SBI Cards has jumped the bandwagon of airmiles and hotel loyalty programs with its SBI Miles credit card. In a typical SBI card fashion, they have launched 3 variants, the SBI Card Miles (base variant), SBI Miles Prime and SBI Miles Elite. How do these cards fare? Are they rewarding enough? How do they compare with other airmiles cards? Should you apply for them? Here are the answers to all these and more…
SBI Miles Credit Card
SBI Miles credit card (base version)
Snapshot of SBI Miles credit card
Fees:
- Annual and joining fees of 1499+GST i.e. 1769
- Fee waiver on annual spends of 6lakhs
Reward and Benefits:
- Joining Benefits: 1500 reward points on spending 30k within 60 days
- Milestone Benefits:
- 5000 points on spending 5lakhs a year – 1% reward rate
- Reward Points
- 1 reward point for every 200 spent. 1RP = 1 airmiles (transfer partners discussed below). Else 1 reward point = 50p when used for travel bookings
- 0.5% reward rate assuming a bull case value of 1RP = 1 INR
- Accelerated reward points:
- 2 reward points for every 200 spent on travel – 1% reward rate
- Exclusions: Spends on insurance, utilities, rental spends, wallet load and fuel spending.
- Lounge Access
- 4 domestic lounge access per year (max 2 per quarter)
- Up to 8 additional lounge visits based on spending. Applicable for guests too.
SBI Miles Prime credit card
Snapshot of SBI Miles Prime credit card
Fees:
- Annual and joining fees of 2999+GST i.e. 3539
- Fee waiver on annual spends of 10lakhs
Reward and Benefits:
- Joining Benefits: 3000 reward points on spending 60k within 60 days
- Milestone Benefits:
- 10000 points on spending 8lakhs a year – 1.25% reward rate
- Reward Points
- 2 reward points for every 200 spent. 1RP = 1 airmiles (transfer partners discussed below). Else 1 reward point = 50p when used for travel bookings
- 1% reward rate assuming a bull case value of 1RP = 1 INR
- Accelerated reward points:
- 4 reward points for every 200 spent on travel – 2% reward rate
- Exclusions: Spends on insurance, utilities, rental spends, wallet load and fuel spending.
- Lounge Access
- 8 domestic lounge access per year (max 2 per quarter)
- Up to 12 additional domestic lounge visits based on spending. Applicable for guests too.
- 4 complimentary international lounge visits (Max 2 per qtr) through Priority Pass. Priority Pass is complimentary only for the first 2 years
- Insurance cover:
- 6 flight cancellations per year, each limited to 3.5k
- Baggage damage cover of 5k
SBI Miles Elite credit card
Snapshot of SBI Elite credit card
Fees:
- Annual and joining fees of 4999+GST i.e. 5,899
- Fee waiver on annual spends of 15lakhs
Reward and Benefits:
- Joining Benefits: 5000 reward points on spending 1lks within 60 days
- Milestone Benefits:
- 20000 points on spending 12lakhs a year – 1.67% reward rate
- Reward Points
- 2 reward points for every 200 spent. 1RP = 1 airmiles (transfer partners discussed below). Else 1 reward point = 50p when used for travel bookings
- 1% reward rate assuming a bull case value of 1RP = 1 INR
- Accelerated reward points:
- 6 reward points for every 200 spent on travel – 3% reward rate
- Exclusions: Spends on insurance, utilities, rental spends, wallet load and fuel spending.
- Lounge Access
- 8 domestic lounge access per year (max 2 per quarter)
- Up to 15 additional lounge visits based on spending. Applicable for guests too.
- 6 complimentary international lounge visits (Max 2 per qtr) through Priority Pass. Priority Pass is complimentary only for the first 2 years
- Insurance cover:
- 6 flight cancellations per year, each limited to 3.5k
- Baggage damage cover of 5k
Thoughts on the SBI Miles credit card
The 3 SBI Miles credit cards are SBI’s attempt to get a foothold in the increasingly popular airmiles/hotel loyalty space. I must agree that the SBI Miles card looks awesome in terms of design and colour. Especially the SBI Miles Prime credit card.
Here are the positives and negatives of the SBI Miles credit card.
Positives of the SBI Miles credit card
Includes spending done on travel portals/agents and cab aggregators
While the SBI Miles credit cards don’t give reward points for popular categories such as utilities and insurance; the good thing is that they give reward points for spending on travel aggregators. Thus, spending on websites such as MMT, Yatra, etc. will give accelerated reward points. Further, the MCC codes mentioned in the inclusion categories include cab aggregators such as Uber/Ola and even toll spends. This is better than Axis Atlas where only spends on Axis TravelEdge and airline/hotel give 5x points. I am not sure if this is an oversight or design. Won’t be surprised if the list of included MCCs gets revised soon
Decent list of transfer partners:
SBI gives the option of 22 transfer partners as mentioned below. Transfer ratios vary between 1:1 and 2:1. The list includes many popular transfer partners such as Accor, Vistara, United, Turkish, Qatar etc. They have also introduced some new partners such as Air Arabia, Orchid Rewards and Shangri-La (transfer ratio of 6:1). However, surprisingly Marriott and Singapore Airlines are missing from the list. Strange!
The complete list of transfer partners and conversion ratios is below.
Further, I have included the SBI Miles card and its transfer partners in my Reward Points Transfer Calculator. Do give it a try.
