SBI Card Miles Elite
SBI Card Miles Elite is the ₹4,999 flagship of SBI's Miles family, earning 6 Travel Credits per ₹200 on travel (~3%) and 2 per ₹200 (~1%) on everything else, with credits transferable to airline and hotel partners at up to ₹1 each. It pairs a low 1.99% foreign-currency markup with 8 domestic lounge visits a year, a complimentary Priority Pass (6 international visits, free for the first two years). A 5,000-credit welcome (on ₹1 lakh in 60 days) and a 20,000-credit milestone at ₹12 lakh reward volume, and the annual fee is fully reversed at ₹15 lakh of spend. Full value depends on transferring credits — catalogue redemption drops to ₹0.25 each.
Key features
What this card is built to do — the highlights that actually matter.
Welcome Benefit
~₹2,500 in vouchers, points or cashback on card activation
️ 1.5% on Travel
6 Travel Credits per ₹200 on travel spends (~1.5% at our 50-paisa default; ~3% only if you transfer at a good 1:1 ratio). Convert to Air Miles/Hotel Points at up to 1:1, travel bookings at ₹0.50, catalogue at ₹0.25.
️ 0.5% on Other
2 Travel Credits per ₹200 on all other spends (~0.50% at our 50-paisa default; ~1% only if you transfer at a good 1:1 ratio). Transfer to airline & hotel partners at up to 1 Travel Credit = ₹1.
️ Airport Lounge Access
2 complimentary visits per quarter at domestic and international airport lounges
Annual Fee Waiver
Fee of ₹4,999 + 18% GST (₹5,899 all-in)/yr fully waived when you spend ₹15,00,000/year
Fuel Surcharge Waiver
1% waiver on fuel transactions, capped at ₹500/month
Milestone Bonus
~₹10,000 in bonus rewards on hitting annual spend milestones
️ Insurance Cover
Air accident cover up to ₹1 crore, lost card liability up to ₹1 lakh, up to 6 flight cancellations/year (₹3,500 each), check-in baggage loss up to ₹72,000, delay ₹7,500, travel documents ₹12,500.
Full reward structure
| Category | Type | Rate | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel | airline miles | 1.5% | — |
| Other | airline miles | 0.5% | — |
Fees & charges
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹5,899 |
| Joining fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹5,899 |
| Finance charge (APR) | 3.75% p.m. |
| Forex markup | 1.99% |
| Fuel surcharge waiver | 1%, cap ₹500 |
Perks & benefits
Estimated annual value beyond rewards — ~₹31,000/yr in total.
️ lounge access ~ ₹18,000 /yr
8 domestic airport lounge visits/year (max 2/quarter) plus Priority Pass with 6 international visits/year. 1 extra domestic visit per ₹1 lakh spend, capped at 15/year. Priority Pass free for first 2 years.
milestone bonus ~ ₹10,000 /yr
20,000 bonus Travel Credits on annual spends of ₹12 lakh. Annual fee reversed on spends of ₹15 lakh in a membership year.
fuel waiver ~ ₹3,000 /yr
1% fuel surcharge waiver on transactions of ₹500–₹3,000 at all petrol pumps, capped at ₹500 per statement cycle. Fuel spends still earn no Travel Credits
️ insurance
Air accident cover up to ₹1 crore, lost card liability up to ₹1 lakh, up to 6 flight cancellations/year (₹3,500 each), check-in baggage loss up to ₹72,000, delay ₹7,500, travel documents ₹12,500.
Spend milestone
· ₹12,00,000 a year ₹10,000 of value
Should you get it?
Best for: Frequent flyers with ₹12 lakh+ annual card spend, Travellers who transfer points to airline and hotel partners, Heavy overseas spenders wanting a low 1.99% forex markup, Users who value both domestic and international lounge access
Premium tier — a solid all-rounder for steady monthly spend.
Strongest value if you spend heavily on Travel ( 1.5% back).
Frequent travellers benefit from the included airport lounge access.
