Air India Flying Returns adds Axis Bank EDGE Rewards as a transfer partner

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.

a screenshot of a website

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?


Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay. Every contribution helps cover the cost of the content generated for your benefit.

(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. For international transactions, use Paypal to process the transaction.)

We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.

.

About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

More articles by Ajay »

Comments

  1. AI award chart is inflated. Almost 2X as compared to others. For example PNQ-DEL on Vistara is around 5 K but AI is around 10K.

    I don’t see any reason to transfer points to Flying returns.

    • @Krishnakumar, that chart was made in a different era. And it was UK that dropped their rates on economy (smart move) than Air India inflate their rates. On the other hand, business class will be at par for both, with UK at 18K and AI at 20k

      • Yes I agree. Just redeemed 16020 FR + Rs 2880 on BLR- BOM route for Business Class. UK price was 15000 CV + Rs 913.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *