Flying Returns anyone...??
 

Have a couple of flights coming up with Air India/ India Airlines. Is it worth it joining their frequent flyer program...?? Have no idea how the whole ‘flying returns’ scene is, redemption options, value of miles earned, ease of redemption etc..

Any Flying Returns veterans out there..??

I have FR membership and they have a decent redemption rules. Challenge is to get redemption is not easy. You need to mail in the form and follow up on phone with them.

They allow redemption on LH and SQ flights as well.

I've used my Air india board passes to get mileage credit from Miles and More (Lufthansa) (no status miles though).

Also if you fly air india in "A" category (discounted First class) Miles and More does not give any mileage credit. Although with the recent devaluation of Miles and More I am guessing my future flights will be credited to FR.

Air india requires 180k miles for RT Del-ORD in J. Lufthansa used to be 160k and now is 185k miles.

https://www.flyingreturns.co.in/html...em&on=airindia

From what info i have, I believe AI FR has one of the best redemption options among ffp's.. if there is a free seat u can redeem it unlike most other ffp's which restrict and give only very few seats for each flight..
And 'once' it joins *A, crediting to AI would seem more attractive IMO..

join away....the program is very basic but redemption is the best out of all the other airline programs....the only issue, as rsh913 pointed out, is that you have to either fax the redemption form or physically go to their office....

Not anymore - AI has made a baby step in technology.

I am guessing from your home base you reside in India so here is the link for online registration - you get your FR Number instantly. Be warned though they can take forever to credit flights, especially from overseas stations so keep your boarding passes with you till flight credits.
Ratio's aren't great - but as everyone said seats are fairly easy to get.

https://www.flyingreturns.co.in/myac...l.php?prog=ind

Yup, Chennai based in fact...any good redemption routes on Air India..??

FULL CHART AVAILABLE HERE - Not sure how many miles you are looking at gathering so it depends...
https://www.flyingreturns.co.in/html...em&on=airindia

yay....:)

Outside of LH and SQ, can members of any other mileage programs earn miles on IC flights? I suspect not, but figured I'd check. I will be taking IC DEL-IXU-DEL next month, first time in years that I've flown with them.

Presently I believe LH and SQ are the only options..
Though for the reverse ( flying in other airlines and earning miles in AI ffp) there are many options thru code shares which they have.. but we know that codeshares have its own problems :)

guess i will have to look into this too .... company just changed policies and now forcing us to buy the cheapest possible tickets. So no more the AA non stop from ORD to DEL 4 times a year and ExecPlat! will have to struggle with Air India I guess and then pray that some miracle happens and they actually get to Star Alliance.

I feel for you. At least I can get to India on BA, and when there is an opportunity to fly Jet or Kingfisher domestically, I do.