Air India Maharaja Club Points Fest 2026: where the 50% bonus actually lands
Air India's Maharaja Club Points Fest runs through May 2026, with tiered bonuses up to 50% on partner-bank reward point transfers.
Published 15 May 2026
Most airline transfer promotions are too thin to matter. Air India's Maharaja Club Points Fest, running through May 2026, is not one of them. The headline is a tiered bonus that reaches 50 percent on top of whatever reward balance gets converted, capped at two lakh bonus points per partner, with the bonus paid in addition to the points that would have transferred at the regular ratio.
Two things about this offer surprise members on closer reading. First, the mechanic is graded so a single large transfer beats several smaller ones, which inverts the usual instinct to chunk conversions across the month. Second, the bank-by-bank exclusions are sharper than the landing page admits at first glance, and the cards that get cut out are the ones holding the largest accrued balances in the Indian market today.
What follows is a walk through what the bonus actually pays, which cards in the catalogue are positioned to use it, who is left out, and whether the offer is worth registering for at all.
What the bonus actually pays
A graded structure does most of the work. Each band stacks on top of the points that arrive at the standard transfer ratio.
- 1 to 25,000 points converted: 10 percent bonus
- 25,001 to 50,000 points: 20 percent bonus
- 50,001 to 75,000 points: 30 percent bonus
- 75,001 to 100,000 points: 40 percent bonus
- Above 100,000 points: 50 percent bonus
Only the first eligible conversion with each partner counts toward the bonus. Two smaller transfers from the same bank do not chain into a higher tier. The single-shot rule is the part most members miss; the practical advice is to consolidate any planned transfer into one large conversion per partner during May to hit the top band.
The maximum bonus is two lakh bonus Maharaja Points per partner. A member transferring across, say, HDFC, SBI, and ICICI in the same month can therefore stack three separate 50 percent bonuses, each capped independently. Air India credits the bonus points within 60 days after the offer window closes, which puts the bonus arrival window in July 2026 for transfers made late in May.
One step is non-negotiable: members must register on the Maharaja Club Points Fest landing page before the qualifying transfer. Transfers made before registration do not earn the bonus, retroactive correction is not on offer, and Air India's customer service has historically refused to amend registration timing on similar campaigns.
Which cards are positioned to use this
The pickmycard.in catalogue includes three cards whose underlying reward currency converts to Maharaja Points and which sit at fee bands where the transfer math earns its keep this month.
The HDFC Diners Club Black, at a ₹10,000 joining fee and ₹10,000 annual fee, accumulates HDFC reward points that route to Air India through the SmartBuy transfer programme. A holder with a balance of 100,000 reward points sitting unused is exactly the user for whom the 50 percent bonus tier is built. Higher earn rates on SmartBuy redemptions mean balances stack up faster than on most HDFC products.
A tier down sits the HDFC Regalia, at a ₹2,500 joining fee and ₹2,500 annual fee, on the same SmartBuy transfer rails as the Diners Black. Earn rate is lower and the bonus categories thinner, but a holder with two or three years of accumulated Regalia points who has not converted recently is well positioned to clear the top tier with a single transfer.
Outside HDFC, the SBI Card PRIME, at a ₹2,999 joining fee and ₹2,999 annual fee, carries SBI reward points that transfer directly into the Maharaja Club balance. SBI Prime holders who travel internationally once a year are the natural audience here; the cap of two lakh bonus points is generous enough to absorb most realistic balances even on a card that earns modestly.
Three other paths deserve a mention even though their specific issuing cards sit outside the current catalogue. SBI's Air India SBI co-branded credit card transfers directly into Maharaja Points by design and is a clean fit for the offer. ICICI Bank is on the partner list, with transfer paths active on its premium card line. Kotak's Solitaire programme also participates. Members holding any of these should treat May as the month to act on accumulated balances rather than letting points sit.
Who is shut out, and why it matters
Axis Bank cardholders are excluded from the Convert and Earn portion of this campaign. Any reward points transferred from any Axis Bank credit card during May 2026 will land at the regular Maharaja Club ratio with no bonus. HSBC India is excluded on the same terms. Club Vistara co-branded cards from Axis, SBI, IDFC, and IndusInd are also outside the offer.
The Axis exclusion is the one that matters most in the Indian market. Holders of Axis Magnus, Axis Atlas, Axis Horizon, and Axis Reserve, all of which historically used Air India as a transfer destination, get nothing extra for converting during the offer window. The standard transfer ratios remain available; the bonus does not.
For Axis cardholders specifically, the practical advice is to defer Air India transfers until a future campaign that does cover the bank, and to use the May 2026 window to transfer to other Axis EDGE Miles partners instead. KrisFlyer and Etihad Guest remain available at the established 1:1 ratio, and the recently added British Airways and Finnair Plus partners at 2:1 give holders an alternative redemption path for the same balance.
Whether the offer is worth registering for
The Points Fest is the strongest Air India transfer promotion of the calendar year so far. A 50 percent top tier sits well ahead of the routine 10 to 25 percent promotional windows that Maharaja Club has run in earlier months, and the two-lakh cap per partner is wide enough to absorb most realistic balances.
What to do depends on which bank a member already holds points with. HDFC, SBI, ICICI, and Kotak holders with idle balances of 50,000 reward points or more should register on the Air India site, consolidate into a single large transfer per bank to clear the top bonus tier, and lock the conversion in well before the 31 May cutoff. Axis and HSBC holders should sit this one out for Air India and convert into other partners if a redemption is pending.
The points credit timeline runs to roughly 60 days after the offer ends, so any planned redemption in July or August 2026 needs to be booked on the assumption that the bonus is in the wallet by then but not before. Members redeeming sooner should transfer earlier in the month and not rely on the bonus arriving in time.
Sources
Mumbai-based credit-card analyst writing PickMyCard editorials.