Axis Magnus Ways to get value from Magnus after Sept 23?

[hrishig]

After the recent massive Magnus devaluation, what can be good ways to get value from Magnus after Sept 23 for members spending 12-15lkh on Magnus?
HDFC infinia has shallow reward earning caps in a single transaction and per month. Thus high-value concentrated transactions can be USP for Magnus

Will the below strategy help?

1) Make sure to have a burgundy account ( else the transfer ratio will be pathetic)
(Update) 30lkh in savings or 10 lkh in saving account is the burgundy criteria
2) Club multi-month transactions in a single month (say 3-4 lakh).
3) Repeat the above step 3-4 times a year, depending on yearly spending; it can give you better value compared to the fees that you pay for Magnus
4) Try using travel edge, Gyftr to max level.->(Update) The accelerated reward calculations exclude travel edge and Gyftr. Thus use other sources such as intermiles, default Gyftr etc to stackup vouchers in the month when you are doing 3+ lkh transacations. The reward rate will be 3X rather than 2X in case of amazon and similar vouchers.
5) (Update) Include rental payment till 50k ( can use Cred or similar) in that month

(Update)Got confirmation that Meet and greet service is still present which is a good thing.

 

[Avatar Aang]

Why are you shilling for DCB?

Sorry didn't get you. Please elaborate.

 

[MartianManhunter]

Sorry didn't get you. Please elaborate.

He's asking why are you promoting DCB so much.

 

[Avatar Aang]

I am not promoting bro. Just expressed my views. Personally the USP of magnus over DCB was the following
1. No point capping on Traveledge and giftedge.
3.Giftedge offering 10x points for most partners.
2. 25K bonus points


Considering the magnus devaluation I think DCB offers more value. As fee reversal criteria is low and getting it as LTF is also possible.

 

[CCUser_1999]

As a low spender. <1L pm on magnus. how can I recoup the renewal fee? Not counting the lounge access which is already beneficial
For eg if I spend 20-30kpm what's the max edge rewards I would get for the year and would it be more than the 10k renewal fee?

could someone help me calculate please.

OK. Lot of discussion with giving any details in number. Below is my calculations. There are lot of assumptions, value may vary based on your perception and ability to maximize the mile value. To avoid worst case scenario also sharing calculation based on Amazon Voucher redemption.

	Mile Conversion​	Amazon Voucher Conversion​
Per month Spend	₹ 1,00,000​	₹ 1,00,000​
Per Annum	₹ 12,00,000​	₹ 12,00,000​
Total ER	72000​	72000​
Total Miles	28800​	N.A.
Value Per Mile	₹ 0.80​	₹ 0.20​
Point Value	₹ 23,040​	₹ 14,400​
Annual Fee + Charges	₹ 14,750​	₹ 14,750​
Net Benefit/Loss	₹ 8,290​	-₹ 350​
Return on Spend	0.69%​	-0.03%​

Change in return per 1 Lakh Spend on Special Categories (On total Spend)
Travel Edge/Grab Deals	5X	0.64%​	0.40%​
GYFTR	2X	0.16%​	0.10%​
Excluded Categories	0X	-0.16%​	-0.10%​

Summary:
Mile Conversion: If you are spending 1 Lakh every month (no spend on any excluded or bonus category),you will get net benefit of Rs.8290/- (0.69% on annual spend) benefit per annum in reward point. For every 1 lakh spend out of 12 lakh in Travel edge (getting 5X points), you will get incremental benefit of Rs.7680 or 0.64%. For eg, if you are spending 12 lakh in year, out of which 1 lakh in travel edge, your net reward rate will become 1.33%. You can do the calculations based on the your spend in each of the category.

Amazon Voucher Conversion: This is easier option as it doesn't require understanding and spending time in miles, but return obviously is lower because of the same reason. In this case base return will be a loss of Rs.350 (0.03%) per annum. Impact of reward categories also mentioned.

