Jet Airways has come out with a new promotion for flyers wanting to purchase Jet Privilege miles on their program. Here is the offer they make:

• 500 JPMiles to 2000 JPMiles -> 10% more JPMiles
• 2001 JPMiles to 4000 JPMiles -> 20% more JPMiles
• 4001 JPMiles to 6000 JPMiles -> 30% more JPMiles
• above 6000 JPMiles -> 40% more JPMiles

JP Miles are usually priced at INR 1.25 per JP Mile (about 2.3 cents). Using this promotion at the highest end of purchasing more than 6,000 JP Miles per transaction, the cost per JPMile becomes INR 0.90 per JP Mile (about 1.6 cents) accounting for the 40% bonus. The offer is valid till 31st August 2012.

I see it as an opportunity to take up some miles to top-up your account if you need them, otherwise you can just pass! Here is why.

If you are a flyer primarily inside India, then you can combine this promotion with the 20% off domestic redemptionsas well. As per my calculations, however, this will not work out cheaper on any segments if you decide to go for redemption after buying miles, and will cost you a tier-point as well.

If you are looking forward to flying internationally, then you will anyways have a hard time finding seats on the Jet Airways network, more so in the premium cabin. However, there is an extensive network of 24 airline partners and you can use your miles for redemption on these partner airlines. Partners include Air France, ANA, AA, CX, QF, UA and TK. Some very reasonable award tickets can be had on this extended network, sometimes with reasonable surcharges.

Also, if you need the miles, don’t forget, you get 25% bonus on credit card conversions till 31st May 2012.

Related Posts:

• Jet Airways offers 25% bonus on credit card conversions to miles till 31st May 2012
• Jet Airways offers 20% off on reward redemptions till Sep 30,12
• JetPrivilege 20% discount on redemption pulled for international sectors

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I really thought this was a technical glitch but looks like this is not. Like I wrote a few days back, Jet Airways made a few changes to the JetPrivilege program in late March 2012. One of the main changes was the earning rate for domestic flights in India, where Jet Airways upgraded the program to offer 100% mileage credit to all domestic flights in India.

Now, I really expected to earn 100% miles when this change happened but I was thoroughly confused over the past few weeks about the real offering here. Everytime I wanted to book a ticket, lets say BOM-DEL, I would be offered a 532 miles for travel, whereas the real distance between the two cities, as per GCMap is 705 Miles.

I thought it would be a glitch, so I tried looking for other sectors but almost every segment I checked domestically, I found the same problem. BOM-BLR which is my other frequented sector, at 517 miles distance is being accrued at 399 miles by Jet Airways.

And it is not like this is a systemwide glitch. because all the international flights were showing the correct mileage (on international flights Jet Airways already offers 100% mileage earning). Here is a screenshot from GCMap and Jet Airways.

I wrote to Jet Airways a few days back, but I still haven’t heard from them on why this issue is not rectified. So I am not sure how accruals are happening at this moment when the distances are all wrong.

What are your experiences with Jet Airways under the new program.

Related Posts

• JetPrivilege 20% discount on redemption pulled for international sectors
• Jet Airways revamps JetPrivilege program (in a good way!), adds benefits across the board!
• Steady availibility on Jet Airways international flights for redemption tickets
• Jet Airways offers 20% off on reward redemptions till Sep 30,12

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This week, I wrote up on the various changes made to Indian Frequent Flyer Programs in the past quarter, and you can read it here!

You can look up the previous columns here!

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