That one time when Jet Airways broke the rules...to help me out!

Many of us (and myself included) aren't a happy lot with much of the changes Jet Airways is bringing about to the JP program. That said, I must admit (if it wasn't apparent already), that I'm a pretty big fan of the airline and of Jet Privilege. Sure, they've made some flier-unfriendly changes, including Fare Choices, making JP pretty much a revenue-based frequent flier program, or the changes to partner award structures. Gone are the days of some fantastically awesome award routes for unbelievably low redemption requirements. But as with any and every other business, Jet simply reacted to the changes in the marketplace, and will continue to do so in the future.

And yet, in this post, I'd like to write about what I thought was a very "human" side of the airline.

Context

This time last year, the missus and I had decided on a vacation to somewhere in the far east. After much debate, we agreed on Hong Kong and Vietnam. We initially booked economy class on Jet Airways' own flights, but as and when partner awards' visibility became better, we cancelled the original bookings (100% refundable) and booked partner awards instead, to maximise the value from our JP miles.

Eventually, we booked as follows:

• MAA-HKG on Cathay Pacific business class (50k JPmiles + Rs 2,500, per person)
• HKG-SGN on Cathay Pacific economy class (15k Asia Miles + Rs 900, per person)
• SGN-MAA via AUH on Etihad business class (44k JPmiles + Rs 3,000, per person).

[The last one above retailed for over US$4,300 for a paid ticket, and so represented fantastic value for my JPmiles - about Rs 6.35 each!]

Etihad A330 business class

Booking partner awards with Jet can sometimes be cumbersome, but I was in luck when a rather knowledgeable agent emailed and telephoned me pretty much every couple of days, to make sure I got the itinerary that I wanted. By early November, we had ticketed and finalised all aspects of our trip, which was scheduled for the last week of December.

We were also fully aware that unlike award tickets on Jet Airways' own flights, partner awards are non-redeemable in the event of cancellation. You'll get your taxes and fees back, but the miles are lost for good. 

And then it poured

We had some terrible weather through November, culminating in one of the worst rains and flooding ever, in the first week of December. As a result, Junior's "winter" holidays at school were cancelled, and there was tons of other personal and social rebuilding work to be done.

That's how most of Chennai looked in the immediate aftermath of the rains and floods

We tried exploring various options for our holiday, including changing dates, but ended up with absolutely nothing workable or practical. In turn, this meant we'd have to cancel our holiday plans and our non-refundable award tickets. What a shame.

So I took a gamble

I knew fully well that partner award tickets were non-refundable. So I said to myself that there was nothing to lose in giving it a shot at being reclaimed, though I'd mentally written off 188,000 JPmiles.

I wrote to Jet Airways, explaining the circumstances and stating that I fully understood that the tickets were non-refundable. And I asked them if, given the circumstances, they might make an exception, cancel the partner award tickets and refund the JPmiles.

Days turned into weeks, and one weekday out of the blue, I received an email stating that as an exception and in the unusual circumstances, they were cancelling the ticket and refunding the miles as a courtesy.

This was indeed great news. I assumed this might be because of a more flexible equation Jet Airways might have had with Etihad, as compared to with Cathay Pacific (not to mention Etihad).

Cathay Pacific regional business class (Courtesy: Points To Be Made)

But wait! They'd cancelled only one leg, and those were our SGN-MAA (via AUH) tickets on Etihad's A330. That's the return trip!

So I wrote to them again, thanking them for their gesture, but to also confirm if they could extend the same courtesy for the onward sector. I received an immediate response, which suggested that not cancelling the onward segment might have been an oversight. And in less than 24 hours, Jet Airways had cancelled the onward tickets as well (on CX) and the miles were refunded within the day.

Bottomline

I'm sure this wasn't something the agent at the other end of the line could do themselves, and my guess is that it would have required some level of escalation. What therefore surprises me, is that instead of simply rejecting my request (which they would've been entirely within their rights to do), they actually went through a process and considered my request favourably.

While I've written about the negatives at the beginning of this post, Jet has largely also been pretty generous in many ways, with their promotions, sufficient notice of program changes, etc. In all, Jet is a pretty awesome brand.

Personally speaking, Jet Airways has been my go-to airline for virtually all my domestic travel, and some international trips as well. So it is no wonder that I love Jet Privilege as a program. This particular incident only increases my respect for them.