Economy the play 14,500 pts Qatar Airways own metal from DOH, distance-band award (3,286 km, single-segment)
Qatar Airways oneworld
Qatar Airways nonstop Doha→Chennai on own metal. The cheap-cash side of the Avios family. A connecting itinerary adds segments and can cost more.
Feed it: 14,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 29,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 14,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
Air India via BOM (DOH–BOM–MAA, AI mainline) — Maharaja Middle East tier
Air India Star Alliance
Air India’s April-2026 region-tier award — the tier price covers the whole mainline award including a domestic feeder, not a leg-sum. Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 12,000 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
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. This direction is additionally mirrored from the reverse corridor — Maharaja prices the zone pair, not the direction of travel — and has not been sampled separately.
Feed it: 12,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 6,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 12,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
IndiGo nonstop — BluChip, dynamic (revenue-priced)
IndiGo
IndiGo BluChip has no award chart at all — redemptions track the live fare at a dynamic ₹0.40–0.60 per BluChip, minimum 500 points, taxes cash-only, own metal only with no partners. It is a rupee offset wearing points clothing, not a chart price. Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 20,000 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of maa-doh — IndiGo BluChip prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the maa-doh economy cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction. IndiGo BluChip is revenue-linked ~Rs0.50/pt; ~= typical one-way IndiGo economy fare / Rs0.50 for ~2,042 mi - a rupee offset that moves 1:1 with the live fare. Own-metal only, no partners.
Feed it: 30,000 HSBC Reward Points (1.5:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) · 100,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:1) · 60,000 HDFC Reward Points (3:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL))
Star Alliance partner metal, India ⇄ the Gulf — Avianca LifeMiles
Star Alliance
LifeMiles publishes no chart: Avianca withdrew its public zone table in 2023 and prices Star partner awards off an unpublished internal grid — its one real edge. Business is the value cabin here; economy is mediocre. Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 15,000 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of maa-doh — Avianca LifeMiles prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the maa-doh economy cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction. LifeMiles publishes no award chart — Avianca withdrew its public zone table in 2023 and prices Star partner awards off an unpublished internal grid. This level is extrapolated from that historical zone pricing plus dated community booking reports, not a verified chart price.
Feed it: 45,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 90,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 30,000 HDFC Reward Points (2:1)
Star Alliance partner metal, India ⇄ the Gulf — United MileagePlus
Star Alliance
United went fully dynamic in 2020 (no fixed chart), so this is a typical Saver partner level on Star metal for this pair. But Aeroplan often prices the same Star seat lower. Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 17,500 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of maa-doh — United MileagePlus prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the maa-doh economy cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction. United MileagePlus Saver partner level, India ⇄ the Gulf on Star Alliance metal; United went fully dynamic in 2020, so this is a typical Saver that moves with availability and cabin scarcity.
Feed it: 8,750 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 43,750 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2) · 52,500 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy)
oneworld partner metal, AAdvantage region award — or SriLankan Airlines via CMB, or Oman Air via MCT
SriLankan AirlinesOman Air oneworld
AAdvantage prices partner awards on a fixed region-to-region chart. A valid oneworld routing is assumed.
Feed it: 52,500 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 105,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 35,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Etihad via AUH (DOH–AUH–MAA), or Oman Air via MCT — Flying Blue partner award (dynamic)
Etihad AirwaysOman Air
No SkyTeam metal touches Chennai — Chennai's own airline table lists no Air France, KLM, Korean, Vietnam, China Eastern, Kenya, Saudia or Delta. Flying Blue's Chennai door is its non-alliance partner Etihad, connecting at Abu Dhabi (or Oman Air via MCT). Only economy and business are bookable with Miles on these partners — no first. Partner awards carry the operating carrier's surcharges (the published Oman Air datapoints run US$190–390 one-way), which Flying Blue does not publish per route.