Spend-based lounge access for guests too
The SBI Mile Prime and SBI Miles Elite credit cards offer 8 complimentary domestic lounge access for the primary card holder. Further, it also offers additional domestic lounge access for every 1 lakh spent. The additional lounge access is capped at 12 for SBI Miles Prime and 15 for SBI Miles Elite. The good thing is that the additional lounge access can also be used for guests.
Insurance cover on flight cancellation and lost baggage
The SBI Miles Prime and Elite variants have various travel-related insurance covers. The interesting ones are insurance cover for up to 6 flight cancellations per year (3.5k max) and baggage damage cover of 5k. Not sure if any other credit card offers this. Other insurance covers are loss of check-in baggage (up to 72K), delay in check-in baggage (7.5k) and loss of travel documents (up to 12.5k). These covers are quite good, especially the flight cancellation and baggage damage ones.
Negatives of SBI Miles credit card
Pathetic reward rate and conversion rate for the fee paid
The reward rate on the SBI Miles is pathetic. The best-case reward rate on SBI Miles Elite is just 3%. This is assuming the bull case that you transfer your points at a 1:1 ratio and you get a value of 1mile = 1INR in every case. Remember that you are paying an annual fee of 5.5k for this.
It is only if you hit the milestone of SBI Miles Prime & Elite cards that your reward turns somewhat respectful. For SBI Miles Prime the reward rate will be between 2.3% and 3.3% and the same for SBI Miles Elite will be 2.7% and 4.7% provided you hit the milestone spends. Don’t even think of taking the base variant of the SBI Miles card. Better take a SBI Cashback (Apply Now) or the Tata Neu credit card(Apply Now). And if you want to explore the miles world, take the Amex MRCC(Apply Now).
Lounge key not operational
The additional spend-based lounge access system doesn’t seem to be operational as yet. The link on their website says under construction.
International lounge visits only for the first 2 years
Priority Pass is complimentary only for the first 2 years. Thus, it means that in the third year, you will be charged USD99 for the priority pass. Why SBI, why?
Only one milestone level
There is only one milestone level. For the SBI Miles Prime and Elite variant, the company could have offered multiple milestones. For example, SBI Miles Prime could have given 5k points on 5lk spends and another 5k on the next 3lk spends. This would have been more cardholder-friendly than just offering one milestone benefit.
Fine print
1RP = 50p if adjusted against statement debit
SBI Card appears to be prepared for scenarios where points are transferred to partners but there arises a situation that the customer needs to be charged for it. They have pegged the value of 1RP = 50p for such cases. The following statement appears in the T&Cs, “In case of a scenario where reward points redeemed by cardholders are required to be adjusted as a statement debit then the conversion value of such points shall be: 1 Reward Point = ₹0.50”
Reward points have 2 years validity from the date of credit
Comparison of SBI Miles with other credit cards
Assuming you hit the milestone spends for SBI cards, the reward remains considerably low compared to other cards, especially the Axis Atlas(Apply Now). A summary table below shows the reward rate with milestone benefits.
The base variant of the SBI Miles credit card is pathetic. Please don’t take it. The reason why I say this is that assuming you spend 5lk on travel using the base variant, you will end up with 10k miles at best. Equivalent to 10k Vistara CV points. For the same spends on Amex MRCC(Apply Now); you will end with ~14.5k Vistara CV points. This is despite a sad conversion ratio of 3:1 of Amex to Vistara.
If you opt to convert your reward points to Qatar Avios, on SBI you get just 5k Avios points but on Amex, you end with 22k Avios. When converting your reward points to Avios, the Amex MRCC even beats the SBI Miles Prime credit card. SBI Miles Prime will give you at best 13k Avios points against the 22k Avios on Amex MRCC. And remember you will be paying 3.5k for the SBI Miles Prime card and also have to spend more.
Thus, chuck the base variant completely and take the Amex MRCC(Apply Now), if you want to explore the miles/hotel loyalty world. Even better take the Tata Neu(Apply Now) or the SBI Cashback(Apply Now) credit card. Your savings on these 2 cards will be much more than the SBI Miles credit card
Below is the comparative calculator for the SBI Miles credit card. Here I am comparing the SBI Miles credit cards with Axis Atlas and Amex MRCC. You can input your monthly spending to check which credit card suits you the best. However, you will notice that Axis Atlas comes at the top among these airmiles-focused credit cards.
Conclusion
SBI Miles credit cards appear as a half-hearted attempt by SBI Cards to tap the airmiles/hotel loyalty space. No doubt that the design and the looks are great but that’s the only thing good about these cards. While SBI has included travel aggregator spending as part of travel spend, but the reward rate is mediocre and thus doesn’t make the product exciting. Further, the spend-based additional lounge accesses that can be used for guests is a good feature. Outside of these, I don’t see any standout feature in these cards as such. As mentioned earlier, I suggest that don’t apply for an SBI Miles card. Instead, go for Amex MRCC or Axis Atlas.
What are your thoughts on the SBI Miles credit cards? Which is your go to airmiles/hotel loyalty credit card? Do let me know in the comments below.
Disclaimer
In the interest of full disclosure, Credit Cardz may earn a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through some of the links in this post. However, opinions and views expressed here are of the author's alone and not those of the bank, credit card issuer, or anyone else and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
