I’ve mentioned earlier in the full review of ICICI Bank Jet Sapphiro credit card that it’s the only card worthwhile to hold with ICICI bank, hence I recently upgraded my ICICI platinum card to Jet Sapphiro (Amex) credit card to make use of their limited period promo: Double JPMILES offer, which is valid until: May 31, 2017 (April 30th 2017)
Double JPMiles Offer:
With double JPmiles offer, you get 2X welcome JPmiles than usual. By default you get 10,000 welcome miles and now you can get 10,000 miles extra as activation bonus + one complimentary jet airways base fare waived ticket as usual.
So the numbers looks like this on spending Rs.1 Lakh in 90 days of card setup date.
- Joining fee: Rs. 5,000+tax
- Bonus JPMiles = 25,000 Miles (Welcome bonus: 10,000 Miles + Activation bonus: 10,000 Miles + Regular earn rate: 5,000 Miles)
- You also get: Complimentary base fare waived Domestic ticket.
Apart from the above privileges, you also get unlimited complimentary domestic airport lounge access (Amex lounge program) across India. So, the joining fee is well worth it and not to mention, it is one of the 7 Best Jet Airways credit cards in India.
Note that you get the activation bonus of 10,000 miles only after making 1L spend in first 90 days of Card setup date. It was added to my account nearly after 4 months.
The Upgrade Process:
I called up customer care and asked for upgrade to Jet Sapphiro Amex Card and know what? I called up second day to know that they have taken the upgrade for a normal Sapphiro Card. These Phone Banking Exe’s do silly mistakes when i clearly requested for Jet card. Glad i came to know in a day, so then i asked to replace it with Jet Sapphiro.
It takes 2-3 days for the new card number to reflect on account. At one point of time, i had 4 cards reflecting on the account due to wrong upgrades, anyways they cleared it smoothly over call and i got the card in approx 10 days from the date of request.
The Card: ICICI Jet Sapphirro American Express Credit Card
The Card looks like this. Isn’t it looking awesome? Yes, That’s exactly how i got fooled as well. LOL 😀 . The quality of the card is poor and the type of embossing does not meet my expectations, even the debit cards are better these days. It looks OKAY from a long shot, but wish it has some premium feel.
Important Info: Amex co-branded cards comes with a pin that you can’t change online/IVR, can be changed only by requesting a new PIN via Post.
Redemption of JPMiles:
Earning over 50k JPmiles with this card is quite easy so finding way to get maximum value per JPmiles is going to be a great hunt. Some of the best ways to redeem JPmiles are
- Last minute Domestic Ticket
- Domestic Ticket during Peak/Festive season
- Long Haul International First/Business Class tickets
That being said, i’m yet to plan where/when to redeem the JPMiles that i’m gonna accrue in coming months. I’ve been ignoring it for quite sometime as my Amex Platinum Travel card gives me good amount of Indigo vouchers which is more than enough for my domestic travel and didn’t have a need to look into Miles Game. But its time to test the waters now.
I’m upgraded to ICICI Wealth Management:
Interesting Fact in this Card upgrade process is that my ICICI Savings a/c got upgraded to “Wealth Management” from “Privilege” banking somehow. I still wonder what triggered this upgrade as i’m not actually eligible for it. Maybe opting for this card would have done the magic?! Have you experienced such account level upgrades when you opt for Premium cards with ICICI?
Meanwhile, Wealth management support comes very much handy these days. It has a toll free number to connect to the Phone Banking Officer without too much of IVR process and a single person is able to handle everything from credit cards to savings a/c queries. Loving it so far.
So, ICICI Jet Sapphiro Amex Credit Card with Double JPmiles offer is a great Jet card from my perspective. Isn’t it the easiest way to accrue 25,000 JPmiles? Where would you redeem the miles if you have them? Feel free to share your thoughts in comments below.
Dear Siddharth
I’ve upgraded my Coral card to Jet Sappphiro 3 months back. So unfortunately, I missed this double JP miles offer.
I really didn’t liked the normal gemstone collection cards (Coral, Rubyx and Sapphiro) earning useless payback points. That was one of the reasons why I had opted for upgarde, apart from earning JP miles. The upgarde process was really smooth for me, only thing was that I’ve to specify that my requirement was jet card.
