The Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card is their first choice for many frequent travellers. Some reasons for these include welcome benefits worth up to Rs. 10,000, double the joining fee of Rs. 5,000. The card provides a base reward rate of 4 airmiles/hotel loyalty points and 10 airmiles/hotel loyalty for every Rs. 100 spent. The cardholder has a wide choice to select from 19 airline and hotel partners to transfer the reward points. Before taking your flight, the card lets you relax at domestic/international airport lounges with complimentary access. Finally, when you achieve annual spend-based milestones, the card provides bonus reward points that further boost your reward points tally and take you close to your dream vacation.
No wonder, most frequent travellers aspire to get the Axis Atlas Credit Card. In this article, we will do the Axis Atlas Credit Card review, examine its features and benefits, and evaluate whether it is the best travel credit card in India.
Axis Atlas Credit Card
- Welcome Benefit:
2,500 Edge Miles on Completing 1st Transaction Within 31 Days of Card Issuance
- Renewal Benefits:
2,500 Edge Miles on successful Renewal fee payment
- Usps:
Dedicated Portal, Airport Benefits, Dining Delights. High Edge Miles earning on travel spends with milestone based bonus miles and premium airline/hotel transfer partners.
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Overview Table
| Feature | Details |
| Card type | Rewards card |
| Reward range | Up to 5 EDGE Miles on every Rs. 100 spent |
| Joining fee | Rs. 5,000 + Taxes |
| Welcome bonus | 2,500 EDGE Miles |
| Renewal fee | Rs. 5,000 + Taxes |
| Renewal benefit | Up to 5,000 EDGE Miles for spends of up to Rs. 15 lakhs or higher in the previous year |
| Best for | Earning EDGE Miles that can be transferred to any of the 19 airline/hotel partners |
| USP | Good welcome and renewal benefits, good base and accelerated reward rate, complimentary airport lounge access, choice of 19 transfer partners for EDGE Miles, annual spend-based milestone benefits, etc. |
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Fees & Benefits
The Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card has a joining fee of Rs. 5,000 + Taxes.
The cardholder gets a welcome benefit of 2,500 EDGE Miles (loyalty currency for this card). The cardholder must complete one transaction within 37 days of card issuance to receive the welcome benefit. The EDGE Miles will be credited to the cardholder’s account within 7 days from the date of transaction. The welcome benefit is applicable for cards for which the joining fee has been paid.
These can be transferred to various airline/hotel loyalty programs in a 1:2 ratio, resulting in 5,000 airmiles/hotel loyalty points.Â
The card has an annual renewal fee of Rs. 5,000 + Taxes.
The cardholder gets 2,500 or 5,000 EDGE Miles on payment of an annual renewal fee, depending on the amount spent in the previous year (Rs. 7.5 lakhs and above or Rs. 15 lakhs and above). There is no annual spend-based annual renewal fee waiver on this card.
Rewards Structure
The Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card has the following rewards structure.
- Accelerated reward rate on travel spends
The cardholder will earn an accelerated reward rate of 5 EDGE Miles for every Rs. 100 spent for travel-related eligible transactions. The eligible transactions include travel-related transactions done through the Axis Bank Travel EDGE portal, and direct airline and hotel spends.Â
Direct airline spends include purchases (for example, flight ticket(s) booking) made at the airline company’s website, at airline counters, airline helpline numbers, etc. Direct hotel spends include purchases (for example, hotel room booking) made at the hotel company’s website, at hotel counters, etc.
Please note that travel-related transactions done with other parties, including but not limited to any private travel agents, corporate travel agents, online travel aggregators (for example, Yatra, Cleartrip, etc.) or their websites/Apps/IVR systems, etc., will earn the base reward rate and not the accelerated reward rate.Â
The accelerated reward rate of 5 EDGE Miles/Rs. 100 spent is capped at cumulative transactions of Rs. 2 lakhs per month. For incremental spends above Rs. 2 lakhs in a month, the cardholder will earn the base reward rate.Â
- Base reward rate
The cardholder will earn a base reward rate of 2 EDGE Miles for every Rs. 100 spent for all other spends, except for excluded transactions/categories.
The EDGE Miles earned at an accelerated rate and base reward rate will be credited to the cardholder’s account within 12 days from the date of the eligible transaction.
