Axis Magnus along with Axis Vistara Infinite

[ayushjain2795]

I recently got Axis Magnus and I’m inclined towards getting the Axis Vistara Infinite because of the Gold status. Would it make sense to get this as well?
believe they have an offer regarding the joining fee waiver at the moment.

 

[manzb]

I recently got Axis Magnus and I’m inclined towards getting the Axis Vistara Infinite because of the Gold status. Would it make sense to get this as well?
believe they have an offer regarding the joining fee waiver at the moment.

I had Vistara Infinite and added Magnus this year. It makes perfect sense specially if you happen to fly Vistara often.

 

[Venky]

I hold both of them too. They offer a joining fee reversal on 120k spent in 90 days and infinite with just Rs.1800 is a no brainer! But this offer is valid for applications before the 31st Dec. So if you're planning to get the card you'll have to be super quick as Axis has a habit of long processing times.
It's gonna take a while before they reverse the joining fee though. You'll have to pay up within the first cycle and later they reverse it, assuming in 2-3 months after you reach the spend criteria.

 

[gurbina]

Refer to this:

Capping for Axis Vistara Infinite and Magnus

Hi TF community, I’ve just received my Axis Vistara Infinite card and that gets my tally to 2 along with my Magnus Wanted to understand if there is an individual capping for Gyftr, grabdeals? for ex - Gyftr allows me to purchase 10,000 Amazon voucher. Will it now allow me 20k If not, can I...

www.technofino.in

Tldr
Only worth it if you have the annual fee waiver and if it does NOT get in the way to achieve the Magnus milestone which is worth more.

 

[manzb]

Refer to this:

Capping for Axis Vistara Infinite and Magnus

Hi TF community, I’ve just received my Axis Vistara Infinite card and that gets my tally to 2 along with my Magnus Wanted to understand if there is an individual capping for Gyftr, grabdeals? for ex - Gyftr allows me to purchase 10,000 Amazon voucher. Will it now allow me 20k If not, can I...

www.technofino.in

Tldr
Only worth it if you have the annual fee waiver and if it does NOT get in the way to achieve the Magnus milestone which is worth more.

He is looking for Gold status, which is not available via Magnus. Plus even with annual fees, you get a free biz class ticket.

 

[gurbina]

Warning, long post ahead.

Now talking when you have a Magnus and looking at getting Vistara Infinite.

If you have to choose between a month of Magnus milestone and Vistara Infinite waiver (even with all the yearlong benefits), definitely stick to Magnus. You'll extract more efficient value out of the milestone. Even on standard rewards earnings you get nearly twice the CV points on Magnus on average spends. On top of that with GrabDeals, Gyftr and TravelEdge you're bound to have multiple times the earnings on Magnus than you'd have gotten in Vistara Infinite.
None of these benefits are available to Vistara Infinite except for some measly cashback offers.

Additionally to that ER points are more valuable and you can redeem them for Air India flights via a partner airline. Just with that I wouldn't put a single spend on a Vistara if I don't have to.

Vistara Infinite is only useful if you travel often on Vistara if it isn't obvious enough.

Now Vistara has limited connectivity to everywhere except from Mumbai and Delhi.
Why would you have a connecting flight and pay a lot more when there's a lot of other airlines which have lower cost, nonstop flights and even better schedules?
Depending on where you're located might not be worth it as you'll never use these benefits or use it very few times a year when flying to or from these Vistara hubs.

Also to use the benefits you need to fly Vistara and do mind their flights are usually the most expensive ones compared to all the other carriers and most people just care about cost.

To picture it with a different perspective with the cost difference on retail tickets between cheaper carriers and Vistara you can probably buy the same benefits on the cheaper airline (extra baggage,seat,food, priority checkin/boarding).

I value the product and services Vistara offers but most people will be driven by value and even I would pick other airlines if the price difference is substantial. I do even consider points earning into consideration when making my bookings.

Now comes the value of business class and these upgrade vouchers.

Do mind while award availability is usually okay, you can forget about redeeming it during any peak season or busy weekends, specially on short notice.
Most people won't fly and aren't willing to pay for business class. They could get probably 2-3 flights out of the 12k annual fee which they usually do but for the sake of the gimmick and the word "free business class ticket" fall for consumerism.

