Looking for Travel Credit Card Recommendations (70K Salary | 3–4L Annual Spend | Aim: Airmiles)

[BK7]

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to get a travel-focused credit card and would appreciate some suggestions. Here are a few details about my profile:

• Monthly Salary: ₹70,000
• Annual Credit Card Spend: ₹3–4 lakhs (includes insurance and fuel)
• Primary Goal: Accumulate air miles for future travel

A few things to note:

• I’m not eligible for cards like Axis Atlas or HDFC Regalia Gold due to income criteria.
• I don’t mind paying an annual fee as long as the benefits justify it, especially in terms of flight redemptions, lounge access, or milestone bonuses.

I mostly spend on fuel, insurance, and occasional online purchases. I'm open to cards with reasonable annual fees if the benefits (especially airmiles or travel vouchers) are worth it.

Which credit cards would you recommend in my case? I'm looking for something that offers good value and rewards for travel.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Dazzwilliams]

What are your existing cards and limits?

 

[Aniket Sharma]

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to get a travel-focused credit card and would appreciate some suggestions. Here are a few details about my profile:

• Monthly Salary: ₹70,000
• Annual Credit Card Spend: ₹3–4 lakhs (includes insurance and fuel)
• Primary Goal: Accumulate air miles for future travel

A few things to note:

• I’m not eligible for cards like Axis Atlas or HDFC Regalia Gold due to income criteria.
• I don’t mind paying an annual fee as long as the benefits justify it, especially in terms of flight redemptions, lounge access, or milestone bonuses.

I mostly spend on fuel, insurance, and occasional online purchases. I'm open to cards with reasonable annual fees if the benefits (especially airmiles or travel vouchers) are worth it.

Which credit cards would you recommend in my case? I'm looking for something that offers good value and rewards for travel.

Thanks in advance!

Sbi miles elite would be better

 

[BK7]

What are your existing cards and limits?

I am looking for new card for travel purpose to earn miles, existing Icici coral, HDFC Millenia, not getting upgrade option

 

[nh124001]

with 4 lakh of yearly spends for air miles... go for amex platinum travel that's it.. once amex resume issuance...

 

[BK7]

with 4 lakh of yearly spends for air miles... go for amex platinum travel that's it.. once amex resume issuance...

Apologies, but Amex is currently not issuing new cards and there are acceptance issues, so I’d prefer to avoid it.

 

[Aniket Sharma]

Apologies, but Amex is currently not issuing new cards and there are acceptance issues, so I’d prefer to avoid it.

See you already eliminated hdfc & axis, now icici don't have any good cards, idfc mayura you can prefer, sbi aurum or miles elite whatever you can get easily, no doubt amex having acceptability issue, remaining banks doesn't seem to be offering that good.

 

[Dazzwilliams]

I am looking for new card for travel purpose to earn miles, existing Icici coral, HDFC Millenia, not getting upgrade option

Are you holding atleast 1 other credit card (any bank) currently? If yes what's its limit?

Easier way to get Axis Atlas is to initially get a basic card (paid or LTF) from Axis. If you get more than 1L limit, pre-approved offer for Atlas will be generated on its own after a couple of months.

 

[BK7]

Are you holding atleast 1 other credit card (any bank) currently? If yes what's its limit?

Easier way to get Axis Atlas is to initially get a basic card (paid or LTF) from Axis. If you get more than 1L limit, pre-approved offer for Atlas will be generated on its own after a couple of months.

Icici coral - 5L+
HDFC Millenia - 84K

 

[BK7]

See you already eliminated hdfc & axis, now icici don't have any good cards, idfc mayura you can prefer, sbi aurum or miles elite whatever you can get easily, no doubt amex having acceptability issue, remaining banks doesn't seem to be offering that good.

I tried applying for the Regalia card, but HDFC isn’t willing to offer it to me. I might not qualify for the Atlas card due to my salary. I’m open to other card options if banks are willing to offer me one! 😉

 

[Aniket Sharma]

I tried applying for the Regalia card, but HDFC isn’t willing to offer it to me. I might not qualify for the Atlas card due to my salary. I’m open to other card options if banks are willing to offer me one! 😉

First the limit is too low for any good cards in hdfc.

You can also try regalia based on fd

 

[cardio_guycardio_guy is verified member.]

My 2 cents - In many ccgeek influencer videos and other forums, what I have seen is - if the card spends are less like 3-4L / yr in your case, it doesn't make any sense to go with a travel card, because you don't get so many points worth to redeem for one good travel. Or you will need 3-4 years of point accumilation to redeem it well for a good vacation.

So, many people suggest to go with cashback cards for leser spends. (There are cards that give 10% cashback on specific categories, and are easy to get, like HDFC Swiggy, HSBC Live+, Axis Airtel, SBI Phonepe etc)

Another point is 10% cashback is actually a very good number. Most of the travel cards don't give 10%. But because this 10% comes in the statement as cashback, we don't see the value in front of our eyes. We perceive the value only if we see the real benefits in some form of free flight or hotel stay.

Now travel = hotel as well as flight. For getting a higher category travel card, most banks need high income (atleast 1L+) and/or high ITR. Without these, it would be actually difficult to get a travel card. Even if we get it, without spending significant amount, we don't really get any returns out of it. Even for Regalia Gold, we need to spend 1.5L a quarter to get 1500 flight voucher. If we don't have that kind of spends, it is not worth.

One more thing - if we take a low end travel card, the return rate will be very low. We will get reward points and miles etc. But it will be very very low, that we need to spend more to get something meaningful.

Coming to suggestions - if you are not eligible for high end cards, you can start with lower cards like HSBC Visa platinum, Axis Previlege, ICICI Coral etc. All these give points and you can later use those points for travel bookings. (But like I told earlier, the per point value will be very less).

Lastly, you may go through these threads for more thoughts on similar lines.
How did you move from cashback to reward points card? Share your story
Going to take my first travel card - Axis Atlas, need some inputs.