We’re all accumulating Reward points with an expectation that one day or other we will be able to burn it as and when we need it. Well, that’s not the case with HDFC Reward Points, as sometimes it might get bit tricky. I’ve been holding HDFC Business Regalia and Diners Black for quite sometime and here are my experiences.
My Experience with HDFC Concierge:
Diners Black Concierge: As far as HDFC Diners Black concierge is concerned, the support person over call is well trained and they’re not like usual HDFC customer support executives. I’m unsure if its because of Black card, because while calling, IVR asks whether i’m Infinia/Diners Black customer.
I’ve never got connected to someone who’s clueless about what am talking about. However, its just the opposite with usual HDFC support helpline. If you’re on call with concierge, they can access the emails sent to concierge mail ID instantly, it helps sometimes, for ex, to send info for flight bookings.
HDFC Regalia Concierge: HDFC Regalia concierge wasn’t that good as i’ve talked to them a couple of times. Though, the last time they delivered excellent service, in par with HDFC Diners Concierge i experienced earlier.
Overall, i would say that, HDFC concierge is now as good as Amex customer support. Their depth of knowledge, the friendly way of handling the queries, it all matches.
Booking Flights/Recharges With HDFC Concierge
Recharges: I use Diners & Regalia redemption sites quite often and a Lot of times i see that their website donot work. I’ll try to recharge, but it will throw up error in last page. If it happens, just call them up and they can get the recharge done for you, over call.
They have access to the back-end which is different from what we use on the portal.
HDFC Diners Concierge
Booking Flights: This is one of the primary reason for this article. HDFC generally discourages you to redeem your points on a low cost career, like Air Asia.
Surprisingly, you have access to more Airlines when you book your flight with the Concierge team rather than doing it on portal. Especially on international sector, you can typically book on any airlines as long as its listed on Cleartrip. Yes, they use Cleartrip platform to book flights. When i asked the concierge about it, they doesn’t wanna say this *secret info. 😀
My Experience: One fine day i decided to redeem the Regalia points (quite high) for Regalia Voucher to book an international flight (Air Asia) for my trip. Portal shows the airline, i entered all details including the voucher and in the very LAST page, it throws up some error.
I called up the Concierge to know that Air Asia is currently not supported and that it cannot be booked via back-end too. Then i ended up booking this ticket via other Travel site. So Quick points:
- HDFC uses Cleartrip for Flight Bookings
- Low cost carrier is not supported, like Air Asia
- Airlines not listed in the portal can be booked as well, like Malindo Air. Check Cleartrip site & confirm with Concierge.
- Always Call concierge before you plan to redeem the points.
So all these happened sometime during September 2016 month end and do you wonder what happened to the Reward Points that i redeemed? It was supposed to expire by October end and should be credited back to a/c in next statement, which should happen in NOVEMBER. (i missed the refund option they recently introduced)
But hey, Regalia points were getting devalued at that time and i would loose a lot of value. Hence i called up Cust. Care and requested to credit the points before Nov 1st, so i can use it.
Well, they promised, but never happened. Nov 1st came. Point value goes down. Surprisingly, it was not credited even after stmt generation. I kept escalating but no proper response. I explained the fact that i was not able to use the points because their portal had the redemption issues with Air Asia.
And here comes the Points:
This went on and on and after one fine day i got the points back after almost 2 MONTHS. But good news is, i got extra points to match the voucher value i had before Nov 1st. Basically, the Regalia points devaluation doesn’t affect MOST of my points and as soon as i received them, i consumed all of them back to back 😀
That being said, i was bit lucky, though, its not worth my time. I had to follow up them more than 20 times over call, email, etc. Hell.
So that was my story in Redeeming HDFC Reward Points. What about yours? Feel free to share your experiences in comments below.
