Originally Posted by Look Ma No Hands (Post 27915749)

Fingers crossed that maybe Keyser or anyone else can help.

Originally Posted by deovrat (Post 27649116)

Alas, Santa brings bad news for AI-FR !

Their aesthetically pleasing new Star Alliance award chart is now confirmed. The changes take place from tomorrow, 23rd December 2016.

Here's their old chart valid till midnight, 22nd December 2016: http://flyingreturns.co.in/images/do...ward_chart.pdf

And here's the new one. valid from 23rd December 2016 onwards: http://www.flyingreturns.co.in/image...pdated_SAC.pdf

Salient Summary of Enhancements-
- Every single redemption is costlier now, other than some intra-region short flights.
- India to North America: Y redemption goes from 55k one way to 100k one way. 81% increase.
- India to Europe: Y redemption goes from 32.5k one way to 90k one way. 177% increase.
- India to South Pacific: Y redemption goes from 42.5k one way to 90k one way. 146% increase.
- First Class redemptions were 250% of Economy in the earlier chart. Now they go up to 300%.
- No Date Changes allowed once award is booked, you have to cancel award and start new.
- If you cancel the award, you will forfeit 20% miles used for booking.
- Cancellations allowed only till 72 hours before the journey.


Now for the silver lining (!) :
- New chart allows for either 3 layovers, or 2 layovers + 1 stopover. This eliminates a huge frustrating nature of previous chart.
Previous chart only allowed for point-to-point ticketing. e.g. a BOM-FRA-EWR award used to cost BOM-FRA sector + FRA-EWR sector points. That's gone away now thankfully (hopefully?).
- No Fuel surcharge ! ^
However, they will collect INR 1000 per sector as ticketing fees.
- Intra-region short flights < 500 miles are cheaper across the board now. For Intra-USA, flights < 1000 miles also come out ahead in the new chart. In all other regions however, flights > 1000 miles go up.


I wished they might have implemented online booking of partner awards to at least counter their grossly incompetent agents, but I guess I will have to wait for next Christmas for that! I might have to ask myself why the AI-SBI card still loiters around in my wallet anymore.

Thoughts?

P.S.: Those who have a redemption coming and might now look at the old chart wistfully, you might want to move a bit quicker !! :D

Originally Posted by NoviceFT (Post 27934541)

I was just going through the reward redemption....these guys are really crazy. 100K one way to US/Canada is ridiculous. There is no easy way to earn as well unless you fly AI only and spend enormous amount of money in SBI card. I feel they don't give a damn about the customers. From Star Alliance perspective this may be good option for other airline members. Do people still collect AI miles...

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123 (Post 27937164)

Most people i know have dropped the SBI card as well - using FR miles for * Alliance is stupidity now IMHO.

Originally Posted by Look Ma No Hands (Post 27915749)

I know I'm probably out of luck here but nevertheless thought I would ask if anyone has had any success in a similar situation with AI.

I'm planning my family's annual holiday and am looking for 4 seats in business class for myself, hubby & our 2 kids from pretty much any destination in Europe back to DEL. I've checked every destination AI flies to but am only getting a maximum of 2 seats against redemption in business class.

The flights are of course mostly empty right now since I am planning 10 months out in advance but as I said before, redemption is limited to 2 seats in business class.

Would appealing to anyone in AI lead to a possibility of them opening up 2 more seats? I know the call centres won't help but maybe someone has a contact at AI Flying Returns that I could reach out to. A few years ago I was in a similar situation & writing to management at 9W lead to them opening up 2 extra seats for me for a DEL-HKG sector.

Ever since they implemented the new Star Alliance redemption rates it's no longer possible for me to use AI miles to book on another carrier since it costs too much. We have about 750,000 miles so that would just about cover 4 return India-Europe tickets.

Just a FYI, from DEL to either MXP, FCO & LHR I'm getting 4 seats, but not on the way back.

Fingers crossed that maybe Keyser or anyone else can help. Thanks in advance guys.

Originally Posted by Look Ma No Hands (Post 27950812)

Bumping this in case anyone can help. PLEASE PLEASE.

Originally Posted by deovrat (Post 27951042)

I am in the same boat as Keyser, used to know a few ones at AI; but nobody wants to interfere in their FFP.
You can easily get their Chairman's email with a bit of searching, but I don't know how responsive he is.

Originally Posted by vishalgupta22 (Post 27962250)

i am very sure OP can reach out to chairman but I will be extremely surprised if he (or anyone in management) will want to interfere in this.

the only scenarios they will interfere in are:
1. A large long term revenue potential
2. Very close ties (even if someone here has ties and is willing to help, I don't think this is something where third party influence works)

i will I'll love to be proven wrong though.

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123 (Post 27937164)

Most people i know have dropped the SBI card as well - using FR miles for * Alliance is stupidity now IMHO.

Originally Posted by airride (Post 27999611)

which credit card do you guys suggest now, i am mainly interested in domestic travel in India?

Originally Posted by bluecrabs (Post 28027267)

Would I be able to get around this issue? I am out of India and won't be able to take a revenue flight anytime soon...

Originally Posted by Keyser (Post 28028807)

i wonder if flying with a star alliance partner & crediting the miles to flying returns would take care of this problem????perhaps a call to confirm this would be the right start....