Best Travel Credit Cards in India for 2021

Travel credit cards offer accelerated rewards on travel along with perks like complimentary lounge access, air mile earning and co-branded benefits with Airlines and Travel Partners. These cards are best suited for those who need to travel frequently for business or leisure. Here’s all you need to know about the best travel credit cards in India.

Top 10 Travel Credit Cards in India

Best Travel Credit Cards in India for 2021

Read about the top 10 travel credit cards in India and the benefits they offer to make travelling more economical for you.

American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card

This card is suitable for consumers who seek travel benefits and prefer earning reward points redeemable for travel vouchers. If you are a high spender looking for travel promotions and perks, this card is a decent option. The 0.88% rewards rate is a great deal which makes it one of the best cards with reward points. The points earned can easily be redeemed by choosing other items from the catalogue, giving a free hand to cardholders as to how they wish to use their points.

Also Read: Best Reward Credit Cards in India

But, not to overlook, the annual and joining fee can be a little tight on the pocket. Only if your annual spending is about Rs.1.9 lakh-Rs.4 lakh, the card fee will be justified. Not only can you earn the reward incentives, but you will also end up saving a decent amount. So, investing Rs.5,000 should not be a poor choice with travel and incentive advantages.

Citi PremierMiles Credit Card

Citi PremierMiles Credit Card is a travel credit card suited for frequent travellers who wish to avail air mile benefits. The best part of this card is that the miles earned can be redeemed across several airlines, unlike popular co-branded cards which offer benefits with only one airline. Also, earned air miles never expire so you can continue to earn thousands of miles and redeem whenever you want. As a welcome benefit, it gives 10,000 Miles upfront. This advantage tends to be fair as opposed to the Rs. 3,000 joining fee, since the monetary worth of these miles, is Rs. 4,500. You’ll get 3,000 free miles per year upon payment of the renewal fee.

However, if you are interested in saving on international expenses, this card is not the right choice as the foreign exchange markup is very high (3.5%) plus the card doesn’t offer international airport lounge access. All-in-all, Citi PremierMiles is a true-blue travel card as it falls short of benefits for dining, shopping and entertainment. If you are a frequent traveller within the country and would like to get discounted (sometimes even free) flights, this card is the perfect choice for you. 

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Air India SBI Signature Credit Card

One of the best travel credit cards in India, especially for Air India Loyalists, is the SBI Air India Signature credit card.  It must be in your pocket if you happen to spend a lot on your credit card as the basic reward rate is 4%. Each point gives an equal number of Air India Miles. If you can spend Rs. 20 lakh in a year, you will get 1 lakh rewards that are equivalent to 1 lakh Air India Miles, that can fetch you free flights more than one time. Another positive aspect of rewards points is that the redemption is not limited to air mile conversion; use rewards to avail services off the rewards catalogue.

However, being a co-branded card, all the advantages are only related to Air India. So, if you are not sure if for most of your trips you would like to stick to Air India, you should consider other travel credit cards for flying such as American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card, MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Signature Credit Card and YES FIRST Preferred Credit Card.

Check Other Best Co-branded Credit Cards in India

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Axis Bank Vistara Signature Credit Card

Axis Bank Vistara Signature Credit Card is suitable for those who are frequent travellers and preferVistara Airlines. It gives up to 2% Club Vistara Points which can be redeemed for flight upgrades and free flights. The more you spend on the card, the more travel benefits you will enjoy as milestone benefits on the card are excellent. You can avail up to 4 premium economy tickets in a year by reaching spending milestones.. Long-distance flights will earn more rewards as compared to short-distance flights as the total payable amount on the former will be more. Besides, you can also enjoy Club Vistara Silver Membership & Travel Insurance Protection, Discounted golf access. So, as far as rewards are concerned, Vistara Signature Card outplays Axis Vistara Platinum Credit Card. You should get this card if you primarily choose to travel via Vistara airlines. 

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SBI Card ELITE

SBI Elite Card is an all-rounder card with benefits across travel, shopping and movies. The reason why we have included this card in the list of best travel credit cards is that you can make good use of it to save on your travel expenses. Though the card comes with an annual fee of Rs. 4,999, it offers welcome vouchers worth Rs. 5,000 which are also redeemable for travel vouchers from Yatra. The card also offers complimentary Silver membership to Club Vistara which entitles you to flight upgrades and several other benefits with Vistara Airlines. You can avail complimentary international (under Priority Pass) and domestic (via Visa/Mastercard) lounge visits on the card. The card also offers hotel benefits, though limited to Trident Hotels only. The card gives cardholders a 10% discount on top of a 2.50 percent rewards rate i.e. 10 points per Rs. 100, 1 point = Rs. 0.25. If you plan to use your card internationally, you can save big on the forex markup as SBI Elite charges 1.99% only, as compared to the general markup of 3.5% or more.

Also Read: Best International Credit Cards in India

In addition to the travel benefits, SBI Elite also has a good reward rate with extra rewards on certain categories like dining, groceries and departmental store spends. The overall benefits of the card are inclined towards travel and hence, if you are looking for a travel card with benefits across other categories as well, this card is the right choice.

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Standard Chartered Emirates World Credit Card

Standard Chartered Emirates World is mostly about Skyward Miles, making it beneficial for frequent travellers. If you prefer travelling internationally via Emirates airlines, this card is a good choice as most of its benefits are given on the same airlines. The skyward miles are pretty flexible as you can use them to book your flight tickets too. But the key benefits of Standard Chartered Emirates World credit card revolve around travel rewards only. So, if you want some additional benefits that include entertainment, then the annual fee of Rs. 3000 might hurt your pocket. Unlike other co-branded travel cards where the benefits are more wide-ranged, this card has a simple mile earning and redemption model. Other features are only satisfactory. This card would be the best fit for Emirates loyalists only.

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HDFC Regalia Credit Card

HDFC Regalia is one of the best credit cards in India. It is best suited for heavy spenders and those who travel often. If you are a frequent traveller, with Regalia, you will get 6 international lounge visits per year and 12 domestic lounge visits per year. For frequent overseas travellers, this card charges a low foreign exchange mark up fee of 2% only. Usually, the forex markup fee is 3.5% or higher and only a few cards in the market charge a lower rate. HDFC Regalia is one of them. Plus, you also get generous bonus rewards on reaching spending milestones.

This card is stacked with an immense list of features and benefits as compared to any other credit card issued by any bank in India with such low annual/renewal fees, which is also waived off on a spending basis. It offers a default reward rate of 2.67% which is great and you can hardly get such rewards with other banks. The redemption rate, however, is only 0.5%. So, if you spend Rs. 15,000, you will get 400 reward points and when you redeem them they will be worth Rs. 200. If you are a frequent shopper and also take several trips in a year, this card would suit your needs the best.

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MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Platinum Credit Card

If your aim remains to fly within India and internationally, ICICI MMT Platinum credit card is a good choice. Obviously, most benefits are available on MakeMyTrip so you should get this card only if you prefer to make travel bookings through MMT.  You will earn MyCash which can be used for travel and hotel bookings only on MMT. . The reward rate is good as compared to other travel cards and comes with Milestone Spend Benefits as well. Users are also given Lemon Tree Hotels voucher worth Rs 2,000. This offer is applicable for Lemon Tree Hotels room booked through Mobile Application or MakeMyTrip Website.

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YES FIRST Preferred Credit Card

YES First Preferred Credit Card is suitable for those who travel within the country quite often but not much to international destinations and put major expenses in a month on credit cards. This card is ideal for you, particularly if you are looking for a travel-centric credit card that still fits well in a few other categories, with an excellent rewards scheme, a significant sign-up incentive (in the form of rewards) and a low foreign exchange markup fee. However, getting approved for this credit card could be difficult as its eligibility criteria specify that the applicant’s monthly income should be Rs. 1.5 Lakh or above.

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IndusInd Bank Platinum Aura Credit Card

IndusInd Bank Platinum Aura Credit Card is an entry-level card well-suited for frequent travellers and shoppers as it rewards them for every purchase with extra rewards on departmental store and grocery spends. For frequent flyers, this card gives saving points on every spend in the selected categories such as hotel expenses, airline tickets, car rental expenses, and rail tickets, which can be redeemed against dues on your IndusInd Bank Platinum Aura Credit Card, or on airline miles. It also provides a special Travel Plus Membership at a fee of Rs. 5,000. This membership entitles the users to access international as well as domestic airport lounges, 8 times per year. The card also provides complimentary lounge access and concierge service. It offers a reward rate of 0.25% to 2%. It has a low joining fee of Rs.899 which is further waived if you spend Rs.25,000 within the first 90 days from the date of issue. So, it is a good option for moderate spenders.

Check other Best Credit Card for Beginners in India

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Points/Air Mile Earnings on Top 10 Travel Credit Cards