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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Through a friend working for Jet Airways a while back, I had heard the murmurs of Jet Airways planning a new 50 Rs. fee. This time around, for all the (e)ticket printouts, but I laughed it off when I heard of it in March. I thought, a full-service carrier of that stature would not really go to these extents, but they did. Yesterday morning, some flyers were surprised to see a new charge come up ‘with immediate effect’.

And later in the day came an email to all JetPrivilege members:

Dear Mr. AJ,

This is to bring to your notice that effective immediately, requests received for duplicate e-ticket printouts at Airline Ticketing Offices and City Ticketing Offices in India across Jet Airways and JetKonnect will attract a fee of 50 per e-ticket (revenue / award ticket) reprint.

Please note that this fee is applicable only to requests for a reprint / duplicate copy of the existing booking.

JetPrivilege Platinum members are exempted from the e-ticket reprintcharge.

Warm regards,

Kaushal Satam
Head – JetPrivilege

Now, there is a fundamental problem with this new model. Jet Airways is not quite the Indian RyanAir yet although it is trying to be one under the skin of being a Full-Service Carrier. The next thing they would ask me for is to buy a ticket to use their bus from the airport to the steps of the plane, and then, maybe someday to take a trip to the loo on the flight. That also means one of the privileges as a top-tier with Jet Airways (Platinum) would also be that you can get your trip to the loo free!

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for bringing my own copy of the ticket, since you definitely need one to access the airports in India. The security establishment posted at Indian airports is the one who needs these tickets (they want to see you are a part of the travelling party before you get access to the airport!) and showing your PNR/ticket PDF on your smartphones just wouldn’t do it for them. So, compulsorily you need to carry paper around even when you don’t need it.

That said, I almost never need to show a proof of travel till my first barrier (usually the airline check-in) at any airport outside India yet. And foreigners who travel in India frequently get caught off-guard by this requirement.

I clearly don’t see this requirement as ‘my’ problem and someone else needs to deal with it. The Mumbai Airport operator put out an e-ticket printing kiosk which is no longer functional, and other airport operators don’t feel it is needed.

Not surprisingly, passengers have slammed this move all over the social media. Here is a particular Facebook page where this went up first!

Jet Airways was quick to issue a clarification, but I don’t think it went down well with everyone!

May 15, 2012

Jet Airways does not insist on an eticket printout to enter the airport but this is a security requirement by the civil aviation authorities.

We observe a significant number of guests queuing up at our counters for re-prints of etickets due to which dedicated resources are being increasingly deployed. This last minute pressure for eticket reprints is also causing great inconvenience to our other guests who want to purchase tickets for immediate departures. We believe this increased cost of servicing of eticket reprints should be borne by only those who request for reprints and hence we have implemented the INR 50 charge. Jet Privilege Platinum members are exempt from this charge and we encourage all guests to get an eticket print at the time of ticket issuance.

Jet Airways is working together with the various stakeholders to provide seamless travel using mobile/bar code technology which will do away with eticket prints. We look forward to its implementation following regulatory approvals.

Now, it beats me. In my travels, I have noticed a 3-5-7 person queue at the airport, sometimes, to receive this sort of a printout. However, at most times, I find the ticket counters to be usually sparsely being used or not used at all. Of course, I might be blind over the years to have not seen serpentine queues of 100 people falling over each other to get their e-ticket printout.

So, what do you think? Justified charge or just another attempt from the biggest Indian carrier to get some more money out of my wallet?

And yes, Jet Airways, while we are at it, how will you account for this 50 bucks without giving me a receipt and how will you ensure your employees don’t pocket this amount? And how will you pay 12.36% service tax on this?

Related Posts:

• JetPrivilege 20% discount on redemption pulled for international sectors
• India just shrunk by 25% on the Jet Airways mileage map
• Jet Airways cuts lounges across India w.e.f. Jan 1, 2012
• Jet Airways follows the Olive theory, axes the meal service bit-by-bit
• Erosions to the Jet Privilege frequent flyer program – one privilege at a time!
• Is Jet Airways losing its golden touch?

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And Kingfisher Airlines as well, but that is not so important!

Buddies in crime for a while, Delta Airlines is terminating its frequent flyer partnership with Jet Airways from 15th October 2012 as per an announcement put out on the Delta Skymiles website.

While Jet and Delta both have had a reputation of their own as good airlines, both have had one big problem area where they could give each other a good fight, the worse redemption capabilities ever. This is where the parallels have been drawn all this while.

According to this thread on FT, Delta fired Jet Airways because Jet had even more restrictive rules than them on redeeming rewards. I am sure they could not take that someone contested their capabilities with SkyPeso redemption on this end

Nope, 9W is the worst airline for award redemption. Not only is it worse in terms of award ticket allotment, it also has one of the worst redemption system for partner airlines. So lets say if Delta wants to request a 9W segment, it has to prepare the complete itinerary (with confirmed availability of all other partner airlines segments) and then ‘submit’ the request to 9W system. 9W system comes back with ‘waiting list’ or ‘confirmed’ status in 1 min -2 hrs. This award availability is not in sync with what you see in JPMiles system. So there is no way for a partner to check D/X availability without submitting these blind requests.

Anyways, so now the frequent US travellers to India will not be able to redeem their miles for travel in India or on Jet Airways from the USA/elsewhere to India. Neither will they be able to earn miles for travel on Jet Airways after 15th October 2012.

Similarly, Indian travellers will not be able to utilise their Jet Privilege accounts to earn miles for travel on Delta going forward 15th October, however, Jet does not see this as important enough information, so they will not put this out on their website just yet!

But this isn’t just about Jet Airways, since their partnership with the mostly defunct Kingfisher Airlines is going to be over as well by 1st October 2012. Whether the airline goes down first or will it be this partnership is anyone’s guess.

So, for the frequent travellers to India from the US, there is no longer an option to credit their domestic travels in India on Delta any longer.

I guess this also brings to an end the discussion, which has been going on in the recent past, that with Air India leaning to Star and Kingfisher to oneworld, Jet Airways would head to SkyTeam.

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