Like I wrote last week, JetPrivilege is working on having a new partner award chart in place as of April 1, 2016. This takes away the 23 zones which currently constitute the JetPrivilege Partner network, and makes them into 13 zones. To be fair to Jet, these partner tables are changing after more than a decade, and are essential to harmonize the award chart. For example, BOM-LHR on Jet’s own metal cost 42.5K miles in economy, while on a partner award, you could get it for lesser at 31K Miles one .

Also, due to the new award chart, some simplification would come in too. For instance, Europe was all over the place divided up in to 3 separate zones, and now it will be just one zone. This helps you because in some cases ticketing via JP Miles will go down. Earlier, you needed 10-25K JPMiles for a ticket intra-Europe, this will now change to 15K miles across the board.

Timelines

As per JetPrivilege, they are switching to the new award chart for partners on April 1, 2016. Which means if you bring in your requests before March 31, 2016 you should be able to get your foot in the door with the old award chart. You need to request an award booking 14 days before travel date, so if you want to travel further into 2016, you could make your request now.

The Old Award Chart

Here is the zone definition of the old award chart:

Here are the redemption requirements under the old chart (miles required are for round trip travel, hence for one-way trips it will cost half the miles)

Ticketing Process

There is a separate desk which tickets partner awards, hence the ticketing is not done online or by the phone. You need to either email a request on jpredemption (at) jetprivilege (dot) com, or you can use the online website (JetPrivilege>Partner Award) to initiate a request. You need to be logged into your account to be able to select the online option.

If you choose to use the online method, it will show you the number of miles required after you fill in the details. You can add more segments if you have further travel planned as well. :

After you continue, you will be presented with a screen to input the details of the passenger, and the contact details. Alternatively, you can send them the information via the form on the website.

You will receive a response from the JetPrivilege team usually within 48 hours about your request, and will inform you about the routings possible, and the miles & money required in case you continued with the request. You can usually cross verify the surcharges from ITA Matrix as well. There is no harm in choosing connections, but stopovers are a no-no. Also, you can mix and match your partner airlines.

Once an itinerary is finalised, it will be sent over to you for confirmation over email, and the award is put on hold. Once you confirm the itinerary, you will get a call, where you are put on to an IVR system to collect the payment from you and issue the tickets.

Things to remember

Firstly, award bookings are non-refundable in case of partner awards. So proceed with booking only when you are absolutely sure of your plans! Next, act quick when Jet calls back. Usually, there is not much time to go around since the award is already on hold and will be dropped within 48 hours.

Bottomline

If you have travels coming up over the year ahead, it could be a great use of your JPMiles, since you can try out 29 other airline products except for Jet Airways using these miles. So, if you have firm plans, you should move ahead to book them now.

P.S.: You could use our award booking service as well!