FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Air India Flying Returns - Major changes in FFP Program
Old May 1, 2016, 8:10 am
  #164  
tirajat
 
Join Date: May 2013
Programs: 9W Plat, UK Plat, AI Silver, HH Diamond, Hyatt Platinum, Taj IC Silver
Posts: 383
Originally Posted by Keyser
realised this morning how much of a joke this frequent flyer program is....i was flying del-bbi this morning with a junior colleague from my office....while i make this trip about 25-30 times a year, my junior colleague does so every week....sometimes twice a week....

we were checking in together for an all economy flight & i got lounge access due to my status but my colleague did not....this surprised me as i always assumed he had status with the airline because of his extensive travel on ai on this route alone....

he told me he had base level status with ai despite having flown 108 flights on this route last year....not even silver....over a hundred flights with no status at all, because ai only awards status according to base miles flown & they give very little base miles on discounted fares, which is what he had been flying all year....with almost every other airline he would have had top status by now....

we had a good laugh about this & he told me he was going to switch to vistara from july onwards since they were now flying this route as well....atleast with them he would end up having top status based on this route alone....
The only reason I had shifted from Jet to AI was the mileage accrual on SBI Card, but that incentive seems to have gone now. I took 32 AI flights in last 6 months and half of them were in business - I still got downgraded from Silver to base.

I am so sick of Jet, especially from the horrific experience of redeeming on partner airlines, that I don't feel like accumulating 9W miles.

Prima facie, Club Vistara seems to to be miserly designed, but I could be wrong.Is there a dedicated thread for Vistara FFP - I couldn't find it on FT.
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