Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card Review

The bank’s most luxurious credit card is the Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card. It is a super-premium credit card with an effective reward rate of 1.5 percent for domestic purchases and 3 percent for those made abroad. With the Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card, you may earn Axis Bank Edge Reward Points for all of your purchases.

In addition to the Reward Points benefit, this super premium credit card offers a wide range of value-added benefits, including complimentary access to domestic and international airport lounges, membership in hotel loyalty programs like ITC Culinaire, Accor plus, and Club Marriott, membership in dining programs like Eazydiner Prime, and many more. Discover more about the Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card by reading on.

Axis Reserve is the Ultra-Premium Credit card offered to wealthy Axis Bank customers that ranks above Axis Magnus.

A few more advantages, like complimentary luxury airport transfers, were added to the Reserve privileges by the Bank sometime in July 2020, and as a result, the card started to make sense for certain people.

If you’re wondering whether the cost associated with this pricey metal credit card is worth it, you’ll find out in the following few minutes.

Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card Features and Benefits

Since it is the most expensive product offered by Axis Bank, in addition to the rewards points benefits, the card offers a wide range of additional benefits. These include complimentary membership in hotel and restaurant dining programs, unlimited access to lounges at domestic and international airports, complimentary golf games, comprehensive insurance coverage, and many more.

The value of the Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card must be determined based on the lifestyle benefits it provides and not only by looking at the reward rate, making it one of the few cards in India that are similar to Amex Platinum.

The Axis Reserve credit card is a must-have if you’re looking for upscale airport experiences at major airports.

Product Specifics

• A bonus of 50,000 Edge Reward Points upon activation or renewal of the card.

• 15 Edge Reward Points for every Rs. 200 in card purchases.

• 2X Reward Points on any purchases made abroad.

• A lower markup fee of 1.5% of the transaction amount that applies to all transactions using foreign currencies.

• 12 complimentary visits per year for accompanying guests, as well as unlimited access to domestic and international airport lounges for primary and add-on cardholders with complimentary Priority Pass membership.

Free membership to Club ITC Culinaire, which comes with several perks at ITC hotels.

• Free Accorplus membership with a variety of advantages at Accor hotels throughout India.

• At participating Marriott hotels in India and Asia Pacific, complimentary membership to the Handcrafted Club Marriott Asia Pacific with special advantages is available (on weekends only).

• Special deals at Oberoi resorts and hotels.

• Free enrollment in the Eazydiner Prime dining program, which offers up to 25% off at participating restaurants nationwide.

• BookMyShow is offering discounted movie and non-movie tickets (max benefit capped at Rs. 500 for movie tickets and Rs. 1,000 for non-movie tickets).

Hand-selected activities at extraordinaryweekends.com, such as sailing, one-of-a-kind excursions, a day as a chef, etc. • 50 free rounds of golf each year at exclusive golf clubs all around India when using an Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card.

Fees

The welcome perk is a far cry from the registration price because the 50,000 reward points are worth 10,000 INR (at 20ps). To me, the need for the waiver of the renewal cost is also fairly onerous.

There are occasionally sign-up promotions offered by Axis Bank that include an additional 50K bonus points. The agreement would be wealthy today, whereas back then it was a respectable offer.

The “worth” of the card as a whole, including all of its advantages, will be examined shortly.

A Card Design

The darker color on the pink ball gives the metal card, which is undoubtedly more upscale looking, a duller appearance. It would look so lovely if that was brightened.

As it would seem in direct sunshine, you can see the dazzling picture in one of the photos below. Leaving that aside, holding it in your palm has the same metallic feel as holding a piece of Magnus.

Rewards

When compared to edge rewards redemptions for point transfers, the reward rate on routine domestic purchases is indeed a little low.

I wish Reserve will create a similar monthly/quarterly milestone benefit to Magnus to increase the card’s total reward rate.

However, it should be noted that ultra-premium cards are typically intended to provide more experiences than prizes.

Markup Charge

Markup Charge GST + Markup Fee: 1.77%

• Gain: 1.23% to 4.23% on the net

It’s a great credit card for buying things overseas because you get more than 1% back, even if you use the money to buy vouchers through the Edge rewards system.

Axis Reserve “must be” reserved for all of your foreign purchases if you enjoy using points and transfer partners. Since no other card comes close, even the 3X benefits on the Amex Platinum Metal Card are less than what Axis Reserve offers.

Redemptions

Even while Edge Rewards allows you to redeem for anything, the new point transfer feature is just incredible. As a result, we obtain:

• Domestic purchases: 6,000 partner miles and points

• Spending abroad earns 12,000 partner points and miles.

Due to 2X rewards, overseas purchases are amazingly rewarded, however as we’ve seen before, there is also a little markup fee of 1.77%.

Airport Lounge Access

Family travelers should take advantage of the free guest visits because Axis is having issues issuing Add-on cards (unless applied along with the primary card).

Luxury Airport Transfer

A luxury sedan (or) sedan may be used for up to four complimentary airport transfers per year.

The exclusive perk of this credit card, which is absent from all other premium credit cards offered in India, is a luxury airport transportation service.

You receive free transportation to and from the airport in either a luxury car (or, depending on availability, a normal sedan). Here is a comprehensive article on luxury airport transfer services in India.

Greeting at the airport

• Maximum: 8 free visits each year

Reserve offers the airport meet-and-greet service, also known as the “airport concierge” service by Axis Bank. For easy and hassle-free airport transportation, it offers VIP Assistance Services.

The services offer help with all aspects of the airport procedures, such as speedy check-in, expedited security screening, immigration support, and porter and buggy services.

