One of the questions on every frequent traveller’s mind has perhaps been what happens to their hard-earned status with their airlines or their loyalty programme. In this regard, Air India had pretty good foresight, and they had initially extended status for all members till August 2020, and also frozen points expiry.

Air India, however, has now brought out their revised take on the loyalty programme announcement, and they have some pretty big and generous moves in comparison to Vistara at the moment. Air India has notified to their frequent flyer programme members, that their Flying Returns programme will be taking the following actions to ensure their members do not lose their points or status through the current pandemic outbreak.

To explain that briefly,

• Points Expiry will happen in January 2021. Any points due for expiry before that won’t be expired till December 31, 2020.
• Status quo on the status of members, as of March 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020. This means if your status is going to expire anytime after March 2020,  it has gotten an extension for the time being.

I know these moves are not a catch-all, and perhaps, even more, will be required depending on when we see this situation get behind us. For instance, how much flying needs to be done to retain their status. Still, currently, I am very impressed with the generous response of Air India to this situation for their 2 million or more frequent flyer members. Vistara sure will have some catching up to do as they have given a much more limited window to members to enjoy their status.

Bottomline

Air India members rejoice. If you are unable to fly in the next few months, you will still be getting your status perks once you take to the skies again. In a way when Air India Flying ‘Returns’, so do your points and status.

What do you make of the move from Air India to protect their member’s statuses?

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