Transferring PremierMiles to an airline partner

I have been a holder of the PremierMiles card offered by Citibank India for some time. This is one of the rare reward earning credit cards in India which is airline agnostic.

2014 ended on a negative note with Citibank announcing a massive devaluation of the reward points earned with this card. The value of every PremierMile will be halved with effect from February 1^st, 2015. This leaves card holders with some time to transfer points to airline partners, before the value of every PremierMile is reduced.

PremierMiles can be transferred to many airline partners including -

• Delta SkyMiles
• Etihad Guest Miles
• British Airways Avios

Although there are several other transfer partners, I have listed the ones that matter the most to me. In this post, I try to find out the best partner to transfer reward points to.

Before examining every airline partner individually, I would like to analyze the trips I will probably make over the coming year. Based in Amsterdam (AMS), I will have at least 2 AMS-BOM-AMS trips. Besides I will have several intra-Europe trips to destinations like London, Brussels and Paris.

Delta SkyMiles:

The SkyMiles program from Delta has several positive aspects. DL is very generous in mileage earning with many fare classes earning 100% mileage. Another positive with DL is lifelong validity of SkyMiles.

DL SkyMiles are especially important to me as AMS is a major Skyteam hub

The points mentioned above make Delta seem to be a strong contender. However, DL is known to be stingy with award redemptions. There are very few award seats released and most of them are extremely expensive. Let us consider a travel from AMS to BOM and back, somewhere during March, 2015. (using the 5 week calendar functionality)

Availability	Decent (Mostly available)
Minimum miles needed	77.500 (with €482,09 taxes)
Maximum miles needed	100.000 (with €301,45 taxes)
Average miles needed	~86.000 (with €350 taxes)

That seems pretty expensive!!!

PROS	CONS
100 % accrual on many fares	Expensive! (both with miles and cash)
Lifelong validity of miles	Surcharge for non-US originating flights
Decent availability (including partners)	Ceases operations to BOM in Apr, 2015

Etihad Guest:

Etihad airlines is known to provide a great experience when aboard and has been the recipient of the Worldś leading airline for many years in a row. Although not a part of any alliance, they have strong code share agreements with many leading airlines.

They also have a partnership with Indiaś Jet Airways (9W), which makes it possible (and often more economic) to redeem Etihad Guest miles on 9W flights.

I made a similar search for a flight from AMS to BOM and back in March, and this is what I found:

Availability	Poor (mostly not available)
Minimum miles needed	20.200 (with €342.34 taxes)
Maximum miles needed	47.000 (with €342,34 taxes)
Average miles needed	~34.000 (with €342,34 taxes)

I could not find any outgoing flight from AMS during March, so I just doubled the details shown on the inbound leg (to estimate the costs for a return fare). However, the redemption chart for Etihad Guest miles on 9W flights is cheaper than the JetPrivilege redemption chart for 9W flights!

Also Guest miles can be used on 9W operated flights from BRU (so I would consider the availability to be fair/average instead of poor).

Summarizing:

PROS	CONS
Great airline to fly with	Miles expire in 2 years
Decent-Good redemptions with partners	Low availability on Etihad itself
Flies to so many destinations (from Abu Dhabi)

British Airways Executive Club:

BA travels to many destinations from LHR/LCY. They have a great redemption rate of 4500 avios for many short haul flights. This means that I can travel within the EU for 9000 avios (return fare).

BA has a good service record, but does include fuel surcharges for flights originating outside the UK.

Performing the same search yields:

Availability	Good
Average miles needed	59.000 (with €393 taxes)

The journey involves a stop in London (where some people might need transit visas and every passenger has to pay the extra fee for using Heathrow airport).

Verdict:

For me Etihad seems to provide the lowest fare, and hence the most bang for my buck. Although their availability is lower than BA or DL, their partnerships make for a great opportunity to redeem miles. BA seems like a great contender for short haul flights and is part of the OneWorld alliance (which has some great partners).

 It seems I will be transferring my miles to Etihad. Do let me know if you have more inputs regarding transfer of PremierMiles.