Limited-period offers from Indian airlines

Traditionally, this quarter, ie July to September, is the leanest period in Indian aviation. This is because the summer breaks have ended, and the festival season begins in October, and so there's relatively much lower levels of non-business travel. Airlines therefore end up offering promotions that are targeted at increasing loads during this season, and Indian carriers are no different. Here's a quick look at some good offers that are available for a limited period of time (though some of them go beyond September).

Air India - Enhanced baggage allowance for domestic economy class

Passengers in all fare buckets in domestic economy class will now be able to carry 25 kgs of free checked in baggage as their allowance (10 kgs for infants, no changes for business class passengers). 

This is valid for tickets booked and travel completed till 7 February 2016. This is also valid for tickets that were booked before 12 August 2015 (date of the offer) as long as the travel is before 7 February 2016. 

It is not clear if the additional allowance for Star Alliance or Flying Returns elite members will apply. 

There are also some exceptions such as:

• this offer is not applicable for travel on Alliance Air flights (these use CRJ or ATR 42 equipment),
• for passengers with an international connection, the baggage allowance for the related domestic sector will be the same as for the international sector.

You can look up the offer and detailed terms here. 

Jet Airways - 50% off on domestic mileage redemptions

Jet Airways is offering a miles-back (like a cash-back) on domestic redemptions that are booked and travel completed by 30 September 2015. 

This isn't a direct 50% reduction on miles required; the 50% credit will be posted back to the flier's JP account, a few weeks after the flight is completed. 

The offer is only on domestic redemptions, and not for other uses (eg, upgrades). Tickets need to be booked and issued by Jet Airways only. The most critical part of this offer is that you need 100% of the miles required at the time of making the redemption!

You can look up the offer and detailed terms here. If you want to know the number of miles required (at 100% of the requirement) for a redemption, click here.

Vistara - complimentary premium economy ticket when buying a business class ticket

Vistara is offering one complimentary premium economy class ticket on the purchase of every business class ticket. The business class travel should be completed on or before 30 September 2015. The free ticket in Premium Economy will be handed out in person during the business class travel, and is valid till 15 October 2015.

The free travel voucher is valid for any sector on Vistara's network, except that the voucher earned on the following routes can be used only on one of these routes themselves:

• Delhi-Lucknow and vice versa
• Mumbai-Ahmedabad and vice versa
• Mumbai-Goa vice versa
• Guwahati-Bagdogra and vice versa

You can look up the detailed terms of this offer here. This is a pretty good deal, if you're willing to shell out business class ticket prices for the first leg!

Vistara seems to have found few takers for its premium economy class, which it had targeted as the go-to class for senior (but not top) level business travellers. There continue to be reports of business and economy going at over 70% capacity, but not so with premium economy (which are apparently handed out as upgrades for some of the higher fare category economy class passengers). Which probably explains this offer, and that Vistara wants its passengers to try this out.