Award route card · one-way
Hyderabad's Hajj and Umrah gateway, and Air India Express flies HYD–JED nonstop — so the flat 12,000-point Maharaja economy seat is a genuine nonstop here, the cheapest published fare. Aeroplan books Air India via Delhi at a fixed 30,000/40,000 surcharge-free; Avios sums 22,500/43,000 on Qatar's Qsuite via Doha. Saudia's own Alfursan chart is bot-walled and every SkyTeam and Gulf partner prices dynamically — honest nulls.
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 via DEL (HYD-DEL-JED, mainline) — Star Alliance partner award | 40,000 | — | ₹40,000 | the play |
| Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) | Qatar Airways Qsuite via DOH (oneworld) — two segments, band-priced | 43,000 | — | ₹43,000 | 1.1× |
| Air France-KLM Flying Blue | Saudia nonstop (SkyTeam partner award) — dynamic pricing | dynamic | — | — | — |
| Emirates Skywards | Emirates business via DXB (HYD-DXB-JED) — Classic Rewards, calculator-priced | dynamic | — | — | — |
| Etihad Guest | Etihad via Abu Dhabi (HYD-AUH-JED) — GuestSeats, dynamic | 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 Express nonstop (not Star Alliance), Value tier | 12,000 | — | ₹9,600 | the play |
| Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) | Qatar Airways via DOH (oneworld) — two segments, band-priced | 22,500 | — | ₹22,500 | 2.3× |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Air India via DEL (HYD-DEL-JED, mainline) — Star Alliance partner award | 30,000 | — | ₹30,000 | 3.1× |
| IndiGo BluChip | IndiGo nonstop — BluChip, dynamic (revenue-priced) | dynamic | — | — | — |
| Saudia Alfursan | Saudia nonstop — Alfursan region chart, official page bot-walled | dynamic | — | — | — |
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 for Air India business via Delhi, fixed and surcharge-free — the only flat-bed play to Jeddah an Indian balance books cleanly, since AIX/IndiGo fly narrowbody economy and Saudia prices dynamically.
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)
24,500 + 18,500 = 43,000 Avios for Qatar's Qsuite via Doha — better metal than Air India's business, one stop, and only 3,000 more points than Aeroplan's 40,000 nonstop-via-Delhi seat.
Feed it: 43,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 86,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 43,000 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
Flying Blue can book Saudia as a SkyTeam partner but prices dynamically with no published India-Jeddah datapoint, and the India Promo Rewards windows never name Saudi routes. No fixed number.
Ways in: HDFC Reward Points 1:1 · Axis EDGE Miles 1:2 · HSBC Reward Points 1:1
Calculator-only, up ~15% on premium cabins after the 20-May-2026 devaluation, with heavy Emirates surcharges stacked on. A two-leg detour via Dubai to a city Aeroplan books at a fixed 40,000.
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
Dynamic GuestSeat pricing with no published Jeddah datapoint; real quotes run past the theoretical distance chart and add carrier surcharges. A detour via Abu Dhabi with no fixed number.
Ways in: Axis EDGE Miles 1:2 · HSBC Reward Points 1:1 · SBI Travel Credits 1:1
The floor. Jeddah is the flat 12,000-point Middle-East tier and AIX flies HYD-JED nonstop — no hub, no connection, cheapest seat on the corridor by a distance. AIX is economy-only, so no business award here.
Feed it: 12,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 6,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 12,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
12,500 (HYD-DOH, Z3) + 10,000 (DOH-JED, 827 mi Z2) = 22,500 Avios on Qatar via Doha. A straight westward routing, no backtrack — but nearly double the 12,000 Maharaja nonstop for economy.
Feed it: 22,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 45,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 22,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
Saudia is SkyTeam and AIX isn't Star, so Aeroplan routes AI mainline HYD-DEL-JED — ~3,200 flown miles in the 2,001-4,000-mile within-Atlantic band, 30,000 economy, surcharge-free. Pricier than the 12,000 Maharaja nonstop; here it's the business seat that matters.
Feed it: 15,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 30,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 75,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
IndiGo flies the nonstop, but BluChip is fare-linked (₹0.40-0.80 a chip, min 500, own metal) and Umrah-season fares surge. Never a planned redemption against the 12,000 Maharaja nonstop.
Ways in: HSBC Reward Points 1.5:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL) · Axis EDGE Reward Points 5:1 · HDFC Reward Points 3:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)
Saudia flies HYD-JED nonstop and Alfursan has a fixed region chart, but the official redemption page is bot-walled and no current India-Jeddah number is citable — so we print none rather than guess.
Ways in: Amex Membership Rewards 2.4:1 via Marriott Bonvoy · RBL Reward Points 4.8:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy · Axis EDGE Miles 1:1.25 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy