Award flight · one-way
Mumbai → Muscat was a hole in the board, and it is now 24 priced ways to buy the seat, economy from 7,500 on Aeroplan and business from 12,500 on Aeroplan. First is on the board too at 25,000 via Aeroplan — the published chart carries the cabin, so we print it. Aeroplan bands the 1,590 km on distance and AAdvantage prices the region flat; the dynamic Flying Blue row is shown as an honest estimate and can never be crowned THE PLAY.
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 | Star Alliance partner metal, Aeroplan distance-band award (1,590 km) | 7,500 | — | ₹7,500 | the play |
| Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards | Oman Air nonstop BOM-MCT (oneworld partner award), India→the Gulf — Alaska Atmos | 7,500 | — | ₹7,500 | 1.0× |
| Oman Air Sindbad | Oman Air nonstop — Sindbad six-band chart (own metal, verified from the airline's calculator) | 12,000 | — | ₹12,000 | 1.6× |
| Air France-KLM Flying Blue | Etihad Airways via AUH (BOM–AUH–MCT), or Oman Air nonstop — Flying Blue partner award (dynamic) | ~12,500 est. | — | ₹12,500 | 1.7× |
| Avianca LifeMiles | Star Alliance partner metal, India→the Gulf — Avianca LifeMiles | ~15,000 est. | — | ₹15,000 | 2.0× |
| United MileagePlus | Star Alliance partner metal, India→the Gulf — United MileagePlus | ~17,500 est. | — | ₹17,500 | 2.3× |
| American Airlines AAdvantage | oneworld partner metal, AAdvantage region award — or Qatar Airways via DOH | 17,500 | — | ₹17,500 | 2.3× |
| Aegean Miles+Bonus | Star Alliance partner metal, India→the Gulf — Aegean Miles+Bonus | 20,000 | — | ₹20,000 | 2.7× |
| Copa Airlines ConnectMiles | Star Alliance partner metal, India→the Gulf — Copa ConnectMiles (fixed region chart) | 20,000 | — | ₹20,000 | 2.7× |
| TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go | Star Alliance partner metal, India→the Gulf — TAP Miles&Go | 60,000 | — | ₹48,000 | 6.4× |
| Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles | Etihad own metal (BOM–AUH–MCT) — Vietnam Lotusmiles partner award | ~60,000 est. | — | ₹60,000 | 8.0× |
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 | Star Alliance partner metal, Aeroplan distance-band award (1,590 km) | 12,500 | — | ₹12,500 | the play |
| Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards | Oman Air nonstop BOM-MCT (oneworld partner award), India→the Gulf — Alaska Atmos | 15,000 | — | ₹15,000 | 1.2× |
| Oman Air Sindbad | Oman Air nonstop — Sindbad six-band chart (own metal, verified from the airline's calculator) | 22,000 | — | ₹22,000 | 1.8× |
| Avianca LifeMiles | Star Alliance partner metal, India→the Gulf — Avianca LifeMiles | ~25,000 est. | — | ₹25,000 | 2.0× |
| Air France-KLM Flying Blue | Etihad Airways via AUH (BOM–AUH–MCT), or Oman Air nonstop — Flying Blue partner award (dynamic) | ~26,500 est. | — | ₹26,500 | 2.1× |
| American Airlines AAdvantage | oneworld partner metal, AAdvantage region award — or Qatar Airways via DOH | 30,000 | — | ₹30,000 | 2.4× |
| Aegean Miles+Bonus | Star Alliance partner metal, India→the Gulf — Aegean Miles+Bonus | 30,000 | — | ₹30,000 | 2.4× |
| United MileagePlus | Star Alliance partner metal, India→the Gulf — United MileagePlus | ~32,500 est. | — | ₹32,500 | 2.6× |
| Copa Airlines ConnectMiles | Star Alliance partner metal, India→the Gulf — Copa ConnectMiles (fixed region chart) | 35,000 | — | ₹35,000 | 2.8× |
| TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go | Star Alliance partner metal, India→the Gulf — TAP Miles&Go | 80,000 | — | ₹64,000 | 5.1× |
| Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles | Etihad own metal (BOM–AUH–MCT) — Vietnam Lotusmiles partner award | ~120,000 est. | — | ₹1,20,000 | 9.6× |
The play · first
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 | Star Alliance partner metal, Aeroplan distance-band award (1,590 km) | 25,000 | — | ₹25,000 | the play |
| American Airlines AAdvantage | oneworld partner metal, AAdvantage region award — or Qatar Airways via DOH | 40,000 | — | ₹40,000 | 1.6× |
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.
