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Going to take my first travel card - Axis Atlas, need some inputs.

So after a lot of time spent on cashback cards and exploring a lot about travel cards, I finally decided to take the plunge and get into the world of travel card.
I had been avoiding Axis for some reasons all this while, but finally decided to take the Axis Atlas card.

Most importantly these days my bookings have changed, I usually book from direct airlines website or app, and hotels can be booked from traveledge.
So this gives me a chance to try my luck with Axis Atlas.

My travel and hotel stay is mostly domestic. My current cards do not give any good value on flight or hotel booking.
But Indigo flights are the one where I am stuck without any returns. (or may be 1.5% base returns)

I was shortlisting some of the other cards in this league:
- Amex Plat Travel: Amex not issuing cards now and low offline acceptance held me back
- HSBC Travel One: The advantage over Atlas is that OTAs are included but with Traveledge, I decided to go with Axis.
- HDFC Regalia Gold - I will be get this card sometime this year. When I get it, I will relook at my strategy.

Another thing that I considered is validity of edge miles and accor points.
I understand that Edge miles are valid for 3 years, but Accor points validity keeps extending as and when we transfer in points.

Use case of the Edge miles is stay in Accor hotels and nothing else.
In the next 1-2 years, I want to take my family to good places, and stay in good hotels, and I believe this will be a good choice.


I want to know the following things -
1. I don't have an Axis bank account. Will they give this card for people who doesnt have an account?
2. How is traveledge portal for booking hotels? (not accor or mariott kind of, but local ones)
3. I haven't considered anything about vouchers yet. Is it possible to play the voucher game with this card? If yes, how?
3. Did I mss anything else?
 
I remember commenting on your last post about regalia gold. Honestly man, axis doesn't seem worth it. So many people have had their cards closed due to supposed business use. Regalia gold doesn't have that many restrictions and the milestones are decent. I'm trying to upgrade mine to Infinia soon but still happy with this card in general.
 
I remember commenting on your last post about regalia gold. Honestly man, axis doesn't seem worth it. So many people have had their cards closed due to supposed business use. Regalia gold doesn't have that many restrictions and the milestones are decent. I'm trying to upgrade mine to Infinia soon but still happy with this card in general.
Yes, Regalia Gold is a very decent card compared to atlas. I've been trying to get that, but it will take time.
In the long term, I am thinking to make Atlas and Regalia Gold as primary cards once I am fully on track. (With my spends, getting DCB or Infinia is not possible)
So I will be settled with these 2 mid tier cards for travel & hotel spends, thereby embarking my points and miles journey.
 
Here are my existing cards and their usage and plan for new cards.

Card
Usage
ICICI Amazon PayOnly for Amazon purchases (5% cashback)LTF
ICICI Sapphiro Only for BMS B1G1 - 500x2 per monthLTF
HDFC SwiggyOnly for Swiggy, Instamart, and Dineout (10% cashback)LTF
HDFC FreedomKeeping it for getting upgrade500
HDFC Mariott BonvoyOnly for lounge access for add-on card holders + FNA + Silver Elite3540
Federal CelestaOnly for lounge access + movie offer + Any bank specific offer.LTF
Indusind TigerOnly for lounge access + movie offer + Any bank specific offer.LTF
IDFC First WealthOnly for Visa Infinite + Card specific offers.LTF
HDFC Tata Neu InfinityPrimary card now - UPI, Offline swipe, utilities, recharges, insurance, gas, grocery.
Will keep the 5% and 10% categories here, and move other spends, offline swipes etc to RG. (if I get upgraded)
LTF
[td width="25.0945%"]
Fees
[/td]​

My plan is to take the following cards to optimize returns:

CardUsageFees
HDFC Regalia Gold Want to make it primary and move most of the offline swipes & low rewarding spends on other cards here. + Smartbuy spends.FYF / 2950
Axis AtlasMainly for Indigo flights and hotel booings. Apart from that, I can use this for offline swipes and other spends, to meet milestone conditions or benefits. 5900
HSBC Live+Only For offline grocery 10% cashback. Only thing is if I have to meet milestone for Atlas, then I might use Atlas first, keep this on hold.
Least priority. If spends are too spread out and I cannot meet fee waiver conditions, then better off with Atlas and Regalia Gold for offline grocery. This can be left off.
1180

Things to consider:
  • Atlas and Regalia Gold - Both or either one of them? -- Spends are less. So getting both would be an overkill. Maynot be able to meet fee waiver milestone if spends are spread across both.
  • Vouchers - Plan to start buying vouchers for spends.
  • Consolidate spends on LTF cards and move most of them to paid cards, so that fee waiver and milestones can be achieved.
  • So in short RG and Atlas will become primary cards for offline and miscellaneous uses.
 
Here are my existing cards and their usage and plan for new cards.

Card
Usage
ICICI Amazon PayOnly for Amazon purchases (5% cashback)LTF
ICICI Sapphiro Only for BMS B1G1 - 500x2 per monthLTF
HDFC SwiggyOnly for Swiggy, Instamart, and Dineout (10% cashback)LTF
HDFC FreedomKeeping it for getting upgrade500
HDFC Mariott BonvoyOnly for lounge access for add-on card holders + FNA + Silver Elite3540
Federal CelestaOnly for lounge access + movie offer + Any bank specific offer.LTF
Indusind TigerOnly for lounge access + movie offer + Any bank specific offer.LTF
IDFC First WealthOnly for Visa Infinite + Card specific offers.LTF
HDFC Tata Neu InfinityPrimary card now - UPI, Offline swipe, utilities, recharges, insurance, gas, grocery.
Will keep the 5% and 10% categories here, and move other spends, offline swipes etc to RG. (if I get upgraded)
LTF