For the upgrade vouchers, they're a one class upgrade:
Economy < Premium Economy < Business

I personally don't see the value in premium economy, specially if you have CV Gold as the benefits overlap and you'll only gain a bit of extra seating space for a much higher cost. I would not pay for it and definitely would not use points for it.

The sole reason why I would ever book premium economy as CV Gold is to use the upgrade voucher to business class, it is the best use for these vouchers as the value of business class seats is about 3-4x the value of premium economy.

Do mind that the business class voucher and upgrade vouchers require payment of taxes and fees which can be anywhere from 600-2k INR from my experience.

So at the end of the day unless you usually fly Vistara, you're spending more money you didn't have to spend. You could get the same value on any other airline with the same benefits at similar cost.
Needless to say Vistara offers a much superior service and product, but that isn't a priority to most of the consumers in India which are very price sensitive

CV Gold while it is convenient to skip standard check-in lines (which aren't usually lengthy for Vistara flights) the remaining benefits aren't used by most flyers.
Extra baggage allowance, flight changes (NOT free they just waive the rescheduling fee but you gotta pay the fare difference) and remaining benefits are seldom used by most people.
And as I mentioned earlier with the fare difference you could have gotten the same benefits on the cheaper carrier. Then it will be down to routing and schedules in which Vistara likely doesn't have the upper hand.
Depending on how often you fly and base city you might not even be able to use these benefits at all.

 

[Arosaurabh]

Warning, long post ahead.

Now talking when you have a Magnus and looking at getting Vistara Infinite.

If you have to choose between a month of Magnus milestone and Vistara Infinite waiver (even with all the yearlong benefits), definitely stick to Magnus. You'll extract more efficient value out of the milestone. Even on standard rewards earnings you get nearly twice the CV points on Magnus on average spends. On top of that with GrabDeals, Gyftr and TravelEdge you're bound to have multiple times the earnings on Magnus than you'd have gotten in Vistara Infinite.
None of these benefits are available to Vistara Infinite except for some measly cashback offers.

Additionally to that ER points are more valuable and you can redeem them for Air India flights via a partner airline. Just with that I wouldn't put a single spend on a Vistara if I don't have to.

Vistara Infinite is only useful if you travel often on Vistara if it isn't obvious enough.

Now Vistara has limited connectivity to everywhere except from Mumbai and Delhi.
Why would you have a connecting flight and pay a lot more when there's a lot of other airlines which have lower cost, nonstop flights and even better schedules?
Depending on where you're located might not be worth it as you'll never use these benefits or use it very few times a year when flying to or from these Vistara hubs.

Also to use the benefits you need to fly Vistara and do mind their flights are usually the most expensive ones compared to all the other carriers and most people just care about cost.

To picture it with a different perspective with the cost difference on retail tickets between cheaper carriers and Vistara you can probably buy the same benefits on the cheaper airline (extra baggage,seat,food, priority checkin/boarding).

I value the product and services Vistara offers but most people will be driven by value and even I would pick other airlines if the price difference is substantial. I do even consider points earning into consideration when making my bookings.

Now comes the value of business class and these upgrade vouchers.

Do mind while award availability is usually okay, you can forget about redeeming it during any peak season or busy weekends, specially on short notice.
Most people won't fly and aren't willing to pay for business class. They could get probably 2-3 flights out of the 12k annual fee which they usually do but for the sake of the gimmick and the word "free business class ticket" fall for consumerism.

For the upgrade vouchers, they're a one class upgrade:
Economy < Premium Economy < Business

I personally don't see the value in premium economy, specially if you have CV Gold as the benefits overlap and you'll only gain a bit of extra seating space for a much higher cost. I would not pay for it and definitely would not use points for it.

The sole reason why I would ever book premium economy as CV Gold is to use the upgrade voucher to business class, it is the best use for these vouchers as the value of business class seats is about 3-4x the value of premium economy.

Do mind that the business class voucher and upgrade vouchers require payment of taxes and fees which can be anywhere from 600-2k INR from my experience.

