Award route card · one-way
The corridor where a British program quietly wins. Air India skips Bengaluru–Colombo, but SriLankan flies it nonstop — and at 441 great-circle miles it drops into Avios Zone 1, the cheapest international award on the site: 6,500 Avios in economy, 14,000 in business, single segment, six issuers feeding Avios direct. That's roughly ₹8,000 of points for a nonstop widebody hop to Sri Lanka in the front cabin. KrisFlyer can't touch it — Zone 6 → Zone 6 is calculator-only, and no Star metal flies the nonstop anyway. IndiGo's BluChip prices the live fare. Hold Avios, book the 6,500 economy or splurge 14,000 for business; nothing else is close.
The play · business
Feed it: 14,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 28,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 14,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
| Program | Metal / routing | Points | Surcharge | All-in ₹ | vs play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) | SriLankan business nonstop (oneworld) — Avios partner chart, single segment | 14,000 | — | ₹14,000 | the play |
The play · economy
Feed it: 6,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 13,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 6,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
| Program | Metal / routing | Points | Surcharge | All-in ₹ | vs play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) | SriLankan nonstop (oneworld) — Avios partner chart, single segment | 6,500 | — | ₹6,500 | the play |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | No Star Alliance nonstop — Zone 6 → Zone 6 intra-South-Asia, calc-only | dynamic | — | — | — |
| IndiGo BluChip | IndiGo nonstop — BluChip, dynamic (revenue-priced) | dynamic | — | — | — |
All-in ₹ = points × the program's house value (valuation index) + the sourced one-way surcharge; a dash means the carrier doesn't publish it and the ranking counts it ₹0 — the row's note carries the caveat. “Dynamic” rows never compete for the play. Feed-ins come from the same transfer data as the optimizer, multi-hop chains included.
14,000 Avios (Zone 1) for SriLankan business nonstop BLR–CMB — a regional flat-ish seat for the price most programs charge in economy. Directly feedable from Amex/Axis/HDFC; the standout premium buy on any BLR subcontinent corridor.
Feed it: 14,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 28,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 14,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
BLR–CMB's 441 great-circle miles sit in Avios Zone 1 (1–650 mi) — 6,500 Avios one-way on SriLankan's own nonstop, no connection, the cheapest international award on the board. Six issuers feed Avios directly; SriLankan levies modest carrier charges the desk leaves unpublished.
Feed it: 6,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 13,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 6,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
KrisFlyer's Star-partner chart nominally has a Zone 6 → Zone 6 (intra-South-Asia) cell, but it's calculator-only and no Star Alliance carrier flies Bengaluru–Colombo nonstop — the only KrisFlyer routing is an absurd BLR–SIN–CMB backtrack on SQ metal the calculator prices far above the nonstop. A completeness row; Avios is the buy.
Ways in: HDFC Reward Points 1:1 · Axis EDGE Miles 1:2 · Amex Membership Rewards 2:1
IndiGo flies Bengaluru–Colombo nonstop alongside SriLankan, but BluChip prices off the live fare — dynamic ₹0.40–0.60 per BluChip, no chart, minimum 500, taxes cash-only. Price the ticket first; burn points only to zero out an expiring balance.
Ways in: HSBC Reward Points 1.5:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL) · Axis EDGE Reward Points 5:1 · HDFC Reward Points 3:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)