10 Best Travel Credit Cards: Features, Benefits and Rewards Explained

Travel credit cards help you reduce travel expenses in domestic and international travel. You can avail airport lounge access free of cost, in addition to other facilities such as air miles. Owning one of the best travel credit cards or more than one travel credit card can make the process seamless. Explore the most popular travel credit cards and discover which one suits your travel style best.

Top Travel Credit Cards

Here are some of the best travel credit cards in India:

Axis Atlas Credit Card

1. Joining Fee: ₹5,000
2. Annual Fee: ₹5,000

Here are the features and benefits of the Axis Atlas Credit Card:

• If you make your first transaction within 37 days, you will receive a joining bonus of 2,500 bonus EDGE Miles.
• 2 EDGE Miles per ₹100 spent across all categories, including travel and non-travel.
• 5 EDGE Miles for every ₹100 spent on travel-related aspects each month, up to ₹2 lakh.
• As a user, you can get up to 5,000 EDGE Miles as a milestone benefit.
• You can redeem your EDGE Miles points using the Travel EDGE platform, wherein each EDGE Mile is equivalent to ₹1.
• You can access up to 12 international lounges and 18 domestic lounges every year.

Axis Bank Horizon Credit Card

1. Joining Fee: ₹3,000
2. Annual Fee: ₹3,000

You can reap the following benefits by availing an Axis Bank Horizon Credit Card:

• 1 EDGE Mile is equivalent to 1 partner point
• As a user, you will get 5,000 EDGE Miles on joining and 1,500 EDGE Miles on renewing the card.
• You will get 5 EDGE Miles per ₹100 sprint on the travel EDGE portal or airline websites.
• 2 EDGE Miles for every ₹100 spent across all categories
• You will get up to 8 international airport lounge accesses every year, with 2 lounge accesses every quarter.
• As a cardholder, you will get up to 32 domestic lounge accesses with a VISA card and 24 domestic lounge accesses with a Mastercard.

HSBC TravelOne Credit Card

1. Joining Fee: ₹4,999
2. Annual Fee: ₹4,999

Here are the benefits of the HSBC TravelOne Credit Card, which is one of the best travel credit cards:

• As a cardholder, you will get 2 reward points for every ₹100 spent across all categories.
• You will get 4 reward points per ₹100 spent on travel aggregators, flights and in foreign currency.
• You will get 4 complimentary golf rounds and 12 golf lessons per year.
• As a cardholder, you can get discounts on travel platforms such as ClearTrip, Yatra, EaseMyTrip and others.
• You will get 6 domestic lounge visits every year, followed by 4 international lounge visits.
• In case you spend at least ₹12 lakh in a year, you will get 10,000 bonus reward points.
• As a cardholder, you can get a 50% discount on green fees for extra gold rounds.
• If you spend ₹1 lakh within the first 90 days, you can get 3,000 bonus reward points.
• You can get ₹1,000 cashback, a Postcard Hotel voucher of ₹3,000, followed by 3 months of EazyDiner Prime membership if you spend ₹10,000 within the first 30 days.

HDFC Diners Club Black Credit Card

1. Joining Fee: ₹10,000
2. Annual Fee: ₹10,000

The following are the features and benefits of the HDFC Diners Club Black Credit Card, which is one of the best travel credit cards in India:

• On the card and on add-on cards, you can avail unlimited lounge access for more than 1,000 airport lounges in India and abroad.
• If you spend ₹1.5 lakh on the card during the first month, you will get an annual membership of Club Marriott, Amazon Prime, Forbes, and MMT Black.
• You will get 5 reward points on every ₹150 spent on the card.
• As a cardholder, you will get up to 10x reward points on partner brands.
• You will get 2x reward points on dining over the weekends.
• You will get a low forex markup fee of 2% with this card.
• As a cardholder, you can get 6 golf games each quarter across specific golf courses across the globe.

Axis Reserve Credit Card

1. Joining Fee: ₹50,000
2. Annual Fee: ₹50,000

Here are the benefits and features of the Axis Reserve Credit Card, which is among the best travel credit cards available in India:

• You will get unlimited and complimentary international lounge access with Priority Pass. In addition, you can include 4 additional guest visits every year.
• If you spend ₹50,000 in the preceding 3 months on the card, you can visit unlimited domestic airport lounges. This applies to primary cardholders and add-on cardholders.
• You can avail hotel benefits which include memberships to ITC Culinaire, Club Marriott, Accorplus, Asia Pacific, Postcard Hotel and Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.
• For every ₹200 spent on the card, you earn 15 EDGE Reward points.
• If you spend ₹200 internationally, you will get 2x reward points, which is 30 EDGE Reward points.
• You can avail a low forex markup of 1.5%.
• As a cardholder, you can get 50 free golf rounds across selected golf courses within India.

Standard Chartered EasyMyTrip Credit Card

1. Joining Fee: ₹350
2. Annual Fee: ₹350

You can reap the following benefits of the Standard Chartered EasyMyTrip Credit Card:

• You can get discounts on flight bookings for both domestic and international flights.
• If you book a bus ticket for a minimum amount of ₹500, you can get a discount of up to ₹125 using the card.
• If you book tickets on standalone hotels or websites of airlines, you can get 10x higher rewards per ₹100 spent.
• You can avail balance transfer, smooth reward point redemption and other benefits like secure online transactions with this card.
• You can convert your spends above ₹2,000 to EMI (Equated Monthly Instalment).
• If you spend on retail spend categories, you can earn 2x reward points for every ₹100 spent.
• You will get up to 2 domestic lounge accesses every year.
• This card provides a loan of up to ₹5 lakh for a span of 12 months to 60 months.

IRCTC SBI Platinum Credit Card

1. Joining Fee: ₹500
2. Annual Fee: ₹300

Here are the benefits of one of the good travel credit cards:

• You can get 500 reward points if you pay the renewal fee.
• As a cardholder, you can get 10% value back as reward points on train tickets booked on the IRCTC website. This applies to AC1, AC2, AC3, Executive Chair and Chair Car tickets.
• If you activate the card and do your first transaction within 45 days of card issuance, you can earn 350 reward points.
• You can earn a 1% fuel surcharge waiver up to ₹100 for transactions between ₹500 and ₹3,000 every month. 
• If you spend ₹125 on non-fuel retail purchases, which include tickets purchased using a mobile application or website, you will get 1 reward point.
• You will get a 1% waiver on railway booking transaction charges.
• Additional benefits include converting transactions into EMI, balance transfer and others. 
• Every year, you can get 4 lounge access passes complimentary.

Axis Bank Vistara Signature Card

1. Joining Fee: ₹3,000
2. Annual Fee: ₹3,000

You can reap the following benefits of Axis Bank Vistara Signature Card:

• When you pay the joining fee, you receive a complimentary Maharaja Club Silver Membership within 10 working days.
• On paying the joining and renewal fees, you will get complimentary Premium Economy Class tickets.
• If you achieve milestone eligible spends, you receive bonus Maharaja points and up to 4 complimentary premium economy class tickets.
• You can convert your transactions above ₹2,500 into EMI.
• The card offers 2 complimentary domestic lounge accesses at selected airports in India.
• You will get a ₹1 lakh purchase protection coverage on the card.
• You can avail a dining discount at partner restaurants once a month with EazyDiner.
• As a cardholder, you can get 3 complimentary golf rounds.
• If you book flights or hotels using MakeMyTrip or Goibibo, you can get a 15% discount.
• On platforms like Swiggy, Tira and Amazon Fresh, the card offers a 10% discount.

Axis Bank Miles and More Credit Card

1. Joining Fee: ₹3,500 (World); ₹10,000 (Select)
2. Annual Fee: ₹3,500 (World); ₹10,000 (Select)

Here are the features and benefits of Axis Bank Miles and More Credit Card:

• You can earn 15,000 and 5,000 air miles on Axis Bank Miles and More Select and World Credit cards, respectively, as a joining gift.
• The annual bonus is 4,000 and 3,000 award miles on Axis Bank Miles and More Select and World Credit Cards, respectively.
• This card provides 6 and 4 award miles for every ₹200 spent on Axis Bank Miles and More Select and World Credit Cards, respectively.
• You can get 4 and 2 Priority Pass lounge access with the Select and World variant, respectively.
• While the Select variant offers 8 complimentary lounge accesses, the World variant offers 4 lounge accesses per quarter.
• As a cardholder, you can redeem the points for car rentals, hotel and air ticket bookings, shopping or childcare and reforestation.
• Cardholders can convert transactions above ₹2,500 into EMI. 
• You will get dining discounts with selected partners of 30% and 25% with Select and World variants, respectively.
• You can further get a 10% discount on Tira if you use this card. 
• Using the card on Swiggy and Amazon Fresh can help you get a discount of 10%.
• If you book tickets using Goibibo or MakeMyTrip, you can get a discount of 15%.

IRCTC SBI Premier Card

1. Joining Fee: ₹1,499
2. Annual Fee: ₹1,499

You can reap the following benefits of the IRCTC SBI Premier Card:

• If you book train tickets on the IRCTC website for AC1, AC2, AC3, Executive Chair Car and Chair Car, you will earn a 10% value back.
• If you spend ₹2 lakh on the card, you get the annual fee back.
• You will earn 3 reward points for every ₹125 spent on dining and standing instructions on utility spends. In addition, for every ₹125 spent on non-fuel purchases, you will get 1 reward point.
• You get a complimentary air accident insurance coverage of ₹50 lakh, rail accident insurance coverage of ₹10 lakh and a fraud liability coverage of ₹1 lakh.
• If you spend ₹1 lakh on travel during a year, you will get 5,000 reward points and 2,500 reward points for ₹50,000 travel spend during a year.
• As a cardholder, you can get 8 annual railway lounge accesses annually. 
• You can save  35% and 10% on Avis car rentals and Hertz car rentals, respectively, using this card. 
• On a hotel stay, this card provides 10,000 miles per night in addition to 25% extra miles on Kaligo.com.
• In case you book railway tickets from the IRCTC website, you can save on transaction charges of 1% and 1.80%.
• If you transact ₹500 to ₹4,000, you can get a fuel surcharge waiver of 1%.

Final Words

Owning one of the best travel credit cards helps you avail multiple facilities at minimal or no cost. This makes your journey within India or abroad hassle-free. You can enjoy the journey with one of the credit cards based on your eligibility and convenience.

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