We are going to review Jet Airways JetPrivilege in an upcoming issue of InsideFlyer magazine and would like your input.

If you would like to participate, please post your response in the thread with the pros and cons of membership in JetPrivilege and grade the program from A to F (A being the highest grade). You can include a plus or minus with the rating.

You can also respond directly to me at [email protected].
Thank you!

I do not understand why the rating has to be so simplistic - is this what you use for all airline evaluations??

Why wouldn't you break it down to the various criteria that one should normally use to evaluate an airline's membership program?

We break the programs down into the following categories when we rate them:

Earning Ability
Partnerships
Elite-Level Program
Rules & Conditions
Service Support
Online Services

Feel free to provide feedback on any or all of the categories.

Thanks,
Darcie

It is important to separate the outstanding airline that JetAirways is from the FF program. JetPrivilege has been improving a lot lately. I give it a B+ overall and if they can fix a few things it can easily move into A or A+.

Earning Ability
A. Generous bonuses for premium travel (100% for F and 50% for J) and some incremental bonus for elite travel (Plat and Gold). Strong partnerships with Credit Card companies (but only India based) allowing upgrade vouchers and mileage accrual for spend. Not many other partners with the exception of a few hotels, car rentals, etc.

Partnerships
B+. Not a member of a global alliance. Does have redemption and earnings with several world class airlines. Codeshares with AA among others and that is a big plus for North American pax. QF and Brussels Air are great for other continent travelers.

Elite-Level Program
A. Treats elites well (priority baggage handling, lounge access on the day of travel, early online checkin, etc.). Has a novel concept of dynamic review - which allows you to reach elite status in an acclerated time (similar to challenges with a 6 month review period). Also renewal of elite status requires slightly reduced requirement. Also, a 24 month window is allowed for elite status renewal. Limited lounges outside India (primarily in Brussels hub). Partnership with AA gives access to Admirals club in JFK for Plats (not sure if it is a policy or a personal exception). If they were a member of a global alliance, they would score a A+ here.

Rules & Conditions
B-. Except for dynamic review not very innovative. Not many creative or compelling promotions. Mileage based redemptions. Would be nice to have country or other type of redemptions as well.

Service Support
A. Very help staff but processes and software is limited.

Online Services
B-. Used to C a few years ago. Improved a lot lately. It should get to B+ and A- with improvements to richer search, better international ticketing and award support, etc.

I disagree - tried issuing award tix recently, and they *failed* miserably, due to my not having done the whole itinerary online. I filled up the web forms, and manual entry errors were cropping up continuously, even when *supervisors* were involved!

Completely bogus and non-professional service there, although they *may* have been trying to help... Big F.

The program, if it ran automatically, would be more in the "B" category, but unfortunately waitlisting seats happen quite often on any award travel, on many airline's programs.

UA/SQ/TG handle this *far* better!

Agree on same, but with regard to upgrade vouchers, these are effectively useless for long-haul international travel, as we need at least *5* (or *7* for J to F) for each sector!


Mediocre, as one cannot really maintain 9w status and mix/match with *A airlines - AA joining is a big plus...


Exactly on the alliance angle. "Dynamic review" is *too* dynamic, allowing FF'ers to gain status for no real reason...now we have too many elites with high status, not allowing the older generation to enjoy benefits we used to enjoy...


I would give it a C.


Exactly - C here.


Agree - *much* better now!

I agree. After 3 years of earning points I tried to use some only to find that the system for redemption requires me to fill out and fax forms. They have no way for me to redeem for an int'l upgrade they tell me. So I have started to credit my 9W to AA thankfully. Only now that I started to do this did they get around to sending me a membership card.

Really?

Where is your mailing address? I have mine in India, and all my (and my staff members who are members) get regular mailings of the cards, from the thin plastic BluePlus ones, on up....

Israel