Why are airport lounges still crowded?

[pythonlover]

So now most of the dominant credit card issuing banks / companies have implemented minimum spends criteria.

1. ICICI has introduced significant minimum spends criteria till ICICI Sapphiro. Only Emeralde and above cards have no such criteria.
2. HDFC has minimum spends criteria on cards below Regalia Gold, though DCP has low criteria of 15k spends per quarter.
3. Lower variants of SBI cards (SimplyClick and SimplySave) and most demanded SBI card (CASHBACK) have no lounge access criteria. Lounge access starts with SBI Pulse and above cards which have at least Rs 1500 fees.
4. AXIS has also introduced minimum spends criteria on most of the cards. Even normal Magnus has 50k spends criteria. Only Atlas is their relatively lower variant card with non-spend based lounge access.
5. BOB has also introduced decent minimum spends criteria.
6. Yes Bank has also introduced minimum spends criteria on all cards (ironically more spends required for cards with higher fees).
7. IDFC too has introduced minimum spends criteria on all of their free cards.

I guess this covers around 80-90% of credit cards issued in India. Earlier people used to complain that the lounges are overcrowded because of free access and argued for spends based access. But now that most the card issuing banks / companies have implemented such criteria, why are the lounges still overcrowded? What do you think are the possible reasons?

 

[aniketkr.sharma]

So now most of the dominant credit card issuing banks / companies have implemented minimum spends criteria.

1. ICICI has introduced significant minimum spends criteria till ICICI Sapphiro. Only Emeralde and above cards have no such criteria.
2. HDFC has minimum spends criteria on cards below Regalia Gold, though DCP has low criteria of 15k spends per quarter.
3. Lower variants of SBI cards (SimplyClick and SimplySave) and most demanded SBI card (CASHBACK) have no lounge access criteria. Lounge access starts with SBI Pulse and above cards which have at least Rs 1500 fees.
4. AXIS has also introduced minimum spends criteria on most of the cards. Even normal Magnus has 50k spends criteria. Only Atlas is their relatively lower variant card with non-spend based lounge access.
5. BOB has also introduced decent minimum spends criteria.
6. Yes Bank has also introduced minimum spends criteria on all cards (ironically more spends required for cards with higher fees).
7. IDFC too has introduced minimum spends criteria on all of their free cards.

I guess this covers around 80-90% of credit cards issued in India. Earlier people used to complain that the lounges are overcrowded because of free access and argued for spends based access. But now that most the card issuing banks / companies have implemented such criteria, why are the lounges still overcrowded? What do you think are the possible reasons?

Still Not everybody is using lounges, who are crossing the base spending limits.

QR Code access is cause now for the crowd, as most of people know whom to contact to get access of lounges.

 

[2025]

Because it's FREE.

Indians ko free ka cheez e bahut pasand hay. Us k liye wo Rs. 20,000 annual fee wale card v le lega.

 

[cardio_guy]

1. All smaller banks like federal and indusind (tiger) and hdfc tata neu gives lounge access without spending criteria. Since there is a surge in such card issuance that could be 1 cause.
2. More people have started flying (maybe 10x than long back) but number of lounges are the same.

Some more thoughts here:
Post in thread 'Lounge overcrowding decreased?' https://www.technofino.in/community/threads/lounge-overcrowding-decreased.20794/post-823533

 

[aniketkr.sharma]

Because it's FREE.

Indians ko free ka cheez e bahut pasand hay. Us k liye wo Rs. 20,000 annual fee wale card v le lega.

Isara clear hai Timesblack for free helicopter ride🤣

 

[Credit_Cards]

Sooner or later except a select few CC many CC will have stricter lounge criteria as each access costs Bank a certain amount and stricter checking on QR to Passenger name mapping at the time of entry which already started to be seen.

 

[S9100]

Sooner or later except a select few CC many CC will have stricter lounge criteria as each access costs Bank a certain amount and stricter checking on QR to Passenger name mapping at the time of entry which already started to be seen.

Still crowding will not decrease much.

 

[rajcasio]

Why are airport lounges still crowded?​

Simple answer - Because of a website named "TECHNOFINO"

 

[tachniki]

So now most of the dominant credit card issuing banks / companies have implemented minimum spends criteria.

1. ICICI has introduced significant minimum spends criteria till ICICI Sapphiro. Only Emeralde and above cards have no such criteria.
2. HDFC has minimum spends criteria on cards below Regalia Gold, though DCP has low criteria of 15k spends per quarter.
3. Lower variants of SBI cards (SimplyClick and SimplySave) and most demanded SBI card (CASHBACK) have no lounge access criteria. Lounge access starts with SBI Pulse and above cards which have at least Rs 1500 fees.
4. AXIS has also introduced minimum spends criteria on most of the cards. Even normal Magnus has 50k spends criteria. Only Atlas is their relatively lower variant card with non-spend based lounge access.
5. BOB has also introduced decent minimum spends criteria.
6. Yes Bank has also introduced minimum spends criteria on all cards (ironically more spends required for cards with higher fees).
7. IDFC too has introduced minimum spends criteria on all of their free cards.

I guess this covers around 80-90% of credit cards issued in India. Earlier people used to complain that the lounges are overcrowded because of free access and argued for spends based access. But now that most the card issuing banks / companies have implemented such criteria, why are the lounges still overcrowded? What do you think are the possible reasons?

People are spending enough on credit cards to surpass the minimum spend. 😁 Indian middle class, who flies, is rich enough to spend that much in credit card. Deja vu discussion.

 

[S9100]

Why are airport lounges still crowded?​

Simple answer - Because of a website named "TECHNOFINO"

Once people see a free service they go out of the way to use it. just human mentality, especially indians

 

[narun2001]

People are spending enough on credit cards to surpass the minimum spend. 😁 Indian middle class, who flies, is rich enough to spend that much in credit card. Deja vu discussion.

Exactly my thought

 

[Jhon Anand]

People are spending enough on credit cards to surpass the minimum spend. 😁 Indian middle class, who flies, is rich enough to spend that much in credit card. Deja vu discussion.

True . .

 

[Rishabh]

For many flight travels are usually planned well in advance & so it becomes easy for them to shift their spends to particular card offering lounge access to meet spend criteria of that month/quarter as per required by bank for free lounge access.

 

[Zacobite]

So now most of the dominant credit card issuing banks / companies have implemented minimum spends criteria.

1. ICICI has introduced significant minimum spends criteria till ICICI Sapphiro. Only Emeralde and above cards have no such criteria.
2. HDFC has minimum spends criteria on cards below Regalia Gold, though DCP has low criteria of 15k spends per quarter.
3. Lower variants of SBI cards (SimplyClick and SimplySave) and most demanded SBI card (CASHBACK) have no lounge access criteria. Lounge access starts with SBI Pulse and above cards which have at least Rs 1500 fees.
4. AXIS has also introduced minimum spends criteria on most of the cards. Even normal Magnus has 50k spends criteria. Only Atlas is their relatively lower variant card with non-spend based lounge access.
5. BOB has also introduced decent minimum spends criteria.
6. Yes Bank has also introduced minimum spends criteria on all cards (ironically more spends required for cards with higher fees).
7. IDFC too has introduced minimum spends criteria on all of their free cards.

I guess this covers around 80-90% of credit cards issued in India. Earlier people used to complain that the lounges are overcrowded because of free access and argued for spends based access. But now that most the card issuing banks / companies have implemented such criteria, why are the lounges still overcrowded? What do you think are the possible reasons?

because if they buy 2 flight tickets on one card they becomes eligible in most cases.. so lounge access is still high