Axis cut Air India transfers by 75%. Here is what each card can still move.
Axis Bank has moved Air India, Flying Blue and Qantas into Group A, the transfer group with a quarter of the yearly allowance. Accor is back at a worse rate, Hilton and Miles & More are new, and ITC is gone. Here is the yearly Air India ceiling on each card, before and after.
In this article
Axis Bank has rewritten the list of airline and hotel programmes you can move EDGE Rewards and EDGE Miles into. The headline additions are Hilton, Lufthansa's Miles & More and Cathay Pacific, with Accor coming back. The change that costs most people money is quieter: Air India, Air France-KLM's Flying Blue and Qantas have moved from Group B to Group A.
The conversion rates for those three have not changed. What has changed is how much you are allowed to send them in a year, and for Air India that is now a quarter of what it was.
How the two groups work
Axis caps what you can transfer out each calendar year, and splits that cap in two. A fifth of it can go to partners in Group A. The other four fifths can go to partners in Group B. The two allowances do not mix: an unused Group B allowance cannot be spent on a Group A partner.
| Card | Group A a year | Group B a year |
|---|---|---|
| Atlas | 30,000 EDGE Miles | 1,20,000 EDGE Miles |
| Magnus, Reserve, Select | 1,00,000 EDGE Rewards | 4,00,000 EDGE Rewards |
| Olympus | 1,50,000 EDGE Miles | 6,00,000 EDGE Miles |
| Magnus for Burgundy | 2,00,000 EDGE Rewards | 8,00,000 EDGE Rewards |
| Burgundy Private | 3,00,000 EDGE Rewards | 12,00,000 EDGE Rewards |
These allowances are the same as before. They reset on 1 January, and if you hold more than one Axis card, the allowance of your highest card applies to your customer ID as a whole.
So which group a partner sits in decides how much of your year's points can ever reach it. Until now, Air India sat in the large group.
What changed
Comparing Axis's Travel EDGE terms today with the copy archived on 6 August 2026:
- Moved from Group B to Group A: Air India Maharaja Club, Flying Blue, Qantas Frequent Flyer.
- Added to Group A: Accor Live Limitless and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.
- Added to Group B: Hilton Honors and Lufthansa Miles & More.
- Removed: Club ITC.
Axis has not published an effective date. The new table is simply what the Travel EDGE terms page shows now, and it was first reported on 22 and 23 September. The terms also say the grouping and the partner list "are subject to change at banks discretion without notice", which is how this one arrived.
Your yearly Air India ceiling, before and after
The conversion rates to Air India are unchanged on every card. Multiply them by the old Group B allowance and the new Group A allowance and you get the most Maharaja points each card can produce in a year:
| Card | Rate to Air India | Most Air India points a year, before | Now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlas | 1 mile : 2 points | 2,40,000 | 60,000 |
| Magnus, Reserve | 5 : 2 | 1,60,000 | 40,000 |
| Select | 10 : 1 | 40,000 | 10,000 |
| Olympus | 1 : 4 | 24,00,000 | 6,00,000 |
| Magnus for Burgundy | 5 : 4 | 6,40,000 | 1,60,000 |
| Burgundy Private | 5 : 4 | 9,60,000 | 2,40,000 |
Every row falls by 75%, because the Group A allowance is a quarter of the Group B one.
The table also flatters the new position. Before, Air India shared the large Group B allowance with IHG, Radisson, SpiceJet and a few smaller programmes. Now it shares the small Group A allowance with Singapore Airlines, United, Turkish Airlines, Etihad, Aeroplan, Qatar's Privilege Club, British Airways, and now Flying Blue, Qantas, Accor and Cathay as well. Anything you send to one of them comes out of the same 30,000 miles on an Atlas.
Put another way: an Atlas holder can transfer 1,50,000 miles a year in total. Until this change, 1,20,000 of them could go to Air India. Now 30,000 can, and the rest has to go to a Group B partner or stay put.
Some Group A partners take twice as many points
Group A is not one rate. It has two tiers. Air India, Flying Blue and Qantas kept their full rate, but both new Group A partners, Accor and Cathay, landed in the expensive tier.
| Group A tier | Atlas | Magnus, Reserve | Olympus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full rate | 1 : 2 | 5 : 2 | 1 : 4 |
| Half rate | 2 : 1 | 5 : 1 | 1 : 2 |
The full-rate partners include Air India, Flying Blue, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, United, Turkish Airlines, Etihad and Aeroplan. The half-rate partners are Accor, Cathay, British Airways, Qatar's Privilege Club, Finnair and Vietnam Airlines.
On an Atlas, 30,000 Group A miles become 60,000 Air India points or 15,000 Accor points. Both come out of the same allowance. That makes the half-rate partners doubly expensive: each point costs more, and it also uses up allowance that could have gone to a full-rate partner.
