Issue 1: Feb 2024 [FREE SAMPLE]
A brutal devaluation by one program, followed by certain sweet spots on another, ending with a few interesting offers.
This is the first issue that has been published and is free for all to read as a sample newsletter. This issue covers the period starting from 1st Jan ‘24 to 18th Feb ‘24.
The start of the year was a mixed bag, predominantly dominated by two big negative developments, there were however some smaller joys across the board and some strategic timely offers that presented some nice double dip opportunities.
The rest of the content is usually available for paid subscribers only. This post has been published publicly as a free sample.
🇹🇷 Turkish Airlines’ Brutal Devaluation
Much of this period was dominated by this piece of news. Turkish Airlines (TK) brutally devalued its long-standing frequent flyer program - Miles&Smiles by increasing the mileage requirement on certain routes by as high as 105%. The new award chart came into effect on the 16th of February.
TK Miles&Smiles for the most part had been a dark horse in the frequent flyer space, largely due to the inaccessibility to transfer credit card points to the program from different parts of the world. The only notable large issuer that could transfer points to TK was Citi US. This changed when Capital One, the 4th largest credit card issuer in the US added TK as a transfer partner in 2021. So it wasn’t surprising to find some extremely valuable sweet spots in the program. From an Indian perspective, Axis Bank opened access to this program through their revamped Edge Rewards program, soon to be followed by HDFC Bank.
The new full award chart can be found here. It is largely divided into 3 categories and the mileage requirements are based on different zones/regions. The full region classification can be found here.
Promotion Awards on Turkish Airlines Flights (aka own metal)
Normal Awards on own metal.
Partner Redemptions on Star Alliance flights.
Let’s look at and compare the increases on some of the most commonly searched and flown routes
Domestic flights within India:
Previously in Economy: 7500
Now: 10000 (33.33% ⬆️)
Previously in Business: 12500
Now: 15000 (20% ⬆️)
𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝟭 (𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲):
Economy:
Previously Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 17000
Previously Own Metal Award: 27500
Now Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 30000 (76% ⬆️)
Now Own Metal Award: 40000 (45% ⬆️)
Business:
Previously Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 27500
Previously Own Metal Award: 51000
Now Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 55000 (100% ⬆️)
Now Own Metal Award: 80000 (56% ⬆️)
First Class:
Previously Star Alliance: 39000
Now Star Alliance: 80000 (105% ⬆️)
𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝟮 (𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲)
Economy:
Previously Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 19000
Previously Own Metal Award: 30000
Now Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 35000 (84% ⬆️)
Now Own Metal Award: 50000 (66% ⬆️)
Business:
Previously Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 30000
Previously Own Metal Award: 60000
Now Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 60000 (100% ⬆️)
Now Own Metal Award: 90000 (50% ⬆️)
First:
Previously Star Alliance: 43000
Now Star Alliance: 90000 (109% ⬆️)
𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝘁𝗼 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮
Economy:
Previously Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 34000
Previously Own Metal Award: 55000
Now Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 60000 (76% ⬆️)
Now Own Metal Award: 80000 (45% ⬆️)
Business:
Previously Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 52500
Previously Own Metal Award: 125000
Now Own Metal Promo & Star Alliance: 100K (90%% ⬆️)
Now Own Metal Award: 185K (48%% ⬆️)
First:
Previously Star Alliance: 77000
Now Star Alliance: 150K (94% ⬆️)
As you can see the increases are significant and at this point, there is not much left to be very interesting in Turkish anymore barring maybe the domestic Indian redemptions, which you can use to fly Air India for domestic flights and India to Turkey redemptions on Turkish Airlines.
📕 Related Reading
My playbook on how to book award redemptions with Turkish.
How to find Turkish Promotional Award Space using ExpertFlyer
🇸🇬 Singapore Airlines Spontaneous Escape
Singapore Airlines came out with Spontaneous Escapes offer for the period of travel between 1st March to 30th April offering a 30% discount on award bookings. The offer is valid for tickets booked until the 29th of February. Economy, Premium Economy and Business class award seats qualify for the offer. You can find the full list of the routes (destination and source airports) that are included in the offer here.
The following routes to/from India are available:
Singapore - Ahmedabad
Singapore - Chennai
Chennai - Singapore
Singapore - Hyderabad
Singapore - New Delhi
Singapore - Kolkata
Singapore - Mumbai
Remember, even if one leg of your journey isn't included in the offer, you can still benefit if the other leg is. For example, if you're flying from Mumbai to Singapore and then onto Tokyo, and the Mumbai-Singapore leg isn't part of the offer, your subsequent Singapore-Tokyo leg could still have a discounted mileage requirement, subject to availability.
These discounted fares show up under the Promo banner when search on the SQ website.
There are some long-haul routes as well such as FRA - JFK, SFO - SIN and others.
SQ Spontaneous Escapes offers are a great way to utilize your KrisFlyer miles. These miles are relatively easy to accumulate in India, with five transfer partners: American Express, Axis Bank, Citi Bank, HDFC, and HSBC.
