This has seriously been a long time coming... maybe its a sign of progress with *a? who knows? No where do they define what a status mile is but based on my experience I would guess its base miles + cabin bonus.
snod08
Jan 19, 12, 2:34 pm
So - finally - if you go on airindia.com and go to the fine print it states how they calculate status:
THEY STATE
"Currently a member who accrues 75000 status miles in a consecutive span of 365 days is elevated to The Maharajah Club."
This has seriously been a long time coming... maybe its a sign of progress with *a? who knows? No where do they define what a status mile is but based on my experience I would guess its base miles + cabin bonus.
wow....this is like breaking news.
Keyser
Jan 20, 12, 4:15 am
finally, some clarity....
manuc
Jan 20, 12, 1:03 pm
anyone who is related to a minister or his pet dog is elevated to Maharaja Club.....
(sorry hope i dont offend anyone but couldnt resist)
Keyser
Jan 20, 12, 2:37 pm
anyone who is related to a minister or his pet dog is elevated to Maharaja Club.....
(sorry hope i dont offend anyone but couldnt resist)
you don't have to be related....just knowing the minister or his dog is good enough....:p
Yaatri
Jan 20, 12, 3:58 pm
So - finally - if you go on airindia.com and go to the fine print it states how they calculate status:
..................
This has seriously been a long time coming... maybe its a sign of progress with *a? who knows? No where do they define what a status mile is but based on my experience I would guess its base miles + cabin bonus.
With this, AI expected to get into an alliance? I had no iodea thgeir lyaltry programme was so ill defined. Since I wasn't going to status miles on my FF programme, I never bothered to ask about their loyalty programme.
Status miles are always some percentage of base miles. For some economy fares on some airlines the percentage is less than 100%, and for premium cabins, status miles will be more than 100% of base miles. If you have not traveled on discounted or deeply discounted economy fares, the definition of status miles would still be uncertain.
This means AI still has a long road ahead of it to be accepted into the * clan. I doubt any alliance would accept an airline which does not have a well defined loyalty programme.
On the other hand, it might be good for other members of the alliance, as this would be one more reason to deter people from flying AI.
PVDtoDEL
Jan 20, 12, 5:03 pm
Now if only AI could tell us what these status levels get as benifits, we'd be getting somewhere...
haricharan
Jan 20, 12, 7:11 pm
Now if only AI could tell us what these status levels get as benifits, we'd be getting somewhere...
actually stated in the links above...unless there are more benefits somewhere.
WrLdTrvLnIndian
Jan 20, 12, 7:17 pm
you know your FF program seriously got issues when the first thing u highlight as a benefit is a Personalized Card, 30% mileage bonus? Seriously? even a lowly Gold on AA or any other airline gets 25%.
But i suppose if you are stuck flying them, something is better than nothing lol. Having a pet dog seems more of value lol
PVDtoDEL
Jan 20, 12, 11:32 pm
you know your FF program seriously got issues when the first thing u highlight as a benefit is a Personalized Card, 30% mileage bonus? Seriously? even a lowly Gold on AA or any other airline gets 25%.
But i suppose if you are stuck flying them, something is better than nothing lol. Having a pet dog seems more of value lol
Compared to American carriers, it may not seem that generous, but many Asian and European carriers don't give personalized cards to basic members and don't have elite mileage bonus.
flyer31
Jan 20, 12, 11:41 pm
Good to know, at lastSo - finally - if you go on airindia.com and go to the fine print it states how they calculate status:
THEY STATE
"Currently a member who accrues 75000 status miles in a consecutive span of 365 days is elevated to The Maharajah Club."
This has seriously been a long time coming... maybe its a sign of progress with *a? who knows? No where do they define what a status mile is but based on my experience I would guess its base miles + cabin bonus.
Yaatri
Jan 21, 12, 3:22 pm
I believe that *A did not care what AI brought with it as long as Jet was allowed in. How can an Airline hope to get into an alliance without a functioning and well defined loyalty programme? What I said above is the only rational explanation. When AI put it's foot down about Jet, the deal fell through.