Exclusions: Spends on the following categories will not earn any reward points:
- Gold/jewellery purchases
- Rent payments
- Insurance premiums
- Government institutions
- Utilities and telecom payments
- Fuel transactions
- Wallet loading
Milestone benefits
The cardholder can earn bonus EDGE Miles on achieving specified milestone spends in a card membership year as follows.
| Spend milestone | Bonus EDGE Miles |
| Rs. 3 lakhs | 2,500 EDGE Miles |
| Rs. 7.5 lakhs | An additional 2,500 EDGE Miles |
| Rs. 15 lakhs | An additional 5,000 EDGE Miles |
The EDGE Miles will be credited to the cardholder’s account within 30 days from the date when the milestone spends were achieved. For milestone spends calculation, the spends on excluded categories will not be counted.
Tier Benefits
The Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card has a 3-tier structure based on annual spends in a card membership year. The cardholder gets certain benefits based on the tier. Let us understand these tiers.
- Silver Tier
Every cardholder starts at the Silver Tier, which is the base tier.Â
- Gold Tier
When the eligible spends during the card membership year reach Rs. 7.5 lakhs, the cardholder gets upgraded from the Silver Tier to the Gold Tier. The cardholder in the Gold Tier gets 2,500 EDGE Miles on payment of the Rs. 5,000 + Taxes annual renewal fee. The EDGE Miles will be credited to the cardholder’s account within 30 days of the annual fee payment.
- Platinum Tier
When the eligible spends during the card membership year reach Rs. 15 lakhs, the cardholder gets upgraded from the Gold Tier to the Platinum Tier. The cardholder in the Platinum Tier gets 5,000 EDGE Miles on payment of the Rs. 5,000 + Taxes annual renewal fee. The EDGE Miles will be credited to the cardholder’s account within 30 days of the annual fee payment.
The complimentary airport lounge access for the cardholder is linked to their tier. The details of complimentary airport lounge access are discussed later in the article.
Based on the spends in the current card anniversary year, the cardholder will be able to maintain the existing tier or get downgraded to a lower tier in the next card anniversary year.Â
For tier evaluation spends calculation, the spends on excluded categories will not be counted.
Reward Redemption
The Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card being a travel-focused card, it provides cardholders a choice to transfer EDGE Miles to 19 airline and hotel partners. The EDGE Miles can be transferred to the respective partner in the following transfer ratio.
| Partner | Transfer ratio (EDGE Miles : Partner points) | Timeline for points transfer |
| Accor Live Limitless (ALL) | 1:2 | Up to 1 working day |
| Club ITC | 1:2 | Up to 10 working days |
| IHG One Rewards | 1:2 | Up to 1 working day |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 2:1 | Up to 1 working day |
| Wyndham Rewards | 1:2 | Up to 1 working day |
| Airasia | 1:2 | Up to 10 working days |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1:2 | Up to 1 working day |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1:2 | Up to 1 working day |
| Air India Maharaja Club | 1:2 | Up to 5 working days |
| Ethiopian Airlines ShebaMiles | 1:2 | Up to 10 working days |
| Etihad Guest | 1:2 | Up to 1 working day |
| Japan Airlines (JAL) | 1:2 | Up to 10 working days |
| Singapore Airlines Krisflyer | 1:2 | Up to 10 working days |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1:2 | Up to 1 working day |
| Qatar Airways Privilege Club | 1:2 | Up to 10 working days |
| Spicejet SpiceClub | 1:2 | Up to 10 working days |
| Thai Airways Royal Orchid Club | 1:2 | Up to 1 working day |
| Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles | 1:2 | Up to 10 working days |
| United Airlines MileagePlus | 1:2 | Up to 1 working day |
The above transfer partners are divided into Group A and Group B as follows.
| Group A | Group B |
| Accor Live Limitless (ALL) | Air France KLM Flying Blue |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Air India Maharaja Club |
| Ethiopian Airlines ShebaMiles | Airasia |
| Etihad Guest | Club ITC |
| Japan Airlines (JAL) | IHG One Rewards |
| Marriott Bonvoy | Qantas Frequent Flyer |
| Qatar Airways Privilege Club | Spicejet SpiceClub |
| Singapore Airlines Krisflyer | Â |
| Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles | Â |
| Thai Airways Royal Orchid Club | Â |
| United Airlines MileagePlus | Â |
| Wyndham Rewards | Â |
An Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card holder can transfer a maximum of 1,50,000 EDGE Miles to airline/hotel partners in a calendar year. The maximum EDGE Miles that can be transferred cumulatively in a calendar year include 30,000 EDGE Miles to Group A partners and 1,20,000 EDGE Miles to Group B partners. The annual capping is per customer ID.
