PiperAtGatesofDawn

Yeah I later felt that's what you must have read it as. I think it's 116/115.

PiperAtGatesofDawn

2 insane developments (covered in 2 posts here)

1. The PSU banks - SBI, PNB, Canara, Allahabad and who else have you will now convert lakhs of crores of debt into equity and become majority shareholders. This is pending EY & Goyal's approval. Will the banks buy EY's shares? Who knows. But they are looking for a new promoter. They expect to find this new promoter in 2-3 months at which point they'll sell their equity to this new guy.

They're looking for someone with crores and crores who is planning of burning all his/her wealth in one giant bonfire but who really prefers to watch it burn it all into smoke over months rather than minutes.If you know someone like that please email [email protected]!

So in this tragically cartoonish situation.... till further notice Rajnish Kumar (SBI Chairman) becomes head of an airline that's drowning in a cesspool of debt as the largest stakeholder in 9W. .They're also going to pump some money into the airline. How much - people guess it's around 1,000 CR. That's peanuts compared to what they need. But that's apparently all they'll get.

How is a public sector bank going to run an ailing airline and fix it? That's going to be very interesting to watch.

Apparently 100 pilots have left for 6E in the last couple of days. So even if they get some of their planes back from the lessors - there is no one to fly them.

Obviously they've been pushed by Modi and crew to do this insane thing. If you thought the govt. can't get worse at wasting public money or the govt. can't phish off more money to save an election look no further.

PiperAtGatesofDawn

Development 2 - JetPrivilege is now allowing you to redeem JPMiles across a ton of airlines (not just their old partners) through here - https://flights.jetprivilege.com/

And you can literally redeem any seat not just award seats (typically O, X, I class) across a whole bunch of airlines at the most absurd rates possible. They say it's any seat and I'm inclined to believe it's (almost) any seat. I think these rates have been set by SBI - that's the only way it could be exponentially worse that 9Ws. Also, if you purchase tickets at these rates SBI might approach you to buy their stake in 9W so do it at your own peril.

I have screenshots below but here's the summary. I looked at BOM - JFK return in mid Sept and here are the rates (drum roll please):
Economy - between 303,400 and 539,400 miles OR between 1000 miles + 1.96 lakhs and 1000 miles + 3.5 lakhs! BTW the 303,400 miles / 1k miles + 1.96 lakh option is for a United flight that costs 89k to buy outright.

Business is even better - 950,200 to 1.696,400 miles OR 1000 miles + 6.16 lakhs cash to 1000 miles + 11 lakhs cash. The lowest option is on UA again 950,200 or 1k miles + 6.16 lakh for a flight that costs 2.6 lakhs to buy outright.

Only a million miles to fly to the US and back in business! So if you were looking for the worst way to burn your JPMiles - you've just found it. Redemption rates @ ~27paise / mile if it's an all mile transaction. I can't calculate the 1k miles + cash deals!

I can't imagine there is better pricing on other routes. More importantly I couldn't be bothered to check - but if you find something let everyone know.

You can complete the entire transaction on the website. If you're short of miles you can buy miles @ 65 paise/mile while doing this transaction. Which is pretty good. So you don't have to spend 1.96 L to purchase a 89k ticket! Instead if you have only 1k miles it will cost you 1,96,560 to buy the balance miles.

HMPS

Are "market forces " responsible for Goyal's professional demise ? And re walking away how often have WE walked away on a lot less expensive item after bargaining ?

L_D_M

This is the literal definition of "priceless" in more senses than one.

Keyser

i'm down to about 20k jp miles....i take over 50 9w flights a year but credit everything to dl so my 9w miles earning is only limited to my credit card spend....i saw a bunch of 10k miles options between iad-bos & bos-ewr....not the best use of miles but i may as well use them up while i still can....

PiperAtGatesofDawn

10k is the award flight rate... not this "any seat" rate. In this any seat rate I got BOS - EWR upto an incredible 19 paise / mile rate on some flights.

Are you able to get for 10k on the any seat rate? Also are you able to book awards from 9W right now? Especially on partners?

I've got about 12.5k miles with 9W now so not much exposure but I'm not finding a good way to burn them now. I'm worried if I book a 9W award flight in the next few days the flight will get cancelled and I'll get stuck so I'll hold on to my precious miles for now and if 9W goes bust soon it's a ~8k INR loss for me at my general domestic redemption rate.

Keyser

haven't tried booking yet....waiting on confirmation on my dates, which i should get by tomorrow or day after....will try to book then....

PiperAtGatesofDawn

Apparently the lenders are breaking rank. Only SBI & PNB are onboard this insane plan to pay for and manage 9W till they can find a new buyer. Modi, Jaitley and team apparently haven't been able to nudge the others to support this plan.

I was looking forward to seeing SBI mismanage and completely destroy the almost dead airline but it looks like that tragic comedy show might not happen.

I wish SBI shared their business plan as to how they'd find a buyer for 9W in the state that it's in within then next 2-3 months and thus make SBI some money. I would pay good money and a few JPMiles to see that presentation.

HMPS

If you can use it, sounds good value. Not too many redemptions with US earned AA, UA type miles at 10 K miles

quarryking

Any Far-east redemption suggestions on Partner carriers ?
ex - INDIA, SINGAPORE, MALAYSIA ...

PiperAtGatesofDawn

You have plenty of options - NH, GA, KE are all great airlines & 9W partners.Award availability is a different matter.

NoviceFT

I believe this comes from Market level inventory and not from Rewards Redemption Inventory. AC Aeroplan uses similar option in their system. Mile requirement may vary based on the Market inventory and booking class.

jakas

They should close it down no point pumping more money. India has enough airlines already.

PiperAtGatesofDawn

AC's market fare flight rewards is only on AC metal. Many airlines have some kind of variation of this model including variable pricing on their own awards all the time like DL or fixed + some variable pricing on both own & partner awards like UA Business Everyday awards or even TK's Guaranteed Award seats when their award seats are not available.

None of them though offer it outside their typical group of partners. 9W is offering it on UA, Egypt Airlines and so many more. That makes this program pretty unique. But really terrible value.

Still when everything is over the people who redeemed here might have the last laugh when JP collapses and people are left holding hundreds of thousands of miles.