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

[cardio_guycardio_guy is verified member.]

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?

 

[cardio_guycardio_guy is verified member.]

Regarding point 2 it’s a severe loss for us because one side atlas miles not credited and top of it fuel surcharge
If u say the property others can be vigilant

I don't know the property, saw in some thread here in TF. Can't recollect which one it was.
+ I wanted to say - hotels may not always use hotel MCC, it could be anything, worst case fuel. It could be restaurant, department store and what not.
Anyway Axis has now gone away from specific MCC and it is a blanket category based exclusion.
So if not one specific MCC number, another number also can have same impact.

 

[Avatar Aang]

I don't know the property, saw in some thread here in TF. Can't recollect which one it was.
+ I wanted to say - hotels may not always use hotel MCC, it could be anything, worst case fuel. It could be restaurant, department store and what not.
Anyway Axis has now gone away from specific MCC and it is a blanket category based exclusion.
So if not one specific MCC number, another number also can have same impact.

Now they have more liberty to not give EM. Axis being Axis.
There's a PSU which is in tourism business but uses MCC of Government Services. Hence, you do not get any Edge miles/rewards for almost all the cards (merchant doesn't accept Amex).

 

[rogerthat]

Now they have more liberty to not give EM. Axis being Axis.
There's a PSU which is in tourism business but uses MCC of Government Services. Hence, you do not get any Edge miles/rewards for almost all the cards (merchant doesn't accept Amex).

Balmer Lawrie. Similarly in Kerala, anything run by the government uses 9399 MCC. The result is that you won't get any points for things ranging from travel (KSRTC) to liqour shops (BEVCO).

 

[HumorSimpson]

Balmer Lawrie. Similarly in Kerala, anything run by the government uses 9399 MCC. The result is that you won't get any points for things ranging from travel (KSRTC) to liqour shops (BEVCO).

with all these new info cardio guy be like card ayyo.

 

[Wealth is my birth right!]

Now they have more liberty to not give EM. Axis being Axis.
There's a PSU which is in tourism business but uses MCC of Government Services. Hence, you do not get any Edge miles/rewards for almost all the cards (merchant doesn't accept Amex).

For TTDC I used atlas and got 5x

 

[Avatar Aang]

Balmer Lawrie. Similarly in Kerala, anything run by the government uses 9399 MCC. The result is that you won't get any points for things ranging from travel (KSRTC) to liqour shops (BEVCO).

Yes. I've even registered a grievance on the CPGRAMs portal.
First of all it's a PSU.
They are doing business. How could they register themselves as government services.
Government services are Municipality, Registrar office, etc.

I had booked a Europe Tour package for my parents. It was around 5L. Since balmer Lawrie is registered under government services neither I got the EM nor the Milestone benefits.