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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Delta Airlines recently punched a few holes in a bag, and loaded it up with a few expensive cameras to tell us how they handle the bags which most of us pay precious $ 30 – 60 to travel with us. Have a look into this interesting and insightful video on the journey of your bag!

This was more a chance discovery but I thought it was in the best interest of everyone to know. American Express and Delta have come up with a wonderful offer, although targetted, which provides a very easy way to get Delta status all the way upto Feb 2013 with one round trip flight till Jan 2012.

All you have to do, is to register an eligible American Express Card on this website, pop-in your non-status Delta Skymiles number, book a round-trip on Delta which is not in the fare classes R/O/N/E, and you’ll be eligibile for a $200 Gift Card from Amex. Also, if you have elite status on another carrier, which was at least valid till December 2012, you’ll be matched for 1-year to comparable Delta Medallion Status. Now, this looks like a lucrative way and a VERY EASY way to switch to Delta if you plan to do so.

American Express clearly states that corporate and prepaid cards are not valid for this promotion, and Delta states that anyone who has been status matched before won’t be status matched again! So, watch out for the T&C before you register. Since it is a ‘targetted promo’ from the looks of it, not everyone may be successful in getting through.