HDFC Bank recently announced changes to three of its mass market premium credit cards: BizPower, Diners Club Privilege, and most importantly Regalia Gold due to its sheer volume of active credit cards in circulation.
These changes take effect between May and July 2026. Here’s everything you need to know:
Table of Contents
Changes to Lounge Access
Regalia Gold cardholders will get 3 domestic lounge visits per quarter (instead of 12/Yr), only if you spend at least ₹60,000 in the previous quarter. The good news is that the 6 international lounge visits per year (via Priority Pass) remain unchanged with no spend requirement.
BizPower cardholders will get 2 domestic lounge visits per quarter (instead of 16/Yr). There’s no minimum spend needed, but the total number of visits is halved and restricted per quarter.
Diners Club Privilege cardholders will get 3 lounge visits per quarter (2 domestic + 1 international), but again, only if they spend ₹60,000 or more in the previous quarter. The first qualifying quarter for spend is April–June 2026.
It’s certainly good in a way that HDFC Bank is doing its bit to reduce the stress on busy lounges.
Alternative Cards
As lounge access benefit is primarily hit, here are some of the alternatives if you’re a frequent traveller and need much more access per year:
At this point, the HDFC Marriott Bonvoy Card (12 access/Yr) is one of the best option within HDFC in this segment, for those who want seamless lounge access.
Beyond HDFC, there are indeed very many cards to choose from, with Scapia Credit Card being one of the best that offers Unlimited Lounge Access (spend criteria: 20,000 INR/m), comes as a Lifetime Free Card.
Boarding Edge on Regalia Gold
This is the new addition. After any flight, Regalia Gold holders can upload their boarding pass and choose any two of these free benefits (per quarter) in the “arrival” city:
- a complimentary spa session (at partner wellness centres),
- a free Uber airport transfer (worth ₹750),
- a complimentary buffet at participating hotels/restaurants, or
- a free room upgrade at ITC Hotels properties for one night.
Hotel partners include ITC’s Luxury Collection, Welcomhotel, Storii, Mementoes, and Fortune brands. These perks are in addition to lounge access, not a replacement.
Changes to Reward Rate
Starting May 15, 2026, BizPower and Regalia Gold cardholders will see a change in how reward points are earned.
The current rate of 4 points per ₹150 spent is being revised to 5 points per ₹200 spent. That drops the reward rate from 1.33% to 1.25% which is fine.
Additionally, BizPower is introducing a cap on tax-related transactions: you’ll only earn reward points on the first 2 Income Tax and first 2 GST transactions per billing cycle. Anything beyond that earns nothing. This is aimed at preventing misuse by people who were running large tax payments through the card primarily to rack up points.
What’s happening?
One of the key reasons for the original HDFC Regalia to get devalued was that the bank could no longer handle the massive lounge access usage on the card.
Solution? Launch Regalia “Gold” and let people move over if they wanted better benefits.
Problem? A lot of them moved, many as free upgrades.
So the need to devalue cropped up again, but this time, the bank decided to devalue the card along with other cards in the segment without launching an alternate product.
And at the same time, it tightened access to the Infinia, leaving no way out for most cardholders looking for a Visa/Mastercard alternative within HDFC.
My Thoughts
On Lounge Access: Of all the changes, what I dislike most is the quarterly spend requirement and limit for lounge access. While it makes sense from the bank’s perspective, it takes away the mental peace of simply walking into a lounge without a second thought.
Instead, it would have been far better if the bank offered an alternate yearly spend requirement, say, spend ₹4 lakh per year and get 8 lounge visits for the year.
That would save people from doing unnecessary calculations every quarter, which is the least you’d expect in a premium segment card.
On Boarding Edge: While it’s good to have new benefits, I think they could have done it better. For example, the Uber benefit is useful, but everything else feels quite non-essential.
Alternatively, adding a Scapia like airport restaurant or shopping benefit would have been 10X more valuable to cardholders.
Overall: I feel this is going to hit the “Regalia” brand, a brand they built over a decade. Before it gets worse, it would be nice if they do something about it, so those who need lounge access on Visa/Mastercard don’t end up moving elsewhere.
Bottomline
HDFC Regalia Gold, among other cards, has essentially lost its USP of seamless domestic lounge access benefit. At the same time, they’ve added few benefits to make you feel better.
That said, it’s still a solid card, you can transfer points to airline and hotel miles for excellent return on spend, especially with partners like Accor, which has become even more relevant after the recent removal of Accor from Axis.
If you already use these cards regularly, you’ll not feel the pain. But if you’ve been holding the card mostly for free lounge visits without much spends, it’s time to rethink your strategy.
What do you think about the recent changes to HDFC Regalia Gold and other cards? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Its is a paid card. If they can’t manage even the domestic lounge access, I am done with it.
I’m trying to get Regalia Gold for Boarding Edge. I first tried email, but was redirected to other channels. Then tried online, but as an existing cardholder that route seems to hit a dead end.
Any other ideas that might work? I currently hold DCB and MB with HDFC Bank.
This makes hdfc Millenia a premium card compared to regalia gold.
For mybiz card , who would pay extra taxes just for racking up points ?
Unless there’s a usage for someone else’s tax which in any case is not legal how would one earn extra points ?
Uber Airport Transfer is the most useful one among the given options particularly if you are staying in Bangalore
Does Boarding Edge only work with tickets booked using Regalia Gold or via Smart Buy??? Your post mentions any boarding pass…
Any would do, at the moment.
Regalia Gold is still fine, but they have rendered the DCP card absolutely useless. It is now probably the least rewarding card in the HDFC portfolio with 0.5% return, horrible acceptance and on top of that a huge spend requirement for lounges. Does HDFC really think anyone would spend 20K a month for three months for one lounge access a month?
They could’ve just saved the cardholders the misery and simply cancelled the cards of the customers. Nobody would’ve missed the card. Nobody uses it.
DC Privilege is quite old now, so it’s quite understandable. Perhaps they want most to move to the paid Marriott card, which anyway won’t sustain for long, as very few holding the card actually do any spends on it.