A ₹40,000 quarterly card bill used to be enough to walk into a domestic airport lounge on a BOB Eterna card, free, as often as needed. From October, it isn't. BOBCARD has nearly doubled the spend gate behind unlimited lounge access on the Eterna, Eterna FD, Tiara, and Varunah Premium cards, on a card that already lost its free-for-life pricing at June's end.
The lounge that got harder to keep
BOB Eterna's headline travel perk was never a fixed number of visits. It was unlimited domestic lounge access, gated only by a minimum spend in the previous calendar quarter. That gate sat at ₹40,000 through most of 2026. BOBCARD's revised terms lift it to ₹75,000 a quarter, effective 1 October 2026, so cardholders keeping the benefit into Q4 need to nearly double what they were routing through the card before. Finance charges on revolving balances rise too, from 3.25% to 3.75% a month.
Before and after, in one line
Nothing about the lounge count changed. Cardholders who clear the gate still get unlimited visits, not a capped number. What moved is the price of admission: the spend required to earn access for the following quarter jumped by 87.5 percent, from ₹40,000 to ₹75,000. A cardholder comfortably clearing the old threshold with routine grocery, travel, and dining spend may find the new one asks for a genuine change in spending pattern, not a rounding error.
Who this actually hits
The cardholders who feel this picked Eterna for the lounge, then spent just enough each quarter to keep it, without treating the card as a primary spending instrument. A household routing ₹35,000 to ₹50,000 a quarter through Eterna sat comfortably under the old rule and now falls well short of ₹75,000 unless it consolidates far more spend onto this one card. Frequent flyers already spending ₹75,000-plus a quarter, largely through the travel and online categories that earn 15 points per ₹100, are largely unaffected; the card was already earning its keep for them regardless of the lounge.
The timing compounds the hit. BOB Eterna's Limited Period Lifetime Free offer expired on 30 June 2026, so the card now carries a structural ₹2,499 joining and annual fee with no waiver published. Absorbing both the fee and the higher spend gate in the same year is a different cost-benefit than the one on offer when the card was free and the gate was ₹40,000.
What to do about it
Anyone already spending ₹75,000 or more a quarter on Eterna has nothing to change; the lounge keeps working exactly as before, just under the new number. Anyone below that line has two honest paths. One is to route more spend onto Eterna, since 15 points per ₹100 on online, travel, and dining redeems at ₹0.25 apiece, an effective 3.75 percent that can justify the ₹2,499 fee at high spend. The other is to move the lounge job elsewhere. Federal Scapia keeps unlimited domestic access at ₹20,000 of spend in the preceding month, a friendlier monthly cadence than a quarterly test. Tata Neu Infinity HDFC offers 8 domestic and 4 international Priority Pass visits a year at a flat ₹1,499 fee with no spend test, and Axis Privilege Visa offers 8 domestic visits a year behind a lower ₹50,000 quarterly gate.
Is it still worth holding
For the segment already clearing ₹75,000 a quarter, BOB Eterna's case barely moved: the lounge stays unlimited, the reward rate on travel and online spend stays intact, and the fee was already structural after June. For everyone spending less, the card has quietly become a worse fit for the reason many people picked it up. We would not cancel over this alone, since the accelerated reward rate still carries value outside the lounge, but we would run the actual numbers on quarterly spend before assuming ₹75,000 is a formality.
Sources
- BOBCARD Eterna Credit Card: official terms and conditions
- BOB Eterna Devalues Lounge Access: 6 Credit Cards That Still Offer Airport Lounge Visits at Lower Spends, Trade Brains
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Frequently asked
Did BOB Eterna cut its airport lounge access in 2026?
Yes. Unlimited domestic lounge access on the BOB Eterna, Eterna FD, Tiara, and Varunah Premium cards required ₹40,000 of spend in the preceding calendar quarter. That gate rises to ₹75,000 per quarter from 1 October 2026, according to BOBCARD's revised terms.
Is BOB Eterna still worth holding after the lounge access change?
For spenders who already route ₹75,000 or more a quarter through the card, yes, since the 15 reward points per ₹100 on online, travel, and dining spends and the ₹2,499 fee still pencil out. Anyone below that spend level should compare against a lower-gated alternative such as the Tata Neu Infinity HDFC or Axis Privilege Visa before renewing.
Card devaluations, reward maths, and rate changes the day they land.
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