Accor's return is real, but it is not the Accor that left. When Accor was last on the list, in March 2026, an Atlas converted at 1 mile to 2 Accor points and a Magnus at 5 to 2. It now converts at 2 to 1 on Atlas and 5 to 1 on Magnus, so an Atlas mile buys a quarter of what it did and a Magnus point half.
Where the big allowance can still go
Group B is now:
- Air Asia
- Hilton Honors
- IHG One Rewards
- IndiGo BluChip
- Lufthansa Miles & More
- Orchid Rewards
- The Postcard Sunshine Club
- Radisson Rewards
- SpiceJet
Hilton and Miles & More are the useful additions, because they give the Group B allowance somewhere worthwhile to go. Hilton converts at the full rate: 1 : 2 on Atlas, 5 : 2 on Magnus and 1 : 4 on Olympus. Miles & More converts at 1 : 1 on Atlas, half the Air India rate, and 5 : 2 on Magnus.
Miles & More also has a cap of its own: 2,00,000 miles a year, with at least 3,000 miles per transfer. Axis's own example shows how that interacts with the group limit on a Select card: at 10 : 1, the 4 lakh Group B allowance produces only 40,000 Miles & More miles, so a Select holder never gets near the 2 lakh cap.
Key takeaway
Your Group A allowance is now the only way into Air India, Singapore, United, Qatar and the other big airline programmes, and it is a fifth of your yearly total. Spend it on full-rate partners, on a booking you can actually see, and push hotel transfers to Hilton or IHG in Group B.
Also changing on Axis cards
The transfer changes come a month after a set of card-term revisions. Axis's revision notices for the Select and Magnus cards list these:
- From 28 August: the markup for paying in rupees on a foreign card terminal or website (dynamic currency conversion) went from 1.5% to 3.5%. On Magnus and Magnus for Burgundy it went to 2%.
- From 28 August: Priority Pass no longer gets you into domestic lounges in India. You show the credit card itself. Lounges after immigration at Indian international terminals still take Priority Pass.
- From 1 October: the Select card's ₹3 lakh milestone, which unlocks 6 extra international lounge visits, 6 extra golf rounds and the next year's Priority Pass, stops counting spend in categories that already earn no rewards: insurance, rent, fuel, education, utilities and telecom, wallets, gold and jewellery, government services and gift cards.
The markup is the one to act on. Whenever a foreign merchant offers to charge you in rupees, say no and pay in the local currency. You then pay only your card's normal forex markup.
What to do
- If Air India is your main redemption, plan on the new ceiling: 30,000 miles a year on Atlas, 1 lakh points on Magnus or Reserve. Transfer only when you have a booking in view, because the allowance is now scarce.
- Do not spend Group A allowance on Accor, Cathay, British Airways or Qatar unless the redemption is worth twice as much there. Each of those points costs double.
- Send hotel transfers to Hilton or IHG. Both sit in Group B at the full rate and use the allowance that Air India no longer can.
- The allowances reset on 1 January. Anything left of your 2026 Group A allowance is lost on 31 December, so if you already have an Air India or Singapore booking in mind, use it this year.
- On a Select card, check how much of your year's spend was rent, insurance or utilities before counting on the ₹3 lakh milestone.
Common questions
Did Axis change the Air India conversion rate?
No. Atlas still converts at 1 EDGE Mile to 2 Maharaja points, and Magnus at 5 EDGE Rewards to 2. The change is the yearly allowance: Air India now comes out of Group A, which is a quarter the size of Group B.
When did the change take effect?
Axis has not stated a date. The new grouping is what its Travel EDGE terms page shows now. The copy archived on 6 August 2026 still had Air India, Flying Blue and Qantas in Group B.
I hold both an Atlas and a Magnus. Do I get both allowances?
No. Axis applies one allowance per customer ID, set by the highest card you hold.
Worth knowing
Every group, conversion rate and allowance here is from Axis Bank's Travel EDGE terms and conditions, compared against the copies archived by the Wayback Machine on 15 March and 6 August 2026. The markup and milestone changes are from Axis's own revision notices for the Select and Magnus cards.
Sources
- Axis Bank, Travel EDGE terms and conditions, for the current partner groups, conversion rates, yearly allowances and the Miles & More cap
- Wayback Machine, Travel EDGE terms as of 6 August 2026, for the earlier groups with Air India, Flying Blue and Qantas in Group B
- Wayback Machine, Travel EDGE terms as of 15 March 2026, for Accor's earlier conversion rates
- Axis Bank, revision of SELECT Credit Card terms (PDF), for the 3.5% markup, the domestic Priority Pass change and the 1 October milestone rule
- Axis Bank, revision of Magnus Credit Card terms (PDF), for the 2% markup on Magnus
- Live From A Lounge, September 2026, for first reporting of the reshuffle
Checked against Axis Bank's Travel EDGE terms on 24 September 2026.
Figures here were checked against issuer and primary sources on 24 September 2026. Card terms and offer periods change without notice, and this is general information rather than advice about your particular situation.
