Award flight · one-way
The best-documented domestic award on this board, and the one Indian corridor where the house chart beats every partner outright. Four independent reads of the April-2026 Maharaja overhaul land on the same two cells — economy cut 44% from 9,000 to 5,000, business cut 14% from 29,000 to 25,000 — and every one of them names DABOLIM, the old airport, not Mopa. That matters, because Air India prices the two Goa fields as separate routes: Hyderabad–Mopa fell to 2,500 in the same overhaul. At ₹0.80 a point the economy seat is ₹4,000 against cash that runs ₹4.5k in monsoon and ₹12k+ over New Year — the rare Indian route where the points price is nailed down while the rupee price triples, which is the entire reason to hold Maharaja Points. Aeroplan's 934 miles fall in the cheapest Within-Atlantic band and it still loses, 7,500 to 5,000. Nothing oneworld flies Delhi–Dabolim, so AAdvantage gets no row and the board says so rather than printing a cell no one can book. Burn Maharaja in December; in July, pay cash.
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 to Dabolim (Star Alliance), Value tier — Air India Express and IndiGo fly it too | ~5,000 est. | — | ₹4,000 | 0.5× |
| IndiGo BluChip | IndiGo nonstop to Dabolim — 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 to Dabolim (Star Alliance), Value tier | ~25,000 est. | — | ₹20,000 | 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.
Air India Star Alliance
934 great-circle miles squeaks under the 0–1,000-mile Within-Atlantic band's ceiling — 7,500 points, no fuel or carrier surcharge, only a CA$39 partner booking fee plus taxes. Maharaja does the same seat for 5,000, so this row is here for completeness. Watch the band: a connecting routing that flies farther lands in the 1,001–2,000-mile band at 15,000.
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 India Star Alliance
Cut 44% in April 2026 (9,000 → 5,000), the single best-corroborated domestic cell we hold: Aviation A2Z, AwardWallet, Avio Space and Magnify all print the same 9,000 → 5,000 for Delhi–Goa, and the first three name Dabolim explicitly. ₹4,000 at house value. Air India levies no carrier-imposed fuel surcharge on its own metal, so you pay statutory taxes and airport fees only — but the desk has no published rupee figure for them, hence the honest blank. Six issuers feed Maharaja at 1:1 or better, which is why this is the domestic award worth actually planning.
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 flies Delhi to both Goa fields and runs the frequency, 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. On the most seasonal leisure route in India that is exactly the wrong structure: the New-Year seat costs triple the monsoon one in points too. Maharaja's fixed 5,000 is the whole argument for the other program.
Estimate IndiGo BluChip is revenue-linked ~Rs0.50/pt; ~= typical one-way IndiGo economy fare / Rs0.50 for ~934 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
Here the partner chart embarrasses the house one: 12,500 Aeroplan in the 0–1,000-mile band against Maharaja's own 25,000 for the identical Air India seat — a 50% discount routed through Toronto. Fixed, surcharge-free, chain-funded HDFC 2:1 / Bonvoy 3:1. The cheapest published way to the front of a Delhi–Goa narrowbody.
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 14% in April 2026 (29,000 → 25,000), corroborated cell-for-cell by Avio Space. It is also the chart's own indictment: 25,000 points buys the identical narrowbody recliner Delhi–Bengaluru does, on a shorter sector, while Aeroplan sells the same seat for 12,500. ₹20,000 of points for 2½ hours up front is a burn only a stranded balance should make — take the 5,000-point economy cell and keep the rest 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: 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.