So at the end of the day unless you usually fly Vistara, you're spending more money you didn't have to spend. You could get the same value on any other airline with the same benefits at similar cost.
Needless to say Vistara offers a much superior service and product, but that isn't a priority to most of the consumers in India which are very price sensitive

CV Gold while it is convenient to skip standard check-in lines (which aren't usually lengthy for Vistara flights) the remaining benefits aren't used by most flyers.
Extra baggage allowance, flight changes (NOT free they just waive the rescheduling fee but you gotta pay the fare difference) and remaining benefits are seldom used by most people.
And as I mentioned earlier with the fare difference you could have gotten the same benefits on the cheaper carrier. Then it will be down to routing and schedules in which Vistara likely doesn't have the upper hand.
Depending on how often you fly and base city you might not even be able to use these benefits at all.

No your point that you loose flexibility of choosing the airlines makes great sense, unless you are looking for superior experience proposition, Air India offers much better value for money proposition in comparison.

 

[gurbina]

No your point that you loose flexibility of choosing the airlines makes great sense, unless you are looking for superior experience proposition, Air India offers much better value for money proposition in comparison.

It does, however the partner airlines which you need to use to book Air India tend to have either very high fees or require more points than Vistara does, but it opens the door to lots of availability and additional routes which is well worth it.

When it comes to business class redemptions, they are usually far better in Vistara as they're priced higher than Air India usually due to a better newer product.
Air India is known for having one of the worst business class products, but it isn't that bad compared to the older business class that Vistara still operates. However for redemptions you can still book the newer business class cabins from Vistara whereas in Air India there's none. So for that case better to try to snatch these redemptions in Vistara.

Once Air India retrofit their planes no doubt they'll be a very very good value proposition, they announced a big budget for retrofitting and that they'll operate 3 class cabins domestically, same as Vistara.

For now a huge benefit in Air India is that they still have a bidding system for upgrades and you can easily score a business class upgrade from Economy for 1/2 or even 1/3 of what you would have had to pay in Vistara. Vistara has fixed pricing for upgrades that adds up to buying a business class ticket outright in most cases, so not worth it at all.

Vistara would rather fly empty business class than to give "cheap" paid upgrades.
I can score a business class for 4k INR in Air India with high confidence through their bidding system where Vistara wants 12k fixed pricing for the same route and similar product (excluding Vistara newer cabins).

Also with ER points you can get a lot higher value in other airlines and hotels, 2x or even 3x the value than you're getting at Vistara depending on the redemption. From time to time there's the partner transfer offers that give you a boost when transferring these points, and also these partners have discounted redemptions every now and then.

Depending on the redemption you can get 2-3 INR per point in some well known best value redemptions, it just takes some more work or planning to get the most out of it.

 

[Arosaurabh]

It does, however the partner airlines which you need to use to book Air India tend to have either very high fees or require more points than Vistara does, but it opens the door to lots of availability and additional routes which is well worth it.

When it comes to business class redemptions, they are usually far better in Vistara as they're priced higher than Air India usually due to a better newer product.
Air India is known for having one of the worst business class products, but it isn't that bad compared to the older business class that Vistara still operates. However for redemptions you can still book the newer business class cabins from Vistara whereas in Air India there's none. So for that case better to try to snatch these redemptions in Vistara.

Once Air India retrofit their planes no doubt they'll be a very very good value proposition, they announced a big budget for retrofitting and that they'll operate 3 class cabins domestically, same as Vistara.

For now a huge benefit in Air India is that they still have a bidding system for upgrades and you can easily score a business class upgrade from Economy for 1/2 or even 1/3 of what you would have had to pay in Vistara. Vistara has fixed pricing for upgrades that adds up to buying a business class ticket outright in most cases, so not worth it at all.

Vistara would rather fly empty business class than to give "cheap" paid upgrades.
I can score a business class for 4k INR in Air India with high confidence through their bidding system where Vistara wants 12k fixed pricing for the same route and similar product (excluding Vistara newer cabins).

