Devaluation Yes Bank Credit Card Devaluation - Now Spend 1L to Get Free Lounge Access

[TechnoFinoTechnoFino is verified member.]

Hey TFCians,

Now it’s Yes Bank, and they’re raising the spending requirements to get complimentary airport lounge access. Several Yes Bank credit cards have been devalued, making it necessary to spend a significant amount each quarter to qualify. And some changes regarding reward point redemption.

Here are the details:

Airport Lounge Access:
Effective from April 1, 2025, you’ll need to meet a spending threshold in the previous quarter (Dec 21 - Mar 20 | Mar 21 - Jun 20 | Jun 21 - Sep 20 | Sep 21 - Dec 20) to qualify for complimentary lounge access in the following quarter (Apr 1 - Jun 30 | Jul 1 - Sep 30 | Oct 1 - Dec 31 | Jan 1 - Mar 31).

• Yes Bank MARQUEE/RESERV Credit Card: Spend Rs. 1,00,000 in a quarter to receive complimentary airport lounge access.
• Yes Bank YES First Preferred/YES First Business Credit Card: Spend Rs. 75,000 in a quarter.
• Yes Bank ELITE+/SELECT/BYOC/WELLNESS PLUS/YES Prosperity Business Credit Card: Spend Rs. 50,000 in a quarter.

Please Note:

• The number of complimentary lounge accesses remains the same, subject to meeting the spending threshold.
• This threshold applies only for complimentary access to domestic lounges (within India).

YES Rewardz Points Redemption – effective December 1, 2024

1. Yes Private & Private Prime Credit Cards: Redeem up to 70% of the total invoice value or 6,00,000 YES Rewardz points (whichever is lower) per calendar month on flights and hotels.
2. For MARQUEE Credit Cards: Redeem up to 70% of the total invoice value or 3,00,000 YES Rewardz points (whichever is lower) per calendar month on flights and hotels.
3. For RESERV Credit Cards: Redeem up to 70% of the total invoice value or 2,00,000 YES Rewardz points (whichever is lower) per calendar month on flights and hotels.
4. For Other Credit Cards: Redeem up to 70% of the total invoice value or 1,00,000 YES Rewardz points (whichever is lower) per calendar month on flights and hotels.

Important: The above changes in YES Rewardz redemption are in addition to the existing cap of 50% of available YES Rewardz points when redeeming against gift vouchers and statement credit.

This move by Yes Bank was something everyone anticipated. After ICICI Bank’s similar change, I predicted that most banks would follow this trend of imposing high quarterly spending requirements for complimentary airport lounge access. Don’t be surprised if other banks also increase their spending requirements for lounge access—even RuPay now requires spending for lounge privileges.
I’ve posted a thread on “Free Airport Lounge Access Using Credit Cards: How It Works.” You can check it out for insights into why banks want you to spend to access free lounge benefits.
The 70% cap on reward point redemption isn’t new either; HDFC Bank introduced similar restrictions on their premium credit cards long ago. This change shouldn’t be a big issue, as most people use their Yes Bank reward points for gift vouchers anyway. In short, these changes were expected, and it’s likely that other banks will, unfortunately, follow this trend soon.

 

[bing1309]

Lounge access cost 1,900 + 18% gst approx 2,200rs is not a joke for a basic Lounge access and for premium Lounge access it's 5,000 +18% gst and premium Lounge is available in few places. No wonder why bank cannot afford such loss despite they go on bulk they can't go less than 1000rs and 1000rs per person is not a joke so banks put spend based so atleast they use so much in there card. Regardless despite so much spend based cretria also lounges are full and overcrowded. So still banks go on adding terms and conditions.

But nevertheless i had food outside lounge which for 2 person costs 900rs or 1000rs time will say which is better.

 

[theXfactor]

At one time, people's deposits were blocked with Yes bank...I'm still holding (I mean made to hold) Yes bank shares bought before it was bailed out🙂. Kehne ka matlab get associated with Yes bank at your own risk.

 

[Swastik]

Lol hdfc (not entry levels) and sbi are the few of those who haven't yet added any spends criterion.

Yes but SBI doesn't give lounges on basic cards, last one to get was Cashback card which lost it within a year,

And the rate at which HDFC is giving away Reg Gold LTF, i wouldn't be surprised to hear spend criteria coming in

 

[bagarwal7]

Is this applicable for priority pass international lounges as well ?