Keyser
Apr 1, 13, 4:45 am
over the last few months i have been making regular trips between del-bbi for a few clients there & this is likely to continue all year & maybe even next year....there is a junior lawyer in my firm who travels with me for these cases & i got him to sign up for flying returns before he made his first trip....this morning, while at the airport i said to him that by the end of the year he should have enough miles to go somewhere nice & he said the miles weren't adding up like i said they would....
it turns out that he only gets 199 miles for the del-bbi sector because his ticket is booked in one of the lowest classes available....it got me thinking that ai's method of granting status is seriously flawed....here is an example why:
i normally make 2 return trips a month on this route while my junior colleague ends up making 3 or 4 return trips....at this rate he will probably have close to 75 sectors on this route by the end of the year....yet, because his ticket is booked in the lowest class which only gets him 199 miles per sector, he will not even get to silver status with ai....even worse, after 75 flights he will only have about 15k miles....:eek:
75 flights a year & still no status with the airline....at this rate he would have had top elite status at any other normal airline....:p
A2A
Apr 1, 13, 5:10 am
over the last few months i have been making regular trips between del-bbi for a few clients there & this is likely to continue all year & maybe even next year....there is a junior lawyer in my firm who travels with me for these cases & i got him to sign up for flying returns before he made his first trip....this morning, while at the airport i said to him that by the end of the year he should have enough miles to go somewhere nice & he said the miles weren't adding up like i said they would....
it turns out that he only gets 199 miles for the del-bbi sector because his ticket is booked in one of the lowest classes available....it got me thinking that ai's method of granting status is seriously flawed....here is an example why:
i normally make 2 return trips a month on this route while my junior colleague ends up making 3 or 4 return trips....at this rate he will probably have close to 75 sectors on this route by the end of the year....yet, because his ticket is booked in the lowest class which only gets him 199 miles per sector, he will not even get to silver status with ai....even worse, after 75 flights he will only have about 15k miles....:eek:
75 flights a year & still no status with the airline....at this rate he would had top elite status at any other normal airline....:p
ouch. I went over the program brochure again, and realised there was no way to earn status via flight credits but only by the mileage earned.
SpeedFreak
Apr 1, 13, 5:37 am
over the last few months i have been making regular trips between del-bbi for a few clients there & this is likely to continue all year & maybe even next year....there is a junior lawyer in my firm who travels with me for these cases & i got him to sign up for flying returns before he made his first trip....this morning, while at the airport i said to him that by the end of the year he should have enough miles to go somewhere nice & he said the miles weren't adding up like i said they would....
it turns out that he only gets 199 miles for the del-bbi sector because his ticket is booked in one of the lowest classes available....it got me thinking that ai's method of granting status is seriously flawed....here is an example why:
i normally make 2 return trips a month on this route while my junior colleague ends up making 3 or 4 return trips....at this rate he will probably have close to 75 sectors on this route by the end of the year....yet, because his ticket is booked in the lowest class which only gets him 199 miles per sector, he will not even get to silver status with ai....even worse, after 75 flights he will only have about 15k miles....:eek:
75 flights a year & still no status with the airline....at this rate he would have had top elite status at any other normal airline....:p
yup only 25% to 50% of miles credited for most of the booking classes. i had been thinking about this for a while. and the sad part is buying a ticket for 4500 or 9000 on bom ccu sector gets you the same miles but if you pay around 9600 you get 4 times the amount of miles. only saving grace is booking bonus of 500 miles if booked on airindia.in but even then the earn rate is quite sad. and on top of that with the devaluation of redemption options and the payment of various airport taxes on the redeemed ticket, the programme is not as beneficial as it used to be.
Keyser
Apr 1, 13, 11:47 am
ouch. I went over the program brochure again, and realised there was no way to earn status via flight credits but only by the mileage earned.
exactly....doesn't make sense but then again this is ai, not supposed to make much sense....:p
Keyser
Apr 1, 13, 11:56 am
yup only 25% to 50% of miles credited for most of the booking classes. i had been thinking about this for a while. and the sad part is buying a ticket for 4500 or 9000 on bom ccu sector gets you the same miles but if you pay around 9600 you get 4 times the amount of miles. only saving grace is booking bonus of 500 miles if booked on airindia.in but even then the earn rate is quite sad. and on top of that with the devaluation of redemption options and the payment of various airport taxes on the redeemed ticket, the programme is not as beneficial as it used to be.
its criminal to pay close to inr 10k for a 2 hour flight & only get 200 miles in return....
just as an example, in my colleague's case, he (or rather the client) will end up paying more than what someone would pay for 3 return business class flights between del-nyc & still end up with no status & 15k miles whereas the later will get gold status & 60k miles....
PVDtoDEL
Apr 1, 13, 3:14 pm
He may be spending more, but the airline is also spending much more on him then they would on an NYC bound Biz class passenger.
Flying Returns credits mileage based on profit, rather than revenue. Which is a bit ironic, since AI is not going to be making any profit anyway :)
I agree that the earning rates for cheap tickets should be higher. Then again, if I didn't, I shouldn't be on FlyerTalk :D
Keyser
Apr 2, 13, 1:19 am
He may be spending more, but the airline is also spending much more on him then they would on an NYC bound Biz class passenger.
be that as it may, its just wrong to spend more & only get 1/4th of the what the other would get spending less....