Chart-priced, not live seats. These prices are read off each programme’s published award chart and valued at our own house ₹/point. 37% of the 39,855 priced options on the board are stated estimates for programmes that publish no chart; they are marked ~ est. and never crowned the play. Nobody here can see whether a seat exists on your date — confirm the space with the programme before you transfer. Points that leave your issuer do not come back.
The cash on top of the miles. Air France-KLM Flying Blue states that a carrier-imposed surcharge is charged on an award. Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards, United MileagePlus, American Airlines AAdvantage and Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles make you liable for one if the operating airline levies it, without saying whether it does. Air Canada Aeroplan states it adds none on its own metal. Government taxes and airport charges are payable in every case. Almost no programme publishes the amount, so the desk carries each one’s policy in its own words — on its programme hub — rather than a number nobody published. 5 other programmes priced here publish nothing the desk could read.
Star Alliance
Aeroplan prices Star partner awards by total distance flown; this row is the direct great-circle band, and a connecting routing that flies farther can land one band up. A valid Star routing — nonstop, or via a Star hub inside the maximum permitted mileage — is assumed.
Feed it: 3,750 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 7,500 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 18,750 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Oman Air oneworld
Oman Air flies BOM-MCT nonstop, ~988 miles, and Alaska Atmos bands partner awards by distance flown — the Asia-Pacific chart's sub-1,500-mile band: 7,500 economy / 15,000 business one-way, plus the $20 partner booking fee per person each way (up from $12.50 on 1-Jul-2026). One-way.
Feed it: 22,500 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 45,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 15,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Oman Air oneworld
Sindbad six-band own-metal chart, one-way per sector, harvested from Oman Air's own mileage-calculator endpoint 2026-07-26 (spec: docs/research/hub-grid/specs/oman-air-sindbad.json). Reward tickets exclude taxes and carrier surcharges. Oman Air joined oneworld 30-Jun-2025 but publishes no partner chart — this row prices WY metal only.
Feed it: 32,000 HSBC Reward Points (2.67:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) · 64,000 HDFC Reward Points (5.33:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) · 160,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (13.33:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL))
Etihad AirwaysOman Air
Flying Blue has no award chart, but its partner awards are additive per segment, so this routing bands to 12,500 economy (BOM–AUH 1,971 km → 7,500 + AUH–MCT 381 km → 5,000 = 12,500 economy). Partner awards pass the operating carrier's surcharges — the published Oman Air datapoints run US$190–390 one-way — and Flying Blue publishes no per-route table, so this row's cash side stays unpublished. Cabin scope: Etihad sells Flying Blue awards in economy and business only — first, including the Apartment, is not bookable with Miles. First IS bookable on a short list of other partners (Oman Air on Muscat–Bangkok alone, China Eastern, Garuda), none of which is a first routing this board prices, so there is no Flying Blue first row here.
Estimate Flying Blue publishes no chart, but prices PARTNER awards PER SEGMENT — One Mile at a Time, 6-Jun-2024 on the Oman Air launch: "you're paying the per segment pricing anyway", and the additive structure reproduces all four published connection datapoints inside 5%. This row rides Etihad Airways (a Flying Blue non-alliance partner redemption — Flying Blue runs ONE partner engine over SkyTeam and non-alliance metal alike, which the 13-Jan-2025 repricing proved by moving Etihad and Delta together), so it is banded segment by segment: BOM–AUH 1,971 km → 7,500 + AUH–MCT 381 km → 5,000 = 12,500 economy. Bands anchored on the published Flying Blue partner datapoints (one-way business: Muscat–Dubai 6,100, Abu Dhabi–Kuwait 9,500, Muscat–Bangkok 42,900, Abu Dhabi–Bangkok 45,000, Muscat–Munich 45,800, Abu Dhabi–Johannesburg 48,000, Abu Dhabi–Washington 87,000), with economy at half of business — the one published long-haul economy anchor is Toronto–Abu Dhabi 43,500 against an ~87,000 business segment of the same length. The <=1,200 km rung is the one exception — re-fitted cabin by cabin on its own published quotes on 2026-08-02, hence 5,000 / 11,500 rather than half-and-half. Dates and demand move the real number. BAND CAVEAT: at least one segment here falls in the <=1,200 km band, still the widest residual on the table. It was re-fitted on 2026-08-02 as the geometric mean of its own published quotes and now reads 5,000 economy / 11,500 business, up from 4,000 / 8,000 — an unfitted rung that ran about 21% and 31% low. The re-fit removes the bias, not the spread: published one-way business quotes inside the band still run 6,100 (Muscat–Dubai) to 19,500 (Toronto–New York), 3.2x apart, and segment length does not explain the gap. Treat the short-hop component as the coarsest number on this row.
