Unlimited free airport lounge with this new Kotak card

For travellers who want complimentary airport lounge access both for their primary and add-on cardholders and guests, Kotak Mahindra Bank has launched a new credit card called Solitaire. This card offers unlimited and free domestic and international airport lounge access for both primary and add-on cardholders.

Moreover, this credit card has zero forex mark-up charges on international transactions and it also has accelerated Air Miles benefits. This credit card also has an airmiles conversion utility using which you can convert your airmiles to airline specific miles like Etihad Airways, Air India, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways etc, but the conversion ratio itself is a bit lower than competing travel credit cards.

Also this card card allows you to exchange their reward points for air miles which can subsequently be converted to partner airline miles. In brief, these airmiles which are converted into partner airline miles can be used on the respective airlines’ website or app to book flight tickets. These partner miles tickets are known as reward tickets.

Additionally another feature which Kotak’s Solitaire offers is, reward points from your current Kotak Mahindra Bank credit card can be transferred to Solitaire credit card. So this means you can use your accumulated rewards points in a better way through Solitaire.

Read below to know the details of the unlimited domestic and international airport lounge access feature, airmiles conversion ratio and other benefits of Kotak Solitaire credit card.

What is the cost of this credit card?
Since this is a premium credit card, it is offered for free to Kotak Mahindra Bank Solitaire bank account holders. For others this card will cost Rs 25,000 per annum. There are no joining fees for any customer. Further Kotak Mahindra Bank said, you need to continue being in its Solitaire bank account program for the duration of usage of this credit card.

“Rs 25,000 will be charged if downgraded from Kotak Solitaire Program,” said Kotak Mahindra Bank on the terms and conditions document.

“This Soitaire credit card is a new card by Kotak Mahindra Bank and some of its noteworthy features are unlimited airport lounge access and multiple airmiles partners. This card is available for free to Kotak Solitaire savings or current account holders and for others it costs Rs 25,000 per annum,” says Ankur Mittal, co-founder, CardInsider.in, a credit card comparison website.

Mittal says: "As a super-premium offering from Kotak, the Solitaire Credit Card comes packed with valuable features like unlimited lounge access, zero forex markup, and decent reward point earnings. If Kotak improves the reward-to-miles conversion rate from 2:1 to 1:1, this card has the potential to be a top-tier contender in the premium travel segment."

Unlimited free domestic and international credit card
According to the terms and conditions of Kotak Solitaire credit card, here are the details:

• Unlimited Domestic and International Lounge Access (For Primary and Add-On Cardholders)
• 4 Free lounge access for guests:

2 Domestic lounge access in a year and

2 International lounge access in a year

“For guest access, both the lounges can be used at once. For International lounge, validation charges of USD 1 will be debited from your credit card and it'll get auto reversed within 7 working days. For Domestic lounge, validation charges of Rs 2 will be debited from your credit card,” said Kotak Mahindra Bank in its terms and conditions document.

Also read: Kotak Mahindra Bank customers will lose personal accident cover, purchase protection, lost baggage coverage & more on debit cards

Details of the Kotak Solitaire Airmiles reward point conversion
According to the terms and conditions document, all airmiles have an expiry date of 3 years. Here are the details of the Airmiles feature:

• Base Air Miles Benefit: 3 Air Miles for every Rs 100 spent on Other Spends (barring exclusions).
• Exclusions of base Airmiles benefit: No Air Miles will be accrued for following transactions: Utility/Telecom (MCC: 4812, 4814, 4899, 4900) Insurance (MCC: 5960, 6300) Education and Government (MCC: 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249, 8299, 9211, 9222, 9223, 9399, 9402, 9405, 9950) {except tax payments, 9311} Rent (MCC: 6513) Fuel (MCC: 5172, 5541, 5542, 5552, 5983) Wallet Loading (MCC: 6540) Gaming & Gaming digital (MCC: 5816, 7994). UPI on Credit Card Transactions <=₹2,000 will not accrue any Air Miles (only applicable for RuPay variant of the card)
• Accelerated Airmiles: 10 Air Miles (3 base + 7 accelerated) for every Rs 100 spent on Kotak Unbox across following categories:
• Flight & Flight Add-ons Booking
• Hotel & Hotel Add-ons Booking
• Cap on accelerated Airmiles: Accelerated Air Miles on Travel Spends on Kotak Unbox is capped at 1,00,000 Air Miles in a statement cycle. Once capping is reached for the accelerated air miles in a statement cycle, you can still continue to earn base air miles benefit (i.e., 3 for every Rs 100 spent) Accelerated Air Miles will be posted to your account within 5 days of transaction date.
• Transfer Ratio of Air Miles: Airline & Hotel Partners: Minimum 2000 Airmiles required for transferring into respective hotels and airline partners and there is no capping on transferring Airmiles to partner hotels and airlines.

Table showing the Airmiles conversion ratios

Source: Kotak Solitaire credit card terms and conditions

Redemption value of Air Miles on vouchers/catalogue purchase
According to the terms and conditions document, 1 Airmile equals Rs 0.5

“Minimum 500 Air Miles required for purchasing Vouchers or Catalogue. Customer will have an option to decide how much he/she wants to pay via Air Miles and Solitaire Credit Card Maximum Air Miles Redemption allowed for voucher/catalogue is 80% of purchase value,” said Kotak Mahindra Bank in its terms and conditions document.

Reward point transfer from another Kotak credit card to Solitaire
According to the terms and conditions document, here are the details:

• While upgrading your current Kotak credit card to Solitaire credit card, reward points from the current card will be transferred to Solitaire credit card.
• In case you’re upgrading from White/White Reserve to Solitaire credit card, No White Pass will be credited for milestones which are not met at the time of card upgrade. Reward redemption as statement credit/cashback is not available in Solitaire Credit card.
• If you wish to redeem your White Pass balance as statement credit, kindly do so before upgrading to Solitaire credit card. White Pass balance from your current white/white reserve card will be transferred to solitaire credit card within 15 working days.