✓ Pros
- 6 Travel Credits per ₹200 on travel (~3%), transferable to airline and hotel partners at up to ₹1 each
- Low 1.99% foreign-currency markup — among the best for overseas spending at this fee
- Priority Pass with 6 international lounge visits plus 8 domestic visits a year
- Annual fee fully reversed at ₹15 lakh spend, and a 20,000-credit milestone at ₹12 lakh
✕ Cons
- ₹4,999 fee needs heavy travel spend to justify — the reversal only triggers at ₹15 lakh
- Full value depends on partner transfers; catalogue redemption craters to ₹0.25 per credit and the travel portal pays ₹0.50, which is what we model by default
- Fuel, wallet loads, rent, education, utilities, insurance, cash advances and EMI earn nothing at all
- Travel Credits expire 24 months after they are earned
- Only 1% on non-travel spends — weak as an everyday all-rounder
- Not a single-airline co-brand, so no elite status or airline-specific perks
Eligibility & documents
Min. income
₹60,000 /mo
Employment
Salaried · Self-employed
Documents required
- PAN card
- Aadhaar / address proof
- Income proof (salary slips or ITR)
- Recent passport-size photograph
How to redeem rewards
Ways to convert what you earn into real value.
🎁 Convert Travel Credits to airline miles and hotel points at up to 1:1 (1 credit = ₹1)
🎁 Redeem Travel Credits for flight and hotel bookings at ₹0.50 per credit
🎁 Redeem in the Shop & Smile catalogue at ₹0.25 per credit
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 The ₹4,999 fee needs heavy travel spend to justify, and full value depends on partner transfers — catalogue redemption craters to ₹0.25 per credit.
The bottom line
SBI Card Miles Elite represents SBI's most comprehensive travel product, combining 3% returns on travel, a competitive 1.99% forex markup, Priority Pass access, comprehensive travel insurance, and annual fee waiver at ₹15 lakh annual spend. For cardholders who travel frequently and transfer credits to airline and hotel partners, it provides substantial value; those who prefer direct cashback or lower spending thresholds will find better economics on the MILES or MILES PRIME variants.
Sources & verification
Fees, reward rates, and benefits for the SBI Card Miles Elite are taken from SBI Card 's official Most Important Terms & Conditions (MITC) and fee schedule — see the card's official page . Last verified 5 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 · 3 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
2025 1 change — 1 cut
▼ Benefit Effective 15 Jul 2025
Air accident cover reported withdrawn — SBI still publishes it on this card
₹1 crore complimentary cover → Reported withdrawn; SBI's live product page still lists it
Press coverage in June 2025 reported that SBI Card was discontinuing complimentary ₹1 crore air accident insurance across Elite, Miles Prime, Prime, Pulse and Miles Elite. RE-ADJUDICATED 2026-08-06 and downgraded: SBI's live Miles Elite product page publishes "Air Accident cover up to Rs. 1 crore" in its Insurance Cover panel today, thirteen months later. The asymmetry is telling — the MILES PRIME product page carries no air accident cover, which corroborates the withdrawal on THAT card. We hold no SBI-published notice naming Miles Elite. Either the withdrawal never applied to this card, or it was reversed. Until an issuer source settles it we follow the live product page: the cover is carried in card-data and this event stands as a record of what was reported, not as a confirmed devaluation. This is the sbi-irctc-premier failure mode in reverse — a withdrawal recorded from press coverage the issuer does not support.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: Reconstructed
2024 1 change — 1 neutral
◆ Launch Effective 23 Apr 2024
SBI Card Miles Elite launched
SBI launched its first travel-centric card family, with Miles Elite as the ₹4,999 flagship earning 6 Travel Credits per ₹200 on travel (~3%) and 2 per ₹200 (~1%) elsewhere, plus Priority Pass, domestic lounge access and a 1.99% forex markup.
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.
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Source: SBI Card Miles Elite value timeline — CardAdvisor
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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.
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Quick summary
Type Premium credit card
Reward rate 0.5%–1.5%
Best for Frequent flyers with ₹12 lakh+ annual card spend
Joining fee ₹4,999
Annual fee ₹4,999
Reviewed by
Devchandra Sah · Cards tested, miles earned, trips booked — for over a decade
Last verified 5 Aug 2026
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