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Free airport lounge access helped sell more credit cards. Now its come to bite banks
Episode 90

Free airport lounge access helped sell more credit cards. Now its come to bite banks

Daybreak

July 6, 202310m 18s

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Show Notes

Credit card companies, in their rush to sell more and more cards use a whole gamut of attractive offers—the most popular one being free access to airport lounges. Thanks to this and the sharp rise in domestic air travellers, last year, airport lounges saw of football of over 8.5 million people.


What was once an exclusive service became a top-selling feature, even for non-premium cards issued by banks. Lounge access became overused and an expensive bill to foot for credit card issuers.

Earlier last month, Axis Bank, the country’s fourth-largest credit-card issuer, revised its lounge policy. But retracting the freebie altogether is not a risk banks can afford to take.

What are they doing then?

Tune in.

Recommendation:

Credit-card issuers can’t bank on their most profitable users 

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Topics

newstechnologybusinessThe Ken