How-To Guides
Practical guides to EMIs, reward redemptions, lounge access, fee waivers and getting more from your cards.
1805 posts · Page 51 of 151
How-To GuidesDining privileges decoded: how card offers actually work at restaurants
Few card benefits are used as casually — and understood as poorly — as dining privileges. The promise is simple: show your card at a restaurant, get a discount or a complimentary dish. The reality involves programme netw
How-To GuidesGolf privileges on Indian credit cards: green fees, lessons, and access
Golf occupies a peculiar place in Indian credit-card marketing: it appears in the lifestyle section of premium card brochures, conjuring images of weekend rounds at manicured courses, and then most cardholders never touc
How-To GuidesHotel status from credit cards: the upgrade ladder explained
Hotel elite status used to be earned the hard way: dozens of paid nights a year, tracked across a single chain, until the programme deigned to call you Gold or Platinum. Premium credit cards changed the arithmetic. Many
How-To GuidesAirport meet-and-greet services: how card perks get you fast-tracked
Most travellers know the airport ritual: long immigration queues, the slow shuffle through security, the hunt for a baggage carousel, and the negotiation with transport outside. Premium credit cards promise to smooth all
How-To GuidesCard concierge decoded: what it can (and cannot) do for you
Buried in the feature list of many premium credit cards is a benefit most cardholders never use: the concierge. Mentioned alongside lounge access and travel insurance, it reads like a vague promise of help — "a dedicated
How-To GuidesFamily pooling of points: sharing miles and hotel points across accounts
One traveller's miles balance is often just short of a useful redemption — while a spouse's or parent's account holds a similarly stranded balance in the same programme. Family pooling solves this: mechanisms that let ho
How-To GuidesBusiness travel on personal cards: miles, GST invoices and reimbursement
Millions of Indian professionals put business travel on personal credit cards — flights, hotels, cabs, meals — and sort out the money later. Done right, this earns you miles on spending your employer ultimately funds, ke
How-To GuidesKeeping miles from expiring: activity rules and the points treadmill
Miles that expire are miles you earned for nothing. Every loyalty currency — airline miles, hotel points, bank reward points — has a lifespan, and the rules differ so much between programmes that a single mental model wi
How-To GuidesStopovers, open-jaws and mixed-cabin bookings with card-earned miles
Once you are comfortable booking simple award flights, three techniques can multiply what your miles buy: stopovers, open-jaws, and mixed-cabin itineraries. Used well, they turn one redemption into two destinations, or p
How-To GuidesDomestic flight redemptions: when points beat cash fares
India's domestic skies are where most cardholders will redeem their first miles — and where the points-versus-cash question is most practical. Domestic fares swing wildly with season, demand, and booking window, which me
How-To GuidesMiles vs cashback: the honest maths for Indian travellers
Every Indian cardholder eventually faces the same fork in the road: chase airline miles and hotel points, or take the simple certainty of cashback. Both camps have passionate advocates, and both are partly right — which
How-To GuidesSweet-spot redemptions: getting more value from the same miles
Not all redemptions are equal. The same miles balance can buy a mediocre domestic hop or a remarkable long-haul journey in a premium cabin — the difference is the redemption, not the earning. Experienced award travellers