Feed it: 12,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 6,250 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 12,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
Star Alliance
LifeMiles prices Star partner metal off an unpublished grid; India→Europe business ~63k is the headline sweet spot (beats Aeroplan). Business is the value cabin here; economy is mediocre. The chart is semi-fixed/unpublished, so some bands are estimates.
Estimate LifeMiles publishes no award chart — Avianca withdrew its public zone table in 2023 and prices Star partner awards off an unpublished internal grid. This level is extrapolated from that historical zone pricing plus dated community booking reports, not a verified chart price.
Feed it: 45,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 90,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 30,000 HDFC Reward Points (2:1)
Star Alliance
United went fully dynamic in 2020 (no fixed chart), so ~17,500 is a typical Saver partner level to the Gulf. But Aeroplan often prices the same Star seat lower, so compare before burning United miles.
Estimate United MileagePlus Saver partner level, India→the Gulf on Star Alliance metal; United went fully dynamic in 2020, so this is a typical Saver that moves with availability and cabin scarcity.
Feed it: 8,750 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 43,750 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2) · 52,500 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy)
Qatar Airways oneworld
AAdvantage prices partner awards on a fixed region-to-region chart, so a connection costs no extra miles. A valid oneworld routing — Oman Air nonstop, Qatar Airways via Doha — is assumed.
Feed it: 52,500 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 105,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 35,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance
Aegean Miles+Bonus prices Star partner metal off one region chart published as ROUND TRIPS — its own rule is that a one-way costs exactly half, and the halved figure is what we show. India sits in the "Near East & Central Asia" zone: the Far East is a flat 30k/45k one-way (Tokyo costs the same as Bangkok), Europe 35k/55k, North America 50k/75k. No Indian card feeds it — Marriott Bonvoy 3:1 is the only road in, and awards only display once you hold the full balance.
Feed it: 60,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 120,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 40,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance
Copa ConnectMiles prices Star partner metal off its FIXED region chart (India sits in Copa’s "Central Asia" zone). Standout value — India→Europe 45k business, India→Sub-Saharan Africa 17.5k economy on Ethiopian (Cairo is a dearer 20k Middle East cell) — but NO Indian card feeds ConnectMiles (buy-miles or a US co-brand only), so treat it as a reference benchmark, not a wallet-reachable route.
Feed it: 60,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 120,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 40,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance
The 4 May 2026 chart pulled the Gulf out of TAP's "Asia" zone and gave it a Middle East band of its own: India→Middle East went 40k/60k → 60k/80k one-way, +50% in economy and +33% in business on a short hop. Intra-Asia is now 50k/70k, so Bangkok and Singapore price below Dubai. Heavy fuel surcharges on Lufthansa-group and TAP metal; Turkish, EgyptAir and Ethiopian routings dodge most of the YQ.
Feed it: 150,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2.5:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 300,000 RBL Reward Points (5:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 100,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (1.67:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Etihad Airways
Muscat has no SkyTeam service either: the only SkyTeam metal at MCT is China Eastern's Beijing-Daxing flight, so a SkyTeam-only build from India would crawl east to Shanghai and Beijing before doubling back 6,000 km — not an itinerary any award desk will ticket. Re-metalled onto Etihad 2026-08-01 after the SkyTeam phantom test that purged Air Europa SUMA from the same corridors. Lotusmiles partner awards are not bookable online — Vietnam Airlines takes them through its contact centre — so treat availability as the binding constraint, not the price. Vietnam Airlines' own metal never comes near either end: VN reaches DEL/BOM from Saigon and BLR/HYD from Hanoi, and no Gulf point at all. One-way.
Estimate Etihad is a named Lotusmiles redemption partner (award booking classes I business / N economy on Vietnam Airlines' own partner table) and flies BOM–AUH–MCT end to end on its own metal. Lotusmiles deducts miles PER FLIGHT SEGMENT, so this sums the published Southwest Asia x Middle East cell (35,000 economy / 70,000 business) and the Middle East x Middle East cell (25,000 / 50,000) = 60,000 economy one-way. Estimated on two counts: Lotusmiles publishes its 11-zone table for SkyTeam metal plus China Southern and ANA only, sending non-SkyTeam partners to a separate 10-zone "Award Zone Definition on Other Airlines" whose mileage table it never publishes; and it does not state whether the per-segment rule survives onto that grid. Both zone definitions put India in South West Asia and the Gulf in Middle East, so only the grid, not the cell, is in question.
