A few days ago, I did a dipstick survey with my readers about which were the miles they liked to accumulate and use most. I did get a fair number of responses, and on tabulating all of them, it looks like Citibank and JetPrivilege miles are the most popular ones, neck to neck with each other. The odd entries were the ones for AAdvantage and Emirates Skywards with one entry each. Air India Flying Returns miles showed up, but not in as many numbers as Citi and JP.
Citi (PremierMiles & Prestige)
Citibank offers the PremierMiles card which allows you to earn 10 miles/INR 100 spent on air tickets directly with the airline, as well as with certain other partners from time to time (Goibibo, flipkart and others for the time being). They allow you to transfer your miles to 10 different airline mileage programs in a 1:1 ratio (Air India, Qatar, Malaysian, Delta, Thai, British Airways, EvaAir, Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Singapore Airlines) and 3 hotel programs including the Taj, Hilton and IHG. You can also redeem your miles for a cash value of 0.50 INR at various websites. No wonder, it is one of the most popular miles out there. Prestige offers the same partners, and adds JetPrivilege to the list.
JetPrivilege
Jet Privilege, as the program for Jet Airways, has tieups with a lot of other airlines and can JetPrivilege miles can be used to book tickets on these other carriers as well. JetPrivilege changed their mileage redemption structure recently to make all redemptions inclusive of fuel surcharge. With the program now being owned by Etihad in majority, you can access seats on Etihad as well, apart from other carriers, albeit with a fuel surcharge. With a dominant network around the country and reasonable availability on most flights, they are a great option to burn miles for domestic trips.
What was a huge surprise for me was that Amex MR were not popular, but I can understand that given their massive devaluation over a period of time.
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Citibank has devalued Premier miles w.e.f. 1 Feb 2015. Now 2 PM= 1 AirMile. So Rs100 spent will earn you only 2 miles. This probably makes CitiPrestige the best possible option Rs. 100=1 Point= 4 Air Miles followed by HDFC Jet Privilege Master Card Rs. 100= 4 JPMiles.
AJ- Any suggestions ?
Time to revisit this survey, AJ! Severe dilution to the Premier Miles card effective February 1, 2014! 1 PM = 0.5 Air Miles 🙁
Prestige points can be transferred to Qatar?