rishis90
A little long answer.
Ok now that last statement helps a lot. I have both these cards and let me tell you how I operate. I am bullish on miles or hotel points and don’t prefer cashback.
Since we are discussing vistara let’s speak in terms of CV Points.
Atlas gives you 4 or 10 CV points per 100 Rs implies 4% or 10% Returns in CV. Threshold spending is needed to reach better tiers. So this is my the primary card till I reach Gold.
Infinia gives 5 CV points per 150 Rs implies 3.33% CV. Threshold for Annual fee waiver is high. I would prefer meeting the threshold on Atlas instead as for the annual fees will get equivalent CV Points. (Of course not exactly equal, but let’s offset the difference) So all Smartbuy based expenses including Gift cards would be on Infinia.
With that been set up,
IDFC Vistara would give you 6 points per 200 Rs upto 1L per month implies 3%
SBI Prime would give you 4 points per 200 Rs, implies 2%.
Let’s also take into consideration the Bonus Tickets into consideration. The first PE Ticket will be offset with the annual fee. ( I know annual fee for both this cards are different, but let’s keep it simple for now)
Post that for Every 1.5L spending you get a Premium Economy Ticket. I will take BLR - MUM flight as example for calculation, here you will get a PE Ticket for 7500 Points which is another 5%
This is real cool now, However this vouchers come with Limited Quota, Short Span (6 Months or less) and nowadays heavy convenience fees and taxes per ticket. So depending on your travel sector and Profile, you can determine what is your annual amount you may want to spend on the vistara card and how many tickets you will actually redeem effectively.
If you see higher number of tickets, implies you will use your vistara card as your primary card more than Atlas. Go for IDFC in that case. The difference in annual fee between idfc and SBI (2k + GST) will get covered by the time you spend 2.5L.
However if you see lesser number of tickets, go with SBI or Axis Signature as your primary card now would Atlas and Vistara card is more for CV Silver Membership and those 1 or 2 tickets.
As for me, I have Axis Vistara Infinite which I use with a sole goal of getting 2 Or at Max 3 Business Class tickets and I value The Gold membership. So Atlas stays as my primary card till I reach Gold tier. Vistara infinite becomes primary around times I need a ticket and don’t have one. The points earned in Atlas help buy PE tickets using points and the One class upgrade voucher helps convert it to business. I prefer the CV points more than milestone as it doesn’t comes with a short expiry window.