Yesterday, I had a lot of highs and lows throughout the day, specially, when Jet Airways almost gutted the international redemption chart, and then withdrew their act later, commenting that it was a mistake and genuine enhancements are coming to the program.

Jet Airways was the first domestic airline to offer 100% miles on domestic sectors, a move they initiated in 2012, and offers these on all fare classes except maybe one. Air India has still not followed suit, and they frequently offer 25-50% of flown miles on most fare classes except the highest ones.

Anyhow, after yesterday’s snafu, I got a mailer last night, which I’m sure a lot more members would have also received. This discussed the new accrual structure for JP miles on flying Jet Airways, Jet Konnect and partner airlines. Here are the key changes.

Flying Jet Airways domestic or internationally, or Jet Airways codeshare flights operated by Etihad/other partners:

• For all segments less than 500 miles of flying, you still get a 500 mile minimum accrual when you fly economy, 750 when you fly business and 375 miles when you fly deep discounted tickets such as fare class B and G. This is for flying Jet Airways metal.
• For all segments longer than 500 miles of flying, nothing changes for economy flyers except when you fly deep discounted B fare tickets, which earlier earned 100% flown miles, now will earn 75% flown miles.
• While the cabin bonuses used to be different for Platinums and everyone else earlier, these have now been commonsized. So, everyone who flies Business Class gets 50% bonus miles over economy, and everyone who flies First Class gets 100% bonus miles over economy. The only ones losing out here are premium cabin Platinum members who lose out some extra cabin bonuses they’d earn earlier.

Flying JetKonnect domestic:

• JetKonnect operates either under S2 or under 9W IATA codes, but you earn the same amount of miles on both. Namely, if you fly deep discounted tickets, i.e., class B or G, you get a 250 miles minimum on less than 500 miles of flying, and 50% of flown miles when you fly over 500 miles.
• For all the other fare classes in economy, you get 375 miles minimum when you fly less than 500 miles, or 75% of flown miles when you fly over 500 miles.
• If you fly JetKonnect and are in the business cabin, just like Jet Airways you get 50% bonus of flown miles as cabin bonus.

You continue to earn tier bonuses for being an elite member, as there is no mention as yet that these are being withdrawn. Hence, Silver members get 10% bonus, Gold members get 20% bonus and Platinum members get 30% bonus on top of the base miles they earn for the flight.

Bottomline: I think some of these changes are rational, and some are targetted towards simplifying things. The floor minimum will enhance earnings for short haul flyers, such as those who do a lot of BOM-GOI, BLR-MAA or so on, and I know people who do a lot of flying on all these kind of sectors. Their earnings may go up 2-3 times, also tier miles they earn.

Some of the other changes such as flattening the cabin bonuses are simplifying things, while reducing miles earned on deep discount tickets, I won’t contest that. When you’re buying a ticket at 40% off, you shouldn’t be complaining getting a few miles less.

I hope I’ve managed to explain part 1 of the changes rolling out in the JetPrivilege program. I’m expecting to be back again with another update tomorrow, when Jet Airways will talk officially about the changes to the redemption structure.

Related Posts:

• JetPrivilege clarifies: Enhancements are in, gutting is out
• Breaking: Jet Airways redemption award chart gutting without any notice!
• Jet Airways revamps JetPrivilege program (in a good way!), adds benefits across the board!

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