[td width="25.0945%"]
Fees


[/td]​


My plan is to take the following cards to optimize returns:

CardUsageFees
HDFC Regalia Gold Want to make it primary and move most of the offline swipes & low rewarding spends on other cards here. + Smartbuy spends.FYF / 2950
Axis AtlasMainly for Indigo flights and hotel booings. Apart from that, I can use this for offline swipes and other spends, to meet milestone conditions or benefits.5900
HSBC Live+Only For offline grocery 10% cashback. Only thing is if I have to meet milestone for Atlas, then I might use Atlas first, keep this on hold.
Least priority. If spends are too spread out and I cannot meet fee waiver conditions, then better off with Atlas and Regalia Gold for offline grocery. This can be left off.
1180

Things to consider:
  • Atlas and Regalia Gold - Both or either one of them? -- Spends are less. So getting both would be an overkill. Maynot be able to meet fee waiver milestone if spends are spread across both.
  • Vouchers - Plan to start buying vouchers for spends.
  • Consolidate spends on LTF cards and move most of them to paid cards, so that fee waiver and milestones can be achieved.
  • So in short RG and Atlas will become primary cards for offline and miscellaneous uses.
I have been using Atlas as my primary for the last two years. Somehow was able to meet the 15L spend threshold for both years. Haven't faced any inquiry from axis yet (very thankful, and fingers crossed). My 2 cents -

  • If you are sure of a travel plan in the next 2 years that involves somewhere with Accor hotels, go ahead and try atlas. Even at spends of 3 Lakhs (including about 1 Lakh worth of flight travel), you can get somewhere between 15-20k EM, which converts to about 50-60k in Accor currency.
  • Take the regalia gold if you're eligible - and then you can use it whenever you want. Maybe now, maybe after a year. You can still keep RG as a decent secondary card keeping atlas as primary if you're ok with paying the fees. There is a high probability of atlas getting devalued before RG. So you can shift your spends to HDFC once that happens. This is something that I want to do. I currently hold an LTF Diners Privilege and Tata neu Infinity from HDFC. I am not eligible for Regalia based on Salary or CC Limit. I am trying my best to get one of my cards upgraded to RG, so that the day Atlas gets devalued, I can switch to HDFC and aim for DCB/Infinia.
  • On a side note, if you are interested only in Indigo blue chip points, Kotak Mahindra has revamped the Indigo 6E cards. Their premium card at 3k per year looks like a good card, with decent milestone benefits starting at 1.5 Lakhs. Check the card here- https://www.goindigo.in/loyalty/partners/kotak-mahindra-bank-credit-card.html
 
I have been using Atlas as my primary for the last two years. Somehow was able to meet the 15L spend threshold for both years. Haven't faced any inquiry from axis yet (very thankful, and fingers crossed). My 2 cents -

  • If you are sure of a travel plan in the next 2 years that involves somewhere with Accor hotels, go ahead and try atlas. Even at spends of 3 Lakhs (including about 1 Lakh worth of flight travel), you can get somewhere between 15-20k EM, which converts to about 50-60k in Accor currency.
  • Take the regalia gold if you're eligible - and then you can use it whenever you want. Maybe now, maybe after a year. You can still keep RG as a decent secondary card keeping atlas as primary if you're ok with paying the fees. There is a high probability of atlas getting devalued before RG. So you can shift your spends to HDFC once that happens. This is something that I want to do. I currently hold an LTF Diners Privilege and Tata neu Infinity from HDFC. I am not eligible for Regalia based on Salary or CC Limit. I am trying my best to get one of my cards upgraded to RG, so that the day Atlas gets devalued, I can switch to HDFC and aim for DCB/Infinia.
  • On a side note, if you are interested only in Indigo blue chip points, Kotak Mahindra has revamped the Indigo 6E cards. Their premium card at 3k per year looks like a good card, with decent milestone benefits starting at 1.5 Lakhs. Check the card here- https://www.goindigo.in/loyalty/partners/kotak-mahindra-bank-credit-card.html
Thanks for your inputs. These are very valuable insights. Good clarity.
One thing that I don't want to happen is devaluatoin of Atlas. It maynot happen in one shot and a blanket devaluation, but maybe in parts or specific sections or categories. But that is something not in our hands, so just being prepared is all what we can do.
HDFC is robust so I don't have any problems there.
On flights - Air India Express & Air India is another one that I use - but Tata Neu infinity on Neu app or direct website gives good rewards (upwards of 10% + tier benefits). So I am mostly good there.
Only for Indigo bookings, I wanted a different card, because as of now, Tata Neu is giving only 1.5% and I don't have any other better cards for Indigo.
I don't want a card specific to Indigo (Kotak one), that would be too focussed. So not looking at that. But thanks for that insight.
 
Thanks for your inputs. These are very valuable insights. Good clarity.
One thing that I don't want to happen is devaluatoin of Atlas. It maynot happen in one shot and a blanket devaluation, but maybe in parts or specific sections or categories. But that is something not in our hands, so just being prepared is all what we can do.
HDFC is robust so I don't have any problems there.
On flights - Air India Express & Air India is another one that I use - but Tata Neu infinity on Neu app or direct website gives good rewards (upwards of 10% + tier benefits). So I am mostly good there.
Only for Indigo bookings, I wanted a different card, because as of now, Tata Neu is giving only 1.5% and I don't have any other better cards for Indigo.
I don't want a card specific to Indigo (Kotak one), that would be too focussed. So not looking at that. But thanks for that insight.
if you are not comfortable with axis jhamela... and spends are of around 7lpa.. then combo of HDFC RG and Sbi cashback is also very good
 
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