Starting this thread to see if there are any real advantages to Plat on 9w vs. Gold - not seeing that many at the moment...

I will compile all the responses and put pertinent info below or in the next post.

1. Upgrade using vouchers on all fares (except consolidator, etc.) As per 9w website/membership guide: "Platinum members can use their upgrade vouchers on Y, M, T, L, N, Q, U, S, K, H, V, O, W and B classes of booking" (10 May 2011)

As per avm2806:

a) If a current platinum member is using his/her PLATINUM ELITE TIER VOUCHERS (not Jet airways citibank vouchers), they can be used for anyone to upgrade any fare - the only verification they require is the membership number and name of the person sponsoring the upgrade / giving the vouchers - to cross reference that said person is a Platinum card holder. They annotate the booking with the plat number of the person supplying the voucher.

b) A platinum card holder can him/herself use any vouchers to upgrade any fare (someone else's silver voucher, someone else or his/her own 9W/CITI card vouchers) - In this case the Plat number should be on the reservation.

2. Free changes on domestic (India) tickets.

3. Cancellation fees waived on fares (flights within India) (As per 9w website!)

4. No annual fee for the Jet-Citibank credit card.

5. 30% tier bonus. (Versus 20% for Gold)

6. 160% J cabin bonus (Versus 150% for others/non-elites)

7. Op-ups, but rare nowadays.

8. Sometimes meal selection is taken before other pax in Premiere. (not consistent)

9. 20 kgs. additional baggage allowance for flights within India and other international flights. Not available on ATR flights. (versus 15 kgs. for other 9w elites)

10. Add a guest when flying Jet Airways Konnect/Economy. (All other elites do not get this benefit)

11. Non-expiry of JPMiles. (Not that meaningful for me, as I burn them asap, due to their being less than valuable and require more miles as compared to other mileage programs)

Upgrade vouchers can be used on virtually all fares.

Free changes on all domestic flights.

Fee paid for the citi 9w card.

The above are my three biggest plus points of Plat.

The other main benefit is the 30% instead of 20% tier bonus, and the 160% instead of 150 % J cabin bonus.

For me its not worth it due to the value of 9W miles. I really don't know what to do with them due to such high redemption rates and lack of availability.

99% of my paid fares are now going on *A carriers. So much so that I even flew via ZRH to UK on Swiss rather then go via Jet. Domestically I still fly them due to their network coverage. But we all know how many miles comes through that.

Of course there's the 500 miles bonus for booking online + 250 miles for each online checkin. So if you book two tix (separate for onward and return journeys - which doesn't make too much of a difference as roundtrip fares dont really matter on domestic itineraries) you stand to get 1500 miles even for short hops.

Not that 1500 miles are worth all that much in 9w but ..

for me the 2 biggest benefits are non-expiry of miles & being able to use upgrade vouchers on all published fares....

free domestic flight changes & no fee for the citi card are 2 more great benefits....

i also remember an occasion when i was upgraded to first on an international flight due to being plat....a couple of years ago i was flying bom-lhr in premi�re & the flight was so full that they were asking people to give up their seats....when i walked up to the check-in counter the supervisor told me that the only 2 seats left on the flight were in first & he had upgraded 2 plat members to first so that he could free up some space in premi�re....

If 9W is such a good airline, why won't it be worth your while to earn/maintain status on it?

As their in flight product is great but their reward program really does stink. I hate to fly when I don't earn miles. Essentially thats what I do when I fly Jet as I can never redeem them or find a decent value redemption.

Got 700k in the bank now! Had two flights last month which I couldn't get past the wait list on and both of them showed as F7 A4 and the seat map showed one seat as taken. As a Gold Elite that kind of pi**es me off.

I have transferred my business onto *A now.

Ah. That's what I have been tell people. You can't get everything you want with one airlines. It's smart to evaluate perioidically whether the airline or the alliance which has been converting your dollars to miles, is meeting your needs, and then walk with your feet.

As someone who has flown on 9W to the point where almost every longhaul IFS knew me personally I agree with all comments on here - 9W redemptions stink... I've accumulated a total of around 1.3million Jet miles, down do 340K.

While I am a huge fan of their product, their poor mileage program acts as a significant deterrent to doing major longhaul flights with them. As someone based in India in a market where they have the best domestic coverage - I maintain Plat through lots of short domestic and regional flights... I still think its worth maintaining Plat for the following key reasons (most mentioned above), that distinguishes it from Gold:

1) NON EXPIRY OF JP MILES - Given that they are hard to redeem, not needing to constantly seek opportunities to redeem for the fear they may expire helps significantly.

2) UPGRADE ANY FARE: As a plat using any vouchers, I can upgrade any fare. For a family member using my vouchers (if they are my 5 plat elite vouchers), again they can upgrade any fare... give you a lot of flexibility.

3) EASIER TO CLEAR WL MILEAGE SEATS - It is much easier to keep pushing the JPSC to clearing seats. It isn't easy - key is relative, JP miles still are very hard to burn

4) FREE CHANGES TO DOMESTIC FLIGHTS - I save a packet on this alone, paying rs. 500 - 750 each time I changed a domestic flight would be crazy for me.

5) FREE JET CITI PLAT CARD - Basically, for the effort of signing up, you get 4500 miles and 1 more upgrade voucher for no additional charge if you are a plat.

Don't they have to fly with you - or is this requirement waived? Never heard of this - unless they are traveling with you.

Anyway, the lowest fares don't save much from the K-fares and above, in my experience...

ideally they should be traveling with you but jet is very casual about this....i have used my upgrade vouchers many time for my wife, mother, siblings & i've always booked the lowest fare for this....

Interesting - will see if this works for me - when I decide or get a chance to do this - only *A international segments for family at the moment - although a redemption might come through on 9w...probably not!

Always a 3-4k difference on my domestic routes.

Difference on a MAA-BOM can be up to 2k if you book an advance purchase fare... on an international say INDIA-USA the difference is almost 10k. For the 5 vouchers if used well, I find it usually saves 1.5-2k inr per voucher.