Award flight · one-way
India's busiest trunk, and the one domestic corridor the April-2026 Maharaja overhaul left completely alone: DEL–BOM held at 5,000 points while the chart around it was cut by up to 64%. Air India runs it on mainline metal and Air India Express feeds it too — IX seats became redeemable with Maharaja Points on 21-May-2026, though Express itself sells economy only, having no business cabin. The cheapest verified business seat on the board is 12,500 via Air Canada Aeroplan, and economy starts at 7,500 — but price those in rupees and Maharaja's 5,000 (₹4,000) undercuts Aeroplan's 7,500 (₹7,500) outright. Beyond Star there is nothing to price: no oneworld or SkyTeam carrier operates a single domestic Indian sector. 6 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 nonstop (Star Alliance partner award) | 7,500 | — | ₹7,500 | 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) | ~5,000 est. | — | ₹4,000 | 0.5× |
| IndiGo BluChip | IndiGo nonstop — BluChip, dynamic (revenue-priced) | ~10,400 est. | — | ₹5,200 | 0.7× |
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) | 12,500 | — | ₹12,500 | the play |
| Air India Maharaja Points | Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance), Value tier — mainline only, Air India Express has no business cabin | ~20,000 est. | — | ₹16,000 | 1.3× |
Every first option on this corridor is dynamic-priced — no honest number to crown. The rows below say what we know.
| Program | Metal / routing | Points | Surcharge | All-in ₹ | vs play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Air India nonstop (Star Alliance partner award) | ~25,000 est. | — | ₹25,000 | — |
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
DEL–BOM's 706 great-circle miles sit in Aeroplan's 0–1,000-mile Within-Atlantic band — 7,500 points. At house value that's dearer than the cash fare on India's busiest trunk; the row exists for chart completeness, not for a serious burn.
Feed it: 3,750 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 7,500 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 18,750 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Air IndiaAir India Express
DEL–BOM held at 5,000 points in the April-2026 overhaul (domestic economy now starts at 1,500). ₹4,000 at house value against ₹4–7k cash fares — genuine value on the Value-tier awards, though metro trunks like this rarely dip to the 1,500 floor. Six issuers feed Maharaja at 1:1 or better. Taxes and passenger service fees are cash on top.
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
BluChip has no award chart — redemptions track the live fare at roughly ₹0.40–0.80 per point, so a Diwali DEL–BOM costs multiples of a mid-July one. There is nothing to plan around: the "award" is the cash ticket in points clothing. Useful only to dump an expiring 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 ~706 mi - a rupee offset that moves 1:1 with the live fare. Own-metal only, no partners.
Feed it: 15,600 HSBC Reward Points (1.5:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) · 52,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:1) · 31,200 HDFC Reward Points (3:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL))
Air India Star Alliance
12,500 in the 0–1,000-mile Within-Atlantic band for Air India's domestic business —, but this is a 2¼-hour narrowbody, not a flat bed. Chain-funded HDFC 2:1 / Bonvoy 3:1; save the balance for the long-haul rows below.
Feed it: 6,250 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 12,500 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 31,250 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Air India Star Alliance
Cut 13% to 20,000 in April 2026 (was 23,000) — ₹16,000 of points for two hours in a domestic recliner. The chart rewards the front of the plane on long-haul, not here; burn economy and save the balance for the A350.
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: 20,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 10,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 20,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
Air India Star Alliance
Aeroplan prices Star partner awards by total distance FLOWN — only a CA$39 partner booking fee plus taxes. First is the published top cabin for this band; a connecting routing that flies farther can land in the next band up. Mirrored from bom-del: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 25,000 is the bom-del number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of bom-del — Air Canada Aeroplan prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the bom-del first cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction.
Feed it: 12,500 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 25,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 62,500 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Flying back? Mumbai to Delhi on points (BOM–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.