Maharaja Club gets cheaper awards and faster crediting
Air India drops domestic awards to 1,500 points, cabin upgrades to 4,000, credits Star Alliance miles within two hours, and eases Platinum to 60 flights.
Stop the presses: a loyalty programme got better. Air India’s Maharaja Club now prices domestic award flights from 1,500 points and cabin upgrades from 4,000, credits Star Alliance partner miles within two hours instead of leaving you refreshing your account for weeks, and cuts the Platinum tier requirement to 60 flights.
For Indian cardholders, this isn’t an airline story — it’s a transfer-partner story. Maharaja Club is a live transfer target from the big bank programmes, and we value a Maharaja Point at ₹0.80. Cheaper domestic awards push the realistic value of every transferred point up, not down.
The two-hour Star Alliance crediting fixes the programme’s most-complained-about flaw, and a reachable Platinum makes status chasing on the post-merger network less of a fantasy.
Our take: after years of writing nothing but nerf coverage, a genuine buff. If you’ve been ignoring Maharaja Club as a transfer destination, a 1,500-point domestic award is the price point that should make you look again.