SBI Card MILES
SBI Card MILES is SBI's flexible-miles entry — generic Travel Credits that transfer to 26 airline and hotel partners at up to ₹1 each, with no single-airline lock-in. The base MILES earns 2 Travel Credits per ₹200 on travel (~1%) and 1 per ₹200 on other spend (~0.5%), with a 1,500-credit welcome, a 5,000-credit milestone at ₹5 lakh, and the ₹1,499 fee waived at ₹6 lakh. For the occasional flyer who wants travel rewards without the alliance homework, it is a sensible low-commitment start. The value hinges entirely on your willingness to transfer — catalogue redemptions crater to ₹0.25 and the travel portal pays ₹0.50, which is the value we model by default — and fuel, rent, utilities, wallet loads and insurance are excluded from earning. Frequent travellers will outgrow it for a deeper-partnered card.
Key features
What this card is built to do — the highlights that actually matter.
Welcome Benefit
~₹750 in vouchers, points or cashback on card activation
️ 0.5% on Travel
2 Travel Credits per ₹200 on travel (~0.5% at our 50p default, ~1% if you transfer at a good 1:1 ratio); transfer to 25 airline & hotel partners. Credits expire 24 months after they are earned
️ 0.25% on Other
1 Travel Credit per ₹200 on other spend (~0.25% at our 50p default valuation); fuel, rent, utilities, wallet loads, education, insurance, cash advances and EMI all earn nothing
️ Airport Lounge Access
1 complimentary visits per quarter at domestic and international airport lounges
Annual Fee Waiver
Fee of ₹1,499 + 18% GST (₹1,769 all-in)/yr fully waived when you spend ₹6,00,000/year
Fuel Surcharge Waiver
1% waiver on fuel transactions, capped at ₹250/month
Milestone Bonus
~₹2,500 in bonus rewards on hitting annual spend milestones
Full reward structure
| Category | Type | Rate | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel | airline miles | 0.5% | — |
| Other | airline miles | 0.25% | — |
Fees & charges
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹1,769 |
| Joining fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹1,769 |
| Finance charge (APR) | 3.75% p.m. |
| Forex markup | 3% |
| Fuel surcharge waiver | 1%, cap ₹250 |
Perks & benefits
Estimated annual value beyond rewards — ~₹7,500/yr in total.
️ lounge access ~ ₹3,000 /yr
4 complimentary domestic airport lounge visits a year (max 2 in any quarter), plus 1 extra visit for every ₹1 lakh of spend, up to 8 more a year. Complimentary Priority Pass membership worth $99 free for the first 2 years — the membership only; each Priority Pass visit costs $27 plus taxes
milestone bonus ~ ₹2,500 /yr
5,000 bonus Travel Credits on ₹5 lakh of annual spend
fuel waiver ~ ₹2,000 /yr
1% fuel surcharge waiver on transactions of ₹500–₹3,000 at all petrol pumps, capped at ₹250 per statement cycle. Fuel spends still earn no Travel Credits
Spend milestone
· ₹5,00,000 a year ₹2,500 of value
Should you get it?
Best for: Occasional flyer (4-6 flights/year), Does not want airline-specific loyalty lock-in, SBI account holder starting travel rewards journey, Stepping stone before upgrading to a premium travel card
Mid tier — a solid all-rounder for steady monthly spend.
Strongest value if you spend heavily on Travel ( 0.5% back).
Frequent travellers benefit from the included airport lounge access.
✓ Pros
- Earns flexible travel credits redeemable for flights and hotels via SBI Card portal
- Not locked to a single airline — credits can be used across multiple carriers
- Good entry point into travel rewards for SBI customers
- Low ₹1,499 annual fee for a travel-focused card
✕ Cons
- Travel portal redemption values lower than direct airline miles programmes
- Not a true airline co-brand — lacks the partner benefits of Air India or IndiGo cards
- ₹1,499 annual fee, and the ₹6 lakh spend needed to waive it is steep for an entry travel card
- Only 4 complimentary domestic lounge visits a year, and the Priority Pass membership carries no free visits — each one costs $27 plus taxes
- The 1,500-credit welcome needs ₹30,000 of spend within 60 days of issuance; it is not unconditional
- Travel Credits expire 24 months after they are earned
Eligibility & documents
Min. income
₹30,000 /mo
Employment
Salaried · Self-employed
Documents required
- PAN card
- Aadhaar / address proof
- Income proof (salary slips or ITR)
How to redeem rewards
Ways to convert what you earn into real value.
