Equitas PowerMiles Air India Transfers Reportedly Live at 1:1 — Is the ₹5,000 Card Finally Worth It?

The biggest weakness in the Equitas PowerMiles Credit Card may finally be disappearing.

On 23 October 2026, multiple specialist credit-card publications and PowerMiles cardholders began reporting that Air India Maharaja Club had appeared inside Equitas's Xchange Rewards portal as a 1:1 transfer partner.

The reported conversion is simple:

That matters because PowerMiles was built and marketed around transferable travel rewards, but the actual airline-transfer programme had been repeatedly delayed.

There is just one problem.

Equitas itself has still not formally confirmed this launch.

As of 24 October 2026, the bank's current PowerMiles proposition continues to describe airline and hotel transfers as a feature scheduled to become available from March 2027.

So CardRecommend would not yet describe Air India as an issuer-confirmed transfer partner.

But there is now enough real-world evidence to say something more useful:

Air India transfers appear to be operational for at least some PowerMiles cardholders — and if the reported 1:1 ratio becomes fully confirmed, it materially changes whether the ₹5,000-a-year card is worth considering.

Status verified: 24 October 2026 — reported live, not yet formally confirmed by Equitas.

The Short Answer

The reported Air India transfer makes Equitas PowerMiles much more interesting.

The card already earns:

3 Reward Points per ₹100 on eligible regular spending

and:

9 Reward Points per ₹100 on eligible international spending

under its 3X international reward structure.

If those points can genuinely be moved to Maharaja Club at 1:1, that translates into:

3 Maharaja Points per ₹100 on eligible normal spending

and:

9 Maharaja Points per ₹100 on eligible international spending

before considering the card's forex cost and exclusions. Equitas's current published product terms support the 3 RP/₹100 base rate, 3X international rewards, ₹5,000 fee, 2% standard forex markup and lounge proposition.

That is a far more interesting proposition than redeeming PowerMiles at ₹0.50 each for ordinary travel/voucher redemptions.

But I would still not apply solely because screenshots on Xchange show Air India.

Equitas needs to resolve the contradiction between what cardholders are seeing and what its own product page continues to advertise.

What Has Actually Happened?

On 23 October, Air India Maharaja Club reportedly appeared as a transfer option inside Equitas's Xchange Rewards programme.

CardInsider reported a 1:1 conversion ratio, while Live From A Lounge independently reported Air India as the first transfer partner to go live after the card's repeated rollout delays. Cardholder reports on Reddit also show the Air India option appearing in Xchange, with at least some users saying they were able to complete the transfer process.

There is some inconsistency in the user experience.

One specialist report initiated a transfer but had not seen it complete at publication time.

Other cardholders describe the process as successful or effectively immediate.

And at least one Reddit user reported that the transfer option was not visible in their Xchange account even while other users could see it.

That suggests the feature may be:

live but still rolling out, selectively visible, or not yet operational with fully standardised processing.

Until Equitas confirms the programme, I would not assume every PowerMiles holder sees exactly the same transfer screen.

The Weird Part: Equitas Still Says March 2027

This is what prevents CardRecommend from treating the Air India addition as fully verified.

Equitas's current PowerMiles product wording, checked against the issuer's own page in October, still says:

1:1 transfer to select airline and hotel programmes — feature available from March 2027.

That same current issuer-backed material lists the card's regular product economics: 3 Reward Points per ₹100, 3X international rewards, 2% forex markup, ₹5,000 annual fee and airport-lounge access.

So today we have two facts existing at the same time:

The right editorial response is not to pick one side and ignore the other.

The right response is to say:

Air India appears to have gone live early, while Equitas's published documentation has not caught up.

Why 1:1 Changes the PowerMiles Card Completely

Before this development, the PowerMiles reward structure was awkward.

The card earns a healthy number of points:

3 RP per ₹100 normally

and:

9 RP per ₹100 internationally

but the standard travel/catalogue redemption value is generally only:

₹0.50 per Reward Point

while statement cashback is worth even less at:

₹0.25 per Reward Point.

That means normal domestic spending at 3 RP/₹100 is worth only about:

₹1.50 per ₹100

or:

1.5%

if redeemed through the ₹0.50 travel/voucher option. Equitas-linked current product documentation confirms those redemption values.

At a genuine 1:1 airline-transfer ratio, the equation changes.

The value of the point is no longer fixed by Equitas.

It depends on what award you book with Maharaja Club.

That is exactly what a travel-rewards card should do.

Do Not Call It a 3% or 9% Return

This is important.

If you earn:

3 Maharaja Points per ₹100

that does not automatically mean a 3% reward rate.

Likewise:

9 Maharaja Points per ₹100

does not automatically mean 9%.

Maharaja Points do not carry a guaranteed fixed cash value.

The value depends on:

• the route
• travel date
• cabin
• award availability
• taxes and fees
• how many Maharaja Points Air India asks for that particular ticket

A cardholder extracting ₹1.50 of flight value per Maharaja Point will have a very different effective return from someone redeeming those points poorly.

CardRecommend should therefore compare points earned, not pretend Maharaja Points are cash.

How Many Maharaja Points Could You Earn?

Assuming the reported 1:1 Air India transfer remains available:

That makes the ₹4.8 lakh renewal-waiver level particularly interesting.

At that spend level, current Equitas pricing says the ₹5,000 renewal fee is waived, while the same spending at the base earn rate produces roughly 14,400 transferable points if the reported Air India route remains live. Equitas's current pricing documentation gives the ₹4.8 lakh renewal-waiver threshold.

For a genuine Air India user, that is where PowerMiles starts becoming much easier to justify.

What Does the ₹5,000 Fee Really Cost?

The standard PowerMiles joining and annual fee is:

₹5,000 + applicable GST

At 18% GST, that is:

₹5,900

But the fee structure has two important spend-based offsets.

The current PowerMiles proposition provides for the first-year fee to be reversed after ₹1.2 lakh of qualifying spending within the first 90 days, while the renewal fee can be waived after ₹4.8 lakh of qualifying annual spending. Applicable GST is not necessarily reversed along with the membership fee.

That means there are really two different PowerMiles customers.

Customer 1: High enough spender to trigger the fee benefits

For this customer, the ₹5,000 headline fee becomes much less important.

If you can naturally spend ₹1.2 lakh in the first 90 days and later ₹4.8 lakh annually, the economics are driven more by the reward programme than the fee.

Customer 2: Someone paying the full ₹5,900 every year

This customer has a much harder decision.

A single Air India transfer partner is useful.

But at roughly ₹5,900 including GST, I would expect a mature travel-rewards ecosystem rather than a card still waiting for most of its advertised partners.

How Valuable Do Your Maharaja Points Need to Be?

Instead of pretending Maharaja Points have one fixed rupee value, we can reverse the calculation.

Suppose you pay the full ₹5,900 annual cost and earn only the base 3 points per ₹100.

At ₹2 lakh annual eligible spending, you earn around:

6,000 Maharaja Points

To recover ₹5,900 of card cost from those points alone, you would need to extract roughly:

₹0.98 per Maharaja Point

At ₹3 lakh annual eligible spending, you earn:

9,000 Maharaja Points

Required value to offset ₹5,900:

about ₹0.66 per point

At ₹4 lakh annual eligible spending, you earn:

12,000 Maharaja Points

Required value:

about ₹0.49 per point

And at ₹4.8 lakh, the annual fee should already be waived under current terms if the qualifying-spend requirements are met.

That is a much better way to think about the card than assigning a made-up universal rupee value to Air India points.

International Spending Is Where PowerMiles Becomes Unusual

PowerMiles earns:

9 Reward Points per ₹100 on eligible international online and POS spending

under the current 3X structure. Recent Equitas MITC changes also clarify the accelerated international treatment across eligible online and POS transactions.

If the reported Air India transfer is genuinely 1:1:

But there is a cost.

The standard PowerMiles forex markup is:

2% + applicable GST

So ₹1 lakh equivalent of foreign spending produces roughly:

₹2,000 forex markup

plus:

₹360 GST

for an issuer-side forex cost of approximately:

₹2,360

before any exchange-rate movement or merchant DCC.

You are therefore effectively paying about ₹2,360 in forex-related issuer charges to generate 9,000 Maharaja Points from ₹1 lakh of eligible overseas spending.

Whether that is a fantastic deal or a bad one depends on how you use those Maharaja Points.

Again, there is no honest universal answer.

The Card Still Has a Solid Travel Package Beyond Miles

Even without transfers, PowerMiles has a credible premium-travel package.

Current issuer-backed material lists:

2 complimentary domestic airport lounge visits per quarter

and:

1 complimentary international lounge visit per quarter

giving theoretical annual maximums of:

8 domestic + 4 international visits

subject to the applicable lounge terms.

The card also includes travel/lifestyle benefits such as Club Marriott and EazyDiner memberships under the applicable fee-payment or spend-milestone conditions, along with concierge and travel-protection benefits.

Those are genuine benefits.

But at ₹5,000 + GST, they are no longer enough by themselves to make PowerMiles stand out.

The transfer ecosystem is what was supposed to justify the product's name.

Only Air India Appears Live — Not the Full Partner List

This is another point CardRecommend should represent very carefully.

Equitas has previously advertised a future transfer ecosystem containing multiple airline and hotel loyalty programmes.

Specialist reporting has referenced names including British Airways, United MileagePlus, Air Canada Aeroplan, Etihad Guest, IHG One Rewards and Wyndham Rewards, among others.

But as of 24 October:

do not treat those partners as live.

Current reporting says Air India Maharaja Club is the first partner appearing in Xchange, while the broader network remains pending and is still associated with the March 2027 timeline.

CardRecommend should therefore not publish a grid showing 10+ live PowerMiles transfer partners.