Also with ER points you can get a lot higher value in other airlines and hotels, 2x or even 3x the value than you're getting at Vistara depending on the redemption. From time to time there's the partner transfer offers that give you a boost when transferring these points, and also these partners have discounted redemptions every now and then.

Depending on the redemption you can get 2-3 INR per point in some well known best value redemptions, it just takes some more work or planning to get the most out of it.

Great response, so standalone Magnus is good enough to maintain the flexibility of using your points effectively, and even if you still want to use Vistara, how does the conversion of ER points to CV stands in comparison to Axis Vistara CV points?

 

[gurbina]

Great response, so standalone Magnus is good enough to maintain the flexibility of using your points effectively, and even if you still want to use Vistara, how does the conversion of ER points to CV stands in comparison to Axis Vistara CV points?

Magnus 12 ER for every INR200
Vistara Infinite 6 CV for every INR200

Transfer ER points to CV points is 5:4, so if that's your route it's roughly 9.6 CV points for every INR200 on Magnus.

Magnus has fairly decent points multiplier on several merchants of 10x via Gyftr, and up to 50x via GrabDeals, these do not exist in Vistara except for some cashback offers.

To compare, on Magnus every month I get about 20k ER just from these offers, milestone another 25k ER and from normal spends probably 10k-15k ER. For a total of 55k-60k ER, if I convert that to CV points it would be around ~46k every month.
On the same spends on Vistara Infinite I was getting about an average 6k-7k CV points.

Day and night between both, I just wish I had been able to get a Magnus earlier but due to my credit score (or lack of) they would only offer me the Vistara Infinite with a limit of 70k and after 6 months I got LE and was also able to get the Magnus then.

In fact no other bank would offer me or grant me any credit card but seems like Axis would give that not-so enticing Vistara Infinite card to anyone as it is 10k+GST with no possibility of spend based annual fee waiver or LTF. The only way to get this fee waived is with promotions like the ongoing one. After the first year seems like there's no way to waive the annual fees.

As soon as I get the 2X CV points from October promotion I'm cancelling the card before renewal. They share the same credit limit with higher interest rates, cash withdrawal fees and higher foreign currency markup.

INR 12k in my pocket is more valuable than a business class voucher with restrictions (single flight sector, limited availability depending on dates) plus you gotta pay another INR1k+ in fees and taxes. If I wanted to buy business on the cheap I can buy an economy ticket on Air India and bid for an upgrade with the remaining and you're very likely to get the business class upgrade.

And to have a meaningful use for the upgrade vouchers you'll likely end up spending twice the cost of the cheapest economy flight option to get Premium Economy on Vistara so you can be upgraded to business class. Oh and don't forget to add the fees and taxes for these upgrades too.

While the bidding for business class won't guarantee you a cheap business class seat, average bids as suggested by Air India has gotten me 5 out of 6 upgrades I've bidded for.

CV Gold will only entice most people to pay more to stick to Vistara and get those benefits. Vistara is usually among the highest or the highest priced flight. With the price difference you could purchase most of the benefits you get with CV Gold like extra baggage, priority boarding, seats and food on any other airline that serves your plans better. And on those spends you'll get more points out of a Magnus.

 

[CVR]

Magnus 12 ER for every INR200
Vistara Infinite 6 CV for every INR200

Transfer ER points to CV points is 5:4, so if that's your route it's roughly 9.6 CV points for every INR200 on Magnus.

Magnus has fairly decent points multiplier on several merchants of 10x via Gyftr, and up to 50x via GrabDeals, these do not exist in Vistara except for some cashback offers.

To compare, on Magnus every month I get about 20k ER just from these offers, milestone another 25k ER and from normal spends probably 10k-15k ER. For a total of 55k-60k ER, if I convert that to CV points it would be around ~46k every month.
On the same spends on Vistara Infinite I was getting about an average 6k-7k CV points.

Day and night between both, I just wish I had been able to get a Magnus earlier but due to my credit score (or lack of) they would only offer me the Vistara Infinite with a limit of 70k and after 6 months I got LE and was also able to get the Magnus then.