Estimate Flying Blue is dynamic and prices partner awards PER SEGMENT (One Mile at a Time, 6-Jun-2024: "you're paying the per segment pricing anyway"). No SkyTeam carrier serves Chennai at all, so this row rides Etihad — a Flying Blue redemption partner since 27-Nov-2023 — via AUH: 2,966 km + 321 km banded to 15,000 + 5,000 = 20,000 economy. Bands anchored on published Flying Blue partner datapoints (business one-way: Muscat–Dubai 6,100, Abu Dhabi–Kuwait 9,500, Muscat–Bangkok 42,900, Abu Dhabi–Bangkok 45,000, Muscat–Munich 45,800, Abu Dhabi–Johannesburg 48,000, Abu Dhabi–Washington 87,000); economy is half of business, the one published economy anchor. Dates and demand move the real number. The <=1,200 km rung of those bands was re-fitted on 2026-08-02 as the geometric mean of its own published in-band quotes and now reads 5,000 economy / 11,500 business, up from 4,000 / 8,000 — an unfitted rung that ran about 21% and 31% low. The re-fit removes the bias, not the spread: published one-way business quotes inside the band still run 6,100 (Muscat–Dubai) to 19,500 (Toronto–New York), 3.2x apart, and segment length does not explain the gap, so the short-hop component is the coarsest number on this row.
Feed it: 20,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 10,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 20,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
Star Alliance partner metal, India ⇄ the Gulf — Aegean Miles+Bonus
Star Alliance
Aegean Miles+Bonus prices Star partner metal off one region chart published as ROUND TRIPS — its own rule is that a one-way costs exactly half, and the halved figure is what we show. India sits in the "Near East & Central Asia" zone: the Far East is a flat 30k/45k one-way (Tokyo costs the same as Bangkok), Europe 35k/55k, North America 50k/75k. That chart is a single upper-triangular ZONE-PAIR matrix — 45 published cells for 9 zones, exactly one per unordered pair — so DOH → MAA and MAA → DOH resolve to the same cell. Re-read against the chart and promoted from mirror-estimate to chart read on 2026-08-06. No Indian card feeds it — Marriott Bonvoy 3:1 is the only road in, and awards only display once you hold the full balance.
Feed it: 60,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 120,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 40,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance partner metal, India ⇄ the Gulf — Copa ConnectMiles (fixed region chart)
Star Alliance
Copa ConnectMiles prices Star partner metal off a FIXED region chart (India sits in Copa’s "Central Asia" zone). No Indian card feeds ConnectMiles — buy-miles or a US co-brand only — so treat it as a reference benchmark, not a wallet-reachable route. Copa's partner chart is a strictly upper-triangular region matrix — one cell per unordered region pair, no direction axis at all — so 20,000 is the same published cell as maa-doh, re-read off the official Copa PDF on 2026-08-06 rather than inferred.
Feed it: 60,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 120,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 40,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Qatar Airways nonstop DOH-MAA (oneworld partner award), India ⇄ the Gulf — Alaska Atmos
Qatar AirwaysOman AirSriLankan Airlines oneworld
Alaska Atmos bands the TOTAL DISTANCE FLOWN, not the nonstop great circle, so a connecting build can read a higher band than the map suggests — plus the $20 partner booking fee per person each way (up from $12.50 on 1-Jul-2026). Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 25,000 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of maa-doh — Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the maa-doh economy cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction.
Feed it: 60,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2.4:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 120,000 RBL Reward Points (4.8:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 40,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (1.6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance partner metal, Aeroplan distance-band award (3,286 km) — or Air India via DEL
Air India Star Alliance
Aeroplan prices Star partner awards by total distance FLOWN. This row is the direct great-circle band; a connecting routing that flies farther can land in the next band up. A valid Star routing (nonstop or via a Star hub within the maximum permitted mileage) is assumed.
Feed it: 15,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 30,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 75,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Star Alliance partner metal, India ⇄ the Gulf — TAP Miles&Go
Star Alliance
TAP Miles&Go prices Star partner metal off its region chart, and the 4-May-2026 devaluation lifted its long-haul cells. A cell holds only while the itinerary stays inside two TAP regions — a build that crosses a third region is billed flight by flight and summed. Lufthansa-group metal carries the heaviest surcharges on Star. Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 60,000 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of maa-doh — TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the maa-doh economy cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction.
