Some airlines, such as British Airways, offer a miles co-pay option when you book tickets to fly on them. You would usually get an option to reduce the cost of your ticket on BA by burning a few miles, whether it is a value move or not, is arguable. No Indian carrier has come up with a similar scheme, till recently.
JetPrivilege has, however, recently added the ability to redeem JPMiles for Jet Airways gift cards, that can be used to adjust the value when booking tickets on jetairways.com. This is sort of like cash+miles, but with its own set of caveats.
There are three denominations on offer which are INR 500, INR 1,000 and INR 1,500 currently available for a discounted redemption against 1,211 JPMiles, 2,422 JPMiles and 3,630 JPMiles respectively. The INR 500 gift voucher can be used when booking a one-way ticket while the INR 1,000 and INR 1,500 vouchers can only be used for round trips.
After you make the required payment, expect to receive a pdf digital gift card under the “My Rewards” tab on rewardstore.jetprivilege.com within 72 hours. To redeem a voucher, add the assigned promo code while booking your next domestic or international flight. The promo code is valid for six months from the date of issue.
So what’s the catch? For starters, the promo code gives you a discount on the base fare. Any other discounts such as the 10% discount using Jet Airways Global Linker is no longer applicable. Also, only one gift card can be used at a time which means you can’t stack multiple gift cards to pay for the ticket purely using these vouchers.
The other thing to note is that these gift cards are not applicable on all fare classes. A quick search for a one-way flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru on September 7, 2018, will give you fares starting from Light fares, priced at INR 1,885.
But when you do the same search after applying the INR 500 promo code, the fares start from Deal fares, priced at INR 1,898 after the discount. So the 1,211 JPMiles gives you a chance to pay more for practically the same ticket.
If you end up redeeming some of your JPMiles for these vouchers like I did, the value of each JPMile on these transactions adds up to around INR 0.41 while the lowest one can buy JPMiles for is around INR 0.83. In the end, it all boils down to individual use cases of these gift cards. We are still debating what is the sweet spot of the use of these gift cards.
Bottomline
JPMiles for Jet Airways gift cards is their take on the popular cash+miles option offered by other airlines. Though offering a flat discount, redeeming your JPMiles for these vouchers may not get you the best value if you are looking to shop for the lowest fare of the day.
Do you have any ideas where these gift cards give great value? Let us know.
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