🎁 Convert Travel Credits to partner airline miles and hotel points up to 1:1
🎁 Redeem Travel Credits for flight and hotel bookings
🎁 Travel Credits expire 24 months after the date they are earned
What your SBI Card Travel Credits are worth
Realistic value per point by redemption route — the difference is what most people leave on the table.
Flights & hotels via SBI Card ₹0.50 per Travel Credit against travel bookings — the realistic default if you never transfer
Shop & Smile catalogue ₹0.25 per credit — the floor
Airline / hotel transfer BEST The reason to hold the card: 25 partners, and unlike most Indian banks the transfer genuinely doubles value rather than destroying it (₹1/credit at 1:1 against ₹0.50 in the portal). Ratios are identical across Miles, Miles Prime and Miles Elite — those three differ only in EARN rate, not conversion. Thirteen partners convert 1:1 (Air India, Aeroplan, Flying Blue, BA, Cathay, Qantas, Thai, Vietnam, SpiceJet, AirAsia, IHG, Wyndham, Radisson — Etihad Guest was retired from the table in August 2026); Emirates, Ethiopian, JAL, Saudia, Turkish, United, Accor and Club ITC are 2:1. Do not read the ratio as the value: Shangri-La at 6:1 is the BEST route on the card (~₹1.07/credit, because a Shangri-La point is worth ~₹6.40), while AirAsia at 1:1 is the worst (~₹0.20). Transfers are FINAL, and Travel Credits accumulate for a maximum of 24 months.
✈ Transfer partners ✈ Air India Maharaja Club ( 1:1 ) ✈ Air Canada Aeroplan ( 1:1 ) ✈ Air France-KLM Flying Blue ( 1:1 ) ✈ British Airways Executive Club (Avios) ( 1:1 ) ✈ Cathay Asia Miles ( 1:1 ) ✈ Qantas Frequent Flyer ( 1:1 ) ✈ Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus ( 1:1 ) ✈ Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles ( 1:1 ) ✈ SpiceJet SpiceClub ( 1:1 ) ✈ airasia rewards ( 1:1 ) ✈ Emirates Skywards ( 2:1 ) ✈ Ethiopian Airlines ShebaMiles ( 2:1 ) ✈ Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank ( 2:1 ) ✈ Saudia AlFursan ( 2:1 ) ✈ Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles ( 2:1 ) ✈ United MileagePlus ( 2:1 ) 🏨 IHG One Rewards ( 1:1 ) 🏨 Wyndham Rewards ( 1:1 ) 🏨 Radisson Rewards ( 1:1 ) 🏨 Accor ALL ( 2:1 ) 🏨 Club ITC ( 2:1 ) 🏨 Shangri-La Circle ( 6:1 ) 🏨 Jumeirah One ( 2:1 ) Value your balance: SBI Card Travel Credits 🏨 Shangri-La Circle ( 6:1 ) ₹ 10,700 ✈ Air India Maharaja Club ( 1:1 ) ₹ 10,000 ✈ Air Canada Aeroplan ( 1:1 ) ₹ 10,000 ✈ Air France-KLM Flying Blue ( 1:1 ) ₹ 10,000 ✈ British Airways Executive Club (Avios) ( 1:1 ) ₹ 10,000 ✈ Cathay Asia Miles ( 1:1 ) ₹ 10,000 ✈ Qantas Frequent Flyer ( 1:1 ) ₹ 10,000 ✈ Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus ( 1:1 ) ₹ 10,000 vs. typical redemption ₹ 5,000 Direct transfers from this card only, ranked by what a point is worth in the destination programme — plus 15 more partners . Full calculator, every currency → The concern Full value needs partner transfers (catalogue redemption is only ₹0.25), and fuel, rent, utilities, wallet loads and insurance earn nothing — so the effective return is narrower than the headline.
The bottom line
SBI Card MILES provides an accessible entry point for occasional flyers wanting versatile points transferable across 25 airline and hotel loyalty partners without airline exclusivity. Real value requires redeeming through partner transfers or travel bookings rather than the catalog (which drops to ₹0.25 per credit), and frequent international travelers will be better served by the lower forex rates on PRIME (2.50%) or Elite (1.99%).
Sources & verification
Fees, reward rates, and benefits for the SBI Card MILES are taken from SBI Card 's official Most Important Terms & Conditions (MITC) and fee schedule — see the card's official page . Last verified 15 Aug 2026 . Reviewed by Devchandra Sah . Always confirm current details on the issuer's site before applying. How we research →
Independence. CardAdvisor is an independent editorial publication. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or authorised to act for SBI Card . All issuer names, product names, and payment-network marks are the property of their respective owners and appear here for identification and comparison only. Card faces shown on this site are our own original illustrations — we do not display or host issuer card artwork or logos.