Feed it: 60,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 60,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1) · 60,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1)
Star Alliance
Aeroplan prices Star partner awards by total distance flown; this row is the direct great-circle band, and a connecting routing that flies farther can land one band up. A valid Star routing — nonstop, or via a Star hub inside the maximum permitted mileage — is assumed.
Feed it: 6,250 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 12,500 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 31,250 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Oman Air oneworld
Oman Air flies BOM-MCT nonstop, ~988 miles, and Alaska Atmos bands partner awards by distance flown — the Asia-Pacific chart's sub-1,500-mile band: 7,500 economy / 15,000 business one-way, plus the $20 partner booking fee per person each way (up from $12.50 on 1-Jul-2026). One-way.
Feed it: 45,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 90,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 30,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Oman Air oneworld
Sindbad six-band own-metal chart, one-way per sector, harvested from Oman Air's own mileage-calculator endpoint 2026-07-26 (spec: docs/research/hub-grid/specs/oman-air-sindbad.json). Reward tickets exclude taxes and carrier surcharges. Oman Air joined oneworld 30-Jun-2025 but publishes no partner chart — this row prices WY metal only.
Feed it: 58,667 HSBC Reward Points (2.67:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) · 117,334 HDFC Reward Points (5.33:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) · 293,334 Axis EDGE Reward Points (13.33:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL))
Star Alliance
LifeMiles prices Star partner metal off an unpublished grid; India→Europe business ~63k is the headline sweet spot (beats Aeroplan). Business is the value cabin here; economy is mediocre. The chart is semi-fixed/unpublished, so some bands are estimates.
Estimate LifeMiles publishes no award chart — Avianca withdrew its public zone table in 2023 and prices Star partner awards off an unpublished internal grid. This level is extrapolated from that historical zone pricing plus dated community booking reports, not a verified chart price.
Feed it: 75,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 150,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 50,000 HDFC Reward Points (2:1)
Etihad AirwaysOman Air
Flying Blue has no award chart, but its partner awards are additive per segment, so this routing bands to 26,500 business (BOM–AUH 1,971 km → 15,000 + AUH–MCT 381 km → 11,500 = 26,500 business). Partner awards pass the operating carrier's surcharges — the published Oman Air datapoints run US$190–390 one-way — and Flying Blue publishes no per-route table, so this row's cash side stays unpublished. Cabin scope: Etihad sells Flying Blue awards in economy and business only — first, including the Apartment, is not bookable with Miles. First IS bookable on a short list of other partners (Oman Air on Muscat–Bangkok alone, China Eastern, Garuda), none of which is a first routing this board prices, so there is no Flying Blue first row here.
Estimate Flying Blue publishes no chart, but prices PARTNER awards PER SEGMENT — One Mile at a Time, 6-Jun-2024 on the Oman Air launch: "you're paying the per segment pricing anyway", and the additive structure reproduces all four published connection datapoints inside 5%. This row rides Etihad Airways (a Flying Blue non-alliance partner redemption — Flying Blue runs ONE partner engine over SkyTeam and non-alliance metal alike, which the 13-Jan-2025 repricing proved by moving Etihad and Delta together), so it is banded segment by segment: BOM–AUH 1,971 km → 15,000 + AUH–MCT 381 km → 11,500 = 26,500 business. Bands anchored on the published Flying Blue partner datapoints (one-way business: Muscat–Dubai 6,100, Abu Dhabi–Kuwait 9,500, Muscat–Bangkok 42,900, Abu Dhabi–Bangkok 45,000, Muscat–Munich 45,800, Abu Dhabi–Johannesburg 48,000, Abu Dhabi–Washington 87,000), with economy at half of business — the one published long-haul economy anchor is Toronto–Abu Dhabi 43,500 against an ~87,000 business segment of the same length. The <=1,200 km rung is the one exception — re-fitted cabin by cabin on its own published quotes on 2026-08-02, hence 5,000 / 11,500 rather than half-and-half. Dates and demand move the real number. BAND CAVEAT: at least one segment here falls in the <=1,200 km band, still the widest residual on the table. It was re-fitted on 2026-08-02 as the geometric mean of its own published quotes and now reads 5,000 economy / 11,500 business, up from 4,000 / 8,000 — an unfitted rung that ran about 21% and 31% low. The re-fit removes the bias, not the spread: published one-way business quotes inside the band still run 6,100 (Muscat–Dubai) to 19,500 (Toronto–New York), 3.2x apart, and segment length does not explain the gap. Treat the short-hop component as the coarsest number on this row.
Feed it: 26,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 13,250 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 26,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
Qatar Airways oneworld
AAdvantage prices partner awards on a fixed region-to-region chart, so a connection costs no extra miles. A valid oneworld routing — Oman Air nonstop, Qatar Airways via Doha — is assumed.
