One of the interesting things I did for the first time last month, was a tier-point run. I’ve done mileage runs back in the day about 4-5 years ago to get status on American Airlines for the first time, but I usually qualify for status on my own for the past few years.
Jet Airways is my most preferred airline around India, and I stick with them for many a reasons, including their loyalty program and privileges. As a platinum member, I’ve used many a privileges over the years:
- Pre-reservation of seats
- Free cancellation on domestic tickets
- Lounge Access with a +1
- 50% tier bonus JP Miles
- 5 Upgrade vouchers valid on any fare class
- Ability to check in on Business-class counters
There are many a soft benefits as well, for instance, a JP Platinum usually gets topmost priority on an upgrade if the airline needs to move passengers into a cabin ahead due to the flight being oversold.
A few months back, due to my carelessness, I was downgraded to JP Gold. Now, Gold members in their own right get treated very well on Jet Airways, however, Platinums are treated better than that. Some of the benefits such as cancellation fees being waived off is only applicable to JP Platinum members, which adds immense flexibility in my plans.
With the recent move by JetPrivilege to award more than one tier-point to Economy class bookings, I saw an opportunity to regain the status quicker than I’d usually have thought. On Jet Airways’ website, you can monitor tier-points/tier-miles required for renewing your status, or upgrading your status here.
Now, Jet Airways reviews your status on a daily basis, which means one day I may have an opportunity to regain status, and the next day it may be gone. On the upgrade tab, one can set the date into the future and see how many TPs or Tier Miles are required to upgrade to the next tier. I figured that I had tonnes of Tier Points this year due to some business class trips earlier in the year, which would stop counting after a point of time. So, I was pretty close and needed only 7 tier-points in July 2015 to be able to win back my Platinum status.
Being busy with my wedding preparations, I did not have much time to take this opportunity on and hence I decided to do a tier-point run to make this work. I only had one day free on my calender, and I could either buy some expensive business class tickets to get 2-3 tier points on a sector, or buy some not-so-expensive tickets and do a run in Economy. I settled for the following route:
I headed out from Mumbai on a red-eye to Ahmedabad, which arrived early. I was sort of hoping I’d manage to get on an earlier return, but they closed the flight just about when I could make it to the counter. After a BOM-AMD-BOM run, I was back in Mumbai at about 8 am, and I headed back home to get a nice nap. Later in the day I headed back to the airport to get on my flight to Goa. I figured since I was anyways going to head to Goa, I could drop some stuff at the host hotel of my wedding which may be required a couple of weeks later. This was a wise move in hind sight, since I saved up over 20 kgs in baggage allowance for other stuff later.
A couple of days later, I got the status upgrade on my account, and this was a lot of help shuttling between my parents home and my home in the last week of July!
Anyone else made good use of Jet’s new tier-point counts or the promotion where they were offering 1-tier point for booking online? Would love to hear your experiences.
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Hi Ajay, can I just transfer my credit card points and get upgraded to jet platinum from blue? Is flying/tier points a must to get upgraded? With platinum, I think can jet credit card also free being a jet platinum member. I don’t fly much but can use the free upgrade vouchers which will come with platinum. Newbie question 🙂
@GKcards of course not! Else we would have all been platinum for life 🙂
Hi AJ,
I did a mileage run on a Sunday in June to gain my Platinum status on Jet. Jet was running a business class sale and I got my hands on HYD-BOM-HYD business class tickets for just Rs. 13000. Took a flight at 09:25, reached BOM at 11 and got back on the 13:15 flight from BOM-HYD. This run got me 8 tier points, which helped me to upgrade to Platinum. BTW, good to see you back.
Regards.
@AJ Using BA even after the devaluation ?
You can use Air Berlin or Alitalia and earn elite miles on Jet, I was surprised that Etihad Partner airlines offer benefits (lounge access, etc) to Jet elites.
@Ashutosh, convenience matters still and thats where BA steps in with 2x options a day to go to Europe for me.
@ Chandar: You can review the terms and conditions of the Jet vouchers on the reverse side. I haven’t even tried using mine lately, so best to check what it says on yours…
Hi Aj,
I’m a recent follower of Ur blog.. it’s very interesting. I’m also a JP platinum, the upgrade vouchers do say that from any class of booking u can upgrade. But I’ve been denied sometimes if it is a redeemed miles ticket. sometime I pushed my luck and got an upgrade when I was flying with my wife.. so it was all fun.. have u faced something like this before?
Thanks,
Chandar
@Chandar vouchers are for revenue ticket upgrades and not mileage tickets. Jet is right in their denial to you.
Hi AJ,
Glad to see you’re back.
I took full advantage of both promos and made Gold from blue in 3 months and 5 domestic round trips (none full fare).
Whats more is that I got full Gold benefits on a recent international trip (horrible itinerary).
The Alitalia lounge in Rome is very beautiful, which international lounges have you visited (and found good) as a Jet elite ?
Thanks,
Ashutosh
@Ashutosh I used to frequent their Brussels Lounge. Now moved my Europe business to BA.
You are back indeed 🙂
Jet food is worst among all the airlines and their rate rates are always higher than others – a good 1.5k-4k above. Dont know what’s special…..
@Antonio, it is a personal choice. Using the Ixigo Cashback you can conveniently get INR 750-1000 off per ticket.
Seriously, Jet Airways has some serious soul-searching to do.
I was not able to get them to reply effectively for about 3 award different itineraries – and 1 or 2 of them they haven’t even replied to yet!
What is the real point? Okay, maybe those few (6?) points you mentioned are reasons why – but half of them are invalid and you are just giving them revenue for no reason.
I would definitely do it with only 7 tiers and if I was flying a lot. However, I am now choosing to fly AI when possible. (in the next few days I have a choice between 9w and AI on the same route, where 9w runs a ATR and AI gives us a CRJ – we leave later, get there before the 9w flight)
Better to earn a few UA miles (I have even requalified for 1K, so don’t need the PQM) rather than earn effectively useless 9w miles…
I hope they can change their performance somewhat soon – then I would be more motivated to fly Jet!