Value timeline
Every real-world change to this card's rewards, fees and benefits we've tracked — newest first, each linked to its source.
Tracking since 2024 · 2 changes · last change Aug 2026
▲ Revaluation ▼ Devaluation ◆ Neutral / reversed
2026 1 change — 1 cut
▼ Transfer Effective 13 Aug 2026
Etihad Guest removed as a transfer partner
Etihad Guest at 1:1; 18 airline partners + 8 hotel partners (26 total) → Etihad Guest removed; 17 airline partners + 8 hotel partners (25 total)
SBI retired Etihad Guest from the MILES-family transfer table with no customer notice we could find. Pinned on both sides: the Wayback capture of 4 Aug 2026 still lists it as airline row 8, "Etihad Airways / Etihad Guest / 1:1", among 18 airlines, while the live PDF read on 15 Aug 2026 contains the string "Etihad" zero times across all seven pages and lists 17. The change therefore lands between 4 and 13 August 2026, narrower than the 30 Jul–13 Aug window first recorded. Hotel partners are untouched at 8 and no other ratio moved. Applies identically to MILES, MILES PRIME and Miles Elite — SBI publishes one transfer table with no per-card qualifier; the three differ in earn rate only. WARNING FOR ANYONE RE-READING THE RAW DIFF: its excerpts appear to say Cathay Pacific was removed. That is an artefact of the renumbering (old rows 9-18 became 8-17) mis-pairing chunks — Cathay is still row 7 and still transfers at 1:1.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: High
2024 1 change — 1 neutral
◆ Launch Effective 23 Apr 2024
SBI Card MILES launched
SBI Card launched its inaugural travel-centric family, MILES, in Mumbai; the base SBI Card MILES is the ₹1,499 entry variant earning 2 Travel Credits per ₹200 on travel (~1%) and 1 per ₹200 elsewhere (~0.5%), with a 1,500-credit welcome on ₹30,000 spend in 60 days and credits transferable to 20+ airline and hotel partners at up to 1:1.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: High
Each change links to the issuer's own document — bank T&C, MITC, notice, press release or product page — where one is public. Where the bank published nothing, it's marked CardAdvisor Research and verified against the card's current terms. Independent of the live terms shown above. This timeline is one card's slice of our market-wide change record across every tracked card.
Embed this timeline on your site Free to use. Facts only — dates, changes and before/after values. Please keep the credit line below the frame: it's the only part search engines can see, and it's what we ask for in return.
Source: SBI Card MILES value timeline — CardAdvisor
“ Cite this timeline Quoting a date or a before/after figure? Copy the HTML version — it credits the record with a working link.
HTML (with link) Plain text Copy
Source: SBI Card MILES value timeline , CardAdvisor (CC BY 4.0).
Terms & reward changes
Tracked updates to this card's fees, rewards and benefits — newest first.
➖ Benefit removed Effective 13 Aug 2026
Etihad Guest has been removed from the SBI Card MILES transfer-partner table. Travel Credits can no longer be converted to Etihad Guest miles (previously 1:1); airline partners drop from 18 to 17, 25 partners in all. Verified against SBI's rewards T&C of August 2026 - the earlier table still listed Etihad on 4 August, the current one does not. If you hold Travel Credits earmarked for Etihad, they remain redeemable via the other 24 partners or SBI's travel portal.
Want to know if this beats your current card for your spending?
Apply now → Compare with my profile
Applications are submitted to and decided by SBI Card . CardAdvisor does not issue cards or process applications.
Find your best card
Answer 5 questions. Get a personalised shortlist with ₹ value estimates.
Find my card →
Quick summary
Type Mid credit card
Reward rate 0.25%–0.5%
Best for Occasional flyer (4-6 flights/year)
Joining fee ₹1,499
Annual fee ₹1,499
Reviewed by
Devchandra Sah · Cards tested, miles earned, trips booked — for over a decade
Last verified 15 Aug 2026
How we research →
Useful links
Rewards calculator
Estimate any card’s annual value
Points valuations
What each point is really worth
Latest card changes
Live fee & reward-rate tracker
Market insights
The Indian card landscape
Card data study 2026
280 cards analysed — August 2026
Frequently asked questions
Check your eligibility for this card
Answer a few quick questions and our team will reach out with matching card offers based on your profile.