Axis Atlas is still a GOAT

[u/delusional-engineer]

So my axis atlas is up for renewal in November, so i was calculating the returns on this card. This year I have spent nearly 7.5L on the card and made a 12% return on my spends.

2.5L on travel and 5L on other spends. Which earned me a total of 27500 points.

With removal of accor, i wanted to close the card but kept anyways as i had already paid the fees for the year. Used air india as the key partner. Here are the details for my redemptions

(Ticket count x route - points + taxes - cash value on same route)

2 x DELHI - MUMBAI - 10000 Points + 1800 taxes - 18000/-

1 x MUMBAI - DELHI - 5000 Points + 790 taxes - 8000/-

3 x DELHI - BANGLORE - 21000 Points + 2700 taxes - 36000/-

1 x LADAKH - DELHI - 7500 Points + 1700 taxes - 13250/-

1 x DELHI - COIMBATORE - 7500 Points + 950 taxes - 14000/-

I redeemed lounge access 4 times on these trips. I still have 720 air india points and 2650 miles. 2500 miles more will be credited for gold status so at least 1-2 more tickets.

I had Gold status courtesy of Axis Vistara card which helped me get the both of delhi-mumbai tickets upgraded to business class. And the ladakh delhi ticket was also auto-upgraded to premium economy. Also, on all flights i got 25kg baggage allowance instead of standard 15kg.

Alas, my gold status is gone now. Waiting for an air india co-branded card now.

[u/Visual_Variety_8089]

Not the best but still great up to 7.5 lakhs spends. Hate what they did with the transfer program though.

[u/delusional-engineer → u/Visual_Variety_8089]

True, it has been de-valued significantly. However, since i earn around 30-32k miles a year still makes sense for me. 60k air india points is at least 8 economy tickets.

[u/zoeworld → u/Visual_Variety_8089]

Why only great until 7.5 lakhs annually. Why not 15?

[u/Captain_Neemo → u/zoeworld]

General case - more usage of Group A list. And group A transfer for atlas is 30k points yearly. Earlier air india was in group B. But now its in Group A

[u/National_Mud1819]

You posted this excatly when i was looking for best transfer partner from Atlas. I also justed posted my question in this group regarding same.

Have one qn : what is the validity of Ai points ? 3 or 2 year? Read that will get extended if we buy a domestic/international cash ticket , is this true ? Also will the expiry gets extended for remaining points if we utilize some points to buy ticket ?

[u/delusional-engineer → u/National_Mud1819]

Points are valid for 2 years.

Buying revenue tickets lead to extension of the validity, spending points do not.

[u/Equivalent-Soil-5837 → u/delusional-engineer]

What if I haven't spend any points, but the card is heavily used and over 15L mark?

[u/ic_97]

Sad they moved it to Group A sigh

[u/sidg82]

so after the devaluations and recent addition back of accor, everyone is bummed up and recommending hilton or IHG for hotels. But IMHO, it still offers better value at 2:1 ratio since it turns out to be 1 point =1 Rs. where as in other hotel loyalty points it is 40/50p at best. i am wondering, because end of season is coming and i need to park 1L atlas points that i have! so i am totally confused where to park them...!

[u/delusional-engineer → u/sidg82]

30k to air india is no brainer in group A. For rest you can choose between hilton, miles & more, indigo based on how you plan to redeem. 

IHG doesn't seems worth it to me as the properties as mid tier and mostly not vfm.

Orchid rewards also have a fixed redemption value of 1 rs per point but doesn't have a lot of properties. If you are traveling to places where there is one this can also be a good redemption option.