ICICI Bank, in a surprising turn of events, has revised some of the benefits on all credit cards except super premium credit cards. The changes include spend based criteria for complimentary domestic airport lounge access and termination of Buy 1 Get 1 for movie tickets. These changes were communicated to customers over SMS yesterday and go in effect from 15th April 2020. Let’s look into the details to know more.
Domestic Airport Lounge Access
To avail complimentary domestic airport lounge access in the current calendar quarter, you have to spend at least Rs. 5,000 in the previous calendar quarter. If you hold dual variants of ICICI Credit Cards, you need to spend Rs. 5,000 on each card separately to avail the benefit on respective card. Spend based criteria is not applicable for super premium cards like ICICI Bank Diamant Credit Card, ICICI Bank Emeralde Credit Card and ICICI Bank Emeralde Private Credit Card.
The number of complimentary domestic airport lounge access on ICICI credit cards remains unchanged which is a huge relief. Below table summarizes the complimentary domestic airport lounge access available on some popular ICICI Bank credit cards.
| Name of Card | Complimentary accesses/quarter |
|---|---|
| ICICI Bank Coral Credit Card | 1 |
| ICICI Bank Rubyx Credit Card | 2 |
| ICICI Bank Sapphiro Credit Card | 4 |
| MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Platinum Credit Card | 1 |
| MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Signature Credit Card | 2 |
| Intermiles ICICI Bank Coral Credit Card | 2 |
| Intermiles ICICI Bank Rubyx Credit Card | 2 |
| Intermiles ICICI Bank Sapphiro Credit Card | 4 |
Movie Tickets
ICICI Bank has terminated the Buy 1 Get 1 movie tickets program on their credit cards except ICICI Bank Diamant Credit Card, ICICI Bank Emeralde Credit Card, ICICI Bank Emeralde Private Credit Card, ICICI Bank Sapphiro Credit Card and InterMiles ICICI Bank Sapphiro Credit Card. Now ICICI Bank is providing a discount of 25% on purchase of minimum two tickets up to two times in a month.
Below table summarizes the offer on ICICI Bank Credit Cards for movie tickets.
| Name of Card | Offer on BookMyShow & Inox* |
|---|---|
| ICICI Bank Coral Credit Cards | 25% discount up to Rs. 100 |
| InterMiles ICICI Bank Coral Credit Cards | 25% discount up to Rs. 100 |
| ICICI Bank MakeMyTrip Platinum Credit Cards | 25% discount up to Rs. 100 |
| ICICI Bank Rubyx Credit Cards | 25% discount up to Rs 150 |
| InterMiles ICICI Bank Rubyx Credit Cards | 25% discount up to Rs 150 |
| ICICI Bank MakeMyTrip Signature Credit Cards | 25% discount up to Rs 150 |
* On purchase of minimum two tickets up to two times in a month
Bottomline
These revisions in benefits of ICICI Bank Credit Cards seems to be a measure to control the expenses. The spend based criteria for complimentary domestic airport lounge access will not bother a lot to majority of customers as spending Rs. 5,000 in a quarter is pretty trivial. However termination of Buy 1 Get 1 movie tickets on BookMyShow and Inox will hurt many. I wish ICICI Bank should have retained the Buy 1 Get 1 offer on movie tickets after imposing a spend based criteria, just like complimentary domestic airport lounge access.
What do you think of these revisions in benefits of ICICI Bank Credit Cards? Let me know by leaving a quick comment below.
