Diners Club Black - The Very Best



I have been using Diners Club Black for a little short than a year and have accrued in excess of 1,50,000 points. And these points are valued 1:1 while redeeming them for flights and hotels. Above all I didn't spend a fortune to earn these points. So how did I earned these points, and what are the benefits of having this card, lets find out.

Product Highlights
  • 5 Reward Points for every INR 150 retail spend, wallet and fuel spends do not earn rewards.
  • Unlimited Airport lounge access in India and worldwide
  • 10X Rewards Program
It also offers additional benefits like:
  • Concierge
  • 6 Complimentary Golf games (Green fee waiver) per quarter
  • Air AccidentCover of INR 2 Crore.
  • Emergency Medical Expenses Cover of up to INR 50 Lakh
  • Credit Liability Cover of up to INR 9 Lakh
  • Travel Insurance Cover of up to INR 55,000 on baggage delay
But what makes it a cash cow for points is 10X Rewards Points program, that computes into a whooping rewards rate of 33.33%. I personally feel it is the most extensive program to be ever offered by an Indian issuer.
There are currently two categories in which you earn 10X Rewards they are:
  1. Smartbuy - This is nothing but spends done on HDFC's portal for Flight and Hotel booking and spends on brands like Flipkart and Amazon. HDFC Smartbuy portal is anyways the best place to book flight tickets as they charge very low convenience fees. Their final cost are always the lowest. Things to keep in mind is that you can only earn up to 25,000 rewards in a cycle/statement month on these spends. That means you earn 10X rewards on spends up to INR 75,000 in a cycle.
  2. Select Partner Brands - HDFC keeps on average tie-up with 8 brands where they offer 10X rewards, this list keeps on updating. But in recent past I have not seen much changes, they just increase the validity of the program with small change in partner brands. There is a capping of 25,000 rewards in this category too, so 10X on spends up to INR 75,000 per cycle. Current partner brands are:
    • Uber
    • Zomato
    • Tata CLiQ
    • bookmyshow
    • big basket
    • SOTC
    • Treebo
    • redBus
Earlier there was 10X Rewards for International Spends too, which was later on changed to POS only transactions. But it is no longer available.


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