Feed it: 150,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2.5:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 300,000 RBL Reward Points (5:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 100,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (1.67:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance metal (Air India — EVA itself serves no Indian city; the award rides partner metal), India ⇄ the Gulf — EVA Infinity MileageLands
Air India Star Alliance
EVA Infinity MileageLands prices Star metal off its zone chart (India sits in "Central/South Asia"; one-way = half round-trip). EVA serves no Indian city, so the award rides partner metal end to end. EVA's own Star Alliance requirement table is a triangular ORIGIN/DESTINATION REGIONAL ZONES matrix carrying one cell per region pair, so no second number exists for this heading.
Feed it: 51,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1) · 340,000 Amex Membership Rewards (6.67:1 via Hilton Honors) · 1,275,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (25:1 via Hilton Honors)
Etihad own metal (DOH–AUH–MAA) — Vietnam Lotusmiles partner award
Etihad Airways
LotusMiles deducts miles PER FLIGHT SEGMENT on its SkyTeam partner table (official chart, effective 1-Aug-2025), so a connecting build is a SUM of its sectors, not one cell. India is "SW Asia" on that table. Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 60,000 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of maa-doh — Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the maa-doh economy cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction. Etihad is a named Lotusmiles redemption partner (award booking classes I business / N economy on Vietnam Airlines' own partner table) and flies MAA–AUH–DOH end to end on its own metal. Lotusmiles deducts miles PER FLIGHT SEGMENT, so this sums the published Southwest Asia x Middle East cell (35,000 economy / 70,000 business) and the Middle East x Middle East cell (25,000 / 50,000) = 60,000 economy one-way. Estimated on two counts: Lotusmiles publishes its 11-zone table for SkyTeam metal plus China Southern and ANA only, sending non-SkyTeam partners to a separate 10-zone "Award Zone Definition on Other Airlines" whose mileage table it never publishes; and it does not state whether the per-segment rule survives onto that grid. Both zone definitions put India in South West Asia and the Gulf in Middle East, so only the grid, not the cell, is in question.
Feed it: 60,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 60,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1) · 60,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1)
Business the play 30,000 pts oneworld partner metal, AAdvantage region award — or SriLankan Airlines via CMB, or Oman Air via MCT
SriLankan AirlinesOman Air oneworld
AAdvantage prices partner awards on a fixed region-to-region chart. A valid oneworld routing is assumed.
Feed it: 90,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 180,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 60,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Business ~25,000 pts est. Star Alliance partner metal, India ⇄ the Gulf — Avianca LifeMiles
Star Alliance
LifeMiles publishes no chart: Avianca withdrew its public zone table in 2023 and prices Star partner awards off an unpublished internal grid — its one real edge. Business is the value cabin here; economy is mediocre. Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 25,000 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of maa-doh — Avianca LifeMiles prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the maa-doh business cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction. LifeMiles publishes no award chart — Avianca withdrew its public zone table in 2023 and prices Star partner awards off an unpublished internal grid. This level is extrapolated from that historical zone pricing plus dated community booking reports, not a verified chart price.
Feed it: 75,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 150,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 50,000 HDFC Reward Points (2:1)
Star Alliance partner metal, India ⇄ the Gulf — Aegean Miles+Bonus
Star Alliance
Aegean Miles+Bonus prices Star partner metal off one region chart published as ROUND TRIPS — its own rule is that a one-way costs exactly half, and the halved figure is what we show. India sits in the "Near East & Central Asia" zone: the Far East is a flat 30k/45k one-way (Tokyo costs the same as Bangkok), Europe 35k/55k, North America 50k/75k. That chart is a single upper-triangular ZONE-PAIR matrix — 45 published cells for 9 zones, exactly one per unordered pair — so DOH → MAA and MAA → DOH resolve to the same cell. Re-read against the chart and promoted from mirror-estimate to chart read on 2026-08-06. No Indian card feeds it — Marriott Bonvoy 3:1 is the only road in, and awards only display once you hold the full balance.
Feed it: 75,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2.5:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 150,000 RBL Reward Points (5:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 50,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (1.67:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Business ~32,500 pts est. Star Alliance partner metal, India ⇄ the Gulf — United MileagePlus
Star Alliance
United went fully dynamic in 2020 (no fixed chart), so this is a typical Saver partner level on Star metal for this pair. But Aeroplan often prices the same Star seat lower. Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 32,500 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of maa-doh — United MileagePlus prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the maa-doh business cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction. United MileagePlus Saver partner level, India ⇄ the Gulf on Star Alliance metal; United went fully dynamic in 2020, so this is a typical Saver that moves with availability and cabin scarcity.
