What changed
The MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Credit Card's product page now carries the spend gate: "you must spend ₹75,000 or more ... in a calendar quarter", which "entitles you to avail the 2 lounge access benefit in the following calendar quarter". Business Standard dates the change to 1 July 2026; ICICI prints no date on the page.
The ₹75,000 rule itself is not new. ICICI: "Starting 01 January 2025, you can enjoy complimentary lounge access at domestic airports by spending ₹75,000 on certain ICICI Bank Credit Cards." It replaced a ₹35,000 bar effective 15 November 2024. What is new is narrower: MakeMyTrip was exempt and is now inside the gate.
A live contradiction, read 13 August 2026: ICICI's "upcoming changes" page still lists MakeMyTrip as exempt, while the product and lounge pages apply the ₹75,000 requirement. The product page is the newer statement.
Business Standard also reports a Minimum Amount Due revision from March 2026 statements, depending on the card variant: at least 5% of retail spends, cash advances and finance charges, on top of GST, EMI amounts, fees, overlimit and unpaid past minimums. It appears nowhere on icici.bank.in — single-sourced.
Who is affected
ICICI's lounge page shows nine cards under "Spend Based Lounge Access (Quarterly Spend of ₹75,000)": Sapphiro, Rubyx, Coral, HPCL Super Saver, Expressions, MakeMyTrip, Emirates Sapphiro, Adani One Signature and Adani One Platinum. The visit count varies by card: MakeMyTrip 2 a quarter, Adani One Signature 4, Adani One Platinum 2.
That carousel is not the full list, and reading it as one under-counts the change. ICICI's own notice defines the gate by exclusion instead: the criterion "will be applicable for all eligible ICICI Bank Credit Cards except" Diamant, Emeralde Private Metal, Emeralde Private, Emeralde, Emirates Emeralde, MakeMyTrip and Times Black. Two further cards we cover are absent from that exception list and therefore inside the gate: HPCL Coral and the Manchester United ICICI Bank Credit Card, the Platinum variant we hold. Neither is a new devaluation — both have carried the ₹75,000 condition since January 2025; they were simply missing from this item.
Not gated: Diamant, Emeralde Private Metal, Emeralde Private, Emeralde, Emirates Emeralde and Times Black. Emeralde Private Metal and Times Black give unlimited access to primary and add-on holders; Emeralde and Emirates Emeralde to the primary holder only. MakeMyTrip's place on that exception list is the stale line noted above — its product page now says otherwise.
What to do
Do the division. ₹75,000 a quarter is ₹25,000 a month, and on MakeMyTrip it buys 2 domestic visits next quarter — ₹37,500 of qualifying spend per lounge visit. Adani One Signature's 4 visits work out at ₹18,750 each.
"Qualifying" is where this bites. ICICI excludes rent, government and education payments, credit balance refunds, joining, annual and late payment fees, interest, principal, DCC fee, reward redemption handling fee, reversals, cancellations and EMI transactions. If ₹10,000 of your ₹25,000 a month is rent or an EMI, you are at ₹45,000 a quarter, not ₹75,000, and you get nothing. ICICI now applies the same previous-quarter mechanic to BookMyShow benefits at ₹25,000, from 1 April 2026.
If that much genuine retail spend is out of reach, ask whether the fee is buying a benefit you can no longer reach: our travel, forex and lounges guide values a lounge visit per use.
Sources
- ICICI Bank — Domestic airport lounge access, eligibility by card (issuer page, read 13 August 2026)
- ICICI Bank — Upcoming changes to credit card features and charges (issuer notice, read 13 August 2026)
- ICICI Bank — MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Credit Card (product page, read 13 August 2026)
- ICICI Bank — Adani One ICICI Bank Signature Credit Card (product page, read 13 August 2026)
- ICICI Bank — Adani One ICICI Bank Platinum Credit Card (product page, read 13 August 2026)
- Business Standard — ICICI Bank credit card changes: minimum due, lounge access explained (19 February 2026)
- Business Standard — ICICI Bank credit card rules change from Nov 15 on lounge access, spends (14 October 2024)