Update: Jet Airways came back with a clarification. Check here.

The ball has dropped. This is unofficial but a developing story. Okay, enough for the sensationalism. This morning, I was playing around with the Jet Airways website, trying to tuck in a redemption or few. I hadn’t gotten in on their up to 50% off sale fare, so I wanted to make some redemptions to go places.

I noticed that there are changes in the award chart. Get some water, gulp it down, and then lets go over the changes till the end.

Domestic Redemptions: Between –30 to +20% miles in most cases from October 2014

Here is a link to the old redemption chart. While I did not manage to compare all sectors, I do notice a trend, that redemptions are usually about 20%-30% cheaper in terms of miles as compared to the earlier rate, and in some cases, 20% more expensive. I can live with that I’d say. Here are some sectors for comparison sake. Although I invite you to add your observations in the comments section as well about sectors you see going up or down.

Now, get a shot of tequila before you read this

International Redemptions: Getting gutted to the core with 60% more miles required!

International redemptions have not been Jet Airways’ sweet spot for the longest time. They price your redemptions on a per flight basis, add huge fuel surcharges, sometimes good enough for the price of a new economy ticket itself, and then want to take away your miles as well as lots of money from you for travelling on their own metal! And now, they are treading a line which is not even funny. As I see the redemptions for August 1, 2014 I see a new redemption rate for most international sectors, and this has not gone down but up in case of all mid-long haul flights.

And you can’t even catch the bus anymore. This morning, the new rates have been loaded in the online booking system, and if you have not booked your award ticket so far, you can’t get in on the old rates anymore. Errata. BOM-EWR is 150000 and I will update the excel later again (I deleted the draft!)

Eh, I don’t appreciate these changes from Jet Airways at all. But what I don’t appreciate even more, is the lack of notice. People work to accumulate miles towards their aspirational vacations. In this case, with the stroke of a mouse, someone has moved the goalpost much much ahead. This is a loss of credibility in the airline business, very much so.

The right way to make any changes is to give people notice that changes will come ahead, and give them a few days or weeks to redeem at the old pricing before sneaking these changes in. THIS IS JUST NOT DONE.

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