travelwith.cc

Award flight · one-way

Delhi to Varanasi on points

7,500 pts cheapest economy · Air Canada Aeroplan DEL → VNS great-circle 667 km · 414 mi — short domestic pilgrimage trunk, ~1½ hours 3 programs priced as of

The deepest cut in this batch: Delhi–Varanasi economy fell 38.5% in April 2026, 6,500 → 4,000, on a route where cash spikes hard around Dev Deepawali and the Kumbh calendar. ₹3,200 of points for a seat that can cost ₹9,000 in season is the shape of a genuine sweet spot. Business did not follow — 14,000 house against Aeroplan's flat 12,500 for the same Air India narrowbody — so the cheapest verified business seat on the board is 12,500 via Air Canada Aeroplan, and economy starts at 7,500. Price it in rupees, though, and 14,000 Air India Maharaja Points are ₹11,200 against Aeroplan's ₹12,500: the house chart keeps the crown, the partner row is the hedge. Four carriers fly it nonstop and Varanasi's own airport table is one of the clean ones: Air India to Delhi, Mumbai and Sharjah, Air India Express and IndiGo alongside. No oneworld or SkyTeam carrier operates a domestic Indian sector, so AAdvantage and Avios get no row rather than a cell nobody can book. 5 options, 2 of them first-hand chart reads.

read the full take fold the take back up

Economy

The play · economy

Air Canada Aeroplan

Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance partner award)

7,500 pts
surcharge not published
₹7,500 all-in at house ₹

Which card mints this?

+7 more ways in — the full funnel, ratios and ₹/mile side by side →

Program Metal / routing Points Surcharge All-in ₹ vs play
Air Canada Aeroplan the play Air India mainline 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 with Maharaja Points since 21-May-2026 ~4,000 est. — ₹3,200 0.4×
IndiGo BluChip IndiGo nonstop — BluChip, dynamic (revenue-priced) ~8,400 est. — ₹4,200 0.6×

Business

The play · business

Air Canada Aeroplan

Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance partner award)

12,500 pts
surcharge not published
₹12,500 all-in at house ₹

Which card mints this?

+7 more ways in — the full funnel, ratios and ₹/mile side by side →

Program Metal / routing Points Surcharge All-in ₹ vs play
Air Canada Aeroplan the play Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance partner award) 12,500 — ₹12,500 the play
Air India Maharaja Points Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance), Value tier — Air India Express has no business cabin ~14,000 est. — ₹11,200 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.

Row by row

5 options · 3 sourced charts
Economy

Air Canada Aeroplan

the play 7,500 pts

Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance partner award)

Air India Star Alliance

414 great-circle miles sits inside Aeroplan's 0-1,000-mile Within-Atlantic band, whose published cell for "all other partners" is 7,500 economy — Air India is one of them. On a domestic hop this is a completeness row: the house chart is cheaper in economy every time. 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)

as of aircanada.com
Economy

Air India Maharaja Points

~4,000 pts est.

Air India mainline nonstop, plus Air India Express on the same pair — both redeemable with Maharaja Points since 21-May-2026

Air IndiaAir India Express

Cut 38.5% from 6,500 to 4,000, the largest drop in this batch. The calculator's full range runs 4,000-11,000 across award tiers; 4,000 is the Value-tier floor this board prices. Air India Express flies Delhi–Varanasi too and its seats redeem with Maharaja Points since 21-May-2026, which matters here because IX carries much of the pilgrimage-season frequency.

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: 4,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 2,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 4,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)

as of doubledip.in
Economy

IndiGo BluChip

~8,400 pts est.

IndiGo nonstop — BluChip, dynamic (revenue-priced)

IndiGo

IndiGo runs the frequency into Varanasi, 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. There is nothing to plan around: the "award" is the cash ticket in points clothing. Useful only to bleed an expiring balance onto a fare you would have paid anyway.

Estimate IndiGo BluChip is revenue-linked ~Rs0.50/pt; ~= typical one-way IndiGo economy fare / Rs0.50 for ~414 mi - a rupee offset that moves 1:1 with the live fare. Own-metal only, no partners.

Feed it: 12,600 HSBC Reward Points (1.5:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) · 42,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:1) · 25,200 HDFC Reward Points (3:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL))

as of cardinsider.com
Business

Air Canada Aeroplan

the play 12,500 pts

Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance partner award)

Air India Star Alliance

12,500 in the 0-1,000-mile Within-Atlantic band — 1,500 fewer points than Air India's own 14,000, ₹1,300 more all-in. Fixed and beyond the CA$39 partner booking fee, chain-funded HDFC 2:1 / Bonvoy 3:1. Aeroplan cannot ticket the Air India Express frequencies, so plan around mainline departures only.

Feed it: 6,250 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 12,500 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 31,250 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)

as of aircanada.com
Business

Air India Maharaja Points

~14,000 pts est.

Air India mainline nonstop (Star Alliance), Value tier — Air India Express has no business cabin

Air India Star Alliance

Cut 12.5% from 16,000 to 14,000 — 1,500 points more than Aeroplan's 12,500 and ₹1,300 less all-in, the house values doing the work. The gap that actually matters is the other one: 10,000 points between this cell and the 4,000-point economy seat, for ninety minutes in a wider chair. That is the clearest "burn economy" signal on the tier-2 board.

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: 14,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 7,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 14,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)

as of doubledip.in

More corridors

90 from DEL · 1 to VNS

More from Delhi

More to Varanasi

Or take the whole region: every corridor we price into South Asia — 380 of them. Or pick any two hubs — 2,450 corridors priced.