No YQ for LM redemption.

With virtually same earning rates as previous AI publised rates and current ones as of TK / ET.. It's a no brainer..!!

Yup, turning out to be a sensible alternative now.

Does anyone think this devaluation significantly lowers the value proposition of AI SBI Signature card? I'm valuing an AI mile for around ~0.35p now.
I'm torn between keeping it next year or not, a renewal fee hardly justifies the 5000 miles now.

Citi PM seems much better even with its own devaluations. At least it frees me up from being airline agnostic. PM don't have an expiry date either, unlike AI/SBI. Seriously considering it as one to put my primary spend on.

Thoughts?

I am trying to upgrade SFO-DEL sector for 5th Feb from economy to business. AI says it's sold out but united.com shows award inventory on business for the same dates on AI metal. Is it normal ? I have shot a email to both AI customer care and gold edge desk but they are redirecting to booking office which hasn't responded. Anything else I can do ?

AI website definitely shows the upgrade space. You got a rogue agent, keep trying.

These agents are really something. I saw the upgrade space and called them - the lady kept me on hold for 15 min and tells me they can't upgrade right now as I have checked in for the India to US segment. I will have to call them back once I complete the US segment ! They can't even block the seat for me

Hi Keyser,
I am also trying the same sector (i.e. ATH-DEL) and I am indifferent to transit point but I am being quoted 52.5K on Turkish i.e. 22.5 for ATH-IST and 30K for IST-DEL

How did you get the agent to look at routing of that....or maybe she gave you full revenue ticket on ATH-FCO and 65K for just FCO-DEL....

Also have you booked your ticket now?

Has the new chart come into affect.
I am trying to book an ATH-DEL in economy and being quoted 52.5K miles (via IST) and 50K (via FRA). This is without YQ and indicates usage of old charts

Now while this is pricing it as separate destinations, it is still lower than 90K from Europe to Delhi which new chart is indicating.....does it make sense to take it?

I have 40K miles expiring and alternate option for me is to use it for domestic where again value is not very good.

what taxes amount were you quoted????

she came up with the routing on her own....even i am indifferent to a transit point....

i've booked fco-del on ai....haven't booked ath-fco yet....would like to book it all on miles using a star alliance award but dealing with the call center is not something i am looking forward to....

so deovrat, you were right....called back again today to try & book the same itinerary & was now quoted 125k miles & only inr 6k in taxes....so this agent got the taxes amount right but the mileage part wrong....the whole call took 48 minutes & in the end the agent could not figure out the mileage bit....kept insisting that both sectors will be priced separately as far as mileage is concerned but together for the taxes amount....

Indeed that's the exact frustration I have with them.

Whenever you feed an itinerary like ATH-FCO-DEL to the agent, they go to rates desk to find out the taxes. The rates desk can see this as a single ATH-DEL ticket and can calculate taxes accurately. However, their responsibilities end there and then. They aren't tasked with finding out the miles required with the same logic.

The agent then comes back to his/her own desk with the taxes in hand and proceeds to calculate the miles with the brain-washing they have received when they were inducted (i.e., point to point) and tells you the miles and taxes.
If you ask for the supervisors, they are only dumb agents who have been promoted by seniority, having zero additional ability and hence can't wrap their head around the single itinerary.

How I wish the rates desk were also tasked with calculating the miles required with the same logic they apply for taxes !

Has the new star alliance redemption chart gone into effect? I called AI a few days ago and they said DEL-ZRH-DEL on lufthansa is 130k miles in J and 65k in Y.

No seats were available and hence could not confirm whether YQ will be charged or not.

Any idea?

Recently tried to upgrade Economy to Business on BOM-SIN sector. Was quote 35K miles with no taxes. The first agent was clueless and said it cannot be done because the ticket was purchased through an OTA. I disconnected and called back again. This time, I was quoted the miles after the agent kept me on hold for 15 mins. Then it took her another 30 mins to process the upgrade. The itinerary on AirIndia website shows the upgraded class but miles have not been debited from my account. It's been almost 3 weeks since the upgrade. My travel is in mid April. By when are miles debited from the account?

Can't they just use some software to do this automatically? This is 2016, not 1990 !!!