sidjain000

Hi,

Have accumulated a few miles on SBI AI card and wanted advice on should i redeem for Domestic travel / international travel or other benefits like Lifestyle / Taj etc. What gives the maximum bang for the buck?

Looking at experienced travellers for help.

deovrat

Welcome to FlyerTalk !

How much miles do you have and how many persons are you looking to redeem your miles for?

sidjain000

Approx 90k miles. Wanted to redeem for international flight to London for 2 ppl. Is this worth it or should I order for shopping vouchers (75k miles for Rs.20k voucher)?

bharathitman

In Economy you will end up paying lot in fuel surcharges (If you are travelling in Air India, the surcharge component might be 50-80% of the economy ticket value). Not worth IMO. Business class redemptions are a better value

rsv1

well SBI doesn't fail to maintain its unstable standards. had applied for the SBI-AI signature card which got rejected 2 months back. reason given was , some internal policy of the company'. Got a call from their executive to take the platinum card instead, stating I'm eligible for that. I agreed, but got no response since.in the mean time I applied for Citibank premier miles card, which got approved with a pretty handsome credit limit. Now out of blue, after 2 months got a message from SBI today, that my platinum card application got rejected. Now this is really bizarre. Since I've got a pretty decent cibil score and I've got 2 citibank cards with more than 5l lac plus credit in totality plus HDFC and amex plat cards. don't understand what internal policies does SBI have. Not interested in their crappy services anymore!!!

mavericktraveller

I did the same & the status update is reflected but waiting for eternity to get the kit & vouchers! 'The kit is under production process & no time frame can be given' was the reply I got from cust care.

manish83

I got my membership kit after approximately 5 months. Its a hit and miss. My Silver membership kit arrived few weeks after upgrade. But Gold took 5 months to be delivered. I must have emailed/called on every email IDs/phone number I could find. In end one AI staff suggested that I send a mail to [email protected]. I got my membership kit few weeks after sending email to that ID.

Anish

Just noticed the HDFC Infinia and Regalia cards now offer complimentary AI Gold/Silver membership.

http://www.hdfcbank.com/Infinia/Bene...s_preview.aspx

deovrat

I second this above. Business redemptions would get you more value.

deovrat

Well spotted ^
Their figures of bonus miles are way off though.

And I'd rather spend 5L on AI-SBI card and get AI silver along with a bunch of miles rather than go for a Regalia.
If you have to go HDFC, their diners card portfolio is to go for currently imo.

flyer31

So I sent an email to the email address you posted regarding my membership kit and upgrade certificates.
I will update here as I receive my kit.
Thanks

Bioflyer

This was there on both Infinia/Regalia sites - privileges section for 2 days and is now gone - I guess rough weathers have prevailed between AI/HDFC.

Assume only 1 government entity can only handle the other one better... SBI to AI

vikasr

I called them yesterday and they have taken my request for upgrading the AI membership to Gold. Let's see what happens.

They also informed me that they have tied up with Vistara and offering Vistara Gold as well. Have not requested for that though.

Anish

Which card do you hold?

avneeshj

I would like to know more about this. Anyone else have any info?