Competition Watchdog Opens Probe Into Jet-Kingfisher Alliance
On August 4, 2009 the Competition Commission of India ordered a full anti-competitive investigation into the Jet Airways-Kingfisher alliance — the deal that promised to link JetPrivilege and King Club into India's first cross-airline mileage pool.
India’s first cross-airline mileage pool just met India’s competition regulator. On August 4, 2009, the Competition Commission of India ordered a full investigation into the Jet Airways-Kingfisher alliance — the tie-up running since October 2008 that promised, among other things, to link JetPrivilege and King Club into one reciprocal frequent-flyer network.
The regulator’s concern is the obvious one: two of the country’s biggest carriers coordinating is exactly the pattern competition law exists to examine. For miles collectors, the practical effect is that the headline loyalty benefit now sits in regulatory limbo.
The record shows how this played out: Kingfisher stonewalled the probe for two years and collected a ₹1 crore fine for it in 2011, and the reciprocal frequent-flyer benefit never materialised at scale.
Our take: never bank on a loyalty perk that exists only in a press release. Until miles actually post across programmes, an “alliance” is just two logos on a slide.