Today, the accurate status is:

Air India — reportedly live

Others — announced/planned, not live

There Is Still No Clear Official Transfer Fee or Cap

Another reason not to overpopulate the backend yet:

I could not find current Equitas documentation formally specifying the Air India transfer programme's:

• minimum transfer quantity
• maximum transfer quantity
• annual transfer cap
• transfer fee
• standard processing time

Specialist sources reporting the activation also note that these details have not yet been formally published by Equitas.

Do not infer:

“no cap”

just because no cap has been announced.

Unknown means unknown.

PowerMiles vs Axis Horizon for Air India

Axis Horizon is probably the cleanest mainstream comparison.

Unlike PowerMiles, Axis's Air India transfer path is already documented directly by the issuer.

Horizon currently earns:

2 EDGE Miles per ₹100 on eligible normal spending

and:

5 EDGE Miles per ₹100 on Axis Travel EDGE and qualifying direct-airline spending.

Axis's current transfer table gives Horizon a:

conversion.

That produces:

*PowerMiles figures assume the reported Air India 1:1 transfer remains available.

So the choice is not obvious.

PowerMiles can earn more Maharaja Points on ordinary spending.

Horizon earns much more on direct-airline purchases, costs ₹2,000 less before GST and has an issuer-confirmed Air India transfer programme.

If I were applying only to earn Air India miles today, Horizon remains the safer product.

PowerMiles vs HSBC TravelOne

HSBC TravelOne exposes the biggest weakness in the Equitas proposition.

TravelOne currently costs:

₹4,999 annually

— effectively the same headline price as PowerMiles.

It earns:

2 Reward Points per ₹100 on normal eligible spending

and:

4 Reward Points per ₹100 on flights, travel aggregators and foreign-currency transactions.

Most importantly, HSBC already operates a broad transfer ecosystem with 15 airline and 5 hotel programmes, including Air India Maharaja Club, and Air India transfers at 1:1. HSBC also publishes expected transfer processing times.

This creates a very clear trade-off.

PowerMiles

Higher 3 RP/₹100 base earn.

Much higher 9 RP/₹100 eligible international earn.

Reported Air India 1:1.

Only one transfer partner currently reported live.

Operational uncertainty.

HSBC TravelOne

Lower 2 RP/₹100 base earn.

4 RP/₹100 on travel and forex.

Air India 1:1 officially supported.

20 established airline/hotel partners.

Much more mature transfer infrastructure.

For someone who values flexibility, HSBC is still the easier recommendation.

For someone who wants to maximise Air India earning specifically, PowerMiles has suddenly become much more interesting.

Reddit Reaction Shows Why Cardholders Are Still Cautious

The reaction from current cardholders is a mix of relief and distrust.

Some users are excited because a feature promised for more than a year finally appears usable.

Others say they were already considering closing the card after repeated transfer delays.

There are also users reporting that Air India appears in one account but not another, and long-running threads show cardholders repeatedly waiting through earlier promised launch windows.

That history matters.

A travel-rewards ecosystem has value only when customers can rely on it.

One transfer partner going live is progress.

It does not erase the rollout history.

Should Existing PowerMiles Holders Transfer Now?

If Air India is visible inside your own Xchange account, I would not immediately transfer the entire balance.

First confirm that you actually have an Air India redemption you want.

Airline transfers are generally one-way.

Once bank points move into an airline loyalty programme, you should not assume they can be returned.

Given the lack of formal Equitas processing documentation, a cautious existing cardholder could make a small test transfer first.

If it completes correctly and you have confirmed award availability, then move the amount required for the booking.

Do not transfer simply because the feature finally exists.

Points sitting inside Maharaja Club are exposed to Air India's future programme changes rather than Equitas's.

Should You Apply for PowerMiles Now?

The answer is much closer to yes than it was a week ago.

PowerMiles makes sense if:

you specifically value Air India Maharaja Club, spend enough to make the fee waiver realistic, or have substantial eligible international spending where the 9 RP/₹100 earn rate is useful.

It is especially interesting for someone who can naturally meet the ₹4.8 lakh annual fee-waiver level.

At that point you can potentially combine:

14,400 Maharaja Points from ₹4.8 lakh of eligible base spending

with:

8 domestic lounges

and:

4 international lounges

plus the card's membership and travel benefits, without paying the following year's ₹5,000 membership fee if all waiver conditions are met.

That is now a credible premium-travel proposition.

Who Should Still Skip It?

I would still skip PowerMiles if:

you are paying the full ₹5,900 annual cost, do not use Air India, and were mainly attracted by the promised future list of 10+ airline/hotel partners.

Those other partners are still not operational today.

I would also skip it if you need complete certainty.

HSBC TravelOne and Axis Horizon already have issuer-confirmed transfer programmes.

PowerMiles remains partly a bet that Equitas will turn the Air India activation into a stable, properly documented transfer ecosystem rather than another temporary or uneven rollout.