Airport lounge access has long been one of the most valued perks of holding a premium credit card in India. But over the past year, banks have been steadily pulling back on how easily cardholders can use this benefit.
The shift is now more visible than ever, with multiple lenders introducing spend-based conditions that require cardholders to cross a quarterly expenditure threshold before they can walk into a lounge.
Starting July 1, 2026, HDFC Bank Regalia Gold credit card users must meet a new quarterly spending threshold to retain complimentary domestic airport lounge access. To access lounges between July and September, a customer must spend Rs 60,000 between April and June 2026. Lounge eligibility will reset every quarter based on spending in the immediately preceding quarter.
Regalia Gold cardholders will get three domestic lounge visits per quarter, only if they spend at least Rs 60,000 in the previous quarter. The six international lounge visits per year via Priority Pass remain unchanged with no spend requirement.
HDFC Bank is not alone. Several card issuers, including ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India (SBI), have already introduced similar spending conditions on select cards.
SBI Card introduced a revised domestic lounge access programme from January 2026 that separates participating lounges into Set A and Set B, depending on the type of SBI credit card held.
Axis Bank removed lounge access from its Airtel co-branded card from April 2026, with other cards shifting to spend-based models. Most eligible Axis Bank credit card users need to have at least Rs 50,000 worth of transactions in the last three calendar months to access domestic lounges for free.
The changes have gone further for debit card users. According to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) revised guidelines, RuPay Platinum debit cardholders no longer receive complimentary access to airport lounges, both domestic and international, and railway lounges starting April 1, 2026.
06/06/2026 Priyanka Debnath/Outlook Money
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