Flyfromscratch

Just got a mail from Vistara.. they are moving to a tier points only status criteria from 2021.. basically the more you spend the more they value you, like all american airlines..

Just another way, they will never be Jet

PiperAtGatesofDawn

Yeah... now you have to spend almost 2L to be CV Silver and about 3L to be Gold starting from base.

Earlier you could do that with approx 60k & 90k spends!

Get ready to do a fair bit of international flying with them next year.

Flyfromscratch

They barely have any international flight.. i just checked my account.. i did 28 flights in the last one year.. and i am at 10500 tier points.. i will never make even silver with them, at this rate.. god they are annoying..

not to mention, i dont understand their tier point calculation.. none of my tier points match the amount of the ticket price..

PiperAtGatesofDawn

The criteria is very high for domestic only travel. You will have to do a few international flights to get the 1.8L required spend for Silver.

Also the tier point calculations are generally done on the base fare + YQ and doesn’t include taxes. It’s unlikely that their calculations will be incorrect but will certainly be more confusing.

Flyfromscratch

I haven't looked at the details yet, but I am starting to wonder if it makes more sense to start credting my miles to Krisflyer instead.. Vistara miles im anyways earning through the Axis credit card and i get Gold Status.. the requirement to be a Plat is prohibitive for me.. and doesn't seem worth the effort.. the benefits for Plat are not that great that I go out of my way to become Plat.. but if there is benefit to getting these miles on SQ, it could work out well for me.. #hinkingaloud

oliver2002

Not really surprising... Vistara has exapnded rapidly and now can dial down the marketing stuff.

Keyser

agreed....they are also the only decent full service carrier left so can do pretty much what they want....

PiperAtGatesofDawn

I don't think it's all that rosy. They're struggling to... especially filling up the premium seats. I would think this is more of a cost cutting measure.

SuperFlyBoy

Is Axis offering a miles sign-up bonus for the Axis card?

GUWonder

As I see it, Indian carriers haven’t really cared about having and retaining loyal retail customers via airline loyalty programs, and this shows more when times get tougher for the Indian carrier(s).

SuperFlyBoy

So Vistara is actually doing well, then??

PiperAtGatesofDawn

Goes both ways I would guess... a very small % of flying public that's not traveling very much... there's little reason to show loyalty to any program for it to benefit them in any meaningful way.

SuperFlyBoy

I know that we are not traveling that much - even though most of our work is last-minute and is now 80% air travel - to move people into position...

However, I haven't been flying as much as the Jet glory days of a few years ago...hmmm - who's to blame for the economy??

GUWonder

They gut when times are good for the airline and they gut when times are tough for the airline. It’s when domestic/regional competition amongst airline programs are meaningful and very varied that the devaluing of the programs seems to be most restrained. But everywhere I look it seems like the programs are cutting and cutting value that consumers get out of the programs. Primarily they gutted the rebate currency value but now they move on to also cutting viathe elite qualification and related elite status benefits too.

The Indian economy is probably worse than most measures are capturing, and I doubt Vistara is spared the financial headaches of its customers, but maybe I’m wrong about Vistara.

I certainly travel way less to/from and within India than I used to do..... so Vistara elite status is unlikely to come my way anytime soon

Flyfromscratch

Yup. there was a 10k bonus on spending some 1 lac.. easy stuff..