Mumbai, July 15 -- Banks are quietly dialling back complimentary airport lounge access on credit cards, as soaring usage by low-spending customers squeezes margins and undercuts profitability.

Many banks and card providers have introduced new rules, such as minimum spends to activate complimentary lounge access and reducing the number of free lounge visits in a given timeframe.

While most high-end credit cards offer unlimited lounge access, they are out of reach for many due to their income requirement, fees, and spending threshold. Lifetime-free cards, which are more suitable for most moderate spenders, have preconditions, such as minimum spending in a given month, and other conditions as prerequisites to activate the lounge access.

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