Best credit cards for free lounge access in 2024: Maximize your travel rewards

Credit cards are a very under-rated tool in the financial services industry. It is a tool that can reward you handsomely if used wisely for your day-to-day expenses. Credit cards range from beginners to luxury cards that can reward you handsomely. The rewards can range from cashbacks to flight tickets (from economy to first class). While cash backs are generally around 1% to 5%, the effective rewards that you could earn is in double digits if redeemed smartly for travel.

I recently travelled to Singapore for 10 nights for a family holiday. All 10 nights, we stayed in five-star hotels for the entire duration of the stay. As part of my redemption strategy – I booked the hotel through credit card points and booked the flights through my own funds. Although, I had the points to even book the flights.

There is no limit to the number of cards you can hold. Some people hold more than 10 cards while some know how to use just one card in the best possible way. It also depends on the amount of money you spend in a year and the kind of redemption experiences you seek. 

Today, we will discuss two such cards, including the best credit cards for free lounge access in 2024, which can enhance your travel experience significantly.

Axis Atlas credit card

• You are eligible for this card with a monthly net income of ₹1 lakh.
• This card comes at a first year and renewal fee of ₹5,000 + GST.
• You will get a sign up bonus on 2,500 edge miles as a welcome benefit.
• The card will give you 2 edge miles for every 100 rupees spent. No rewards on jewellery, rent, wallet, insurance, tax and transaction converted to EMIs.
• You will earn 5 edge miles for every 100 rupees spent at hotels, airlines, and axis travel edge portal.
• You are eligible for milestone bonus on this card as follows –
• 2,500 miles on spending 3 lakhs.
• Additional 2,500 miles on spending cumulative 7.5 lakhs.
• Lastly, another 5,000 miles on spending a cumulative of 15 lakh rupees.
• International and domestic lounge access.

Why and how to use this card?

It is a great card to earn travel focused rewards. You can earn as much as 42,500 miles in the first year on spends of 15 lakhs. These miles are transferable in the ratio of 1:2 to various partners such as Accor, Marriott, ITC, Vistara, Singapore airlines, Air Canada, Japan airlines and many others.

With 42,500 miles, you can get 4 to 5 nights in a five star hotel, or a couple of international business flights as well. Redemptions for hotels are straightforward where you can transfer your points directly to the partner hotel. However, getting the best redemption experience for flights could require some hand holding.

Always ensure that you do not use this card for categories that will not earn you any points as mentioned above.

HDFC Infinia credit card

• This is an invite only card. You need to check with your Bank’s relationship manager or with the credit cards division of the bank for application.
• This card comes at a first year and renewal fee of ₹12,500 (waived off on spending 10 lakhs).
• The bank also offers this card against fixed deposits or by buying insurance policies. I do not recommend any of these ways to get this card.
• The card gives a base reward rate of 3.3% on spends.
• It gives complimentary club marriott membership for the first year.
• It gives complimentary nights (2+1) and buffet (1+1) at participating ITC hotels.
• Unlimited complimentary golf games.
• Unlimited lounge access in India and abroad.
• 5x rewards on travel spends.

Why and how to use this card?

This is a great card that can also be used as a primary card. All the rewards earned on the card can be used for travel for flights and hotels. Each point is worth 1 rupee when redeemed on the smartbuy portal of HDFC. You also get 5x i.e. 16.5% reward points when you use the card to purchase flight tickets on the smartbuy portal. 

You also get it for hotel bookings but I do not recommend that as hotels are considerably more expensive. To earn 5x reward points, you can also use the GyFTR platform to buy vouchers across multiple brands.

HDFC Infinia can also be used for foreign expenses. The forex markup is at 2%. You must sign up for the global value program. You will get 1% cashback upto 1,000 per calendar month on international spends. Effective reward rate on 1 lakh of spend is 2.3%.

Nishant Batra, Co-founder of Holistic Prime Wealth Private Limited