Never had any redemption problems with Diners Rewardz card that had some time back. Usually, I check the rates of airlines on Cleartrip/Goibibo before I book through Voucher. Usually the cost is 30-70 higher but that is compensated by the fact that Diners/Regalia portals don’t charge any convenience fees. I generate the voucher immediately, withing 1-2 mins the email arrives and I book instantly. Never got any failed message. I’ll keep in mind what you wrote regarding the concierge when I’ll want to book some airlines available on Cleartrip but not on their portal.
Good to know that you’re enjoying a smooth ride 🙂
Hi Sid,
will you notice rewards points of diners premium redeem@ Rs.0.50 towards flight &hotel booking while @Rs.0.35 when purchase an e-vouchers of Mygftr (pantaloon,bata, myntra etc.) excluding redemption charges. I currently buy an e-vouchers of Rs. 2000 by 5710 RP. is it same for all the users or different for different users.
Also what are rates for same if someone having DCB card.
I too recently reedemed my raglia points agaInst flight booking without any problem. Earlier i used my all miles points for recharges without any problem.
Sounds good!
Thanks for another nice article Siddharth. What is your experience on their airline ticket pricing? Is it at-par typical travel websites or higher?
Clear trip…ha ha nice info…secret is out.
Yes, the rates are all same across multiple travel sites. Maybe Rs.100 up or down.
You have convenience fees here though.
How about converting the rewards to jpmiles or air miles, and not cash voucher…article on this wld be appreciated much…
Sure thing, will cover it.
hi sidharth,
do u have any article on converting the hdfc points to JPMiles??
Nope!
Hdfc regalia 167 rewards equal 100 JP miles …. I was said by the HDFC banker that best way to get value is to turn into air miles … Any detail article on this topic wld be appreciated
Not really. You need to pay taxes apart from Airmiles and the award seats are limited. Generally its good to redeem for first class tickets on a long haul flight.
I redeemed my 27000 Regalia points against Indigo domestic flights without much hassles. But, I noticed that the Indigo flights were not always listed. Randomly, in some search, it was showing up and a subsequent search with same criteria, it didn’t and an Air India was listed as cheapest.
This is interesting, maybe concierge service can be availed in this case.
i also observed same behaviour….indigo doesnt show up in first search and shows up in subsequent searches.
your observation about HDFC using cleartrip is true. Coz if we try to modify our booking (originally made through regalia) at the website of the respective airline (like seat allocation or adding meals), we can see the address of cleartrip in the address filed.
Thanks for sharing your experience 🙂
can we book hotels with accumulated points ? on hdfc regalia or by any other means ?
Yes, you can 🙂
It looks like you have 2 credit card from HDFC, I already own I credit card from HDFC ..how do i apply for 2nd in my name itself
If the limit is high, you can request for dual card with limits split across the two.
How much limits want old card to apply second card
They have devalued the card big time. One regalia point equals just 0.60 jpmiles, that’s nonsense.
Both my citi credit cards have a very nice conversion factor of 0.75.
Btw, I spent 1.5 lac withim a week of receiving this card
Does international hotel booking work well? Are the rates comparable?
Never mind. Hotel redemption’s are costly and not worth it as you can get better rates elsewhere.
Hi,
Could you please let me know if there is any redemption fee for redeeming diners reward points in diners portal. I would like to use my diners rewardz card RP to pay my postpaid bill and DTH recharges. Whenever I call HDFC support guys, they give different answers everytime.
Rs.75+tax redemption fee is there
Actually redeeming points of regalia is made by them tricky. To give a try on redemption, I recharged my wife’s mobile with Rs 220 with around 367points. For that I had to generate vouchers and recharge successfully done. But they charged my card Rs. 75 for voucher generation which I was not aware.
I am holding AMEX membership reward card also and in my opinion it is the only card which allow us to redeem points in cash while purchase of any item. Though point redemption amt is Rs. 0.25 compare to Regalia Rs. 0.6 but I consider it very useful
I never faced the issue while redemption. Infact I find online vocher generation better and quite quick.
I have lots of points accumulated and am planning to book flight. Is calling coinserge and booking also gives same points value?
(I hold hdfc diner black)
Yes, its all same.
