Frequent fliers get foreign trips

New Delhi: Indian air carriers are now offering one foreign travel to their frequent flyers every year, a clear departure from annual multiple domestic travel options.
And alongside, the passenger profile using frequent flyer miles is undergoing a sea change. With Air India set to become a Star Alliance member, the passengers can earn and redeem miles on all 17-member airlines of the alliance at the same level.
Kingfisher and Continental Airlines recently partnered for frequent flyer programme reciprocity. Jet Airways, too, is offering frequent flyer programme across international routes. To borrow from telecom jargon, limited mobility (flying to one international destination instead of multiple domestic locations in a year) is soaring the frequent flyer mile curve.
Take the case of members of JetPrivilege programme, the frequent flyer programme of Jet Airways. Members can now use their miles earned for free flights not just on Jet Airways and Jet Lite (Jet’s value carrier) but on any of the 12 partner airlines of Jet Airways, such as Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, NorthWest, Qantas, Thai, South African, British Airways, SwissAir, Austria and Gulfair. Kingfisher Airlines has tied up with Continental Airlines and Qatar Airways for reciprocity of the frequent flyer programme. So the miles that ones earns on the domestic carrier can be used to fly on international routes of these carriers.
21/08/07 Vishakha Talreja & Moinak Mitra/Economic Times

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Categories: General Aviation Aug 2007