Visa Power Travel returns for Indian cardholders: up to 20% back on overseas spends until 31 January 2027

Visa has restarted its Power Travel campaign for India-issued cards, and this wave is wider than the summer one. It runs from 1 October 2026 to 31 January 2027 and, according to Live From A Lounge, covers spends outside India in any country (CardInsider confirms the same dates). The summer version, which ended on 30 September, was limited to seven highlighted countries (France, Singapore, Thailand, the UAE, the UK, the USA and Vietnam), per Axis Bank's own offer page.

This is a network promotion, not an issuer one. It pays on top of whatever your card already earns, and it applies whichever bank issued your Visa card.

The three layers

Visa's own campaign page lists the structure:

Stack all three on the first ₹1 lakh and the headline "up to 20%" (Live From A Lounge puts the theoretical ceiling at 20.5%) is reachable. In practice, most people will collect the base rate plus whatever share of their spend they can tap through a phone wallet.

Rewards come back as Air India or Amazon Pay e-gift cards, redeemable in ₹1,000 blocks. Both outlets agree the total is capped at ₹50,000 per card for the campaign.

The fine print that decides what you actually get

• You must register first. Enrolment is on visapowertravel.com with your card details and an OTP. Spend before registering does not count.
• iPhone users miss the biggest layer. The 10% tap reward is Google Pay and Samsung Pay only. Apple Pay is not included, so it does not help even Axis cardholders who have just added their cards to Apple Wallet.
• ATM withdrawals earn the base rate but do not count toward the milestone, per Live From A Lounge. Only in-person purchases move you toward the 20 transactions and ₹1 lakh.
• Online spends and pre-booked hotels are excluded from the base 0.5%, per CardInsider. This is an in-person, at-the-destination campaign.
• Rewards can take up to 15 days after settlement to appear (CardInsider).
• CardInsider also describes a separate one-time ₹12,000 bonus on ₹1.2 lakh or more of eligible overseas education spends (1 July 2026 to 31 January 2027). Live From A Lounge does not mention it, so check the campaign terms before you count on it.

Does it change which card to carry abroad?

Slightly, and the order matters. The campaign does nothing about your card's own forex markup, which is charged on every foreign transaction whether or not you register. A card with a high markup still loses most of the 0.5% base reward to that charge. Pick the card on its standing markup and reward rate first, then make sure it is a Visa and registered.

Where it does change behaviour is the tap layer. If you are on Android, tapping a registered Visa card through Google Pay at overseas terminals that accept contactless turns a forex-negative transaction into a clearly positive one, up to the ₹50,000 cap.

Two warnings that apply abroad regardless: decline dynamic currency conversion when a terminal offers to bill you in rupees, and do not withdraw cash on a credit card to chase 0.5%, because cash advance fees and interest from day one dwarf it.

What to do

If you have a trip abroad before February, register your Visa card now, set it up in Google Pay or Samsung Pay if you can, and use it for in-person spends. Then judge the card itself on its permanent cost: rank cards by their standing forex markup and run your own travel spend through the matcher to see what should be in your wallet for the trip.