HDFC charges for Rs 75/- for redemption of points on their portals – HDFC Diners Club and HDFC Regalia. This is bit surprising as my understanding was that only when we want to redeem for vouchers etc on HDFC that time this is required. Herein we are using their website to topup, recharge, book flight etc for which they do get revenue too from merchants.
Postpaid bill payment is not there on regalia website. HDFC think that regalia holders are only using prepaid mobiles. It’s a joke that no option of paying postpay bills.
I have paid my postpaid mobile bills on regalia site.
And how?
Sorry my mistake, i made postpaid payment when i had all miles card last year.
i have a rewards diners card, can i use the generated e voucher for multiple transactions in paying bills?
Is it better to convert my points accrued through Diners Premium to JP Miles or to book flights directly from Diners portal using points? Also I don’t see a way to convert to JP Miles. How do we go about that?
Thanks
@Pranav i am having the same query and can’t find the satisfactory answer from anywhere. if you got, can you please share the sme.
Totally depends on your personal preference. If you’re miles guy, you can go with JPmiles, redeeming points for revenue flight tickets is best for many.
@ab: Direct use of points is best when the ticket value is low-just like cash. Miles are best when ticket value is high (especially last minute bookings) as no: of miles required for a segment never change unlike fares. Also miles will let you upgrade to Business or First class, which will cost you a bomb if you buy the ticket using points.
Hi sid,
Gone through various pages regarding Diners Points Redemption but didn’t find a way to redeem for Cash credit in card account. Anyone have any idea of redeeming points for cash.
Its not possible!
Does “Book Now” option on hdfcbankdinersclub.in show inflated prices ?
I tried searching for flights from Nagpur to Singapore for 3 adults in winter 2018. The same day prices on Smartbuy Compare & travel show Rs. 49308 for Return flights, but the same on Diners website Book now shows as Rs. 74262 ! This inflated price is for Jet airways as well as Air India. How valuable are 10X rewards in such a scenario ?
I have 20000 pts…Diners Black. Instead of redeeming rewards off the catalogue can I do a e-voucher Re1=I Reward for say shoppers stop and get more bang for the buck?
now most of the option is not available
update best way to redeem DCB point
How do I pay post paid/DTH bills using DCB rewards points?
This is a very interesting article, i loved the climax where you received extra points to match the cost of voucher. I guess we know now what one must do when devaluation hits. 😀
Nope, definitely not worth chasing 2 months.
Oh yeah, it costs mental peace.
HDFC diners card charged renewal fee of 2500 , I want to cancel this card but they are still not waive off this charges even after cancelling telling that it is charges for previous year. Is it right guys??
Indigo often disappears from search results, the key is to keep refreshing 2-3 times and you will get Indigo back in search results. Also, sometimes Air India pricing differs a bit from other websites.
Hi Siddharth,
I have HDFC Regalia card and routing all my spends to this card for getting maximum RP value. However I noticed that they’re giving the 10x RP on smartbuy website only on EMI spends. If they’re gonna charge a bomb as the EMI interest and giving only a fraction in return, what’s the point!?
Which card would be a suitable replacement for this? Or would you suggest me to carry on with this itself?
Thanks in advance
U misread it. 10x RP on all spends through or on smartbuy website EXCEPT on EMI spends
Maximum Reward points that could be earned on Regalia variant Credit card is 5000 per calendar month
Pressed submit button before finishing….
…….10x RP on all spends through or on smartbuy website EXCEPT on EMI spends for cards other than Diners/Regalia/Infinia ~ effectively means all Regalia variants (in your case) can earn RPs on EMI as well as non-EMI transactions upto 5000 RPs per calendar month.
I am having similar and pathetic experience with reward points system. Tried booking two different flights and two different flight booking not completed. No customer care avaialble on phone or mail. No response from clear trip as well. Points deducted….amount deducted and didnt received my flight ticket and meanwhile websites increase price of tickets in the market. so complete looser of using diners card.