Note: In my regular newsletters, I typically include examples of various routes where you can use this offer. However, I am omitting that in this free sample.
🏨 Marriott Q1 2024 Promotion
The Marriott Q1 2024 promotion is out and members can earn 1000 Bonvoy points plus an additional elite qualifying night for each eligible night between Feb 13 and Apr 29, 2024.
Only paid nights are eligible to receive the bonus points and nights, so award nights booked using points will not qualify. For members targeting Platinum Elite status with Marriott, this offers a nice quick way to reach that. Assuming you have the HDFC Marriott Bonvoy Credit Card, which offers 10 Elite Qualifying Nights, you can achieve Platinum by staying another 20 nights during the offer period.
P.S. If you want to do a mattress run the cheapest Marriotts in the country are usually as follows.
Fairfield Chennai OMR
Fairfield Belagavi
Fairfield Indore
Fairfield Agra
Courtyard Bilaspur
🇬🇧 Virgin Atlantic (VS) Off-Peak Awards
January 4 - March 21, April 16 - June 15, September 3 to October 24, and November 6 to December 6, are what Virgin Atlantic classifies as off-peak dates for flights between the UK and India and as such sells award seats at half the usual mileage requirement and at this point there seems to be some pretty nice availability on Economy, Premium Economy and Business Cabins.
The mileage requirement and fees for these dates would be as follows:
India (BOM/DEL/BLR) - London (LHR) Economy: 10,000 Miles each way.
India (BOM/DEL/BLR) - London (LHR) Premium Economy: 17,500 Miles each way.
India (BOM/DEL/BLR) - London (LHR) Business: 37,500 Miles each way.
Keep in mind that the additional fees in the form of taxes and surcharges tend to be on the higher side with VS, especially if flying out of LHR, they are not as bad when flying out of India into LHR though, especially with those mileage requirements.
Amex & Citi are the only two direct transfer partners into VS from India. You can also transfer points from Marriott to VS at a 3:1 ratio.
💳 Amex Extend Welcome Bonus Offer on Platinum Charge
American Express has extended their ongoing welcome bonus offer on the Platinum Charge Metal Card that offers 135,000 Membership Rewards points upon spending ₹50,000 within 60 days of card approval. The offer was previously stated to expire on the 31st of January but now has been extended till the 29th of February.
This is one of the higher welcome bonuses we have seen on this card in recent times, which makes it pretty lucrative to get, assuming you can fathom the hefty annual fee of ₹60,000 + GST.
Do note that this offer does not apply if you apply via a referral link. It is only applicable if you receive an email from Amex or apply via one of their sales representatives.
📕 Related Reading
Everything you need to know about the American Express Platinum Charge Card
🥇 Vistara CV Gold No Longer a Benefit on the Axis Vistara Infinite Card
Axis Bank and Vistara announced the removal of CV Gold as a product benefit on the Axis Vistara Infinite Credit card. Cardholders will now receive CV Gold status for the first year upon fee payment. To retain the CV Gold status after the first year cardholders will now need a minimum of 4 flights and 15,000 Tier points after the first year. To earn 15,000 tier points on Vistara, one has to spend a total of ₹1,50,000 on Vistara for their tickets.
Cardholders who do not meet the minimum criteria to retain their gold status will be downgraded to CV Silver and will continue to retain the Silver status as long as the card is held.
My Recommendation: While this is a significant devaluation, I think the card still makes a lot of sense with the business class vouchers that it offers as a part of the milestone awards and as such I would recommend holding on to it.
If CV Gold was the reason why you held this card then it may make sense to downgrade this to the Axis Vistara Signature card instead.
💰 Currently Active Miles & Points Buying Opportunities
United Mileage Plus with up to 100% Bonus or 50% Discount - ₹1.56 per mile.
Valid till: 24th, Feb
Recommendation: Skip ❌
Buy Etihad Guest Miles with up to 30% Bonus - ₹1.28 per mile.
Valid till: 25th, Feb
Recommendation: Skip ❌
Buy FlyingBlue Miles with up to 50% discount - ₹1.26 per mile.
Valid till: 29th, Feb.
Recommendation: Skip ❌
Buy Marriott points with up to a 40% bonus - ₹0.74 per point
Valid till: 31st, March
Recommendation: Skip ❌
Buy Hyatt points with a 20% discount - ₹1.59 per point
Valid till: 9th, April
Recommendation: Buy ✅
Buy Hilton Honors with a 100% bonus - ₹0.41 per point.
Valid till: 12th, March
Recommendation: Skip ❌
The calculation for the per point/mile cost assumes you buy the maximum quantity allowed in a single purchase.
Thank you for reading this issue. If you like this sample and want to cut off the noise and get everything you need to know, in a clean, easy-to-digest, no-frills email once every month - consider subscribing below.
I'm newbie here. Pardon my simple question- Is it worth to spend $1028 to accure 55K Hyatt points? What would be validity of such purchased points? And which credit card would be better to use it- Magnus / Atlas / Infinia?