 Re per point.

 

[jonamdhar]

No, it's not correct. The person chose an arbitrary number of 1,000. You could have redeemed 2k, 3k or 5k points as well and received an equivalent amount of discount. The value of points is 1 Re per point.

All these restricted cashback uses are disgused offers. It appears that the value of the point is Rs. 1, as each of the transactions works that way. But wherever there is restriction in usage of those points, the "effective" value for long term usage over several transactions is much lesser.

Lets say there was an offer of Buy 1 and get 50% off on second transaction. So you pay Rs. 100 and get Rs. 50 coupon. But you have to pay Rs. 50 (100-50) again, net of coupon for second transaction. So you are paying Rs. 150 for a Rs. 200 transaction, which is just 25% discount and not 50%.

Even in this case, while they give you 16.67% cash back in terms of points, because of the restrictions, it effectively becomes 14.3%

 

[indraneal89]

Humare technfino valo ne loophole ni dhunde isme to max out the benefits😝😝. Rest I read them out earlier too.

One indirect loophole I found around the fact that you don't get reward points for fuel

I purchase Amazon pay vouchers using Gyftr and use that to load BPCL wallet in their SmartDrive loyalty program.

 

[sourpai]

One indirect loophole I found around the fact that you don't get reward points for fuel

I purchase Amazon pay vouchers using Gyftr and use that to load BPCL wallet in their SmartDrive loyalty program.

What about charges? Can you load freely with Apay balance?

 

[indraneal89]

What about charges? Can you load freely with Apay balance?

There are loading charges. It cost me Rs 118 to load Rs 5000 of wallet balance or around 2.36%. I don't know if there's any limit to load with Amazon Pay balance so far but in any case you can only buy Rs 20000 worth of vouchers in a month from Gyftr anyway and that more than covers my needs. Even adjusting for costs I get a 15%+ return on a spend I'd normally not get anything for

 

[JimCarrey]

Logic is nice. But INFINIA is still the best rewarding card as of now, put whatever logic you want, one having an infinia is going to be using it. Currently buying medicines @ 48% off.

Point redemption is easy and smartbuy is wonderfully rewarding.

With your logic of Swiggy giving statement credit of CB, I would think it 1% lesser as I could have paid that using hdfc dc and got 1% more back. Only bank transfer of CashBack would be 100% rewarding.

Take Tanishq vouchers and buy gold if you feel flights and hotels could have been discounted else where.

 

[Lobogris]

All these restricted cashback uses are disgused offers. It appears that the value of the point is Rs. 1, as each of the transactions works that way. But wherever there is restriction in usage of those points, the "effective" value for long term usage over several transactions is much lesser.

Lets say there was an offer of Buy 1 and get 50% off on second transaction. So you pay Rs. 100 and get Rs. 50 coupon. But you have to pay Rs. 50 (100-50) again, net of coupon for second transaction. So you are paying Rs. 150 for a Rs. 200 transaction, which is just 25% discount and not 50%.

Even in this case, while they give you 16.67% cash back in terms of points, because of the restrictions, it effectively becomes 14.3%

What is the restriction? There is no restriction whatsoever. You book any flight or hotel and van deduct 100% of the value of your points. How is this less than 1Rs per point? You use 1k points, you get 1k off. You use 5k points, you get 5k off. There is no reduction whatsoever in value.

 

[Lobogris]

Answer these questions:

1) If you're getting 10k priced hotel room at 5k and I happen to procure a voucher for it, you'd see its value as 5k or 10k?
Would you be willing to pay 6k to buy that voucher from somewhere?

2) Swiggy HDFC card getting 10% cashback into swiggy money (vs) card account. Do you consider both of them equally rewarding?

3) Since you seem to claim you get 16.66% value out of smartbuy transactions, would you be willing to buy some voucher of 10k for a friend and give him at 8500 since you'd still be earning profit as per your calculations


Yes, we're redeeming points AT value of Re1 / point but its not the effective value extracted from it

You're not understanding difference betweem effective reward rate and monetary value extracted from it

That's all I had to say from my side

Else everyone is supposed to have their own perspectives

1. Value would be 5k. Why would I pay 6k? Infinia doesn't ask you to pay any extra cost.
2. Personally, it is as good as cash for me as I use Swiggy a lot. One should only get the Swiggy card if one uses Swiggy frequently.
3. Yes, I would be happy to buy 10k Smartbuy points at 8.5k anytime. Even 100k at 85k and so on. Not sure if this is possible though.

 

[WhoU]

Just compare it with SBI cashback and you would probably understand.

If one gets 5% cashback (500 rs statement credit) compared to 500rp for 10000 spent, anyone would go for 5% cashback on statement right? Why - because you don’t have to spend anything more to get value of that 5%. Here you would have to spend 500rs on flight, which in turn would have gotten 25rs cashback if you would have statement cashback.

Hence the true value is not 16.67 but as per above calculation 14.3.

