India-based Jet Airways changed up their North America routes early last year, given that the airline has been bleeding money for a long time. The airline used to have a mini-hub in Brussels, and operated flights from Newark and Toronto to Brussels, with connecting flights to Delhi and Mumbai.
In theory it seemed like an efficient network, since the flights were timed so that travelers could transfer from Newark and Toronto to either Delhi or Mumbai, and vice versa. Unfortunately the bigger problem was that without nonstop flights between North America and India, they didn’t really have a competitive advantage over any other airline offering one stop service between the regions.
So they changed up their strategy, and eliminated Brussels as a hub. They discontinued flights to Newark altogether, and kept operating a flight to Toronto, except via Amsterdam instead of Brussels. As part of this, the airline launched a strategic partnership with Delta and KLM, with extensive codesharing.
The idea was that Delta and KLM would provide the feed to Amsterdam, and then Jet Airways could carry passengers from Amsterdam to India.
Jet Airways A330 business class
You can now redeem Delta miles on Jet Airways
Last September Delta announced that they’d introduce reciprocal mileage earning & redemptions throughout the airlines’ networks. Well, the good news is that it looks like it’s now possible to redeem SkyMiles for travel on Jet Airways on delta.com. There are no fuel surcharges for redeeming Delta miles on Jet Airways. Award costs on Jet Airways are the same as the saver level costs on all of Delta’s other partners, as follows:
- North America to India: 40,000 miles in economy, 97,500 miles in business class
- North America to Europe: 30,000 miles in economy, 70,000 miles in business class
- Europe to India: 35,000 miles in economy, 65,000 miles in business class
- Within India: 12,500 miles in economy, 25,000 miles in business class
Fortunately award availability is readily available in both economy and business class. This is true whether you’re looking at a North America to Europe award:
Or a North America to India award:
Or even an award within India:
This is a nice new option to have with SkyMiles, and it’s great that it’s bookable online. Delta seems to have access to the same Jet Airways award availability as other partner airlines.
You can also redeem American miles on Jet Airways
American AAdvantage is also a Jet Airways partner, though they make you book by phone. While Delta’s award rates are higher in some cases, I also know that some people value AAdvantage miles more than SkyMiles. As a point of comparison, here’s how much American charges for the same Jet Airways awards:
- North America to India: 40,000 miles in economy, 70,000 miles in business class
- North America to Europe: 30,000 miles in economy, 57,500 miles in business class
- Europe to India: 20,000 miles in economy, 42,500 miles in business class
- Within India: 10,000 miles in economy, 17,500 miles in business class
United and Jet Airways are discontinuing their partnership
As it stands, Jet Airways partners with American, Delta, and United. It looks like Jet Airways and United are discontinuing their relationship as of March 26, 2017, which doesn’t come as much of a surprise. It’s rare for an airline to partner with all three of the big U.S. carriers, so it looks like the Delta relationship is coming at the expense of the United relationship.
Jet Airways business class dinner
Bottom line
It’s great to see Delta add the capability to redeem miles on Jet Airways, and in particular that they allow it online and without fuel surcharges. While SkyMiles award rates are getting pretty high for business class, this will prove a great option for people going to India.
However, for those with United miles, it’s disappointing (though not surprising) to see that partnership ending.
Anyone looking forward to redeeming SkyMiles on Jet Airways?
(Tip of the hat to MileCards)
Only a handful of airports in India are loaded into Delta's computer. I was going to book some last-minute intra-India flights and would need to call in. As long as I'm calling I'll call AA since it's fewer miles, but would likely have used more DL miles had the airport been bookable on DL's site and avoided making any call.
Travel within India using aa miles is 10k coach / 17.5k business. Great deal sometimes (Leh in July, or long connecting flights).
Totally agree with @Andrew. This could be a cool way to rack up Delta miles and status outside the typical SkyTeam choices, but the redemptions are not the least bit tempting. Found a particularly bad one searching for my onward travel from Mumbai on an upcoming trip: 65,000 miles for one way business class to Bangkok -- a 3,100 mile barely 4 and a half hour flight! No way would I burn up *even* Delta miles on such a bad value redemption.
I liked the pic of seating arrangments. :) And i will share this post with my business friends who often who m i connected to on business portals like IndiaBizCLub
Is a United- Air India partnership on the anvil?
I guess UA doesn't really care about 9W since they now partner with AI (but 9W is so much better than AI)
I visit friends and family in India fairly regularly and being able to credit the mileage to Delta makes a big difference, especially since the earning is based on distance flown. Being able to fly business class from Doha to India and vice versa for ~$400 is too good to pass up, too! :D
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=DOH-COK
http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/skymiles/earn-miles/earn-miles-with-partners/airlines/jet-airways.html
@henry Yeah but the nonstops cost way more than the one stop. This winter US-India returns where 2500 USD in economy on the nonstop and 1200 for a onestop.
@Andrew I tried using AA miles for flights within India during this winter break but most were 100 dollars and 20000 miles. Did not make sense to burn miles for 100 dollar tickets. I dont get a lot of vacation days else I was sorely tempted...
@henry Yeah but the nonstops cost way more than the one stop. This winter US-India returns where 2500 USD in economy on the nonstop and 1200 for a onestop.
@Andrew I tried using AA miles for flights within India during this winter break but most were 100 dollars and 20000 miles. Did not make sense to burn miles for 100 dollar tickets. I dont get a lot of vacation days else I was sorely tempted to just go round and round India on 100 dollar tickets racking up 1500 miles for each ticket. A cost of 6 cents per mile but very valuable from the segments perspective.
The scissor hub at AMS looks like great marketing until you realize the competition flies NONSTOP from DEL to JFK EWR ORD SFO YYZ YVR and NONSTOP from BOM to EWR YYZ.
Looking at paid tickets, economy one way tickets within India are usually less than $100. I see this as more valuable CREDITING the miles to Delta rather than redeeming.