Premier Miles

Tag Archives for Premier Miles.

4 days to take a call on your PremierMiles balances

At the end of 2014, Citibank made a decision that they wanted to devalue their PremierMiles a bit. A whole lot actually. So, they are moving the 1 PremierMile = 1 Airmile equation to 2 PremierMiles = 1 Airmile, bringing it to the valuation that American Express offers (2 MR = 1 Airmile). All good things come to an end, and here are my thoughts on why this happened. At this point of time, the moment of choice is here and there are four paths to take. You can do either of the following: Continue as is with your PremierMiles card, earn 10 PM/INR 100 for airline purchases and 4 PM/INR 100 for everything else. You are essentially earning 5…

Continue Reading »

PremierMiles Transfer: British Airways Avios

PremierMiles Devaluation w.e.f. February 1, 2015 PremierMiles to Etihad Guest conversion PremierMiles to Air India Flying Returns conversion PremierMiles to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer conversion I slacked up a bit on the PremierMiles conversion series due to Vistara’s launch last week, and an otherwise busy calendar. But let’s get cracking once again. One of the most interesting and useful points in the oneworld alliance are those of British Airways. A few years ago, they started calling them Avios, and this is the mileage currency used by British Airways as well as Iberia at the moment. Avios transfers frequently offer bonuses to credit card partners, at least once a year, but we haven’t seen any for 2015 at this point of time…

Continue Reading »

Don’t act in a haste on converting your PremierMiles

I’ve been on top of this PremierMiles situation since the day Citibank announced the upcoming devaluation. I can only thank my stars and yours that the devaluation is coming with a notice, and not unlike the time when Jet Airways and Citibank broke up relations overnight. Citibank will put the new transfer rates into effect from February 1, 2015, where each airmile conversion will work from 1 PM = 1 airmile to 2 PM = 1 airmile. So far, no changes are envisaged to hotel conversions. This means, even when you effect a transfer on January 30, 2015 you will still get a 1:1 conversion when it lands up into your frequent flyer account. I’ve seen loads of emails and…

Continue Reading »

PremierMiles Transfer: Air India Flying Returns

PremierMiles Devaluation w.e.f. February 1, 2015 PremierMiles to Etihad Guest conversion Since the devaluation of PremierMiles was announced last week, I am trying to post on all the options available for all of us to transfer into various frequent flyer programs, our hard earned PremierMiles. Yesterday, I wrote a post on Etihad Guest, and today, it is time for Air India’s Flying Returns program. I’ve covered bits and pieces of the Air India Flying Returns program over the times. Air India joined Star Alliance last year, so your miles on AI can now be used for redemptions on Star Alliance member carriers as well. On a whole, I find Air India’s program to be an expensive program, in comparison to…

Continue Reading »

PremierMiles Transfer: Etihad Guest

The year started on a not so great note, with Citibank announcing the devaluation of the PremierMiles transfer options. Over the next few days I am hoping to write posts evaluating in brief the options for transferring your PremierMiles, in case you are not happy with the new redemption rates of (2:1). Let us go straight off the bat with evaluating Etihad Guest. Since Jet Airways pulled out from the redemption options of PremierMiles in 2012, the only option for PremierMiles transfer for flying around India on award tickets was Air India or Kingfisher (since defunct). But Etihad joined the PremierMiles transfer options a while ago, and this seems like a great option to be able to fly in India,…

Continue Reading »

Some thoughts behind why PremierMiles were devalued

Yesterday, I put out the sad news about PremierMiles conversion changing from 1:1 to 2:1 and also the relatively minor devaluation of using PremierMiles as cash for booking tickets. I have a feeling I should lay out an educated guess about why conversion options are being hit more than the use as cash. This, is all a result of inflation over the years, as well as the foreign exchange movements over the years. First, about the inflation. I know inflation does not directly impact the price at which conversions should happen, and loyalty programs regularly adjust their redemption rates to account for inflation. However, maybe the price at which the loyalty programs sell to banks and other establishments also changes…

Continue Reading »