When it comes to loyalty programmes, Air India’s Flying Returns was one of the “not-preferred” options in India for a long time. I know scores of people who fly AI but post their miles to other loyalty programmes. Air India, also under the Government of India, literally removed their transfer partners one by one. Circa 2011, the programme used to have ten banks as transfer partners. Now, it only has two. But they might be finding their groove again. Last week, they introduced HSBC into the transfer partner list. Now there is a fresh addition to the list.

Air India Flying Returns adds Axis Bank as a transfer partner.

As of 2023 beginning, there were only two partnerships left for Air India FR, the SBI credit card partnership and Citibank (Prestige and PremierMiles transfer). How Citi escaped the list of transfer partner drawdowns remains one of the greatest mysteries of current times.

However, now Air India is adding partners again. Over the past few weeks, you might have heard of many earn partners and every week, an email arrives announcing a new partnership. Effective immediately, Axis Bank EDGE Rewards is added as an Air India Flying Returns transfer partner.

The transfer ratios are as follows:

• Burgundy Private & Magnus for Burgundy: 5 EDGE Rewards = 4 Air India Flying Returns Points
• Reserve & Magnus: 5 EDGE Rewards = 2 Air India Flying Returns Points
• ATLAS: 1 EDGE Mile = 2 Air India Flying Returns Points
• Select, Privilege and Rewards: 10 EDGE Rewards = 1 Air India Flying Returns Point
• Other Axis Bank Credit/Debit Cards: 20 EDGE Rewards = 1 Air India Flying Returns Point

While this is still a small list to be a part of right now, it is a step in the right direction for Air India’s programme. It will take up to five working days to credit points into your FR account after initiating the transfer.

The transfer partner, Axis Bank, on their side, has enabled this on the TravelEDGE website to accept transfer requests.

Bottomline

After years of shrinking the transfer partner list to dwindling it down to just one over a decade, Air India Flying Returns has signed on with Axis Bank as a transfer partner. You should be able to transfer points from Axis Bank Credit Cards EDGE Rewards/EDGE Miles to Air India FR almost immediately.

What do you make of this move to bring Axis Bank as a transfer partner?

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