The minimum EDGE Miles required for a transfer request is 500. The transfer request can be placed through the Axis Bank Travel EDGE portal.
https://traveledge.axisbank.co.in/travel/pointstransfer
With a choice of so many domestic and international airline/hotel transfer partners, the Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card is one of the top travel cards for globetrotters.
Additional Features
The card provides additional features like complimentary airport lounge access, dining discounts, etc.
Complimentary airport lounge access: The Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card provides complimentary airport lounge access based on the cardholder’s tier as follows.
| Tier | Domestic: No. of visits | International: No. of visits |
| Silver | 8 | 4 |
| Gold | 12 | 6 |
| Platinum | 18 | 12 |
The above number of visits includes visits for the primary cardholder and guests. The Atlas Credit Card is one of the few cards that also allows complimentary visits for guests. The Atlas Credit Card is also one of the few cards that allows complimentary airport lounge access without any spend criteria in the previous month/quarter.
Dining discounts
The Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card provides a 25% dining discount of up to Rs. 800 on participating restaurants booked through the EazyDiner App. The discount applies on a minimum order value of Rs. 2,500 and can be availed once a month.
Fuel surcharge waiver
The card provides a 1% fuel surcharge waiver on fuel purchases between Rs. 400 and Rs. 4,000. The maximum waiver is Rs. 400 per statement cycle.
Image Suggestion: Lounge photo
Charges on specified transactions
The cardholder must make a note of the following charges on specified transactions.
| Transaction | Fee |
| Rent transaction fee | 1% of the rental transaction |
| Wallet load fee | 1% fee on cumulative spends of Rs. 10,000 or more on wallet loading transactions per statement cycle |
| Fuel transaction fee | 1% fee on cumulative spends of Rs. 50,000 or more on fuel transactions per statement cycle |
| Education transaction fee | 1% fee on education payments made via third-party apps |
| Utility transaction fee | 1% fee on cumulative spends of Rs. 25,000 or more on utility bill payment transactions per statement cycle |
| Online skill-based gaming transaction fee | 1% fee on cumulative spends of Rs. 10,000 or more on online skill-based gaming platform transactions per statement cycle |
| Reward redemption fee | A fee of Rs. 199 will be levied for each instance of conversion/transfer of EDGE Miles to airline/hotel partners. |
How to apply
The Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card can be applied for through the Axis Bank website/App. The eligibility criteria for the card includes the following.
- The applicant must be a resident of India.
- The applicant must be between 18 and 70 years old.
- The annual salary must be Rs. 12 lakhs and above, or the self-employed must have an Income Tax Return (ITR) of Rs. 15 lakhs and above.
Image Suggestion: Application form screenshot or infographic
Optimal Use
The Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card gives maximum value for travel-related spends. It gives 5 EDGE Miles for every Rs. 100 spent directly with airlines and hotels. The 5 EDGE Miles, when transferred to airline/hotel partners in the 1:2 ratio, become 10 airline/hotel loyalty points. Thus, the card gives a 10% value back on travel spends if the airline/hotel loyalty point value derived is Rs. 1.
The accelerated reward rate of 5 EDGE Miles/Rs. 100 spent is capped for monthly spends of up to Rs. 2 lakhs. Beyond spends of Rs. 2 lakhs in a month, the reward rate falls to the base reward rate of 2 EDGE Miles/Rs. 100 spent. So, the card gives you maximum value for travel spends of up to Rs. 2 lakhs in a month.
Certain benefits, like EDGE Miles on annual renewal fee payment and complimentary airport lounge access, are linked to the cardholder’s tier. The Platinum Tier provides the maximum benefits. So, to maximise the card benefits, the cardholder will have to spend Rs. 15 lakhs or more in a year to achieve the Platinum Tier.
Expert Verdict/Conclusion
The benefits of the Atlas Credit Card are centered around travel, like accelerated reward rate on travel spends, choice of 19 airline/hotel partners for transfer of EDGE Miles, complimentary airport lounge access, 25% discount on dining, etc. So, if you travel regularly, whether for personal or official purposes, the Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card is a no-brainer.