I believe, for getting this upgrade they did not want any minimum period of relation with the bank. Coz i got my first credit card from ICICI (Coral VISA) during February 2016 only. And I was able to get the upgrade even before completing one year. And I could upgrade directly to Sapphiro. I initially thought they may not allow this and will ask me to settle with Rubyx.
I also got upgraded to their wealth management programme automatically after the upgrade, even though my relation with ICICI is confined to credit card. I dont even have SB account with them. Wealth management is really helpful as you are directly connected to a wealth management officer without pressing any button on your phone. It is great that we dont even have to mention our credit card number.
I think you missed two points.
1. This is a dual variant card with Visa Signature and Amex Platinum. I got both cards with combined limit. it is not easy to track the credit card limit by logging into their net banking, as it is really confusing. The only way to track the limit is the messages we get while doing transactions. Further, we cannot make combined credit card bill payment and payment needs to be done to each card seperately.
2. This card comes with memebership to priority pass. It is just membership, and does not include any free lounge visits
After reading your views on redeeming JP miles, i got some doubts. I thought JP miles can be used only for purchasing “Deal” fare tickets in economy, and for upgrading to business class from Saver, Classic and Flex fare economy tickets. Can you please explain how it can be used to purchase last minute domestic tickets?
thanks
Anoop,
Thanks for sharing your experience. Good to see the similar Wealth Management Upgrade with you as well.
1. I have heard about this, but i got only one card. Does this mean, you paid for only one card? or for both?
Yes, i see this issue, i made payment to old Visa card a/c, its reflecting, but limit is not lifted on Amex.
Might need to dig this.
2. No free visits = no use 🙂
Well, what i meant is, a costly ticket when put on Miles redemption can save a lot as Miles required are not Dynamic like Fares.
I knew ppl do it this way, but haven’t had any hands on experience yet. I rather wish to go for some Intl business class ticket as checking award chart, etc is not an easy thing to deal with.
Siddharth
We need to pay only for one card. In fact, they did not tell me that I have the option of getting one card alone. It was offered as a dual card variant and I found it convenient as Amex is not accepted in POS everywhere.
I feel I’m right on the JP miles redemption part. We need to book in advance and it is available only against deal fare tickets. I didn’t had any chance to redeem jp miles for ticket booking. Even the base fare waived ticket which I got as a freebie with this card remain unused. I’m using JP miles only for upgrade to business class.
Cool, i’ll ask the guys for Visa card if i need one.
Unsure about the deal fare tickets, we will need some Jet experts to clear this for us 🙂
Hi Anoop,
Re JPMiles you have 2 options to make the best use of the miles –
1. Use them to book last minute domestic economy tickets. During the peak times there is a huge rush and therefore the ticket prices sometimes go up by 2x/3x of the normal prices.
2. Use them to upgrade your international long haul from economy to business. You can use the upgrades on either jet or etihad flights. However please note that this is only possible if you have not booked in their lowest fare class i.e. if you have booked in their economy deal, you cannot use your jpmiles to upgrade.
Other avenues for using the jpmiles are not efficient although you may choose them.
hoep this helps
Hi Rohit
But how to book last minute tickets using JP miles? Coz when we search tickets using JP miles, it will show “not available”
Thanks
To book the JP reward tickets you need to logon to jetairways.
Today being 3-Apr. I tried searching for DEL-BOM seats for the today’s date at 14:45. I was able to get redemption tickets for 6 out of 8 flights between 16:00 – 24:00.
Business class availability on last minute is suspect as there are just 2 seats on every flight.
Hello Anoop,
Two questions for you.
1) Did you upgrade through the Customer Care or through RM?
2) Were you upgraded for free or did you have to pay charges for the new card?
Booking with JP miles is tricky. You need to plan in advance. Like I booked 4 return tickets from Del -> Leh for travel in June 2017 in August 2016. Total number of miles spent by me on 4 tickets was 40000 + 6000 Rs. Now if you check the price of these 4 tickets it’s more than 1 lac rs.
