There are a tonne of things going on at Air India. Some of these we know about, such as the new aircraft order. Others, we have to sniff around and find out by ourselves. I’m still figuring out this one myself, so I am putting it out as a question rather than an answer for now.

Has Air India overly simplified their earn and burn for the Flying Returns members?

Air India’s erstwhile representation of the Flying Returns programme used to credit points to Air India members based on distance flown as well as the Booking Class of the ticket. That meant if you booked a cheap economy ticket, they would go down to the exact ticket RBD/ fare code and credit points to you accordingly. However, now Air India has moved to fare families to offer you points on your tickets (where many RBDs/Booking Classes are clubbed under one fare family). Both Earning and Burning have moved to this model, at least by the visual representation presented by Air India on their newly refreshed website.

Here are some instances of how the system used to work compared with how it works now. For example, on Mumbai – Delhi, earlier, you would get as little as 292 Tier Points/Redeemable Points to as high as 1210 Tier Points/Redeemable Points, depending on which RBD (the letter of the alphabet which depicts your fare rules).

 

Now, per the new Air India website, you get between 403 points at the minimum and 1008 points at the maximum for Economy tickets booked on this route, depending on your fare family.

Similarly, for upgrades in this sector, earlier, one needed between 3500 to 10,000 points to upgrade from Economy to Business Class, again, depending on the exact fare category.

 

This has now changed, which the cheaper tickets on the lower end of the fare scale needing 8500 Air India Points for an upgrade and only 4500 points for an upgrade for the most flexible tickets.

The differences are more stark in international sectors, of course. For example, for an economy class ticket between Mumbai to New York JFK, you could earn between 2,000 to 10,400 Air India Points.

Now, the floor is set at 3,200 Air India Points and a maximum of 8000 Air India points on the segment.

For Business Class, the floor has also gone up from a minimum of 9200 points to 12000 points.

If everything here is accurate and as represented, Air India has improved the lowest earning rates on their flights. Still, this is a net loss for the guy buying the last seat on the plane because they will no longer be able to get the credit for their flights as per the earlier schedule, which gave them about 25% more miles than even the lowest full-fare category.

Has anyone credited any flights to Air India recently to notice the changes? Is this all true or just smoke and mirrors (a straightforward representation, but the actuality is different?) Curious to hear from the readers in the comments below.

Bottomline

Air India has quietly changed the earn and burn structure, as represented on the Air India (refreshed) website for Air India’s Flying Returns programme. In this move, they have moved from a different slab (by sector and RBD) to the fare families concept. It is, howsoever, unclear if this is a live change or just a representative move.

What do you think of the new Air India earn and burn structure?

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