Best Travel Credit Cards in India for 2022

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 travel frequently for business or leisure. Here’s our list of the best credit cards in India with maximum benefits on travel-related spending.

Top 10 Travel Credit Cards in India

Best Travel Credit Cards in India for 2022

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

Citi PremierMiles Credit Card

Annual Fee: Rs. 3,000
Renewal Fee: Rs. 3,000

Citi PremierMiles Credit Card is a travel credit card suited for frequent travelers 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 them 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 may not be 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 traveler within the country and would like to get discounted (sometimes even free) flights, this card can be a perfect choice for you.

Must Read: Citi PremierMiles Credit Card Review

SBI Card ELITE

Annual Fee: Rs. 4,999
Renewal Fee: Rs. 4,999

SBI Card Elite is a premium 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 cardholder gets 5X reward points on dining, grocery, and departmental store purchases. For all other transactions except fuel, the card provides 2 reward points for every Rs. 100 spent. But the reward value offered stands pretty low at 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% fee only, as compared to the usual markup of 3.5% or more on other cards. 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 could be the right choice.

Must Read: SBI Elite Credit Card Review

HDFC Regalia Credit Card

Annual Fee: Rs. 2,500
Renewal Fee: Rs. 2,500

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 traveler, with Regalia, you will get 6 international lounge visits per year and 12 domestic lounge visits per year. For frequent overseas travelers, this card charges a low foreign exchange mark-up fee of 2% only. Usually, the forex mark-up 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 offers a default reward earning 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.

Must Read: HDFC Regalia Credit Card Review

HDFC Bank Diners Club Privilege Credit Card

Annual Fee: Rs. 2,500
Renewal Fee: Rs. 2,500

HDFC Diners Club Privilege credit card is a mid-range credit card with various benefits inclined towards travel and lifestyle. Unlike most credit cards where you have to register for Priority Pass membership for domestic and international lounge accesses, you can get access to more than 1,000 airport lounges across the globe 12 times every year.

Cardholders can convert reward points into air miles and redeem them to book flight tickets through the Smartbuy platform. Hotel booking can also be made using reward points on the same platform. If you intend to have luxurious travel and stay, this card can be a good choice for you. Since the rewards earning rate is quite impressive for this fee range, the card has the potential to offer good value back especially to those who are heavy spenders.

Must Read: HDFC Diners Club Privilege Credit Card Review

Air India SBI Signature Credit Card

Annual Fee: Rs. 4,999
Renewal Fee: Rs. 4,999

SBI Air India Signature credit card is one of the best travel credit cards in India, especially for Air India loyalists. The basic reward earning rate is 4% and you get an equal number of Air India Miles for all points. If you can spend Rs. 20 lakh in a year, you could get up to 1 lakh reward points that are equivalent to 1 lakh Air India Miles, which 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 from the rewards catalogue.

However, being a co-branded card, all the advantages are only related to Air India. So, if you are not sure whether you would like to stick to Air India for most of your trips, you should consider other travel credit cards for general travel benefits such as MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Signature Credit Card.

Also Read: Best Co-branded Credit Cards in India

Axis Bank Vistara Signature Credit Card

Annual Fee: Rs. 3,000
Renewal Fee: Rs. 3,000

Axis Bank Vistara Signature Credit Card is suitable for those who are frequent travelers and prefer Vistara 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 and discounted golf access. 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.

Must Read: Axis Bank Vistara Credit Cards Review

InterMiles HDFC Signature Credit Card

Annual Fee: Rs. 2,500
Renewal Fee: Rs. 2,500

InterMiles HDFC Signature credit card is best suited for frequent air travelers. Using this card, you can redeem InterMiles and book flight tickets and hotels from the InterMiles website. Additionally, this card allows you to get access to a domestic airport lounge subjected to a maximum of 4 per quarter. Under the complimentary Priority Pass membership, you can get access to International lounges 5 times a year.

This card has a very good rewards rate as you get 12 InterMiles on spending every Rs. 150 at the InterMiles website for booking flight tickets and hotel reservations. Additionally, you get 6 InterMiles on every other kind of retail spends. You can get up to 10% discount on booking business class flight tickets and up to 5% on booking economy class tickets. In addition to that, you also get 2.5X bonus InterMiles.

A benefit of InterMiles platform is that the points can be used to book flight tickets for various airlines and hotels in and outside India.But, this can also be a limitation as the points earned cannot be used somewhere else making the user confined to booking tickets only through InterMiles.

Suggest Read: HDFC InterMiles Credit Cards Review

MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Signature Credit Card

Joining Fee: Rs. 2,500
Annual Fee: Nil

MMT ICICI Bank Signature Credit Card is a go-to option for frequent travelers who do not wish to compromise on luxury. The card offers exclusive benefits on MakeMyTrip, with a welcome voucher, and an impressive reward structure. All rewards earned are transferred to the MMT account as My Cash, where, every 1 My Cash earned on this card is equivalent to Rs. 1. You can use these rewards on your travel expenditure to make bookings on MMT to book hotels, tickets, or cabs.
All-in-all, the ICICI MMT Signature credit card is a good option for travel freaks to save more on travel costs. However, note that the benefits of this card are more inclined on MakeMyTrip, thereby if you are somebody who relies completely on MMT to plan your vacations, this card can be the best travel credit card for you.

Must Read: MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Signature Credit Card Review

IRCTC SBI Card Premier

Annual Fee: Rs. 1,499
Renewal Fee: Rs. 1,499

There are a number of credit cards that cater to the requirements of air travelers. But only a handful credit cards provide benefits for railway ticket bookings and railway lounge access. Those who travel by trains frequently can save big by using this credit card. IRCTC SBI Card Premier provides 10% value back as reward points on all spends for air-conditioned ticket booking (AC1, AC2, AC3 and AC CC). In addition to that, you can get 5% back on all air ticket and e-catering purchases done through the IRCTC website or app. You will also get 1% transaction charges waiver on railway ticket bookings and 1.8% on air tickets booking done through the IRCTC website.

As this card is inclined more towards providing benefits around train travel, you get access to railway lounges 8 times a year subjected to two times in a quarter. If you book train tickets often, you will be able to save money and earn rewards at the same time that can be used to get discounted bookings.

Suggested Read: SBI IRCTC Credit Cards Review

Yatra SBI Card

Annual Fee: Rs. 499
Renewal Fee: Rs. 499

While most travel credit cards are focused on offering general travel rewards or co-branded airline benefits, there are some cards launched in collaboration with travel portals like Yatra.com. Available at an annual fee of Rs. 499 only, the Yatra SBI Credit Card offers welcome benefits worth up to Rs. 8,250 in the form of Yatra Vouchers. Users will also get a direct discount on their flight and hotel bookings made via Yatra website.

Moreover, the card offers 6 reward points per Rs. 100 spent on grocery, dining, movies, entertainment and departmental stores. Complimentary air accident cover up to Rs. 50 Lakh is also offered for the primary cardholder, which is again a rare privilege on a card in this fee range.

*This offer is valid for a limited period.