Flying Returns credits mileage based on profit, rather than revenue. Which is a bit ironic, since AI is not going to be making any profit anyway :)
that makes no sense....with some fares you end up getting 4x the miles by just spending inr 500 extra....there is really no justification for that....
I agree that the earning rates for cheap tickets should be higher. Then again, if I didn't, I shouldn't be on FlyerTalk :D
but these aren't cheap tickets....spending inr 16k & 4 hours on a return flight & only getting 398 miles in return sucks....no matter how one puts it....
PVDtoDEL
Apr 2, 13, 7:29 am
that makes no sense....with some fares you end up getting 4x the miles by just spending inr 500 extra....there is really no justification for that.... Oh, I agree that the implementation is stupid. And I think that having any fares earning only 25% sucks.
SpeedFreak
Apr 2, 13, 7:54 am
At this rate premier miles redemption is the best bet for redemption now. However, that should be the second best option with the select airline being number 1.
A2A
Apr 2, 13, 8:02 am
one look here, at the membership company which manages their reward program should tell you the mindset of their advisors, who work with all the leftover airlines to power their programs. No wonder, they would be one of them.
http://www.loyaltyplus.aero/content/our-clients
A2A
Apr 2, 13, 8:07 am
tempts me to say, this is the power of L1 (the tendering process), where the lowest bidder gets the assignment. massively big in PSUs
Keyser
Apr 2, 13, 9:57 am
one look here, at the membership company which manages their reward program should tell you the mindset of their advisors, who work with all the leftover airlines to power their programs. No wonder, they would be one of them.
http://www.loyaltyplus.aero/content/our-clients
to say that list looks bad is an understatement....:p
SpeedFreak
Apr 2, 13, 10:38 am
to say that list looks bad is an understatement....:p
+1
AJLondon
Apr 2, 13, 12:08 pm
to say that list looks bad is an understatement....:p
Yup, that is a truly diabolical list! :eek:
PVDtoDEL
Apr 2, 13, 2:01 pm
one look here, at the membership company which manages their reward program should tell you the mindset of their advisors, who work with all the leftover airlines to power their programs. No wonder, they would be one of them.
http://www.loyaltyplus.aero/content/our-clients
Loyaltyplus just does the backend work. Program policies are dictated by the FFP Cell, a part of erstwhile IC management.
Keyser
Apr 3, 13, 1:00 am
Yup, that is a truly diabolical list! :eek:
Loyaltyplus just does the backend work. Program policies are dictated by the FFP Cell, a part of erstwhile IC management.
even more diabolical....:p
SpeedFreak
Apr 3, 13, 7:03 am
erstwhile IC has always been the more conservative or how do i put it, "cheaper" version of the more extravagant, flamboyant version which is erstwhile AI. time to put the ffp cell to the AI management then i guess.
jasepl
Apr 3, 13, 11:57 am
Achieving status on AI? Sounds rather like being Prince of Burundi, doesn't it? ;)
Besides, in the end, it's all rather moot, isn't it? Because even if you achieve lifetime super duper multiple platinum status on AI, you will still be outranked by the friends, family, neighbours, servants and bhandiwallis of all current and past AI employees.
Paying passengers are so far down the pecking order as it is.
to say that list looks bad is an understatement....:p
Well, I've flown a couple of those airlines, and they're a damn sight better than anything AI can ever hope to be. Better run too, from the surface of it.
Compared to American carriers, it may not seem that generous, but many Asian and European carriers don't give personalized cards to basic members and don't have elite mileage bonus.
Indeed. Because that's all everyone really wants out of their FFP : a personalised membership card.
Now if only AI could tell us what these status levels get as benifits, we'd be getting somewhere...
How does it matter, when one can get all the benefits and much, much more when commuting on free tickets paid for by the taxpayers?
Anish
Apr 3, 13, 1:05 pm
one look here, at the membership company which manages their reward program should tell you the mindset of their advisors, who work with all the leftover airlines to power their programs. No wonder, they would be one of them.
http://www.loyaltyplus.aero/content/our-clients
Apart from AI I never knew any of those airlines even existed! :eek:
Keyser
Apr 3, 13, 1:17 pm
Achieving status on AI? Sounds rather like being Prince of Burundi, doesn't it? ;)
Besides, in the end, it's all rather moot, isn't it? Because even if you achieve lifetime super duper multiple platinum status on AI, you will still be outranked by the friends, family, neighbours, servants and bhandiwallis of all current and past AI employees.
Paying passengers are so far down the pecking order as it is.
if you have to suffer them for 75 flights a year then its just cruel not to get status....plus, status might still keep you down the pecking order but stuff like lounge access, upgrade vouchers & bonus miles are pretty handy....