In fact no other bank would offer me or grant me any credit card but seems like Axis would give that not-so enticing Vistara Infinite card to anyone as it is 10k+GST with no possibility of spend based annual fee waiver or LTF. The only way to get this fee waived is with promotions like the ongoing one. After the first year seems like there's no way to waive the annual fees.

As soon as I get the 2X CV points from October promotion I'm cancelling the card before renewal. They share the same credit limit with higher interest rates, cash withdrawal fees and higher foreign currency markup.

INR 12k in my pocket is more valuable than a business class voucher with restrictions (single flight sector, limited availability depending on dates) plus you gotta pay another INR1k+ in fees and taxes. If I wanted to buy business on the cheap I can buy an economy ticket on Air India and bid for an upgrade with the remaining and you're very likely to get the business class upgrade.

And to have a meaningful use for the upgrade vouchers you'll likely end up spending twice the cost of the cheapest economy flight option to get Premium Economy on Vistara so you can be upgraded to business class. Oh and don't forget to add the fees and taxes for these upgrades too.

While the bidding for business class won't guarantee you a cheap business class seat, average bids as suggested by Air India has gotten me 5 out of 6 upgrades I've bidded for.

CV Gold will only entice most people to pay more to stick to Vistara and get those benefits. Vistara is usually among the highest or the highest priced flight. With the price difference you could purchase most of the benefits you get with CV Gold like extra baggage, priority boarding, seats and food on any other airline that serves your plans better. And on those spends you'll get more points out of a Magnus.

exactly my thoughts.. couldn’t have explained any better.. can’t understand why people are taking axis vistara infinite unless idea is to cancel within a year.. even for normal spends magnus gives more CV points than vistara card without multiplier or milestone.. if there are spends above 1 lakh i will rather put that on reserve if i have one or amex plat travel to reach 4 lakh annual milestone.. or hdfc infinia/dcb if u have that..

 

[indiatraveller]

I have taken vistara card only for rent payments, since it seems most other cards are doing away with rewards for those. If vistara card stops that then I will cancel mine

 

[Arosaurabh]

Magnus 12 ER for every INR200
Vistara Infinite 6 CV for every INR200

Transfer ER points to CV points is 5:4, so if that's your route it's roughly 9.6 CV points for every INR200 on Magnus.

Magnus has fairly decent points multiplier on several merchants of 10x via Gyftr, and up to 50x via GrabDeals, these do not exist in Vistara except for some cashback offers.

To compare, on Magnus every month I get about 20k ER just from these offers, milestone another 25k ER and from normal spends probably 10k-15k ER. For a total of 55k-60k ER, if I convert that to CV points it would be around ~46k every month.
On the same spends on Vistara Infinite I was getting about an average 6k-7k CV points.

Day and night between both, I just wish I had been able to get a Magnus earlier but due to my credit score (or lack of) they would only offer me the Vistara Infinite with a limit of 70k and after 6 months I got LE and was also able to get the Magnus then.

In fact no other bank would offer me or grant me any credit card but seems like Axis would give that not-so enticing Vistara Infinite card to anyone as it is 10k+GST with no possibility of spend based annual fee waiver or LTF. The only way to get this fee waived is with promotions like the ongoing one. After the first year seems like there's no way to waive the annual fees.

As soon as I get the 2X CV points from October promotion I'm cancelling the card before renewal. They share the same credit limit with higher interest rates, cash withdrawal fees and higher foreign currency markup.

INR 12k in my pocket is more valuable than a business class voucher with restrictions (single flight sector, limited availability depending on dates) plus you gotta pay another INR1k+ in fees and taxes. If I wanted to buy business on the cheap I can buy an economy ticket on Air India and bid for an upgrade with the remaining and you're very likely to get the business class upgrade.

And to have a meaningful use for the upgrade vouchers you'll likely end up spending twice the cost of the cheapest economy flight option to get Premium Economy on Vistara so you can be upgraded to business class. Oh and don't forget to add the fees and taxes for these upgrades too.

While the bidding for business class won't guarantee you a cheap business class seat, average bids as suggested by Air India has gotten me 5 out of 6 upgrades I've bidded for.

