Originally Posted by
PiperAtGatesofDawn
You can redeem the points directly by converting it to cash at 1:1 which you can use all the time for hotels, flights etc. or 1:1 to airlines miles which is more difficult to do but can give better returns. Yes you will get refunds depending on the type of ticket you’ve purchased.
You can use the points in a variety of ways... airlines miles generally gives the best returns. You can check out the Infinia website for all the millions of things you can purchase with points.
For hotel bookings through the smartbuy site or by calling their concierge which use Cleartrip as their provider, I have noticed a few issues only when trying to get 10x points or redeeming points:
1) many worldwide hotels are not available to Cleartrip. Like they have NO hotels in Seminyak, Bali.
2) many types of rates available on Cleartrip are not available to Smartbuy and cant be booked. This leaves most hotel rates available as non refundable.
Earlier, before the change to smartbuy website, HDFC used to have a few other hotel providers as well and could book good rates and almost all worldwide hotels were covered.