With flights and hotels costing more than 50% of any holiday trip, most of us keep waiting for flight offers to get discounts or cheap flights. Save More Money brings you a sure shot way to get free flight tickets and reduce your flight expenses by over 80% – that too on a Vistara flight! All you have to do is get Vistara co-branded credit card 🙂
The best thing about these Vistara cards is that they offer complimentary flight tickets which can be used on any domestic route of Vistara. So if you plan to fly on long-distance routes (like Delhi – Chennai) or busy routes (like Mumbai – Delhi) where the prices are always high or travel only on flight offers, this article is for you and will help you save lots of money.
Vistara has launched their credit cards by partnering with Axis Bank and SBI bank. These banks offer 3 variants – Vistara Card, Vistara Signature card and Vistara Infinite card.
Let us review these cards in details.
Vistara Card
These are targeted at economy class flyers. Based on milestone spend, you will get complimentary economy class flight tickets. Regular spending will also earn you Club Vistara points which can be redeemed for further flight tickets.
Following are the comparison and benefits offered on Vistara Card.
By reaching a milestone of 6L spend in a year, you will get 5 – 6 free flights tickets (base fare):
- 4 flight tickets (1 welcome ticket + 3 milestone based)
- 10000 CV points (1000 welcome points and 9000 points from 6L spend) => equivalent to 1 or 2 flight tickets
Are the complimentary tickets really free?
Not exactly! Your base fare will be free but you will have to pay taxes.
Let us look at how much you will have to pay for Pune – Del flight:
- If paying by cash => 3370 (fare) + 966 (tax) = 4636/-
- If paying by CV points => 5000 points + 798 (tax)
Image 2a – Economy class fare if paid via money 
Image 2b – Economy class fare if paid via Club Vistara points
So effectively, you will get 5-6 flight tickets (worth 22.5-27K assuming each ticket is of 4.5K) and a 5K voucher just by spending 5.5K (assuming average tax of 800/- for each of 5 free flights + 1.5K card charges). Returns are approximately 5-6 times the investment.
Related Article => First hand review of SBI Vistara Credit Card
Axis Vistara Signature Card / SBI Vistara Card Prime
Via these cards, you can fly in the premium economy class of Vistara. Difference between economy and premium economy class is that you will get more comfortable seats, priority handling, higher luggage limit, meals in premium economy class.
Following are the comparison and benefits offered by these cards
By reaching milestone of 8L spend in a year, you will get 6 – 7 free flights (base fare):
- 5 flight tickets (1 welcome ticket + 4 milestone based)
- 19000 CV points (3000 welcome points and 16000 points from 8L spend) => equivalent to 1 or 2 flight tickets.
Let us look at how much you will have to pay for Pune – Del flight:
- If paying by cash => 5020 (fare) + 1409 (tax) = 6729/-
- If paying by CV points => 8500 points + 807 (tax)
Image 4a – Premium Economy class fare if paid via money 
Image 4b – Premium Economy class fare if paid via Club Vistara points
So effectively, you will get 6 – 7 flight tickets (worth 40-47K assuming each ticket is of 6.7K) and a 10K voucher just by spending 7.8K (assuming average tax of 800 for each of 6 free flights + 3K card charges). Returns are approximately 5 – 6 times the investment.
Axis Vistara Infinite card
Axis Vistara Infinite card is best suited for those who prefer (or aspire) traveling in business class. SBI does not offer this variant.
Following are the key features:
By reaching a milestone of 12L spend in a year, you will get 7 free flights (base fare):
- 5 flight tickets (1 welcome ticket + 4 milestone based)
- 46000 CV points (10,000 welcome points and 36,000 points from 12L spend) => equivalent to 2 flight tickets.
Let us look at how much you will have to pay for Pune – Del flight:
- If paying by cash => 14,800 (fare) + 2583 (tax) = 17,683/-
- If paying by CV points => 18000 points + 807 (tax)
Image 6a – Business class fare if paid via money 
Image 6b – Business class fare if paid via Club Vistara points
So effectively, you will get 7 flight tickets (worth 1.26L assuming each ticket is of 18K) just by spending 15.6K (assuming average tax of 800 for each of 7 free flights + 10K card charges). Returns are approximately 8 times the investment.
Note that business class passengers of Vistara get complimentary Business Class Lounge access in Mumbai/Delhi (and maybe other??) airports. This is a super-premium lounge different from the regular airport lounge.
Which one to choose?
Both SBI and Axis cards provide complimentary tickets every year and cost the same. However, SBI scores over Axis by providing additional benefits (hotel voucher, free cancellation), higher reward points and lower milestone limit.
Conclusion
There is always a different charm of flying with a full service air carrier. With Kingfisher and Jet airways closing and Air India in process of being auctioned off, Vistara is the only full service carrier with future potential. So, if you (or your family members) fly atleast 4 times a year and have Vistara flights from your city, you should definitely have Vistara Credit cards.
Tip => Vouchers can be gifted to family members after adding them as nominees on Vistara website account.
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You are right 14 tickets come only if one spends at partners offering 5x RP. That now has been cut down significantly sadly :(.
In Diners black, if one spends 6 lacs in a year, you can buy up 14 flight tickets costing 5000 each (incl of taxes and base fare) and its not limited to just vistara.
You are comparing apples with oranges Nitesh. Vistara is a basic credit card while Diners Club Black is a super premium card which is not very easy to get due to its income eligibility criteria and has a annual fees of 10K++. Also, while Vistara cards are Visa/Mastercard with universal acceptance, you cannot use DCB for everyday use (just like Amex). So crossing the limits becomes a challenge.
Out of curiosity, I will like to understand how you are getting 14 tickets worth 5K each. As per my understanding, with reward benefit of 5 RP per 150/- spent and each RP equal to 1 rupees, 6L spent will give you points equivalent to 20K.