Singapore Airlines and SBI Card have launched two co-branded credit cards in India. On both cards, you can earn welcome miles, airport lounge access, and bonus miles on meeting spend milestones. KrisFlyer SBI Card Apex is the top variant and comes with a joining/annual fee of Rs 9999. Although there are many credit cards that enable you to earn KrisFlyer miles, these are the first KrisFlyer co-branded cards in India. Here is a review of the KrisFlyer SBI Card Apex and how it compares with other travel cards.
Fees
| KrisFlyer SBI Card Apex | |
|---|---|
| Joining Fee | Rs 9999+GST |
| Welcome Benefit | 10,000 KrisFlyer miles on 1st transaction within 60 days |
| Annual Fee | Rs 9999+GST |
| Renewal Benefit | None |
| Payment Network | American Express, Mastercard |
The KrisFlyer SBI Card Apex does not come with any welcome elite status on the KrisFlyer FFP. It is understandable though as any elite status would also give you equivalent status on Star Alliance. But, getting at least Silver for the first year would have been nice.
Earning KrisFlyer Miles on KrisFlyer SBI Card
| Spend Category | Miles Earn Rate |
|---|---|
| Singapore Airlines Group Spends | 10 KrisFlyer Miles/Rs 200 ~5% |
| Other Retail Spends | 6 KrisFlyer Miles/Rs 200 ~3% |
| International Spends | 8 KrisFlyer Miles/Rs 200 ~4% |
| Property, Rental, Wallet and Fuel Spends | No Rewards |
3% KrisFlyer miles on domestic spends with the exclusion of property, rent, wallet & fuel spends is pretty good. But, we do have other travel credit cards that better this earn rate. The 4% earn rate for international spends looks lucrative but we have a high forex markup too at 3.5%. So, the net return won’t be great.
Bonus KrisFlyer Miles & Tier Upgrade on Spends
- Get 10,000 bonus KrisFlyer miles on spends of Rs 5 Lakh in a membership year ~2% earn rate
- Get 3000 bonus KrisFlyer miles on spends of Rs 10 Lakh in a membership year ~0.3% earn rate
- Tier upgrade to KrisFlyer Elite Gold membership on spending Rs 7.5 Lakh on Singapore Airlines
The milestone benefit takes the earn rate to 5% once you cross milestone spends of Rs 5 Lakh in a membership year. This is pretty good as you can use the card for spends like insurance, utilities etc. to get 5% KrisFlyer miles on spends.
Complimentary Airport Lounge Access
- Domestic Airport Lounge Access: 2 visits/quarter
- International Airport Lounge Access: 2 visits/quarter with Priority Pass
Other Benefits & Charges
- Fuel Surcharge Waiver: 1% waiver on transactions of up to Rs 3000. Maximum fuel surcharge waiver of Rs 250 per statement cycle.
- Forex Markup: 3.5%+GST
Value of KrisFlyer Miles in Rupees
The difficult part of reviewing any miles focused card is getting an idea of the approximate return offered by it. For the KrisFlyer FFP, we value 1 KrisFlyer mile at Rs 1 for booking economy class tickets. If you go for business/first class bookings, you will get a higher value than Rs 1. Considering this value, the return offered for spends with the KrisFlyer SBI Card Apex is 5% on domestic spends. You will get around 7%-8% value benefit if you book upper class tickets.
Negative Return on International Transactions with KrisFlyer SBI Card Apex!
- Miles earn rate on international transactions: 4%
- Forex Markup: 3.5%+GST ~4.1%
- Net Return: -0.1%
Final Thoughts
One of the direct comparisons of the KrisFlyer SBI Card Apex can be with the Axis Atlas credit card. Axis Atlas with an annual fee of Rs 5000, gets 2 EDGE Miles per Rs 100 spend. These can be transferred to KrisFlyer at 1:2 ratio. So, you get 4 KrisFlyer miles per Rs 100 of spend with the Axis Atlas. You also get bonus 5000 KrisFlyer miles on Rs 3 Lakh spend taking the total earn rate to 5.6%! Putting this in perspective, you can see why we don’t find the KrisFlyer SBI Card Apex offering a great earn rate with the Rs 9999 annual fee.
But, then the KrisFlyer SBI Card Apex will come in handy if you need to spend in Utilities or Insurance categories. The Axis Atlas excludes these spends from EDGE Miles. If KrisFlyer miles are you preferred redemption and you can spend Rs 5 Lakh in utilties and insurance, then do get the KrisFlyer SBI Card Apex.
KrisFlyer SBI Card Apex
