Award flight · one-way
A corridor Air India won't price and Air Canada will. The April-2026 Maharaja route table covers all 193 city pairs Air India sells, and Hyderabad–Ahmedabad is absent from every cabin — because no Group aircraft flies it nonstop. Mainline's Hyderabad map is Delhi, Mumbai and Tirupati; Air India Express's Ahmedabad map is Bengaluru, Mumbai, Dehradun and Chandigarh. But Aeroplan prices total distance FLOWN, not the pair, and Hyderabad–Mumbai–Ahmedabad on mainline metal is 1,067 km against an 887 km great circle — a 1.2× dogleg that stays on the way and lands inside the 0–1,000-mile Within-Atlantic band. The cheapest verified business seat on the board is 12,500 via Aeroplan, and economy starts at 7,500. IndiGo owns the nonstop and, as ever, sells it back at the cash price in points. Three options, two of them 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 mainline one-stop via Mumbai (Star Alliance partner award) — no Star nonstop on this pair | 7,500 | — | ₹7,500 | the play |
| IndiGo BluChip | IndiGo nonstop — BluChip, dynamic (revenue-priced) | ~8,400 est. | — | ₹4,200 | 0.6× |
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 mainline one-stop via Mumbai (Star Alliance partner award) — no Star nonstop on this pair | 12,500 | — | ₹12,500 | the play |
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
Hyderabad–Mumbai–Ahmedabad flies 663 miles, well inside the 0–1,000-mile Within-Atlantic band — 7,500 points, no fuel or carrier surcharge, only a CA$39 partner booking fee plus taxes. ₹7,500 of points against ₹3–5k cash makes this a completeness row, not a buy, but it is the only fixed award on a corridor Air India's own chart skips.
Feed it: 3,750 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 7,500 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 18,750 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
IndiGo
IndiGo is the only carrier flying Hyderabad–Ahmedabad nonstop, and BluChip has no award chart — redemptions track the live fare at ₹0.40–0.60 per BluChip, minimum 500, taxes and convenience fees cash-only. The nonstop is IndiGo's; the fixed award is not.
Estimate IndiGo BluChip is revenue-linked ~Rs0.50/pt; ~= typical one-way IndiGo economy fare / Rs0.50 for ~551 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))
Air India Star Alliance
12,500 in the 0–1,000-mile band for a mainline business connection Maharaja publishes no price for at all — fixed, surcharge-free, chain-funded HDFC 2:1 / Bonvoy 3:1. The rare case where the partner chart is not merely cheaper than the house one but the only one that exists.
Feed it: 6,250 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 12,500 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 31,250 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Or take the whole region: every corridor we price into South Asia — 360 of them. Or pick any two hubs — 2,430 corridors priced.