Last week, I put out my first thoughts on the Air India Flying Returns’ program, after they joined in the Star Alliance. One of my first observations was that it is more expensive to burn on Star Alliance partners than to burn on Air India’s own metal for international travel. In the comments section, reader Krishnakumar makes a note: Just spoke to Flying Returns agent over the phone. He says that since I am Base Member of flying returns, I cannot redeem AI miles on Star alliance. You need to be Silver , gold or Maharaja member ! To which I was very surprised. However, today he came back reconfirming this statement: Dear AJ, I reconfirmed. FR told me that…
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First look at Air India Star Alliance award chart
Air India has joined the Star Alliance today, culminating a seven-year long effort to get inside the world’s largest club of airlines. One of the things that also changes then, is the Flying Returns program, which will now offer earn and burn opportunities across the Star Alliance network of airlines. I had indicated earlier in this post about how will Air India elite members be mapped to Star Alliance tiers, and how will they be able to receive benefits today onwards. However, the new earning chart for Star Alliance carriers has just been released a while ago. Earning on Air India for Star Alliance member flights: While you can have a detailed look at the PDF, here are the broad…
Air India gets set for Star Alliance
The big day is still about 12-15 hours away, but Air India seems to be ready this time to join the Star Alliance. In 2011, they were jilted at the altar, and now Star Alliance and Air India have kissed and made up. Here are a couple of pictures of the Air India A320 VT-ESF, which is painted in the Star Alliance livery for tomorrow’s induction ceremony. At a later date, there will also be a Boeing 787 painted in the Star Alliance livery as well. Pictures courtesy OmniFlyers’ Facebook page. It seems at least two other airlines will fly their Star Alliance livery planes to India tomorrow, and there will be a star formation at Delhi Airport for the…
Air India Star Alliance ties begin to emerge
While I have not been on an Air India plane in about 40 days or more now, Air India is now about 4 days away from getting inducted into the Star Alliance, and first pictures have begin to emerge of how they are sporting the logo on their livery and around the airline. This looks real now, and official in 4 days I presume: This is a picture taken by OnePassenger and posted on FlyerTalk. Of course, I am looking forward to sighting the A320 and the B787 which will be painted and unveiled in the Star Alliance livery on July 11, 2014. Related Posts: How will the Indian flyer benefit with Air India joining Star Alliance Air India to…
Air India confirms benefits for elite members on joining Star Alliance
Air India has been working to get ready for the Star Alliance, and one of the common question I have been asked over the past few days was about the benefits that members will be able to get as Star Alliance elites. I had made a post last week about my expectation on what will be the benefits for AI flyers on joining the Star Alliance. One of the remarks was on the expected outcome of status equalisation with Star Alliance tiers. Here was what I wrote: Air India elites will now be Star Alliance Elites: Air India has 4 membership levels: Base, Silver, Gold and Platinum called Member, Silver Edge, Golden Edge and Maharajah Club. You cannot earn elite…
Air India set to fly to Moscow from July 18, 2014
Air India is on a roll these days expanding its international network, on the back of the 787s that are coming into their fleet. And I like it, purely because they are an international airline and need to be connecting to various countries to be able to be called on. Yes, they are losing money, but if they have a fighting chance to try their way back into being the preferred airline for Indians, they had to go international. After moving many of their loss-making routes to the 787s, they are now focussing on starting new ones. They recently launched flights to Italy, and are now going to launch flights to Russia again. This route was served long time ago,…
How will the Indian flyer benefit with Air India joining Star Alliance
Earlier this week, I put out the news about the official joining date for Air India to come into Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance. July 11, 2014 would be the day when they become the 27th airline to join the alliance. Readers have asked me over email and comments about the details of how is this going to impact their travels, and I thought it would be a good idea to make a post on how things will be different with Air India here on. While details are sketchy, I’m sure we will have more details soon. More destinations and choices: When an alliance comes into the picture, all the airlines codeshare with each other to be able to…
Air India to join Star Alliance on July 11, 2014
My question seems to have been answered. Via the Mint newspaper, it seems like the CEO board of Star Alliance finally voted to receive Air India in their network, and Air India will be joining the network formally about 20 days from now: State-owned Air India Ltd will join the Star Alliance grouping on 11 July … The person cited above said the airline will join the alliance on 11 July and one of Air India’s Airbus A320 will be painted in Star Alliance colours for the event. As per the Wandering Aramean, Air India has begin to show up on the Star Alliance internal websites as well, and you can check out this information at www.starallianceemployees.com. There is a…
Air India to be finally a part of Star Alliance soon?
I guess there is not much suspense left in this one, but I am still not saying it is done till it is done. If you remember, one of the earliest posts on this blog was about Air India being jilted from the Star Alliance. Now, their is much begging, pleasing and a lot of backroom action that has happened in line up to today’s meeting of the CEO board of Star Alliance, where Air India’s membership for the Star Alliance will be voted upon the second time in seven years. Word is expected later this evening about the outcome. Air India joining the Star Alliance not just gives Star Alliance members access to facilities and flights of Air India…
Air India extends 25% award redemption discount till 30 June 2014
In late April, I had written about Air India’s Flying Returns program offering a 25% discount for redemption tickets on Air India flights, for flights which will be taken before May 31, 2014. This is a very generous discount promotion, because of two reasons: The promotion is valid for domestic and international flights both, only on Air India metal, unlike Jet Airways 20% discount past 2 years which was only valid for Domestic flights. The promotion is valid across classes of travel, all the way up to first class. Now, they have extended this promotion for travel in June 2014 as well, and as a result if you will book yourself a ticket on Air India via miles, you should…
Air India offering double miles on Italy flight
I recently wrote about the launch of Air India’s flight to Milan and Rome, and how they were offering a sweet deal from anywhere in India to be able to get you over to Italy. Air India is now offering a double miles promotion on their frequent flyer program Flying Returns for those who choose to fly between India and Italy or vice versa on AI by July 31, 2014. If you will be connecting from anywhere in India, you won’t get double miles for your intra-India flight, but on your India-Italy or vice versa route you should clock double miles. AI has not updated the mileage calculator on their website yet, but Delhi-Milan should earn 3834 miles one way…