Feed it: 16,250 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 81,250 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2) · 67,500 Amex Membership Rewards (2.08:1 via Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance partner metal, India ⇄ the Gulf — Copa ConnectMiles (fixed region chart)
Star Alliance
Copa ConnectMiles prices Star partner metal off a FIXED region chart (India sits in Copa’s "Central Asia" zone). No Indian card feeds ConnectMiles — buy-miles or a US co-brand only — so treat it as a reference benchmark, not a wallet-reachable route. Copa's partner chart is a strictly upper-triangular region matrix — one cell per unordered region pair, no direction axis at all — so 35,000 is the same published cell as maa-doh, re-read off the official Copa PDF on 2026-08-06 rather than inferred.
Feed it: 90,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2.57:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 180,000 RBL Reward Points (5.14:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 60,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (1.71:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance partner metal, Aeroplan distance-band award (3,286 km) — or Air India via DEL
Air India Star Alliance
Aeroplan prices Star partner awards by total distance FLOWN. This row is the direct great-circle band; a connecting routing that flies farther can land in the next band up. A valid Star routing (nonstop or via a Star hub within the maximum permitted mileage) is assumed.
Feed it: 20,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 40,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 100,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Business ~50,000 pts est. Air India via BOM (DOH–BOM–MAA, AI mainline) — Maharaja Middle East tier
Air India Star Alliance
Air India’s April-2026 region-tier award — the tier price covers the whole mainline award including a domestic feeder, not a leg-sum. Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 50,000 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
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. This direction is additionally mirrored from the reverse corridor — Maharaja prices the zone pair, not the direction of travel — and has not been sampled separately.
Feed it: 50,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 25,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 50,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
Business ~41,500 pts est. Etihad via AUH (DOH–AUH–MAA), or Oman Air via MCT — Flying Blue partner award (dynamic)
Etihad AirwaysOman Air
No SkyTeam metal touches Chennai — Chennai's own airline table lists no Air France, KLM, Korean, Vietnam, China Eastern, Kenya, Saudia or Delta. Flying Blue's Chennai door is its non-alliance partner Etihad, connecting at Abu Dhabi (or Oman Air via MCT). Only economy and business are bookable with Miles on these partners — no first. Partner awards carry the operating carrier's surcharges (the published Oman Air datapoints run US$190–390 one-way), which Flying Blue does not publish per route.
Estimate Flying Blue is dynamic and prices partner awards PER SEGMENT (One Mile at a Time, 6-Jun-2024: "you're paying the per segment pricing anyway"). No SkyTeam carrier serves Chennai at all, so this row rides Etihad — a Flying Blue redemption partner since 27-Nov-2023 — via AUH: 2,966 km + 321 km banded to 30,000 + 11,500 = 41,500 business. Bands anchored on published Flying Blue partner datapoints (business one-way: Muscat–Dubai 6,100, Abu Dhabi–Kuwait 9,500, Muscat–Bangkok 42,900, Abu Dhabi–Bangkok 45,000, Muscat–Munich 45,800, Abu Dhabi–Johannesburg 48,000, Abu Dhabi–Washington 87,000); economy is half of business, the one published economy anchor. Dates and demand move the real number. The <=1,200 km rung of those bands was re-fitted on 2026-08-02 as the geometric mean of its own published in-band quotes and now reads 5,000 economy / 11,500 business, up from 4,000 / 8,000 — an unfitted rung that ran about 21% and 31% low. The re-fit removes the bias, not the spread: published one-way business quotes inside the band still run 6,100 (Muscat–Dubai) to 19,500 (Toronto–New York), 3.2x apart, and segment length does not explain the gap, so the short-hop component is the coarsest number on this row.
Feed it: 41,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 20,750 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 41,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
Qatar Airways own metal from DOH, distance-band award (3,286 km, single-segment)
Qatar Airways oneworld
Qatar Airways nonstop Doha→Chennai on own metal. The cheap-cash side of the Avios family. A connecting itinerary adds segments and can cost more.
