Award flight · one-way
The trunk this desk had somehow never priced, and the house chart wins it in both cabins. Air India flies Mumbai–Kolkata on MAINLINE metal — Mumbai's operator table lists Kolkata under Air India and Kolkata's lists Mumbai back, the only two entries its Air India row carries — so every board here is buildable. The full April-2026 chart prices it at 5,000 in economy, cut 17% from 6,000, and 25,000 up front. Aeroplan bands the identical seat off 1,027 great-circle miles, and those 27 miles past the 1,000-mile boundary are expensive: they push the pair out of the cheap Within-Atlantic band into 15,000 and 22,500. Price it in rupees and it is not close in either cabin — ₹4,000 against ₹15,000 in the back, ₹20,000 against ₹22,500 in front. Burn Maharaja Points here and keep Aeroplan for a band it actually wins. 5 options, 2 of them first-hand chart reads.
The play · economy
Which card mints this?
+7 more ways in — the full funnel, ratios and ₹/mile side by side →
One of your cards is in those 7 — see it in the funnel →
| Program | Metal / routing | Points | Surcharge | All-in ₹ | vs play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Canada Aeroplan the play | Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance partner award) | 15,000 | — | ₹15,000 | the play |
| Air India Maharaja Points | Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance), Value tier — Air India Express does not serve this pair | ~5,000 est. | — | ₹4,000 | 0.3× |
| IndiGo BluChip | IndiGo nonstop — BluChip, dynamic (revenue-priced) | ~12,000 est. | — | ₹6,000 | 0.4× |
The play · business
Which card mints this?
+7 more ways in — the full funnel, ratios and ₹/mile side by side →
One of your cards is in those 7 — see it in the funnel →
| Program | Metal / routing | Points | Surcharge | All-in ₹ | vs play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Canada Aeroplan the play | Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance partner award) | 22,500 | — | ₹22,500 | the play |
| Air India Maharaja Points | Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance), Value tier — mainline only, Air India Express has no business cabin | ~25,000 est. | — | ₹20,000 | 0.9× |
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. That surcharge is the airline's own cash charge on an award — YQ, as the notes below call it — and it is not the fuel-surcharge waiver your credit card advertises: that one hands back a hundred rupees or two at a petrol pump, this one runs to tens of thousands and decides whether the award is worth taking at all. “Dynamic” and estimated (~… est.) rows never compete for the play — the crown is always a verified, bookable price. Feed-ins come from the same transfer data as the optimizer, multi-hop chains included.
Air India Star Alliance
1,027 great-circle miles land in the 1,001–2,000-mile Within-Atlantic band at 15,000 points, surcharge-free bar the CA$39 partner booking fee. Twenty-seven miles the other side of the boundary and this row would read 7,500. Maharaja does the same mainline seat for 5,000, so this is completeness, not a buy.
Feed it: 7,500 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 15,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 37,500 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Air India Star Alliance
"BOM,CCU, old 6,000, new 5,000–14,000" in the full April-2026 domestic economy table — a 16.7% cut, Value cell 5,000, band ceiling 14,000. That puts one of India's longest metro trunks at the same price as Delhi–Mumbai, which is 515 km shorter, and makes it the best rupee-per-km domestic award on this board: ₹4,000 at the ₹0.80 house value against ₹6–9k cash. Six issuers feed Maharaja at 1:1 or better. Air India levies no carrier-imposed fuel surcharge on its own metal; statutory taxes and passenger service fees are cash on top and unpublished as a figure.
Estimate Air India publishes no award chart. Its own Points Calculator states that “Fares indicated above are dependent on the time of booking and seat availability”, and Maharaja Club prices every award either as a Value fare (the discounted rate for booking well in advance) or as a higher Prime fare closer to departure. This number is the Value-fare floor as sampled after the April-2026 repricing — not a published chart cell: Value space is not always available on a given flight, and the same seat prices higher once it is gone. Pricing model re-verified against Air India’s Maharaja Club T&C and Points Calculator on 2026-08-09.
Feed it: 5,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 2,500 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 5,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
IndiGo
IndiGo runs the frequency on Mumbai–Kolkata, but BluChip has no award chart — redemptions track the live fare at a dynamic ₹0.40–0.60 per BluChip, minimum 500, taxes and convenience fees cash-only. Against a fixed 5,000-point Maharaja cell on the same route there is no argument to make; this is the cash ticket wearing points.
Estimate IndiGo BluChip is revenue-linked ~Rs0.50/pt; 12,000 ~= a typical Rs6,000 one-way BOM-CCU economy fare divided by Rs0.50 - a rupee offset that moves 1:1 with the live fare. Own-metal only, no partners, no chart.
Feed it: 18,000 HSBC Reward Points (1.5:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) · 60,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:1) · 36,000 HDFC Reward Points (3:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL))
Air India Star Alliance
22,500 in the 1,001–2,000-mile band for Air India's own domestic recliner, fixed and surcharge-free, chain-funded HDFC 2:1 / Bonvoy 3:1 because no Indian card transfers to Aeroplan directly. Fewer points than Maharaja's 25,000 and more rupees — ₹22,500 against ₹20,000 — which is the whole reason this desk prices in currency rather than in points.
Feed it: 11,250 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 22,500 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 56,250 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Air India Star Alliance
"BOM,CCU, old 26,000, new 25,000–29,000" — barely moved, a 3.8% trim, and one of the few domestic business cells the house chart still wins on rupees: ₹20,000 at ₹0.80 a point against Aeroplan's 22,500 miles at ₹22,500. Know what you are buying — Air India runs this pair on A320/A321 narrowbodies, so the front cabin is a recliner, not the long-haul suite. 25,000 is the Value cell; 29,000 is the band ceiling and not a price this desk prints.
Estimate Air India publishes no award chart. Its own Points Calculator states that “Fares indicated above are dependent on the time of booking and seat availability”, and Maharaja Club prices every award either as a Value fare (the discounted rate for booking well in advance) or as a higher Prime fare closer to departure. This number is the Value-fare floor as sampled after the April-2026 repricing — not a published chart cell: Value space is not always available on a given flight, and the same seat prices higher once it is gone. Pricing model re-verified against Air India’s Maharaja Club T&C and Points Calculator on 2026-08-09.
Feed it: 25,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 12,500 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 25,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
Or take the whole region: every corridor we price into South Asia — 360 of them. Or pick any two hubs — 2,430 corridors priced.