Another worthwhile point to note here is, miles can be used only in travel and has risk of expiry but Amazon vouchers can be used for necessities like utility payment. Advantage of point is that if you plan properly or with right partners you can get significantly more value than Rs.0.80 per point.

Please DM in case you need to analysis basis your tentative spends and ways of maximizing the return for the ER based o your planned/aspiration spends..

 

[sky_walker_rules]

I am not promoting bro. Just expressed my views. Personally the USP of magnus over DCB was the following
1. No point capping on Traveledge and giftedge.
3.Giftedge offering 10x points for most partners.
2. 25K bonus points


Considering the magnus devaluation I think DCB offers more value. As fee reversal criteria is low and getting it as LTF is also possible.

half of the place DCB don't work offline, Amazon vouchers from Smart Buy is junk with so many charges, hotels are overpriced at least 20% on smart buy, and even flight cost is high. given that DCB is not LTF, no reason to pick it, sbi cashback card is better and simple

 

[CCUser_1999]

half of the place DCB don't work offline, Amazon vouchers from Smart Buy is junk with so many charges, hotels are overpriced at least 20% on smart buy, and even flight cost is high. given that DCB is not LTF, no reason to pick it, sbi cashback card is better and simple

I agree for most points in DCB but benefit of unlimited lounge access for both primary and add on card is an amazing benefit which is not there even in most of the most premium cards.

The addition fee on the Amazon GYFTR vouchers sucks but even after that, it is cool return of 6%+, which is more than 5% of SBI cashback. Also acceptance was really low before but lately, its improving significantly.

Last but not the least, SBI cashback is adding more and more restrictions, which is making the card really tough to track and use efficiently.

 

[sky_walker_rules]

I agree for most points in DCB but benefit of unlimited lounge access for both primary and add on card is an amazing benefit which is not there even in most of the most premium cards.

The addition fee on the Amazon GYFTR vouchers sucks but even after that, it is cool return of 6%+, which is more than 5% of SBI cashback. Also acceptance was really low before but lately, its improving significantly.

Last but not the least, SBI cashback is adding more and more restrictions, which is making the card really tough to track and use efficiently.

how its 6%+ ? hotels/flights are costly in DCB, even if u calculate mile transfer it won't be of 100% value except accor.
most techno fino community members are aware of where to use sbi cashback card and where not

P.S - I have DCB LTF n that's why keeping it and using these cards efficiently as Magnus is gone
Lounge access is not a problem in these days,most of the debit card also covers and not everyone needs unlimited

 

[CCUser_1999]

how its 6%+ ? hotels/flights are costly in DCB, even if u calculate mile transfer it won't be of 100% value except accor.
most techno fino community members are aware of where to use sbi cashback card and where not

P.S - I have DCB LTF n that's why keeping it and using now these cards efficiently as Magnus is gone

PFB my calculation.

Card	Spend	Processing Fee	Total Charge	Base Points	Bonus Points	Milestone Points	Total Points	Conversion to Mile	Point Value	Net Reward Post Charges	Eff Reward Rate
Diners	20000​	767​	20767​	665​	1330​	0​	1995​	1​	1​	1228​	6.14%​

It is at Re.1 per point. I find it hard to keep track where there are lot of changes every day, hence not my preferred.
PS: I have LTF DCB and and holding this card since 2017, hence my views could be bit biased as well.

 

[hrishig]

Updated thread 1st post based on the info known so far.

 

[hrishig]

half of the place DCB don't work offline, Amazon vouchers from Smart Buy is junk with so many charges, hotels are overpriced at least 20% on smart buy, and even flight cost is high. given that DCB is not LTF, no reason to pick it, sbi cashback card is better and simple

The biggest problem for DCB is 1) acceptance ,2) heavy charges by many gateways almost double(/at par with amex) than Visa, mastercard. These limitations focres user to keep it as backup card rather than primary card. I had wonderful time with DCB for very long time but it could never become primary card due to above limitations.

