Rapid Travel Chai

Delta has formally inducted India’s Jet Airways into its Tier 1 coalition of the willing partners.

Tier 1 partner airlines have the best mileage earning rates. The other 8 Tier 1 airlines all are Delta joint venture partners or airlines where Delta has an ownership stake.

Other airlines, including the bulk of SkyTeam members, are relegated to lower tiers until they acquiesce to Delta’s hardball terms. The initial partnership with Jet Airways, as originally announced, includes codesharing, and reciprocal mileage earning and redemption. Presumably Delta will be attempting a stronger presence at Jet if it can navigate the Indian bureaucracy.

Last week Jet Airways launched earn and redeem on Delta flights.

SkyMiles Earning on Jet Airways:

In keeping with Tier 1 partner practices, earning on Jet Airways is attractive:

What Fare Code:

It appears this encompasses all Jet Airways booking codes, so this is not like some European airlines that routinely sell fares codes that earn nonthing on major partners.

Take Delhi-Mumbai as a sample route on January 26, 2017, the cheapest fares price as O class.

Jet Airways, Jet Konnect, JetLite:

Earning is available on all the forms of Jet Airways, including Jet Konnect and JetLite. This is great!

Codeshares:

Flights ticketed with Delta codeshare flight number and operated by Jet Airways will earn according to Delta’s revenue-based model.

Flights ticketed by Air France KLM codeshare flight number and operated by Jet Airwats will not earn Delta SkyMiles.

Pay Up to Juice Earnings?

With US dollar so strong to the Indian rupee, you may find great deals in Jet Airways premium cabins. My go-to site for booking India domestic flights is expedia.in. Unlike many competitors that also offer local prices, expedia.in is a breeze to use non-Indian credit cards. You can also play with the various regional sites of Jet Airways. I do not see a way on either site to verify booking code. You can use Ixigo

The American Airlines Alternative:

American Airlines still partners with Jet Airways. Adjusted mileage earning from August 1, 2016 excludes many economy fares.

Jet Konnect flights earn miles, JetLite do not.

You do not earn elite qualifying miles unless it is a codeshare with AA flight number.

SkyMiles Awards on Jet Airways:

Awards on Jet Airways will be available for booking from March 1, 2017. These may or may not be available online.

India domestic flights are generally very cheap. Awards likely will only make sense on Jet’s international routes or in conjunction with international tickets to reach a point of final destination in India.

Note that on October 25, 2016 Delta drastically devalued North America to India awards. Business class awards went up 40%. Per Delta’s disdain of customers, there was no notice, advance, concurrent, or subsequent. Travel from other regions to India may be more reasonable.

And About American:

You can still redeem American Airlines AAdvantage miles for awards on Jet Airways.