HDFC Bank offers bonus miles on transferring points to Air Asia & Etihad. This promotion is valid for all transfers till 29th December 2024. Here is what we get.
Eligible Credit Cards
Only three HDFC Credit Cards are eligible for transfer bonus promotions:
- HDFC Bank Infinia Metal or Infinia
- Diners Club Black Metal or Diners Club Black
- Regalia Gold credit cards
Exisiting Transfer Ratio
Here is the exisiting transfer ratio of Air Asia & Etihad
| Card | Air Asia | Etihad |
| Infinia | 1:1 | 2:1 |
| Diners Black | 1:1 | 2:1 |
| Regalia Gol | 2:1 | 3:1 |
Maximum Redemption in a Month
There is a cap on maximum number of points that can be redeemed in a month:
- Infinia: 150K Reward Points
- Diners Black: 75K Reward Points
- Regalia Gold: 50K Reward Points
This limit is the overall limit on redemption for each card.
Eligible Transfer Partners
This time there are only two eligible transfer partners where you get bonus miles:
- AirAsia rewards
- Etihad Guest
Transfer Bonus Promotion
- Air Asia: 50% Bonus
- Etihad: 20% Bonus
When transferring HDFC Points to Air Asia you will get 50% Bonus Miles whereas when transferring it to Etihad you will get 20%.
This is valid for transfers between 28th December 2024 to 29th December 2024 only.
Should you transfer to Air Asia?
No! Big no.
- According to the official information on the Air Asia website, 100 Air Asia Points have a value of MYR 1. That means the INR 19 value is for 100 Air Asia points, or the INR 0.19 value for one Air Asia Point. Even after the transfer bonus of 50%, you will get INR 0.29 value.
- But your HDFC points of eligible credit cards are already at least double that. So, it makes no sense to transfer points to Air Asia. Also, note that Air Asia may have different currency values practically lower than the actual market rate, so the value can also be lower than INR 0.29 even after the bonus.
- If you transfer points to Air Asia, note that they expire in 24 months and can’t be extended.
Should you transfer to Etihad?
- This may be interesting. Earlier this year, when HDFC offered a transfer bonus promotion, Etihad was an eligible transfer partner then and is now, too. However, the transfer bonus has been reduced to half, from 40% to 20%.
- There are several ways to book Etihad Award flights. However, availability can be limited specifically for premium cabins. So, transferring points to Etihad during bonus promotions may make sense. However, at the same time, eligible card points have decent value when redeemed for flights or Hotels via smartbuy, so speculative transfers should not done.
- Transfers could be made for specific redemptions through a small top-up only from Infinia or Diners Black, if you have exhausted other better ways to get Etihad Miles. Any transfer from Regalia Gold doesn’t make sense.
- However, etihad miles expire in 18 months and can only be extended with a flight with Etihad or Partner. Meanwhile, Etihad Guest Platinum and Emerald Tier members’ miles do not expire as long as they are in that tier.
- Please note that the Etihad miles requirement during check-out shoots up by 30%, so before doing anything, do check the miles needed.
Bottomline
This is the second transfer bonus promotion from HDFC in this year. Earlier transfer promotion was exceptional and lot of us benefitted from it. However, this promotion can be ignored unless you have a specific Etihad redemption and had exhausted options to earn Etihad Miles.
