Airlines woo frequent flyers, extend deadlines for offers

Mumbai: Rakesh Anandpara boards the one-hour flight from Mumbai to Rajkot at least once a week. The entrepreneur , who owns foundry units in Rajkot, has business interests in Mumbai as well, so work means shuttling between the two cities by air or rail. In the last two weeks though, he says, he has been flying to Rajkot more than once a week. "I've been to three other cities as well. If one plans one's travel in advance and looks out for offseason offers from airlines, the savings are considerable," says Anandpara.
Anandpara is one of thousands of frequent flyers who suddenly come to the airlines' notice during non-festive , offseason months, so that more seats are filled up during week days. It seems such incentives work well. In the last few weeks, two airlines that had launched variants of the 'one pass-multiple travel' scheme extended the offer following a good response from frequent flyers.
For Rs 30,000, a passenger can do unlimited economy class travel to any of Air India's 63 domestic destinations on AI-coded flights within 10 consecutive days. The fare is Rs 50,000 for executive class travel. The deadline for purchase was July 15, but last month, the airline extended the scheme to September 15. Travel is valid up to September 25. Last week, Jet Airways extended its one-fare pass scheme to some international destinations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia at no added cost. Jet's premiere class one-fare pass booklet contains four coupons, with a total value of Rs 81,088. It works out to about Rs 20,000, taxes included, for business class travel.
20/08/11 Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Aug 2011