M4B or Infinia for flight tickets worth 160K

[aashish2137]

Hey guys, I need to book 2 tickets for Delhi to Boston. The approx cost is 80K per ticket. I'm wondering which card would be most beneficial?

Option 1 - Book via smartbuy using 2 different infinia cards to remain below monthly cap. Reward rate is 16.25% so for each ticket I get approx 13k points. Total 26K benefit.
Option 2 - Book both via M4B on travel edge portal. 5X points means 60 points for every 200, which is 33%. On 160k tickets, its approx 53k Axis ER points. ER converts at 5:4 mostly so lets just say roughly 40K in value (could be more on Accor)

So my questions:
1. Are the extra ER really worth it? The benefit with Infinia is you get the points that as good as cash in 1:1 ratio.
2. Is there a monthly capping in Axis that I am missing?
3. Is there any difference in the quality of the portal (smartbuy vs Axis travel edge)?

Thanks for answering

 

[joshuatree]

Does Axis take time to credit points on M4B like in regular Magnus? With Infinia you get points pretty quickly.

 

[bvc19296]

1. Yes extra ER are really worth it, if you transfer to Accor.
2. Yes there is a limit but it's annually (Attached) - 2L for Group A and 8L for Group B - So limit doesn't affect you.
3. Smartbuy is sleek and smooth, but sometimes Travel edge gets laggy sometimes.

** Please compare prices before you book. There are many users mentioning that Smart Buy and Traveledge prices are inflated sometimes. If everything falls fine you can chose M4B.

 

[sourpai]

Hey guys, I need to book 2 tickets for Delhi to Boston. The approx cost is 80K per ticket. I'm wondering which card would be most beneficial?

Option 1 - Book via smartbuy using 2 different infinia cards to remain below monthly cap. Reward rate is 16.25% so for each ticket I get approx 13k points. Total 26K benefit.
Option 2 - Book both via M4B on travel edge portal. 5X points means 60 points for every 200, which is 33%. On 160k tickets, its approx 53k Axis ER points. ER converts at 5:4 mostly so lets just say roughly 40K in value (could be more on Accor)

So my questions:
1. Are the extra ER really worth it? The benefit with Infinia is you get the points that as good as cash in 1:1 ratio.
2. Is there a monthly capping in Axis that I am missing?
3. Is there any difference in the quality of the portal (smartbuy vs Axis travel edge)?

Thanks for answering

Are you getting price of tickets same at Smartbuy vs Travel Edge vs direct airline?

Travel edge is mostly inflated. So do consider that before calculating incremental ER benefits.

 

[bvc19296]

Does Axis take time to credit points on M4B like in regular Magnus? With Infinia you get points pretty quickly.

Yes extra points take 45 days to be credited.



Detailed Terms and Conditions are on the below link.

https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/terms-and-conditions-for-accelerated-35-edge-reward-points.pdf

 

[drsel]

Traveledge for 24% return is a better choice upto 2 lakhs worth airtickets per month.

First delete all temp files and cookies and then open traveledge in Mozilla Firefox safe mode or Google incognito.

Search for the departure and arrival flights using +/- 3 days on kayak to find the lowest fare for departure and arrival.

On Traveledge you need to book one ticket at a time then you will get the correct price which is not inflated.
Compare this price with what you found on Kayak as the cheapest outgoing flight and cheapest incoming flight

Please mark this as your Solution, thanks 🙏🏼

 

[bvc19296]

Traveledge for 24% return is a better choice upto 2 lakhs worth airtickets per month.

First delete all temp files and cookies and then open traveledge in Mozilla Firefox safe mode or Google incognito.

Search for the departure and arrival flights using +/- 3 days on kayak to find the lowest fare for departure and arrival.

On Traveledge you need to book one ticket at a time then you will get the correct price which is not inflated.

Please mark this as your Solution, thanks 🙏🏼

I have answered more, I will take up the solution for this.

 

[drsel]

I have answered more, I will take up the solution for this.

Agreed sir, you were also faster than me.
but I told him the trick to avoid getting inflated fares on Traveledge

 

[bvc19296]

Agreed sir, you were also faster than me.
but I told him the trick to avoid getting inflated fares on Traveledge

No worries, the best answer can be marked as solution as per the user choice.

Just kidding.

 

[aashish2137]

Does Axis take time to credit points on M4B like in regular Magnus? With Infinia you get points pretty quickly.

The T&C says it will be 7 (or was it 15?) days after the date of journey..

1. Yes extra ER are really worth it, if you transfer to Accor.
2. Yes there is a limit but it's annually (Attached) - 2L for Group A and 8L for Group B - So limit doesn't affect you.
3. Smartbuy is sleek and smooth, but sometimes Travel edge gets laggy sometimes.

** Please compare prices before you book. There are many users mentioning that Smart Buy and Traveledge prices are inflated sometimes. If everything falls fine you can chose M4B.

Isn't this 2L/8L limit on redemption and not on earning the points? So if I earn 2L+ in a year, I'd still get the points but I can't redeem in 1 year? Is that correct? Not that it is of importance right now..

Are you getting price of tickets same at Smartbuy vs Travel Edge vs direct airline?

Travel edge is mostly inflated. So do consider that before calculating incremental ER benefits.

Yes, 82K on smartbuy, 83K on travel edge.

Traveledge for 24% return is a better choice upto 2 lakhs worth airtickets per month.

First delete all temp files and cookies and then open traveledge in Mozilla Firefox safe mode or Google incognito.

Search for the departure and arrival flights using +/- 3 days on kayak to find the lowest fare for departure and arrival.

On Traveledge you need to book one ticket at a time then you will get the correct price which is not inflated.
Compare this price with what you found on Kayak as the cheapest outgoing flight and cheapest incoming flight

Please mark this as your Solution, thanks 🙏🏼

Thank you for the detailed response, I'll read all responses and mark the solution but I definitely appreciate you putting time and effort to respond to my query

 

[bvc19296]

The T&C says it will be 7 (or was it 15?) days after the date of journey..



Isn't this 2L/8L limit on redemption and not on earning the points? So if I earn 2L+ in a year, I'd still get the points but I can't redeem in 1 year? Is that correct? Not that it is of importance right now..



Yes, 82K on smartbuy, 83K on travel edge.



Thank you for the detailed response, I'll read all responses and mark the solution but I definitely appreciate you putting time and effort to respond to my query

- Normal points get credited within 7 days or 15 days (sometimes Axis delays it beyond that - Axis has that reputation)

- 2L is for redemption till Dec 2024 on Group A partners. You can earn more no problem.

- Yes, there will be variation, but benefit will be more than that. Just compare prices by clearing the cache and use incognito (As @drsel mentioned).

 

[aashish2137]

Update

Booked the tickets via Axis travel edge portal. Total cost was 164K on Kayak/ Skyscanner and 167K on Axis travel edge. Booked with Axis, got 50,160 points on same day.