Award route card · one-way
The Umrah-and-Haj corridor, and a rare case where the fixed-chart programs beat the home team. Air India flies DEL–JED nonstop, so Aeroplan books it Star-Alliance at 40,000 points in business with zero fuel surcharges, and Qatar's Qsuite via Doha lands at 38,500 Avios for a far better seat. Watch the Saudi quirk: Maharaja's business band to Saudi Arabia sits far below the UAE — the Riyadh example prices at just 21,000 points — but Air India publishes no DEL–JED business number, so we hold economy at a clean 12,000 and leave the Saudi-J bargain as a call-to-verify, not an invented cell.
The play · business
Feed it: 20,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 40,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 1,00,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
| Program | Metal / routing | Points | Surcharge | All-in ₹ | vs play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Air India nonstop (Star Alliance partner award) | 40,000 | — | ₹40,000 | the play |
| Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) | Qatar Airways Qsuite via DOH (oneworld) — Avios partner chart, per-segment | 43,000 | — | ₹43,000 | 1.1× |
| Emirates Skywards | Emirates business via DXB (DEL–DXB–JED) — Classic Rewards, calculator-priced | dynamic | — | — | — |
The play · economy
Feed it: 12,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 6,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 12,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
| Program | Metal / routing | Points | Surcharge | All-in ₹ | vs play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air India Maharaja Points | Air India nonstop (Star Alliance), Value tier | 12,000 | — | ₹9,600 | the play |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Air India nonstop (Star Alliance partner award) | 30,000 | — | ₹30,000 | 3.1× |
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. “Dynamic” rows never compete for the play. Feed-ins come from the same transfer data as the optimizer, multi-hop chains included.
40,000 points for Air India business DEL–JED on Aeroplan's 2,001–4,000-mile band, surcharge-free and bookable on the nonstop — the simplest premium seat here. Qatar's Qsuite via Doha runs 38,500 Avios for a better cabin; if Maharaja's Saudi business band really is ~21,000 it undercuts everything, but that number isn't published for DEL–JED.
Feed it: 20,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 40,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 1,00,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Qatar has no DEL–JED nonstop — you route through Doha, and the Avios partner chart sums per segment: DEL–DOH (Zone 3, 22,000 J) + DOH–JED (Zone 2, 16,500 J) = 43,000 Avios, Qsuite both legs. Best seat on the corridor, roughly level with Aeroplan on miles but with Qatar's carrier surcharges on top and a Doha connection to absorb. Re-priced 2026-07-22 to the post-15-Dec-2025 partner bands (milelion primary) — draft used the stale pre-devaluation chart.
Feed it: 43,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 86,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 43,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
Emirates flies no DEL–JED nonstop, so this is DEL–DXB–JED via Dubai on two Emirates sectors — calculator-only pricing, up ~15% for premium after the May-2026 devaluation, plus heavy surcharges and a connection. Rarely the math winner against Aeroplan's fixed 40,000 or Qsuite's 38,500, but the A380 first leg tempts. Price it before committing.
Ways in: Amex Membership Rewards 2:1 · RBL Reward Points 4.8:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy · Axis EDGE Miles 1:1.25 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy
Jeddah is named in the April-2026 chart's flat 12,000-point Middle East economy tier — the cheapest published seat to the Red Sea, on Air India's own widebody nonstop. Note the Saudi business band appears far cheaper than the UAE's 50,000 (Riyadh prices at 21,000), but no DEL–JED business figure is published — verify at booking before assuming it.
Feed it: 12,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 6,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 12,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
DEL–JED (2,415 mi) sits in Aeroplan's 2,001–4,000-mile Atlantic band: 30,000 points economy, no fuel surcharges. Comprehensively beaten by Maharaja's 12,000 on the same Air India metal — Aeroplan's value on this corridor lives one row down, in business.
Feed it: 15,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 30,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 75,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)