JP miles 101 - All about earning JP miles

Over the last few weeks, I've received a few emails on award tickets (redemptions) using JP miles and Citi PM miles. Most of these are generally spread across some key themes, and because I've been planning a post on JP redemptions for the longest time, I'll be writing about earning and burning JP miles, which I hope will help both newbies to the hobby as well as some of you more experienced folks (heck, I could do with some advise from any of you folks!).

So as one of the first posts in the new year, this post will deal with the basis on earning JP miles, and I'll follow up with a 102 post about redeeming JP miles. And while I'll be referencing JP miles in particular through these posts, the main principles are common across virtually all airline mileage programs.




What exactly are JP miles

JP miles are the currency that you earn in the Jet Privilege program. The JP program used to be part of Jet Airways, but is now a separate entity aiming to be a profit-centre on its own. 

How do you earn JP miles?

First, you'll need to have a frequent flyer account with Jet Airways, and you can create one here if you don't already have one. You can earn JP miles for traveling on Jet Airways on a revenue ticket. You can also earn JP miles on eligible spends with partners - that includes using a Jet Airways co-branded credit card, or transacting with any of the other partner merchants.

There are also promotions that are run quite often - either by Jet Airways or with their partner merchants and banks - which allow you to earn more than the base JP miles.

Finally, you can buy JP miles, starting with a minimum of 500 miles, and thereafter in 100-mile increments. These are priced at Rs 1.25 a mile, and by that measure, are clearly avoidable unless you have very few miles to purchase, in order to top up your account for an award ticket.

What can you do with the JP miles you've earned?

In terms of using what you've earned, you could use JP miles to 
  • book award flights on Jet Airways
  • book award flights on partner airlines
  • transfer miles to another user who is in need of miles
  • upgrading to a higher class of service (economy to business, or business to first), on a revenue ticket.
Unlike hotel points, airline miles are generally not available for transfer to other partner programs, and JP miles certainly can't be used that way. So, redeeming JP miles would be the biggest practical use for JP miles. I've discussed this before, and you can also read on using the further links a the end of that post.

Do JP miles have a value?

You must keep in mind that like any other "currency", JP miles have a value attached to them. Notwithstanding my previous ambivalence on this matter, I currently value JP miles in the region of Rs 0.53 and Rs 0.72 a mile. Let's call it Rs 0.60 (that's about 1 US cent). However, the actual value depends on a variety of factors, including travel date, flexibility for change, travel class, other costs, etc.

Having said that, JP miles are not as freely usable as other currency such as cash. To begin with, there are limited uses for JP miles. Secondly, you cannot sell your JP miles - that would be illegal - or exchange them for other currencies (real or virtual). Finally, you should not (at least in theory) be monetizing your JP miles (ie, buying award tickets for another person and selling it to them for cash).

Pooling miles

Jet Airways now allows pooling of miles of up to 7 family members (restricted to one degree of separation). As part of their changes last year, they also enabled earning of JP miles for kids aged 2-11 (prior to that, one had to be at least 12 years old to enrol into the JP program). You can read about these here. The My Family plus facility allows a user to use miles within the family pool, for redemptions.

How does one use JP miles?

As I've said before, JP miles can be used to either purchase an award ticket, or upgrade a revenue ticket to the next higher class of service (where available).

I'll discuss using JP miles in a subsequent post.

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