McScruffy

I was able to book AI using AC aeroplan miles this evening. I was able to book F from ORD-DEL and back as part of in itinerary starting and ending in YYZ.

nrjanga

I can find award availability for Intra India on AI Flying Returns site, but United told me the destination I was interested in going from Delhi is not showing in their partner network. Not sure when AI will open up some of these smaller cities for Star awards. Anyone know how to find out? I am not very optimistic of getting a reply from AI if I emailed them.

Blueskyheaven

Will united ever display AI award on united website?

Chiro1979

Out of curiosity, was there a high YQ with the AE redemption?

McScruffy

There was no YQ, but I'll have to double check. I paid $114.96 (CAD) in taxes and fees.

UA Fan

Maybe stopping AI from joining last time was a good thing?

k819

36000 miles to redeem economy round trip in north america? Now why would I ever want to do that

Why would singapore charge 25k and Air India charge 36k for the same ticket?
Don't understand these discrepencies within Star alliance partners

A2A

there is no discrepancy. each airline runs their own program, and some such as the US based ones make it easy to earn miles via non-flying spend and some others make it difficult to earn miles. Not all miles are the same value, and should not be construed as one.

Star alliance is an airline alliance, not a mega frequent flyer program which issues currency to 27 carriers.

k819

Agreed upon Star alliance

But I dont see a reason why I should keep my miles with Air India until and unless I want to fly them, rather keep em with united or Singapore or some one else

My question is, where can you keep the star alliance miles with? Air India is definetly not one of them, if you dont want to have air india alone as the option

UA Fan

I believe with 9W and BA you can get RT for small distance for much less on their partners. It all depends on the program. Some programs suck on the burn and earn side. But people still stick with it if there are other benefits especially if they live in that airline's hub.

AC charges 110K for RT from the US to India but UA charges 85K.

A2A

you can choose to keep your miles elsewhere, and that is in your hands. I participate in BA, 9W, AI and AA's program on an ongoing basis. so yes, you'd have to figure out the value granted by the airline in exchange for your loyalty. on AI or 9W, I am ahead in line if they do op-ups, and on some segments, it happens very often.

somebol

Does AI release more than 1 J award to *A partners. Looking for 2 J awards on lifemiles but it only ever shows availability for 1 seat, never 2.

Brisman33

Awards vary and generally you will get a better deal flying with the airline you earn the miles on using their own FF program.

Look at the SQ awards page and you will need slightly fewer Kris miles for the same route if it is flown on SQ vs redeeming on another Star Alliance airline, and you get a 15% discount on the miles required for an online redemption.

Air India will give you 200% miles in business class vs SQ 125% however if you credit those miles into your Kris flyer account SQ will only award 125% instead of the 200% you would get with AIs Flying Returns. If you redeem your AI miles for SQ flights you will need more miles and lose the 15% discount.

AI will also let you pool miles with your spouse.

Air India have very cheap business class fares to Europe from Singapore and two return trips costing around $5000 would give you Star Alliance Gold status.

A single return trip on SQ would cost over $7000 and wouldn't even get you Silver. The price of one return trip to Europe in SQ business class would get you three business class returns on AI and top tier Maharajah status.

Keyser

went through a bit of an interesting exercise with ai today....i have a wedding to attend in athens over the summer so was looking for 3 one way ath-del business class award tickets....

my first option was to book regular economy tickets on a3 from ath-fco & then award tickets on ai from fco-del....the a3 tickets would cost me €75 per person & the ai award ticket is 90k miles + €60 in taxes per person....only problem here is that if i try to book for 2 adults & 1 child then the price jumps to €380 total....booking for 3 adults brings the price down to €180....if none of the other options work for me then i'll call ai to try & figure this out....

second option, i also have some ua miles so explored that option as well....ua wants 45k miles + $45 in taxes per person for the same itinerary mentioned above....with this option the entire journey would now be in business class....only problem is that i am short about 50k ua miles so would need to figure out how to get that....

third option was to use ai miles to book the same star alliance award as option # 2....called ai & the agent had never heard of athens before....it took a couple of minutes for her to understand that this was a city in greece....she kept trying to find it but would only come back with a city in the u.s. with the same name....i hung up & called again....got another agent who had the same problem....after a long time on hold she finally found ath on her system & again put me on hold to get more details....finally she comes back & quotes 65k miles + inr 27k per person....i thanked her for her time & hung up....

ai has removed yq from its award tickets so i wonder why they are charging so much for the star alliance award, especially since the flight is on ai....

deovrat

Did she mention explicitly what routing these taxes were for? You might expect her to return with taxes for ATH-FCO-DEL, but the fuel surcharge desk often have their own ideas