Air India’s Flying Returns has been one quiet programme for the past many quarters, not dropping news on any front for so long. The last big change that came to the programme was when they capped the number of miles required for an upgrade to 100% of the Economy class redemptions, depending on fare class one is booked in.
Subsequently, Air India had suspended the expiry of miles in the programme for 6 months in April 2019, while they foresaw changes coming to the programme. Those changes have still not started coming fully, but some changes are now being introduced in the programme, albeit small one.
Starting today, Air India has upped the number of miles they will reward for a direct booking made with Air India per passenger. Something to keep in mind about when booking an Air India ticket. The bonus is a flat 222 Air India Miles more than earlier.
International First/Business class will now get 1999 Air India miles for direct bookings per sector, instead of 1777 earlier. For economy, the bonus moved from 1333 miles to 1555 miles.
For long haul economy Class, 999 Air India miles will now be the bonus instead of 777 earlier. Short haul economy class will get 555 miles per sector.
Revive Air India Miles at INR 0.40 here on
Air India has been offering the ability to revive old miles, issued since 2006 onwards, which have expired for a while now. However the limitation was, that the price was made too expensive, at INR 0.60 per mile + GST, and the miles were only valid for a short while. The new change allows people to revive their miles for INR 0.40 paise on August 15 and 16, and keep them for another year while they make a redemption on them. You might wonder why are we writing about a promotion as a change, but Air India has been offering a reduced price on revival of miles for a while now, having moved to 45 paise and now come down to 40 paise.
Bottomline
Overall, these are some great moves from Air India. Now, only if they would make some international long haul availability come up, and make their Star Alliance chart less expensive, that would be nice.
What do you make of the new changes at Air India Flying Returns?
Hi Ajay,
I have 2 lacs Air India miles and most of them are going to expire by this year end. I am not going to travel any where this year. Could you please tell me the best way I can use those miles? Is there any way to redeem it by buying a gift card?
Please let me know.
Thanks
The negative that they have done is to remove reward booking for any companion on the app. You can book only for self on the app now, if you want to use your reward points. Complained on twitter. No one bothered!!!