Miles and More - Monsoon offers in India

In an earlier post, I'd written about the lack of maturity in the Indian market, which limits the number of airline and hotel co-branded credit cards. This is so different from other markets, particularly in the US, where credit card bonuses (upon a predetermined spend level) of over 50,000 points are not unheard of. That many points (and some more) could well net you a TATL business class seat!

Here's something, however, that is reasonably useful, particularly if you travel on Star Alliance or at least Lufthansa (mind you, there's a ton of ex-India pax that fly LH, so this could actually be worth the while!).

The Miles and More program is offering a slew of regional benefits, starting with the MasterCard Axis Bank Miles & More co-branded credit card. The key selling points are a 5k-15k signon bonus, unlimited mileage earning (unlike some cards, including the ICICI Jet Airways cards), and non-expiry of miles. Plus the usual trimmings such as lounge access, Priority Pass membership (per-use fee to be paid by user), etc. The World Select Card comes with a joining fee of Rs 10k (~US$ 172) and the World Card is for Rs 3,500 (~US$ 60). Plus annual renewal carries 3k-4k bonus miles. Spends earn 4-6 miles per Rs 200 (~US$ 3.5). Those are the key features, but do go to the link above, to get more info.

Next up, the Payback conversion bonus. Payback is India's largest coalition loyalty program, and boasts of a reasonably large (and well-rewarding) set of partners. The existing conversion ratio to the Miles & More program is 100 miles for every 400 Payback points. However, under the bonus offer - which is valid till 31 August 2013 - there is a 20% bonus, so that's 120 miles per 400 Payback points.

Then there's the entry to a draw for 5x5000 miles, for every transaction of US$ 80 or more, shopping at Nuance - the duty free chain. The downside of this, is that Nuance duty free is present only in Bangalore. Again, valid until 31 August 2013.

There's also 20 miles per Rs 100 spent at Woodland, and a chance to enter a draw for 4x5000 miles. And finally, 20 miles per Rs 100 spent at Surat Diamond Jewellery - naturally, I put this right at the end. Both of these are also valid until 31 August 2013.

Conclusion

In all, the credit card is possibly worth a little bit, as are the Woodland and jewellery purchases. I'm not entirely sure about Payback, and Nuance provides very little earning opportunity. Yet, this is one of the (limited) best that India has to offer in this space, as of now (considering how relatively worthless JP miles have become, not to mention the cash component on international redemptions). The only other advantage I see, is that the credit cards are World MasterCards, and SPG is running a promotion to hand out SPG Gold upon one stay in Asia-Pacific that's paid for with a World MasterCard.

In all, I'm not about to change my view of the Indian market just because of this new offer, but I'd like to believe things are improving.