A round up of Jet Airways in 2014, and my wish-list from them in 2015

After hiving off the Jet Privilege program into a separate entity that's majority-held by Etihad, Jet delivered quite a few changes in 2014. I've been on more than a handful of Jet Airways flights in the last couple of months, and I've seen these changes take effect properly. However, as is always the case, not all changes are necessarily ideal! So here's a quick run-down on what's been happening and what to expect in 2015.

Earning miles

Readers and mileage addicts will be aware that Jet upped its game starting July 2014. First, they introduced a minimum mileage earning system for distances under 500 miles, making it worth the while to fly Jet on short-haul flights, and so earn 500/375 miles (for Jet Airways/ Jet Konnect respectively) on Economy class travel, and 750 miles in business class. Jet also did largely away with tiered % of earnings based on fare class, which means that virtually all fare classes now earn 100% of the flown miles. 

This excludes cabin bonuses (now streamlined at 100% and 50% for first and business class respectively) and JP tier bonuses.

Secondly, effective October 2014, kids aged 2-11 could register into the JP program and earn miles for their travel, which wasn't the case before. Finally, also effective October 2014, Jet allowed pooling of miles across family members, albeit with small charges to register for the MyFamily+ program (1000 miles) and to add family members to the pool (250 miles per member added or deleted).

I do like the mileage earnings for kids - it's gotten me more value for spends on junior's tickets recently. I'm also a fan of the miles pooling, though if family flies enough, pooling may become irrelevant, so YMMV here. 

Spending miles

As part of rationalising the program, miles required for award tickets were adjusted in July 2014. The best part of this was that most of the cash component of the award ticket has been eliminated. Instead, the miles required was adjusted. International redemptions continue to have a relatively largish cash component due to taxes and fees. But on the whole, here's what happened to the miles required for award tickets, across routes:

In effect, most domestic redemptions are generally cheaper than before and international ones more expensive, by miles required. Here's a Google docs spreadsheet with the full list of redemption requirements (old and new) for domestic routes and for international routes. There was also a not-so-comprehensive attempt to streamline the earn-to-burn miles ratio, but credit to Jet for having attempted it.



The other big change with redemptions is that kids award tickets now cost the same as it does for adults. It used to be 50% earlier. But this change seemed fair only because kids now earn the same miles as adults. However, it does mean a "devaluation" of previously earned miles if used for kids' award tickets.

As someone who's sitting on a pile of JP miles, I like the new structure - mostly because it significantly cuts down on the cash component and overall, they've attempted to streamline the earn to burn ratio across several sectors. Given that a fair share of my award tickets are domestic, I do like the fact that they cost fewer miles now, which savings I can move over to international redemptions.

Meals on all Jet Airways flights

One of the things Jet has done to demonstrate better integration with Etihad's business model, is to do away with their low-cost operations. That is to say, they now serve meals on all flights, though the Jet Konnect brand remains. However, I've noticed that the both the quality and quantity of food has gone significantly down. On short-haul flights, they now serve a packed box of a sandwich and a muffin, or a similar offering. Usually, there is only a vegetarian option on these flights, which don't have a coffee/tea service.

On the longer flights, my experience has been one of consistent disappointment. Here's an example (the quality of the pic is reflective of the quality of the meal!).

I've received the same or very similar meal on at least 4 sectors in the last 10 days. The size of portions has drastically reduced, and the food is now closer to tasteless than it was earlier. The only thing I'm happy about on the catering front, is the return of the tamarind sweets!

While I see their perspective to offering complimentary food on all flights, I'm not a big fan of both the quality and size of food portions. Maybe they could bring back an option to buy-on-board if passengers don't like/want the complimentary offering? But that'll mean more fuel costs, though!

Earning miles on partner spends

Jet went about aggressively adding partners, be it for cruises, getting a health check done, signing up for a wealth management account, or a host of other products and services. In particular, they tied up with a lot of hotels, hotel chains and room-booking portals, to offer bonus JP miles on spends, including with IHG, SPG and SPG-dining.

Since these aren't double-dip offers, they make sense only if you're a JP miles addict and don't bother about earning hotel loyalty points, etc. I personally have more JP miles than I can use, so I generally don't take up a majority of these offers, unless I've got nothing to lose!

Generally speaking...

Till late 2013 and in early 2014, I thought Jet lost the plot a little bit and slipped on customer service - be it on the ground or in-flight. Personally, while there were a few good experiences in business class, I've had almost consistently indifferent service in economy on Jet. However, my travels in 2014 included over 70 domestic and international segments with Jet Airways alone, and I think they've been able to pull up their socks quite a bit on this front. Desk agents are friendlier and in-flight service is a lot more responsive.

Fog/weather and ATF prices haven't been good for airlines in general, but Jet seems to have had more than its fair share of weather-related delays and cancellations in 2014. Having said that, my last 2 flights with Jet were fog-affected, yet their customer service (see previous) was quite good - enough to get me to my destination on time.

What I'd like to see from Jet in 2015

Here's my wish-list:

• A consistent earn-to-burn ratio across sectors, though I agree this could result in unwanted consequences (higher redemption requirements?). 
• Enabling a double-dip type of option on their hotel stay bonuses will be welcome. I doubt they'll be able to swing it but I'd like to see them try.
• Better preparedness for weather-related delays.
• Far better food service (quality and portion size) in economy, even if it means no tamarind sweets!

What's your wish list from Jet Airways and Jet Privilege in 2015?