SBI Card launches Etihad Guest airline credit cards in India

SBI Card teams up with Etihad Guest, the loyalty programme of Etihad Airways to launch Etihad Guest SBI Credit cards in India to complement the lifestyles of affluent Indians who frequently travel overseas.

The card will be available in two variants, Etihad Guest SBI Card and Etihad Guest SBI Premier Card to cater to different set of customers. Both of them runs on Visa Signature platform and the interest part is, the card comes with a vertical design.

Before we get into the details of the cards, here are some of the facts & figures.

1. SBI Card – The country’s second largest credit card issuer.
2. Etihad Airways: One of the top two international airlines for outbound international passenger traffic from India
3. Global Loyalty Company (GLC) that manages Etihad guest, Mille Miglia, topbonus and Jet Privilege is in partnership with Visa since 2016.
4. India to become the third largest aviation market by FY25
5. Aviation passenger traffic in India has grown 12.7% annually for the past five years
6. 33% of overall card spends in the SBI Card portfolio made within the travel industry
7. Spends in Middle East by SBI Card customers have risen by CAGR of 66% from FY14 to FY 18, indicating the popularity of the destination among Indian travellers
8. India is a key strategic market for Etihad Airways, currently offering 147 weekly flights across 10 gateway cities in the country.
9. This is the first international co-brand partnership of SBI Card

So there are two variants, one with low annual fee and the other with high fee for premium segment. Lets have a quick glance into the details of each,

#1 Etihad Guest SBI Card

• Annual Fee: Rs.1499+GST (Spend 3L annually for reversal from 2nd year onwards)
• Welcome Gift: Complimentary Etihad Guest Silver tier status & 2 Free Wifi vouchers
• Rewards: 3 Miles per Rs. 100 spent on Etihad.com; 2 Miles on every Rs. 100 spent on International Spends; 1 Mile on every Rs. 100 spent on other spends
• Milestone Benefits: 5,000 Etihad Guest miles on 5 lakhs Spend & 1 companion voucher on INR 10 lakhs
• Lounge Access: Domestic Only, 2/Qtr
• Instant Discounts: 3% Off on Economy Class and 10% Off on Business class on direct Etihad Airways booking & Upto 10% discount on travel rewards miles redemption.

Okay, that’s a decent card for a decent fee. Ideally this helps for the existing flyers on Etihad and the companion voucher is a great addition, yet as i’ve not personally experienced it, i can’t comment on its value.

Returns on regular spend beyond 5L is pretty low but the major benefit i see is through the Etihad Guest Silver Status with which you get priority boarding 

#2 Etihad Guest SBI Premier Card

• Annual Fee: Rs.4999+GST (Spend 5L annually for reversal from 2nd year onwards)
• Welcome Gift: Complimentary Etihad Guest Gold tier status & 2 Free Wifi vouchers
• Rewards: 6 Miles per Rs. 100 spent on Etihad.com; 4 Miles on every Rs. 100 spent on International Spends; 2 Mile on every Rs. 100 spent on other spends
• Milestone Benefits: 1,500 Etihad Guest miles on 1.5 lakhs Spend quarterly & 1 companion voucher on INR 8 lakhs.
• Lounge Access: Domestic – 2/Qtr via Visa; International – 4/yr via Priority Pass (max 2/qtr)
• Instant Discounts: 3% Off on Economy Class and 10% Off on Business class on direct Etihad Airways booking & Upto 10% discount on travel rewards miles redemption.

So ideally you can get min. ~3% value on anywhere spends upto 6L, provided you hit quarterly targets. The returns might even be 6% or lot more if you’re aiming for redemptions in Etihad first class.

And as mentioned earlier, if you put the value on Gold tier status & companion voucher, you would definitely get a lot of value out of the card.

The Gold tier itself comes with great set of features, one of them being fast track immigration (yay!). Here’s a quick look into Etihad guest Gold benefits