Earlier Posts:

• Jet Airways inadvertently exposes new redemption structure
• Jet Airways retracts new redemption structure
• Jet Privilege announces new earning structure w.e.f. August 1, 2014

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Whenever an airline makes it very easy to earn miles, they also come to a point where they devalue them, and call them adjustments. However, in the case of Jet Airways, they released the new redemption rules by mistake last week, and my determination was that the airline is slashing miles required on many a domestic routes but redemptions on international routes are going to be hit very hard.

Today, they officially released the new redemption chart, and have given us a month to utilise the old redemption chart before they go through with the new rates for redemption. Take note, this announcement is only for Jet Airways and Jet Konnect flights on various routes. There is no mention on the requirements for partner flights.

Minimum miles for a redemption: JetPrivilege has raised the bar on redemptions. While earlier the minimum redemption requirement was a minimum of 4000 JPMiles, now the minimum miles required for a redemption are 5000 JPMiles.

Fuel Surcharges are eliminated: Jet Airways has adjusted the number of miles required on nearly all routes and knocked off fuel surcharges from the ticket prices. Henceforth, you only need to pay the statutory charges to redeem your ticket such as airport taxes.

Domestic Redemptions are getting much better: Like I mentioned in my post the last week, most redemptions for domestic flights are slightly being adjusted. While the 4000 JP Miles minimum flights are all moving to 5000 JP Miles minimum, there are a lot of routes going down in terms of redemption value as well. And that too with fuel surcharges going away. With this, Domestic redemptions become the sweet spot of Jet Airways JetPrivilege programme.

Out of the 244 routes published by Jet Airways in the domestic redemption table, 174 will now cost a lesser number of miles, and 70 will cost more number of miles. The upside is at best 25% more miles, while on the downside, there are routes which now require 50% miles less as well in some cases, such as Bhopal – Chandigarh.

International Redemptions are getting much much expensive: Like I mentioned earlier, travelling on Jet Airways’ own metal, abroad, is going to get very very bad. The fuel surcharges are going away, however, the number of miles required is going up significantly in most cases, including the premium classes.

• Neighbouring Stations: No trends here. Kolkata-Dhaka, Colombo-Chennai, become 50% more expensive, while Delhi-Kathmandu, Abu Dhabi-Kuwait become 50% cheaper for redemptions.
• Regional Routes: No adjustment when you fly from Delhi/Mumbai – Dhaka, Mumbai – Colombo/Muscat/Kathmandu/Dhaka/Abu Dhabi.
• Flights between India – Middle East: Most flights between India and the Middle East are going up by 12-50% in terms of number of miles required.
• Flights between India – South East Asia: All flights to South East Asia will now require 50% more miles across the board from September 1, 2014.
• Transatlantic Flights: Flights between Europe and North American on Jet Airways’ network will cost almost double now using JPMiles. For instance, the business class which used to cost 40,000 miles will now be 75000 miles between Brussels and Newark.
• India – Europe/North America Flights: India to Europe/North America will see an inflation of 57-60% in terms of number of miles required in all classes of service.

Why do I call this gutting the premium cabin charts: When I redeemed miles for an India/USA business class round trip on Jet Airways a few years back, fuel surcharges on a round trip were about INR 25,000. In today’s day and age, they are about INR 39,000.  So, a Jet Airways business class between Mumbai and New York today costs me 188000 miles + 39000 INR Fuel Surcharge + INR 6300 statutory charges. A revenue ticket costs me INR 230,000. Hence, the value of 188000 miles is worth INR 185000, so near about INR 1 in value per JPMile.

From September 1, 2014, Jet Airways wants to charge me 300000 JPMiles for the same round trip in Business Class. Which means, in mileage terms, for the same ticket of INR 230,000 they want to charge me 300000 JPMiles. Hence, the value of a mile reduces from INR 1 to INR 0.75.

Economy cabin redemptions might just work out better: Another example, for economy class this time. A BOM-HKG economy class round-trip ticket costs INR 30000. In the current redemption structure, which is anyways stupid for this kind of route, they wanted us to pay 40000 JP miles + INR 14000 Fuel Surcharge and INR 3076 as Airport taxes. Hence, the value of a JP Mile came down to a lowwwwwwwww INR 0.33.

Under the new structure, they want you to pay 60000 JP Miles + INR 3076. Which means for the same fare, you now get a value of INR 0.45.

For India – Europe, lets say a revenue ticket costs INR 53000 for a roundtrip. In the current redemption structure, with INR 25000 fuel surcharge, you end up paying 54000 JPMiles+25000 INR (YQ)+INR 5000 (airport taxes etc) to get there, bringing the value of a mile to INR 0.42.

Under the new structure, it is going to be 85000 JPMiles for a roundtrip to Europe in economy, so you at least get INR 0.56 of value.

The best part is, I have not even accounted/adjusted for the potential miles you earn on a revenue ticket to come at the valuation for international segments.

Bottomline: Jet Airways clearly wants you to redeem domestically and not on their international flights. If you like the older structure better, you could redeem miles now for your travels upto 331 days out. Else, wait for the new structure to kick in on September 1, 2014.

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