This service is pretty helpful, and I’ve used it in Chennai (MAA), Mumbai (BOM), and Hyderabad (HYD). Here is a comprehensive article about Indian airport meet & greet services.

Golf Advantage

• Free-of-charge Capacity: 50 rounds (games/lessons) annually

One of the most significant benefits of this card is golf. This is a wonderful card for you if you play golf frequently—say, 50 times a year.

Additionally, the Axis Golf reservation system is superior to that of other banks like HDFC.

It should come as no surprise that Axis Bank chose to feature a golf image on the card’s front face because they are aware of their target consumer base.

However, if you just play once a month or so, don’t worry; most premium cards will work for you.

Accor Plus

2 Free Nights of Accommodation (starting in June 2022); 2 Free Dining Vouchers (lunch for Two); 1 Free Cake (1kg); Numerous Dining Discount Vouchers.

• Silver Tier with ALL Accor

The free night perk offered at some Accor establishments is called “Stay Plus.” You might initially consider this to be a great advantage. However, if you looked closer, you would discover that the deal is only available in a select few nations.

Australia, Cambodia, China, Fiji, French Polynesia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam are among the countries that are eligible for redemption.

And I have some bad news for you if you were planning to redeem it at Fairmont Jaipur. I can’t discover availability in that property for the next two months, thus

This doesn’t thrill me as much as a regular Marriott (or) Taj, though, given that the majority of Accor properties are standard business hotels.

Offer from BookMyShow

• Buy one, get one free

• Applicable to both movie and non-movie bookings

 • Maximum discount: Rs. 500 off movie tickets; Rs. 1000 off on movie tickets

 • Monthly cap: 5 bookings

The BookMyShow offer is quite good, and it makes sense if you live in a major city where the ticket price is around 500 INR. For everyone else, the Visa Infinite offer is adequate.

With being stated, compared to direct BMS incentives, Visa offers might be maxed up very quickly. Therefore, the distinct Reserve offer is still justified.

Is it worth 59,000 INR?

We’ve reached the challenging question at this point.

Let’s examine the entire value of the card by assigning an “average” price to each of the benefits we observed previously to discover the answer to this. As we begin,

• Total: 78,000 Indian Rupees plus golf

So, in addition to the cost you paid, you receive up to 18,000 INR. But if you play golf, 50 rounds are easily worth 1–2L INR, which is a significant amount of money.

Now that points transfer partners have been included, I would easily value 50K points at 20K INR rather than 10K INR, which aging affects the numbers in a good way.

Please take note that I only factored in the perks that are the most obvious and approximate the average cost pricing. The ITC/Marriott bonuses, which also have a respectable value of between 5,000 and 10,000 INR each if you aren’t already a Marriott/ITC Gold member, have not been factored into my calculations.

But in most circumstances, these extra perks aren’t really important. For instance, in India, those 50% dining coupons can only save a small amount of money because we can already save 40%–50% on dining with EazyDiner/Dine Out.

So, to answer the original query, is it worth 59,000 INR? It depends. According to your profile, the things below should be helpful.

• No – If you don’t appreciate airport services, play golf, visit big cities, or

• If you frequently play golf or cherish the benefits of the airport and hotels, yes

• If you can redeem your points through points transfer partners for a better deal, then yes.

But even for individuals who don’t play golf, it makes sense if it’s offered with a tempting incentive or signup offer. Taking into account everything said above, you’ll essentially need to make a decision based on how highly you value the benefits.

My Adventure

I applied for a luxury airport transfer service because I was curious to learn more about them. I have renewed it for a second year because so far it has been a lovely experience.

The free airport shuttles in the BMW and Merc as well as the meet & greet perks are just great.

Here is a full account of my hands-on time with the Axis Reserve Credit Card.

Increasing Axis

2022 is a fantastic year to learn more about Axis Bank Credit Cards. But there are several problems with the bank, from the application to the credit limit to the support and service.

Check out this beginner’s guide, Maximizing Axis Bank Credit Cards, if you want to enjoy a seamless experience with the lucrative Axis Bank credit cards.

How Do You Apply?

On the Axis website, you can apply quickly online. Recent times have made Axis Bank well-regarded for processing new credit card applications quickly.

Typically, a week after the date of application, you can receive the card accepted. Don’t worry if you don’t have a bank account yet; you can get an Axis Bank credit card without opening one.

Bottomline

Cardexpert’s score is 4.7/5.

When it comes to introducing the idea of opulent airport transportation services to the Indian credit card business, the Axis Bank Reserve credit card has the first-mover advantage.

However, unless one can use the points in the appropriate way, looking at the charge and the welcome perks, it doesn’t thrill most.

Axis Reserve would only be recommended by me if you spend much more than 1L per month; otherwise, Axis Magnus can provide what you need: rewards, plenty of rewards!

After all of that, it is true that the Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card is “reserved for few”.

Consider using the one-on-one credit card consulting service if you believe your profile needs additional professional assistance.

Conclusion

Known as a very premium credit card, the Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card is issued by the bank. Given that it has a high annual membership cost of Rs. 50,000, the card directly competes with products like the American Express Platinum Charge Card and the Yes Private Credit Card. What distinguishes Axis Bank from its competitors, besides a respectable reward rate of 3% on international purchases and 1.5% on domestic purchases

 The travel features that the Reserve Credit Card provides make it special. The Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card offers all the perks one would anticipate from a super-premium credit card, including free Accorplus membership, Club ITC Culinaire Membership, and special discounts and deals at Oberoi hotels and resorts. The Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card is unquestionably one of your top options if you travel frequently.

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