I had also used my JP miles to book business class tickets from Del -> Frankfurt , Munich -> Delhi for 1.3 lac miles + 35K rs on Lufthansa. The cost at that time for tickets was around 1.7 lac rs.
Similarly I have used miles to upgrade 2 economy class return tickets to business class on DEL -> Singapore sector.
JP Miles would give you good value if you are booking short domestic sectors in India which are expensive or booking business class or upgrading economy to business class.
Incredible Ankur!
Del->Leh seems to be an awesome route to get maximum value even in domestic sector.
Does this mean we can book for our friends as well?
Intl sector seems to be good as well.
Thank you very much for sharing your experiences 🙂
Yes you can book for friends as well.
I guess we can book for our friends, but we should be travelling with them right?
I have ICICI Coral Amex Card from last 13 months with a limit of Rs 20,000. Do you think I will be eligible for upgrade to any Jet card ? Besides giving phone call to them can I send limit enhancement form or email ?
Anoop ES and Siddharth have you got limit enhancement with upgrade if yes than how much percentage increase was given ?
20k limit is quite too low for Sapphiro
1. Upgrade – not sure
2. LE possible, just call them. i did it that way
I asked for LE separately during this upgrade and yes i got about 15% increase,
which is less, that’s also because i hardly used it in past 12 months, except few 100’s.
Customer care says I am not eligible for any lmit enhancement and not for any card upgrade . Is there any other way to upgrade it to at least ICICI Jet Rubyx ?
Rubyx too is tough i believe. Try to talk to branch guys to see if they can take any diversion.
I didn’t get any limit enhancement with the upgrade. But yesterday I got a message like they have taken my request for limit enhancement, although I have not applied for any enhancement.
Last time also when they increased my limit on Coral card, same thing happened. I think this might be their internal process.
Anoop how much limt you have in sapphiro ?
Just 1.26 lakhs, the lowest compared to any other credit card I have…
Good Info. A very basic question – With this card, do we also advance to higher JP tiers by accumulating JP miles on daily spends?
Varun,
No, this card doesn’t give Tier Points/JPmiles, which usually earned on Revenue tickets.
You might need to check JetPrivilege HDFC Bank Diners Club Credit Card which gives Tier Points, good enough for Upgrade to Silver from Blue Plus.
That is only if you are spending really high on the card.
AFAIK it’s 1 tier point per 2 lacs on the card. One needs 12 tier points to upgrade from blue plus to silver.
More efficient way is find really cheap/short flights and do a mileage run. That way 5000 Rs will earn you upto 2 tier points.
I guess its 1.5L on Jet Diners and 2L on Jet world card.
Either way, i’m not chasing Silver status,
Does it really have any real-life advantages?
Well it depends on your preference
1. Getting upgrade to silver gives you one upgrade voucher which can be used for upgrading from economy to business (except on tickets booked using deal fare). Plus 25% additional JP miles for each travel
2. For gold it is 3 upgrade vouchers and 50% additional jp miles
3. For platinum, it is 5 upgrade vouchers and 75% additional jp miles
All of the above entitles you for priority check in
Gold and platinum members are eligible for priority boarding and access to some special lounges like the GVK lounge at Mumbai domestic T2
I’m at present chasing Gold and will get it this month
Yes, am aware of the GVK lounge.
Thanks for mentioning other points, seems gold is really worth it, mainly for upgrade vouchers 🙂
JP miles and JP tier points earned, only from flying can be used for upgrading to various membership tiers. You can also use the tier points (but not JP miles) earned as the joining bonus and renewal bonus from HDFC Jet Diners card for this purpose. It may be noted that no other card gives JP tier points as joining or renewal bonus.
JP miles earned from card activation or renewal and all other transactions including card swiping can be used only for ticket booking and upgrade to business or first class.
Your SBI Signature card got featured in Business Today.
Yes Aman,
Sadly, the writer “Renu Yadav” didn’t mind to give image credits, neither she/BT responds to the tweets.
Hi Sid,
Can you please tell what all are the advantage of upgrading to ICICI Wealth Management account over privilege account.
Thanks,
Deepankar
Nothing much except direct/faster access to phone Banker.
