So I have been telling you to go get yourselves the Citibank PremierMiles Credit Card for a while, right? Like I recently wrote, Citibank and Jet Airways walked away from the Jet Airways co-branded partnership. But this seems to have had a huge impact on the ability of Citibank to run its PremierMiles program as well.
A few days after this move, Citibank PremierMiles portal www.premiermiles.co.in could not display any tickets on Jet Airways, either for revenue or for redemption.
What validated the assumption that Jet Airways/Jet Konnect was not showing up on the PremierMiles website by design was this little note that turns up every now and then asking you to book on the Jet Airways website and get 10 PM per 100 Rs. spent.
It is also very clear that Citibank is not allowed to display Jet Airways inventory for PremierMiles redemptions anymore. Therefore, the earlier offer of getting the ‘best’ redemptions on your PremierMiles by redeeming for 10% less on Jet Airways international routes seems to have been quietly withdrawn. All you get to see on a redemption search now is:
So, primarily Citibank is not being allowed to display Jet Airways for redemptions like I stated above, and as a face-saving work around, they are now asking you to book tickets directly with Jet Airways and they will refund by redeeming PremierMiles.
But is it good value for money? I do not think so at all. You can book redemption tickets, lets assume, BOM-DEL (my frequent route), for 8,400 PremierMiles in Y if you book on any low-cost airline using the PremierMiles portal. Similarly, you can book for 10,450 PremierMiles if you book on any full-service airline (Kingfisher and Air India).
On Jet Airways’ own JetPrivilege redemptions, you can get a redemption ticket for 8,400 JP Miles in Y on BOM-DEL (for travel till September 30, 2012) and 10,500 JP Miles afterward.
Both the options include a small component recovered in cash, largely towards Fuel Surcharge, Taxes and Passenger Service Fee etc.
The new mechanism suggested by Citibank is totally out of whack however, and I can’t digest it yet unless you are booking far out in advance, since now all Jet Airways redemptions are on variable basis. Have a look on 31st August, where for 9W312 you could get a ticket for 8,400 JP Miles redemption, however if you had to buy it, you would have to shell out INR 8,868 at least.
Now, if you wanted Citibank to redeem your PremierMiles to cover this reservation, you are basically going to end up shelling out 17,336 PremierMiles for this redemption. On an international ticket, this magnifies manyfold! For example, a BOM-BRU-BOM ticket in Y, pricing at INR 66,482 all inclusive, would work out to 132,964 PremierMiles. However, if you redeemed a ticket on Jet Airways JetPrivilege directly, in Y, it would come to 54,000 JP Miles plus fuel surcharges etc. for 108,000 JP Miles you would get a BOM-BRU-BOM ticket in Jet Airways Premiere.
This, is a BAD value proposition, and thereby, keep away from it to make sure you don’t spend away your hard earned miles on nothing.
Related Posts:
- New partners on the Citibank PremierMiles card and 1 week to convert from Jet Airways CC
- Citibank Premier Miles Card changes and special promo on international spends
- Burn Notice: Citibank and Jet Airways – friends turning foes!
- Sunday Plastic: The ‘new’ Citibank Premier Miles Credit Card
- The Citibank Premier Miles Credit Card: It Works!
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Hi AJ,
The 9w redemption example that you gave above for Bom-Bru-Bom in Y for INR 66000/- and Premier miles redemption at 132K. Does the 132K also cover the tax and fuel surcharge component? or 132 thousand miles is only for the basic fare?
Will await your reply.
Regards
@theflyingsikh, the example is for all inclusive, but it is expensive in my view because on Jet’s own site, you’d get it for 54k miles plus some money.
Dear AJ
Happy to report that after extracting the last of the TRIPLE MILES offer on the JACC by going on a needless shopping binge yesterday[15th july] with wife and kids,I called CITIBANK at 9m last night and was overjoyed to hear that offer of 10000 miles on conversion is still on.
I also agree with you that in this case JET was the bad boy,as You can still get to buy JET tickets with the PM card with the 10miles per Rs 100 spent benifit even if you cant redeem PMs on JET.Doubt if HDFC ,AMEX or ICICI could match CITI PM.
MORAL OF THE STORY; BUY with CITI PM and Fly JET
Thanks chief, got that cleared up.
Thx AJ. That’s quite sneaky of Citibank.
Couple of questions I have:
a) Instead of redeeming Jet tkts is it not possible to convert/transfer PM miles to JP miles? I was under the impression that it is.
b) Where can I learn more abt fare-classes? (Y etc) and except for prices, is there any difference for a FF in terms of miles or tier miles?
c) Is there a FF Primer-101 to read somewhere for an Indian passenger. Most of forums I read a few yrs back were more US/West centric. Haven’t looked at them off late though.
My Citi-PM is in process. Will let you know when card arrives. Thx for yr guidance 🙂
@Suhail, I will take up some of your suggestions in later blog posts. I would like to put the blame on Jet Airways and not Citi since they are arm-twisting Citi into not offering tickets on PremierMiles.co.in … And if you read this post http://livefromalounge.boardingarea.com/2012/05/23/burn-notice-citibank-and-jet-airways-friends-turning-foes/ you would realise Jet is the one at fault for no conversion to JP miles 1:1 and no offer of tickets on the website.