Till the end of 2021, Amex and Citi cards were the best for transfer of reward points to airlines and hotels. This changed in mid 2022 when Axis Bank became the trendsetter in the airmiles market. It added points transfer to an extensive list of partner airlines and hotels. This left HDFC Bank Infinia and DCB quite behind. All they had as major transfer partners were Vistara and KrisFlyer. HDFC Bank is now finally playing catchup with Axis. It has added many new transfer partners. Here is everything you need to know about this new feature.
New Transfer Partners
| Transfer Partner | Transfer Ratio RP:Miles |
|---|---|
| Air Canada – AeroPlan | 2:1 |
| Air Asia – airasia rewards | 1:1 |
| ALL – Accor Live Limitless | 1:1 |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1:1 |
| British Airways Executive Club | 2:1 |
| Etihad Guest | 2:1 |
| Finnair Plus | 1:1 |
| Flying Blue | 1:1 |
| Hainan Airlines – Fortune Wings Club | 1:1 |
| IHG One Rewards | 1:1 |
| Vietnam Airlines – Lotusmiles Program | 1:1 |
| Turkish Airlines – Miles&Smiles | 1:1 |
| United MileagePlus | 2:1 |
| Wyndham Rewards | 1:1 |
Only Etihad Guest, British Airways, United MileagePlus and AeroPlan get a 2:1 ratio. So, two RP become 1 mile. Everything else is 1:1. They could have been kept at 1:1 at least for Infinia.
How do Infinia and DCB compare now to Magnus and Reserve?
We get some partners on HDFC Bank now which can be useful for travelling out of India. AeroPlan and LifeMiles for Star Alliance offer lucrative bookings on miles. So, they would definitely be useful.
But, the airmiles program for HDFC still looks lacking if we compare against Axis. We get a better earn and transfer rate on the Axis Magnus and Reserve for the same spends. HDFC Bank did get better with airmiles but Axis Bank is still at top.
The second issue is the cap. Infinia Smartbuy has a cap of 15000 bonus RP per calendar month but Axis Grab Deals Gyftr has no upper cap. We can earn much more bonus RP on Axis Bank.
What happens to KrisFlyer and Club Vistara transfer partners?
Krisflyer and Club Vistara continue to be transfer partners for HDFC Bank. But, these are on the older Smartbuy portal. The transfer ratio is 1:1.