Very tempting. But gonna pass because of extremely pathetic experience with Jet Airways last year (all 3 of my complaints are still pending). Their support is a sham & social media team helpless.
Really? i thought they deliver premium experiences!
I’ve been on Jet couple of times, but dint had any issues though.
Although not related to the discussion, it will be great if you could give us a broad idea about the issues faced.
Last year, I signed up for HDFC JP debit card. The complimentary base fare waived ticket promo code refused to work because of a technical error, the membership for tier change was not delivered and the 500 bonus points for signing up using NetBanking wasn’t credited either.
The worse part is not that the issues happened but that they continue to remain unresolved after dozens of back and forth email with dumb, non sequitur responses even after escalation via Twitter and nodal officers. #neveragain
Prashanth,
I have similar experience on HDFC JP Debit Card, for This I chase HDFC every Quarter to get the credits.
Follow the same,
Hi Siddharth,
I have dual card Visa and Amex of Jet Airways from ICICI. May I know if the credit limit is shared or individual?
I mean both cards shares the credit limit or has it individual?
Thanks
I have single. AFAIK, It should be a common limit shared across 2 cards.
It is a total credit limit shared among both the cards.
Be careful, ICICI Internet banking and credit card statements are misleading. To know the balance limit available, You need to depend on the SMS you receive while using the card.
I actually can easily see the balance available in ICICI mobile app, not sure if it is of the reason that i am holding a savings account
Month back I upgraded to Jet airways Rubyx, Welcome JP miles 5000+1 free ticket received immeditally but JP miles not updating for daily spendings but JP miles update is fine with Indusind AMEX. is this normal in ICICI cards?
I think they take about a month to credit the accrued miles on txns to JP a/c.
yeah, they take almost a month once the statement is generated to credit the miles
Siddharth and Sravan,
Thanks for your reply. Let me check my balance after few weeks.
congrats sid!
for the new card and upgrade to wealth mangmnt account.
have you or any body else here has heard of “auto upgrade” to hdfc imperia or axis bank Priority banking?
No, they don’t. Only to HDFC Classic banking on some cards.
Hi Sid,
Do we get access to the American Express lounges with the jet airways Indusind Odyssey card? If not, what other lounges can we access and how many times in a year?
Would be really helpful if you could do a detailed review of the indusind Jet Airways Odyssey card.
Regards,
Shrey
No access to Amex lounges.
Sure, coming soon 🙂
HI Sid,
While you talk about ICICI Wealth Management, is there comparative review you know about ( either yours / others) to compare these “wealth mgmt” service across BANKS like ICICI / HDFC / YES etc…
Yet to explore the rest, so i’ll leave it to other readers for comment 🙂
Hi, as platinum member get annual fee waived off, can I have more than one card card under this waiver
Regards
Dear Sid,
Is this offer applicable only for new cards or even when upgrading from existing ICICI card. I hold ICICI Coral Credit Card. I called customer care to upgrade this to Jet Amex Sapphiro Card. CC Executive said Double JP Miles offer is applicable only for new cards and not for upgrades. Is it true?
Should be available on upgrades too.
Despite not being an ICICI account holder I’ve applied for this card pretty much because I’m a Jetprivilege member. Do you have an idea of the eligibility criteria for this card? I currently hold a Regalia First which covers most of my spends, if that helps.
They asked me if I wanted the Visa or Amex variant. I’m keen on trying out Amex, and I understand the Amex variant helps accumulate more points, but at the same time I wonder if I will be able to utilize Amex fully in day-to-day spends (especially since you need to spend 1 lac in 3 months for the activation bonus). Can you give me an idea of the acceptance of Amex variants presently? (My main spends are on e-commerce sites like flipkart and amazon, travel sites, transport, dining and in-store apparel).
Online acceptance is better. Bit less in Offline, esp. non metros.
Hi, I was looking to get this card then I found out that the miles can be used to book tickets but only the base fare is covered. Still have to pay the taxes and stuff, which is generally 50% of the actual ticket cost.
Now I am not sure if as beneficial as it seemed to be. Or am I missing something?