 

[bing1309]

Yes but SBI doesn't give lounges on basic cards, last one to get was Cashback card which lost it within a year,

And the rate at which HDFC is giving away Reg Gold LTF, i wouldn't be surprised to hear spend criteria coming in

Reg gold has spend cretria which is less but dcb, dcb metal, biz black also has spend cretria, it's just dcb to be used once and next devaluation will include infina to spend atleast once a month and rest all cards will have fixed spends of xxxxxx amount to get lounge. And after recent devaluation yes I have seen many people use hdfc card and most cards are off the major banks who we don't even look into like psb's and RRB's and some private banks. But nevertheless what i am seeing in lounge area people use cards of psb, rrb and some private bank where no spend based and works straight off with debit cards.

DeCongestion takes 1 year or so still other banks come to remove or won't remove and for growing banks yes they keep lounge access in debit card and balance maintaining will bost these small banks to grow either way major banks will have to deal with this in coming days.

 

[Swastik]

Is this applicable for priority pass international lounges as well ?

Nope . .

 

[Swastik]

Reg gold has spend cretria which is less but dcb, dcb metal, biz black also has spend cretria, it's just dcb to be used once and next devaluation will include infina to spend atleast once a month and rest all cards will have fixed spends of xxxxxx amount to get lounge. And after recent devaluation yes I have seen many people use hdfc card and most cards are off the major banks who we don't even look into like psb's and RRB's and some private banks. But nevertheless what i am seeing in lounge area people use cards of psb, rrb and some private bank where no spend based and works straight off with debit cards.

DeCongestion takes 1 year or so still other banks come to remove or won't remove and for growing banks yes they keep lounge access in debit card and balance maintaining will bost these small banks to grow either way major banks will have to deal with this in coming days.

wait what, Reg gold, DCB PVC, DCB Metal and Biz Black have spend criteria?!
I haven't heard of this, although with so many devaluations happening all over the place i wouldn't be surprised if i missed this one

 

[sidp]

This devaluation doesn't concern me much. But as a student( & practioner) of business/management, I have to say few unpopular things. The whole lounge access through basic cc was poorly done. I had predicted this when it started. What was more frustrating is watching some really smart people fighting over loss making customers due to fomo. I guess they forgot they are in a highly regulated finance sector and not a start up where motive is valuation creation not value creation. Therefore instead of going after profitability ( or at least profit) growth, bank went after revenue/customer base growth .

People will just consolidate their expenses on a single card based on various other benefits. With such devaluations, banks are forcing people to spend more on their card or make them choose their card instead of competitor

this is exactly what they want ( & the only way to have a sustainable ecosystem).

AC coaches sometimes sell faster than sleeper. If lounges are getting crowded more, we need more lounges.

This actually invalidates your original point. People who want better service need to pay for it. Even in this case, they are not paying the full cost as passenger travel is subsidized by freight. But at least they are showing intent to cover more cost for better service.

Now you can say ac travel isn't really a good service. True. But how many will be ready to pay 3-4 times current fares so that they actually cover the cost of service they demand?
People who want something "better" than waiting near the gate, need to pay for it. The reason why this "better" alternative isn't really better anymore is because those who never intended to pay for it, or dare i say deserve it, are accessing it. These are opportunist & shouldn't be the target customer of any business. As someone who has owned few business & worked with some more, I stay away from them. People can say whatever they want about kotak mahindra but at least it knows who are its target customer.

We can't be creating class and saying I deserve and others don't.

This is a very leftist ideology. This creates entitlement which is much more dangerous than elitism. Theres good & bad side to elitism. Good side is it motivates people to work harder & improve themselves. On the other hand Entitlement only creates people who complain.

Anyways that whole pricing thing is still going to be different ball game. Who will force it? Lounges - they can possibly lose some money for it. Doubtful banks can pull that off. Some bank will play spoilsport and give it for cheaper or free. And they should, right? Else where is free market competition.

Lounge operators won't do shit. They know supply is much lower than (inflated not real) demand. So they can milk it as long as they want. They also know it is not sustainable & sooner or later banks will stop this madness. That is also the reason they aren't lining up to open new lounges as that will be loss making in long run.

Lounges wasn't made for free food/booze. It was made
a- as stress free stop for layover / for those who have anxiety while traveling and want to reach a early/ for those who arrive in odd hours.
b- a place to network or take care of some formalities for busy businessmen.

And Let's not bring Adam smith into this; he is the most misunderstood & misquoted (only after Darwin & lord Sri Krishna himself).