 

[hrishig]

After the recent massive Magnus devaluation, what can be good ways to get value from Magnus after Sept 23 for members spending 12-15lkh on Magnus?
HDFC infinia has shallow reward earning caps in a single transaction and per month. Thus high-value concentrated transactions can be USP for Magnus

Will the below strategy help?

1) Make sure to have a burgundy account ( else the transfer ratio will be pathetic)
(Update) 30lkh in savings or 10 lkh in saving account is the burgundy criteria
2) Club multi-month transactions in a single month (say 3-4 lakh).
3) Repeat the above step 3-4 times a year, depending on yearly spending; it can give you better value compared to the fees that you pay for Magnus
4) Try using travel edge, Gyftr to max level.->(Update) The accelerated reward calculations exclude travel edge and Gyftr. Thus use other sources such as intermiles, default Gyftr etc to stackup vouchers in the month when you are doing 3+ lkh transacations. The reward rate will be 3X rather than 2X in case of amazon and similar vouchers.
5) (Update) Include rental payment till 50k ( can use Cred or similar) in that month

(Update)Got confirmation that Meet and greet service is still present which is a good thing.

Did multiple combinations and trials for 15 lakhs Magnus annual spend. No matter of combinations can beat the original Magnus. On paper, you can spend the entire 15 lakhs in a month to get 2.52 lakh points ( against 3.18 lakh edge points of original Magnus) else; you can break annual spend in two parts of 7.5 lakhs to earn 2.34 lakh edge points.

Things get interesting when you move above 15 lakh yearly spend towards the 18-20 lakh annual bracket. You get a better chance to match the original Magnus yearly reward rate if you finish all your spending in just two months and are above 20lkh.

Note:- Gyftr, travel edge are excluded in this combination.

 

[aashish2137]

So Magnus will offer 12/200 on spends upto 150K and 35/200 beyond 150K. Which means one has to spend 250K in a month to match the 25,000 RP milestone (assuming no spend on gyftr/ edge). This is about 10% reward rate in ER, which could be more if you transfer to Accor or less if you do to Vistara. Still looks better than Infinia (outside smartbuy) assuming one is able to do high value spends consistently.

All this makes sense if one has Burgundy. Without Burgundy its just not worth the effort.

 

[drsel]

I will spend 1 lac in august because

Get 6000 normal points as good as 1:1 on vistara
25000 points later will fetch 10000 points in vistara

16000 vistara points is 16% returns in a month

Vistara award tickets are very difficult to get using vistara points
also vistara points are worth only 50 paisa

 

[MilesMax]

Vistara award tickets are very difficult to get using vistara points
also vistara points are worth only 50 paisa

Vistara points can be worth a lot more if you are using it for upgrade awards and not award tickets.
Eg: for 13k points you can upgrade BOM-DEL economy to business. Revenue tickets costs 30k+. Economy tickets are around 5k.

So Almost 2rs value.

 

[drsel]

Vistara points can be worth a lot more if you are using it for upgrade awards and not award tickets.
Eg: for 13k points you can upgrade BOM-DEL economy to business. Revenue tickets costs 30k+. Economy tickets are around 5k.

So Almost 2rs value.

I was referring to basic economy tickets at the lowest price.
For domestic flights, I value business class at only 25% more than economy

 

[MilesMax]

I was referring to basic economy tickets at the lowest price.
For domestic flights, I value business class at only 25% more than economy

Ok.
I was telling how his 16% return could value 32% return also depending on how he uses those points.

 

[sky_walker_rules]

for domestic travel, IMO business class is too much to use

 

[drsel]

Nerdwallet valuations based on economy air tickets--
Singapore airline Kris flyer air miles at 1.5 cents
United Airlines air miles at 1.2 cents

 

[hrishig]

Nerdwallet valuations based on economy air tickets--
Singapore airline Kris flyer air miles at 1.5 cents
United Airlines air miles at 1.2 cents

What about Business class?

 

[drsel]

I deposited 5 lacs in my axis regular savings to convert to Burgundy, but they could not do it.

this said you have to keep 10 lacs to start with and then they can process the application to convert regular savings account to burgundy