-Harish
Taxes aren’t 50% but yes, taxes are there. You get better value when you redeem for that right ticket, as mentioned in the article.
Harishbhai,
JP Miles are not a value proposition if you are using them for booking economy tickets.
It works best in terms of value for money in the following order of decreasing attractiveness:
1. Upgrading International Economy Ticket (Jet only, not partners) to Business.
2. Upgrading Domestic Economy Ticket (more than 2 hr flight time) to Business.
3. Booking International Biz Class Ticket
4. Booking Domestic Biz Class Ticket (again ideally more than 2 hrs flt, no particular utility for Biz Class in short haul).
For Biz Class Tickets, taxes are relatively a smaller %of the base fare as comp to Economy.
It is OK to pick up Airmiles if you’re travelling on corporate/business purpose or have to travel by that particular airline anyway. But I will not recommend using your spendings for airmiles (as compared to RPs or cashbacks) unless you are a very high income guy who is willing to spend for an “experience”
Regards
Are JP miles awarded for insurance payments and fuel transactions also?
Insurance payments done on 3rd party sites are akin to any other transactions so you do get JPMiles for those. But not for fuel transactions.
The Double JP Miles offer was extended until May 31, 2017.
ICICI allows PIN change for the Amex variant too, I was able to do so today only. And they sent me both Visa and Amex variant when I upgraded.
Pls explain the PIN change part.
I called on ICICI IVR and over there I was able to set new PIN of my choice for Amex card too.
You can change the PIN for the Amex cards (like any other Visa/MC card) at any ICICI bank ATM.
I had icici platinum card for almost 14 years with credit limit of 4.15 lacs. I have upgraded my card to JET SAPPHIRO AMEX CARD. Within one week my account is also upgraded from privilege to wealth management. I checked their website and ICICI SAPPHIRO, JET SAPPHIRO & ICICI DIAMANT CARDS comes under wealth management, hence the upgrade.
Sid,
I guess it’s well past 90 days since your Sapphiro card set up / upgrade date, going by the date of the post.
Did ICICI credit the Bonus miles or did they do a ‘Jhumla’ saying that it is applicable only for New card issuances?
It took them nearly 4 months to credit the extra 10k JPMiles. ICICI is damn Slow!
Is ICICI bank increase credit limit regularly ? What is producer to get more credit limit ?
Hi
Thanks for all your inputs..I’m finding this fascinating. After years of paying big sums of money to credit card companies…I’m finally over the past w years being smart with credit cards…and your tips are just what I need now.. to make full use of them..
For the JET AMeX Saphirro card, which I have as well. The max limit of accrual points is 60000JP miles. Not more than that..and it takes 2 to 3 months of the points to be transferred from ICICI to the JP account.
With the HDfC world Jet card..the points come in in 30 days..with no limit on accrual.
But the ICICI wealth management service is fantastic.. I didn’t get upgraded…I was immediately put the wealth management team.. and its fantastic. Intact I’ve moved many of my current and savings accounts to iCiCi now..I love them…and dislike HDFC.
Regards,
Kenny
Hi SId,
Lounge facility of dragon pass and spa access is updated for this card. pls update the same. I’m trying to upgrade to this card now 🙂
Yes, i’ve requested for one. They’re not yet aware of it but said will get back in 2-3 days. Lets see.
Has there been any change in the number of miles on daily spend ? As i was told for every 100 there would be 4 miles awarded but in my first statment this month i recieved only 3 for 100 , also for the money spent on jet airways i got just 3 miles.
I alos got billed 5000 for the card when i had applied it through the website where i was gettng the card for 2500 +taxes
I have been holding ICICI Sapphiro Card for many months now and had called the customer care regarding the upgrade to Wealth Management in order to avail the zero balance savings account. However, they denied stating that no such option exists and I was unable to find anything related to the same on their website here. For those of you, who were able to get an upgrade to wealth banking, could you please tell me how you went about it?
It happened automatically.
I was enrolled to Wealth Management when my company shifted the salary account to ICICI Bank. They look for a relationship value of a minimum of Rs 25 lacs per annum for enrolling to Wealth Management.
Not sure about the eligibility for non-salaried accounts.