 

[Lobogris]

Just compare it with SBI cashback and you would probably understand.

If one gets 5% cashback (500 rs statement credit) compared to 500rp for 10000 spent, anyone would go for 5% cashback on statement right? Why - because you don’t have to spend anything more to get value of that 5%. Here you would have to spend 500rs on flight, which in turn would have gotten 25rs cashback if you would have statement cashback.

Hence the true value is not 16.67 but as per above calculation 14.3.

I have both SBI Cashback and Infinia. So I understand this quite well. You are completely incorrect in deduction of the loss of future cashback. There is no question of the loss of Rs25 as you are not paying the Rs500. By that logic, you should buy a flight costing double the amount as you would get double cashback. Would you do that? On Smartbuy, you also get cashback on the remainder 30% portion that is paid by card. Infinia is meant for people who travel often. When you book your next flight or hotel, you simply deduct the points from it. If you don't travel often, then Infinia isn't the best for you.

 

[coolguy1]

I have both SBI Cashback and Infinia. So I understand this quite well. You are completely incorrect in deduction of the loss of future cashback. There is no question of the loss of Rs25 as you are not paying the Rs500. By that logic, you should buy a flight costing double the amount as you would get double cashback. Would you do that? On Smartbuy, you also get cashback on the remainder 30% portion that is paid by card. Infinia is meant for people who travel often. When you book your next flight or hotel, you simply deduct the points from it. If you don't travel often, then Infinia isn't the best for you.

What about the point that flights on Smartbuy are more expensive than other portals?

You will eventually end up paying higher than if you would book normally so the value of points will indeed be less than ₹1 per point.

 

[WhoU]

I have both SBI Cashback and Infinia. So I understand this quite well. You are completely incorrect in deduction of the loss of future cashback. There is no question of the loss of Rs25 as you are not paying the Rs500. By that logic, you should buy a flight costing double the amount as you would get double cashback. Would you do that? On Smartbuy, you also get cashback on the remainder 30% portion that is paid by card. Infinia is meant for people who travel often. When you book your next flight or hotel, you simply deduct the points from it. If you don't travel often, then Infinia isn't the best for you.

That’s what I am saying. *IF* it was cashback and not RP, I would get further 25. But since it’s RP, I have no option but to let go of this potential 25.

Also, not to forget about the interest. We sometimes accumulate RPs for a few months or a year or two. Had it been cashback, we need not accumulate that. RPs lose value due to inflation too.

 

[arone]

i prefer cashback over RP (that's personal preference). but the logic of considering less returns is flawed. since for 10k flight if you use 7k points you're not paying for 7k you're only paying for 3k and for that you're getting 16.66% returns. so there is no hypothetical loss. also don't redeem for stuff you don't need. if the flight is necessary then you're saving at 16.66. if you're redeeming for the sake of redeeming then please get a different card suitable to you

 

[Lobogris]

i prefer cashback over RP (that's personal preference). but the logic of considering less returns is flawed. since for 10k flight if you use 7k points you're not paying for 7k you're only paying for 3k and for that you're getting 16.66% returns. so there is no hypothetical loss. also don't redeem for stuff you don't need. if the flight is necessary then you're saving at 16.66. if you're redeeming for the sake of redeeming then please get a different card suitable to you

Finally, someone who understands it! Thank you.

 

[Lobogris]

That’s what I am saying. *IF* it was cashback and not RP, I would get further 25. But since it’s RP, I have no option but to let go of this potential 25.

Also, not to forget about the interest. We sometimes accumulate RPs for a few months or a year or two. Had it been cashback, we need not accumulate that. RPs lose value due to inflation too.

There is no Rs 25 as you are not paying for the amount paid using reward points. Once again, it's like getting a free flight worth 10k and crying about losing the rewards you would have received if you had paid that 10k. Please see the explanation provided by @arone above.

 

[arone]

Finally, someone who understands it! Thank you.

i understand his perspective and that is also correct.

but only his logic of 1rp not equal to 1 is wrong.

to explain his point please check below screenshot. ideally everything would be great if all cards were cashback based. but we live in reality and we can't have everything

 

[sousnake]

i prefer cashback over RP (that's personal preference). but the logic of considering less returns is flawed. since for 10k flight if you use 7k points you're not paying for 7k you're only paying for 3k and for that you're getting 16.66% returns. so there is no hypothetical loss. also don't redeem for stuff you don't need. if the flight is necessary then you're saving at 16.66. if you're redeeming for the sake of redeeming then please get a different card suitable to you

ok.. let's take when you are allowed to pay 100% of amount via RP.
Flight cost - 5000
RP used - 5k
Flight if booked through cleartrip/makemytrip = you get 12% discount every time = 4400
So basically you pay 5000 points for something which is worth 4400 Rs which makes 1 RP = 0.88 Rs
So 16.67 % => 14.66 % returns
With 70% it becomes even less.