Feed it: 90,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 180,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 60,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance
Aegean Miles+Bonus prices Star partner metal off one region chart published as ROUND TRIPS — its own rule is that a one-way costs exactly half, and the halved figure is what we show. India sits in the "Near East & Central Asia" zone: the Far East is a flat 30k/45k one-way (Tokyo costs the same as Bangkok), Europe 35k/55k, North America 50k/75k. No Indian card feeds it — Marriott Bonvoy 3:1 is the only road in, and awards only display once you hold the full balance.
Feed it: 75,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2.5:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 150,000 RBL Reward Points (5:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 50,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (1.67:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance
United went fully dynamic in 2020 (no fixed chart), so ~32,500 is a typical Saver partner level to the Gulf. But Aeroplan often prices the same Star seat lower, so compare before burning United miles.
Estimate United MileagePlus Saver partner level, India→the Gulf on Star Alliance metal; United went fully dynamic in 2020, so this is a typical Saver that moves with availability and cabin scarcity.
Feed it: 16,250 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 81,250 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2) · 67,500 Amex Membership Rewards (2.08:1 via Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance
Copa ConnectMiles prices Star partner metal off its FIXED region chart (India sits in Copa’s "Central Asia" zone). Standout value — India→Europe 45k business, India→Sub-Saharan Africa 17.5k economy on Ethiopian (Cairo is a dearer 20k Middle East cell) — but NO Indian card feeds ConnectMiles (buy-miles or a US co-brand only), so treat it as a reference benchmark, not a wallet-reachable route.
Feed it: 90,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2.57:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 180,000 RBL Reward Points (5.14:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 60,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (1.71:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance
The 4 May 2026 chart pulled the Gulf out of TAP's "Asia" zone and gave it a Middle East band of its own: India→Middle East went 40k/60k → 60k/80k one-way, +50% in economy and +33% in business on a short hop. Intra-Asia is now 50k/70k, so Bangkok and Singapore price below Dubai. Heavy fuel surcharges on Lufthansa-group and TAP metal; Turkish, EgyptAir and Ethiopian routings dodge most of the YQ.
Feed it: 195,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2.44:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 390,000 RBL Reward Points (4.88:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 130,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (1.63:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Etihad Airways
Muscat has no SkyTeam service either: the only SkyTeam metal at MCT is China Eastern's Beijing-Daxing flight, so a SkyTeam-only build from India would crawl east to Shanghai and Beijing before doubling back 6,000 km — not an itinerary any award desk will ticket. Re-metalled onto Etihad 2026-08-01 after the SkyTeam phantom test that purged Air Europa SUMA from the same corridors. Lotusmiles partner awards are not bookable online — Vietnam Airlines takes them through its contact centre — so treat availability as the binding constraint, not the price. Vietnam Airlines' own metal never comes near either end: VN reaches DEL/BOM from Saigon and BLR/HYD from Hanoi, and no Gulf point at all. One-way.
Estimate Etihad is a named Lotusmiles redemption partner (award booking classes I business / N economy on Vietnam Airlines' own partner table) and flies BOM–AUH–MCT end to end on its own metal. Lotusmiles deducts miles PER FLIGHT SEGMENT, so this sums the published Southwest Asia x Middle East cell (35,000 economy / 70,000 business) and the Middle East x Middle East cell (25,000 / 50,000) = 120,000 business one-way. Estimated on two counts: Lotusmiles publishes its 11-zone table for SkyTeam metal plus China Southern and ANA only, sending non-SkyTeam partners to a separate 10-zone "Award Zone Definition on Other Airlines" whose mileage table it never publishes; and it does not state whether the per-segment rule survives onto that grid. Both zone definitions put India in South West Asia and the Gulf in Middle East, so only the grid, not the cell, is in question.
Feed it: 120,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 120,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1) · 120,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1)
Star Alliance
Aeroplan prices Star partner awards by total distance flown; this row is the direct great-circle band, and a connecting routing that flies farther can land one band up. A valid Star routing — nonstop, or via a Star hub inside the maximum permitted mileage — is assumed.
Feed it: 12,500 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 25,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 62,500 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Qatar Airways oneworld
AAdvantage prices partner awards on a fixed region-to-region chart, so a connection costs no extra miles. A valid oneworld routing — Oman Air nonstop, Qatar Airways via Doha — is assumed.
Feed it: 120,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 240,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 80,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Or take the whole region: every corridor we price into Middle East — 207 of them. Or pick any two hubs — 2,450 corridors priced.