air india frequent flyer program
 

hi,

has anyone signed up for frequent flyer program of air india? Is it any good? Can we use miles on star alliance partners like LH or SQ?

Yep the flying returns program is good if you are looking for redemption on AI flights itself, since AI isn't part of *A so you can't use their miles to redeem on other *A partners but with LH and SQ they have a tie-up whereby you can credit AI flights to either one of them. So you can pick and choose either one of LH or SQ FFP's if you are looking for international redemption but if you are looking for domestic redemption you can enroll for flying returns program, i guess they still have the 1000 miles sign up bonus promo running.

thanks buddy... really helpful

I'd stay far far away if I were you. Its a pain in the rear to redeem the miles.... you actually have to fax in a form with your passport, etc before you can redeem anything

but the availability is good! ;)

I guess the availability is good precisely because no one actually makes any award bookings since it's such a pita

no pains , no gains. on other airline, the pain is to find seats, here the pain is just to book them.

Not so tough anymore. They've changed things a bit. All you have to do is land up at the nearest Air India office and the redemption can be done over the counter. Subject to seat availability of course..

Even easier now
 

Actually I just redeemed recently and its even easier. A few months ago AI moved to an internet based redemption feature. Choose your flights, date and number of seats and as long as you have enough miles for redemption and there are open seats on the flight the redemption is possible. No limits imposed on available award seats like most other airlines. Payment of taxes can be done online using a credit card so the process took all of 20 minutes for me. Its a far cry from having to take your award form and passport to a ticket office and have it issued manually.

One little note of caution, if the miles are being redeemed at an Air-India office, they don't seem to accept a credit card payment for the tax bit and ask for the same to be paid in cash.. other wise all in all in a very straight-forward and quick process.

thanks evry one... just one more query hows jet airways frequent flier and the service they provide on delhi jfk/ewr route??
really appreciate ur replies

service on economy- is it good in comparison to air india..
my two options air india and jet.. can u compare the two airlines on this route?? my tentative date of flying out is 30 june and return journey is 25 july

What is the tier-qualification requirements for Flying returns..? I have noticed on a few sectors AI awards more miles (on revenue) than 9W & charges less miles (on redemption) than 9W.

Although the difference is marginal, 9W doesn't award miles on deep-discounted tickets, unlike AIC. Tempting me to join FR..!

Thanks,
GuyFromBOM

been a member since the 90s....as others have said, its a great program when it comes to redemption....

:confused::confused:

when was the last time you did this????its all online now....

between jet & ai there is no comparison....jet would win every single time....

if you have a choice then stick with jet....