CV Gold will only entice most people to pay more to stick to Vistara and get those benefits. Vistara is usually among the highest or the highest priced flight. With the price difference you could purchase most of the benefits you get with CV Gold like extra baggage, priority boarding, seats and food on any other airline that serves your plans better. And on those spends you'll get more points out of a Magnus.

That's an excellent comparison and detailed breakdown, so basis this i have dropped the idea, I intended to take this card just for the Gold tier, and as you said other airlines offer better value for money i am also not fixated with Vistara, besides what happens to CV points in CY 24 once Vistara is merged with Air India is anybody's guess. So loosing that flexibility of choosing airlines is a bigger issue than the Gold tier/Business class tickets are concerned.
I have another issue, I started looking at upgradation of my Credit cards just recently and was holding Regalia LTF for more than 5 years and finally got Magnus yesterday and while chasing/pestering HDFC for Infinia or DCB LTF just got closure that they are willing to offer DCB FYF and waiver of Rs 10000 annual fee(next year) with Rs 5L spend in membership year. Not sure to take this offer(would require diverting 5L Magnus spend here) or continue with Regalia LTF and concentrate all spend on Magnus. What are your thoughts on it?

 

[CVR]

That's an excellent comparison and detailed breakdown, so basis this i have dropped the idea, I intended to take this card just for the Gold tier, and as you said other airlines offer better value for money i am also not fixated with Vistara, besides what happens to CV points in CY 24 once Vistara is merged with Air India is anybody's guess. So loosing that flexibility of choosing airlines is a bigger issue than the Gold tier/Business class tickets are concerned.
I have another issue, I started looking at upgradation of my Credit cards just recently and was holding Regalia LTF for more than 5 years and finally got Magnus yesterday and while chasing/pestering HDFC for Infinia or DCB LTF just got closure that they are willing to offer DCB FYF and waiver of Rs 10000 annual fee(next year) with Rs 5L spend in membership year. Not sure to take this offer(would require diverting 5L Magnus spend here) or continue with Regalia LTF and concentrate all spend on Magnus. What are your thoughts on it?

Even if you get DCB you will end up having almost all spending on Magnus only till the time they have milestone benefits of 1 lakh monthly spends. And you might not be able to hit 5 lakh spends on DCB for fee waiver. Better to stick with Regalia LTF for now and maybe think about DCB/Infinia upgrade whenever Magnus has devaluation. Also HDFC might launch few new cards soon as per media articles so can wait for that too.

 

[azimk]

Sir, will rent payments count toward milestone and fee wavers spends on axis vistara infinite?

 

[CVR]

Sir, will rent payments count toward milestone and fee wavers spends on axis vistara infinite?

Yes I think so but I don’t hold Vistara Infinite so better if someone who holds card can confirm

 

[Arosaurabh]

Even if you get DCB you will end up having almost all spending on Magnus only till the time they have milestone benefits of 1 lakh monthly spends. And you might not be able to hit 5 lakh spends on DCB for fee waiver. Better to stick with Regalia LTF for now and maybe think about DCB/Infinia upgrade whenever Magnus has devaluation. Also HDFC might launch few new cards soon as per media articles so can wait for that too.

Thanks for the feedback, infact i had also made up my mind not to take the DCB was looking for validation. It makes sense to make hay till the Magnus story plays out. The only attraction was the lounge access that DCB offered and better rewards over regalia. But diverting 5L towards it is not making sense in comparison with with the rewards that Magnus is offering for now.
But then will have to make effort all over again to move from Regalia to Infinia (If it continues to be the premier card of HDFC)

 

[anish_]

Is there any way to check how much spend is needed to complete the next 2.5L threshold on the Vistara Infinite card?

I just received the Magnus today but would like to complete the threshold for another business ticket before moving all spending to the Magnus.

 

[manzb]

Is there any way to check how much spend is needed to complete the next 2.5L threshold on the Vistara Infinite card?

I just received the Magnus today but would like to complete the threshold for another business ticket before moving all spending to the Magnus.

You can see yourself online by adding all the spend since the card was issued/ anniversary date. Else you can call CC. But typically, once you hit a milestone it automatically triggers the biz ticket (most of the time)