Award flight · one-way
Delhi → Bengaluru on points: 5 options, the board now symmetric with Bengaluru → Delhi. Award charts price the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so every program that prices the reverse heading is mirrored here — a mirror still flagged as an estimate never takes the crown. The cheapest verified business seat on the board is 22,500 via Air Canada Aeroplan, and economy starts at 15,000. 2 rows are first-hand chart reads. Priced in ₹, Air India Maharaja Points' 25,000 would undercut Aeroplan — ₹20,000 all-in at the ₹0.80 house value against ₹22,500 — but Maharaja prices this dynamically, so it sorts in as an estimate and the crown stays with Aeroplan.
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 nonstop (Star Alliance partner award) | 15,000 | — | ₹15,000 | the play |
| Air India Maharaja Points | Air India mainline nonstop, plus Air India Express on the same pair — both redeemable since 21-May-2026, but IX sells economy only (no business cabin) | ~7,000 est. | — | ₹5,600 | 0.4× |
| IndiGo BluChip | IndiGo nonstop — BluChip, dynamic (revenue-priced) | ~14,000 est. | — | ₹7,000 | 0.5× |
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 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.
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 India Maharaja Points makes 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. 1 other programme priced here publishes nothing the desk could read.
Air India Star Alliance
1,062 great-circle miles lands in the 1,001–2,000-mile Within-Atlantic band — 15,000 points, on Air India's nonstop. Cash crushes it; a completeness row, not a play.
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 IndiaAir India Express
Cut 13% in April 2026 (8,000 → 7,000). Chart quirk: the longer Delhi–Goa sector costs 5,000 — Air India prices routes, not distance. ₹5,600 at house value against ₹5–9k cash; taxes unpublished, budget a few thousand rupees. Six issuers feed Maharaja at 1:1 or better.
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: 7,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 3,500 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 7,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
IndiGo
IndiGo runs the highest frequency on this trunk, but BluChip has no award chart — redemptions track the live fare at a dynamic ₹0.40–0.60 per BluChip, minimum 500, and taxes plus convenience fees stay cash-only. Nothing to plan around; useful only to bleed a balance onto a fare you'd have paid anyway.
Estimate IndiGo BluChip is revenue-linked ~Rs0.50/pt; ~= typical one-way IndiGo economy fare / Rs0.50 for ~1,062 mi - a rupee offset that moves 1:1 with the live fare. Own-metal only, no partners.
Feed it: 21,000 HSBC Reward Points (1.5:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) · 70,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:1) · 42,000 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 domestic business on the Delhi–Bengaluru trunk. Fixed, chain-funded HDFC 2:1 / Bonvoy 3:1 — but it's a 2¾-hour recliner, so this is Aeroplan spent for convenience, not for the seat.
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
Cut 19% in April 2026 (31,000 → 25,000) — the deepest domestic business cut on a metro trunk. Still ₹20,000 of points for under three hours in a narrowbody recliner; the chart rewards the front of the plane on the A350 long-haul, not here.
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)
Flying back? Bengaluru to Delhi on points (BLR–DEL). Or take the whole region: every corridor we price into South Asia — 380 of them. Or pick any two hubs — 2,450 corridors priced.