Axis Reserve credit card offers unique Benefits alonwith good rewards .

Axis Reserve Credit Card

Fees and Eligibility:

• Joining fees and annual fees  are INR50,000 + GST i.e. 59,000. The fees are waived annual spends of 25lakhs

Rewards and Benefits:

• Joining Benefit:
  • Joining and renewal benefit of 50,000 Edge Reward points. Equivalent to 10,000 in monetary terms or 40,000 airmiles for most partners.
  • You get 50,000 Edge Reward points even if you achieve the spending milestone of 25 lakhs.
• Recurring Benefits:
  • Airport Transfers: 4 complimentary airport pick-ups/drops every year. The USP is you get a Merc/BMW/Audi if you are in one of these cities (Delhi, NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata).
  • Meet and Greet: 8 complimentary meet and greet services per year.
  • Accorplus Membership: It offers 1 night complimentary stay at participating hotels in the APAC region. In addition, a complimentary lunch buffet for 2 at an Accor hotel in India.
  • BOGO on BMS up to Rs. 500 off on the second ticket for a maximum of 5 movie/non-movie bookings in a month. Additionally, BOGO on a non-movie ticket of up to 1000/ticket up to 5 times a month.

• Reward Points:
  • Standard Reward Rate: 15 reward points for every INR200 spent. 1 Reward point = 0.20 paisa (1.5% reward rate).
  • Forex Spends: 2x reward points on all forex spends i.e. 3% reward rate. Further, the forex markup is only 1.5% +GST, so effectively one gets a new reward rate of 1%+.
  • Accelerated Reward Rate: You get accelerated reward points on Grab Deals and Axis Gfytr. No accelerated points on Travel Edge though.
  • No monthly/quarterly/annual spend based milestone bonus.
• Lounge Access:
  • Domestic: It Provides Unlimited complimentary domestic lounge access and add-on card members. You also get 12 complimentary guest visits.
  • International: It also Unlimited complimentary lounge access to the primary cardholder and add-on cardholders. Another, 12 complimentary guest visits for non-cardholders.

Thoughts on Axis Reserve Credit Card

Axis Reserve Lifestyle Benefits:

Axis Reserve is marketed as a super-premium credit card. Among the lifestyle benefits, I believe only the Accorplus membership is something genuinely tangible. The website states that it offers a 1-night complimentary stay, however, what I have read on social media and other forums is that you actually get 2 complimentary nights. Moreover, there is a complimentary lunch buffet for two too.  Thus, this can easily save say 15-20k when travelling.

One interesting benefit that Axis Reserve offers is – 4 airport pickups and drops in a luxury vehicle. Putting a monetary value to this is very subjective. You may rate this service at say 10k/drop or maybe just even few hundred bucks (equivalent to a taxi fare from your place to the airport). Nonetheless, this is a unique service offered by the Axis Reserve credit card. The point to note here is even if you are 4 people travelling, it will be counted as 1 trip.

Another interesting benefit is the airport meet and greet service. This includes assistance across airport processes, such as check-in, security check, immigration processes and porter services. While for most of us, this may not be worth it, this can be a boon when travelling with infants, senior citizens or heavy luggage. However, do keep in mind that, unlike the airport pick and drop, here anyone above 2 years is counted as 1 service. Thus, if you are 3 people travelling together, Axis will consider this as 3 services availed.

Further, do not forget the BookMyShow’s BOGO offers that the Axis Reserve credit card offers.

In conclusion, the lifestyle benefits here are a mix of tangibles and intangibles. Putting a value on tangibles is easy say 15k for an Accor membership and around 6k for a BMS offer. Rest for the intangibles it is completely up to you.

Axis Reserve Reward Points

Axis Reserve as such has a mediocre reward structure with only 1.5% as the base reward rate. However, depending on how you value airmiles, the base reward rate can be at 3% (50p value)-6% (Rs. 1 value) or maybe even more. 

Nonetheless, the Axis Reserve credit card really shines in the forex spend category. It gives 2x reward points on all forex spends without any upper cap. Further, the currency markup is at 1.5%, which is quite competitive. Thus, for forex spending, you get 3% as the base reward rate or 1%+ after adjusting for the markup. In terms of airmiles, you get anywhere between 5%-10%, adjusted for markup.

In addition, Axis Reserve offers multiplier benefits on Axis GrabDeals and Axis Gfytr portals. Thus, one can look to maximise the reward points thru these means too.

Moreover, the airmiles transfer ratio for Axis Reserve is the same as that of Magnus Card Thus, since the base reward of Axis Reserve is at 1.5% vs 1.2% for Axis Magnus, you get ~20% more miles with Axis Reserve.

Recent changes in the Axis reward

Starting 5^th March , Axis Bank will charge a 1% surcharge, capped at 1500 for each rent payment. Further, the rent payments won’t be counted towards the annual spend threshold of 25lk needed for a fee waiver.

Summary

In conclusion, With modicare Reward rate Axis Resreve is a unique card . However, on forex spending it provides good reward So its a good choice if you spend over 5Laks every year. When it comes to lifestyle benefits, it has benefits that will be valued differently by different people. Thus in summation, whether this card justifies its annual fees of 59000 is very subjective and the response will vary from person to person.