Feed it: 43,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 86,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 43,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
Business ~50,000 pts est. Qatar Airways nonstop DOH-MAA (oneworld partner award), India ⇄ the Gulf — Alaska Atmos
Qatar AirwaysOman AirSriLankan Airlines oneworld
Alaska Atmos bands the TOTAL DISTANCE FLOWN, not the nonstop great circle, so a connecting build can read a higher band than the map suggests — plus the $20 partner booking fee per person each way (up from $12.50 on 1-Jul-2026). Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 50,000 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of maa-doh — Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the maa-doh business cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction.
Feed it: 120,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2.4:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 240,000 RBL Reward Points (4.8:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 80,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (1.6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Business ~80,000 pts est. Star Alliance partner metal, India ⇄ the Gulf — TAP Miles&Go
Star Alliance
TAP Miles&Go prices Star partner metal off its region chart, and the 4-May-2026 devaluation lifted its long-haul cells. A cell holds only while the itinerary stays inside two TAP regions — a build that crosses a third region is billed flight by flight and summed. Lufthansa-group metal carries the heaviest surcharges on Star. Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 80,000 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of maa-doh — TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the maa-doh business cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction.
Feed it: 195,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2.44:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 390,000 RBL Reward Points (4.88:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 130,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (1.63:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance metal (Air India — EVA itself serves no Indian city; the award rides partner metal), India ⇄ the Gulf — EVA Infinity MileageLands
Air India Star Alliance
EVA Infinity MileageLands prices Star metal off its zone chart (India sits in "Central/South Asia"; one-way = half round-trip). EVA serves no Indian city, so the award rides partner metal end to end. EVA's own Star Alliance requirement table is a triangular ORIGIN/DESTINATION REGIONAL ZONES matrix carrying one cell per region pair, so no second number exists for this heading.
Feed it: 67,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1) · 446,667 Amex Membership Rewards (6.67:1 via Hilton Honors) · 1,675,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (25:1 via Hilton Honors)
Business ~120,000 pts est. Etihad own metal (DOH–AUH–MAA) — Vietnam Lotusmiles partner award
Etihad Airways
LotusMiles deducts miles PER FLIGHT SEGMENT on its SkyTeam partner table (official chart, effective 1-Aug-2025), so a connecting build is a SUM of its sectors, not one cell. India is "SW Asia" on that table. Mirrored from maa-doh: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 120,000 is the maa-doh number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of maa-doh — Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the maa-doh business cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction. Etihad is a named Lotusmiles redemption partner (award booking classes I business / N economy on Vietnam Airlines' own partner table) and flies MAA–AUH–DOH end to end on its own metal. Lotusmiles deducts miles PER FLIGHT SEGMENT, so this sums the published Southwest Asia x Middle East cell (35,000 economy / 70,000 business) and the Middle East x Middle East cell (25,000 / 50,000) = 120,000 business one-way. Estimated on two counts: Lotusmiles publishes its 11-zone table for SkyTeam metal plus China Southern and ANA only, sending non-SkyTeam partners to a separate 10-zone "Award Zone Definition on Other Airlines" whose mileage table it never publishes; and it does not state whether the per-segment rule survives onto that grid. Both zone definitions put India in South West Asia and the Gulf in Middle East, so only the grid, not the cell, is in question.
Feed it: 120,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 120,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1) · 120,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1)
First the play 40,000 pts oneworld partner metal, AAdvantage region award — or SriLankan Airlines via CMB, or Oman Air via MCT
SriLankan AirlinesOman Air oneworld
AAdvantage prices partner awards on a fixed region-to-region chart. A valid oneworld routing is assumed.
Feed it: 120,000 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 240,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 80,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Star Alliance partner metal, Aeroplan distance-band award (3,286 km) — or Air India via DEL
Air India Star Alliance
Aeroplan prices Star partner awards by total distance FLOWN. This row is the direct great-circle band; a connecting routing that flies farther can land in the next band up. A valid Star routing (nonstop or via a Star hub within the maximum permitted mileage) is assumed.
Feed it: 37,500 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 75,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 187,500 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)