 

[sidp]

Sudha Murthy shared anecdote sometime back on how some elitist behaved with she stood in business class queue. I seriously thought then that it is a made story.

I also like to stay away from fake people. Most rags to riches story are just stories. Most famous/influential people who want to portray themselves as regular people with tough/challenging chidhood are fake whether it is the Murthys or people like Raghu ram Rajan, shah rukh khan etc( or most actors).
At a time when most people in India didn't graduate high school, murthys had advance degrees from good colleges, very good jobs. They weren't poor or even middle class. At the very least upper middle class if not rich. "Narayan Murthy had no money. So to start his business he had to get loan against his wife jewelry." Really? So sad. But just around that time they went to US for honeymoon. Leave going to US for honeymoon, even having a passport at that time shows that they weren't middle class.

 

[tachniki]

@sidp I really think both of us are almost on same side. So, let me clear on where I could have been misunderstood.

his is exactly what they want ( & the only way to have a sustainable ecosystem).

Yes. This is what bank wants. But I don't think this is still sustainable ecosystem for lounges with current capacity of lounges. Only way to make lounge ecosystem (with current capacity) will be make it paid service or partly subsidized by cards. But they need to be still charged. I already said this somewhere on this thread if not on that post.

This actually invalidates your original point. People who want better service need to pay for it.

That is not what I meant to say there. I meant to say people have money now compared to 15 or 20 years back. Highest number of cars sold is not Wagon R or Alto but Creta. AC trains have more demand than what we have now. More people use toll roads even when non toll roads may be available. So, what I exactly meant is it is not going to be difficult for enough people to spend 35k per month on one card. And therefore, we will not see much reduction in crowd just by devaluation.

Now, let us assume if credit companies are still profitable by giving these lounge access after devaluation. That means there is more demand (inflated or not) for these lounges. Banks are able to pay for their customers. Bank not in loss, lounges not in loss, customer (except if they mind crowd) not in loss.

This creates entitlement which is much more dangerous than elitism.

This was not for entitlement. I have used lounge twice in last 19 years of owning credit cards. My words were strictly against some of comments which were elitist. Strictly.

Lounge operators won't do shit.

I already said that I doubt lounge wants to solve the problem. Also, as I already said that neither banks have goal to solve problem of crowd at lounges. They are in business of selling more crowd and making maximum revenue on each card.

In conclusion, this (And similar devaluations) is not going to reduce crowd in lounge at least in next few years. And this is most I wanted to mean from that post / comment.

 

[callsignmaverick]

I agree to what you are saying. I faced similar issue at Mumbai airport and there was no place to sit inside the lounges.

But this isn't the solution. There are free for life cards still giving lounge access at a very low spend. Spending 25k-50k in a quarter is absolutely nothing in India.

I feel keeping high threshold is a good step and may work only if all banks follow this. But said that keeping a cap on a any paid card with fees of 10k plus is not right.

Trust me this will happen sooner rather than later. All banks will increase minimum spends for lounge access. Also if you notice they are enforcing this more on the domestic side since currently thats the biggest problem area. Rupay might be the only exception to this since its still building its reputation, network and acceptability on a larger level.

Even yesterday, while accessing the Mumbai Adani East Wing lounge (International) (earlier only for Business, now opened to certain credit cards) I had to wait in line for 15 mins because in spite of the lounge clearly mentioning what cards are accepted; people in queue still wanted every card to be swiped to confirm and the staff was too polite to say no.

Finally looking at the queue a supervisor came in and moved people with eligible cards into a separate queue.

 

[callsignmaverick]

There are lot of rupay cards still available in the market with generous lounge access having zero or close to zero annual fee

Thats because Rupay isn't as established as Visa/MC/Diners/Amex. It needs to build a reputation and network so I think the limitations will come to Rupay cards as well but probably last.

 

[phronimos]

I do not understand the hoopla around lounge visits. When I used to fly around in 2008-09 the lounges used to have hardly any crowd. People then were primarily interested in a place with free wifi (pre-Jio days) to catch up with their work and have meetings with colleagues. Free food was a benefit provided so that we do not waste time. These days lounge has become more about free food. You spend so much time in the queue that you hardly get time to do any work. Also, too many people interested in only free food spoil the overall ambiance. I fly every alternate month for business. The corporate card allows me a certain number of free access. Beyond that, they charge my card. I just put it up for reimbursement. Banks are taking the right steps to declutter the lounges.