Award flight · one-way
Chennai → Delhi is where Maharaja Points stop being a long-haul-only currency. Air India's April-2026 chart prices this trunk at 6,000 points in economy and 24,000 up front — ₹4,800 and ₹19,200 at the ₹0.80 house value, against cash fares around ₹7,500 in the back. Aeroplan prices the same Air India metal off its 1,093-mile band, and its 22,500-mile business cell is the lower points number — but at ₹1.00 a mile it is the more expensive seat, so Maharaja keeps the crown in rupees. What is NOT here matters as much: no oneworld carrier operates a single domestic Indian sector, so AAdvantage's region chart has nothing to price, and no SkyTeam metal reaches Chennai at all. 6 options, 3 of them first-hand chart reads: the full April-2026 pull lists every city pair exactly once and prices it in either direction, so both Maharaja rows stopped being mirrors on 2026-08-08 — though Air India publishes no chart, so they stay estimates and still never take the crown.
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 | Star Alliance partner metal, Aeroplan distance-band award (1,759 km) — or Air India nonstop | 15,000 | — | ₹15,000 | the play |
| Air India Maharaja Points | Air India mainline nonstop (MAA–DEL), Maharaja Club award — the only Star metal on the pair | ~6,000 est. | — | ₹4,800 | 0.3× |
| IndiGo BluChip | IndiGo nonstop (11 a day, the most frequency on the pair) — BluChip, dynamic | ~15,000 est. | — | ₹7,500 | 0.5× |
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 | Star Alliance partner metal, Aeroplan distance-band award (1,759 km) — or Air India nonstop | 22,500 | — | ₹22,500 | the play |
| Air India Maharaja Points | Air India mainline nonstop (MAA–DEL), Maharaja Club business award — narrowbody recliner, not a flat bed | ~24,000 est. | — | ₹19,200 | 0.9× |
The play · first
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 | Star Alliance partner metal, Aeroplan distance-band award (1,759 km) — or Air India nonstop | 40,000 | — | ₹40,000 | 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.
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.
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: 7,500 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 15,000 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 37,500 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Air India Star Alliance
Promoted from mirror to first-hand read on 2026-08-08. The full April-2026 domestic economy table lists each city pair once and prices it in either direction — "DEL,MAA, old 7,500, new 6,000–14,500", a 20% cut — so 6,000 is this heading's verified Value cell, not an inference from the other one. Domestic stayed route-priced when the international chart went to flat destination-region tiers, so this is a calculator cell for THIS pair, not a band read. Air India Express does not fly Chennai–Delhi, so there is no cheaper AI-group metal to fall back on; taxes and passenger service fees are cash on top.
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: 6,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 3,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 6,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
IndiGo
IndiGo owns this corridor on frequency and prices none of it on a chart: BluChips knock rupees off the live fare, so a peak-day booking costs proportionally more of them. Taxes, convenience fees and add-ons stay cash. Against Maharaja's 6,000 for the same cabin this is not close — the BluChip case is convenience, never value.
Estimate IndiGo BluChip is a revenue-linked rupee offset worth ~Rs0.50/BluChip (Card Insider pegs Rs0.40-0.60, 500 minimum); 15,000 ~= a typical Rs7,500 one-way MAA-DEL economy fare divided by Rs0.50. It moves 1:1 with the live fare and has no chart. Mirrored from del-maa, which prices the pair rather than the heading.
Feed it: 22,500 HSBC Reward Points (1.5:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) · 75,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:1) · 45,000 HDFC Reward Points (3:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL))
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: 11,250 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 22,500 SBI Travel Credits (1:1) · 56,250 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:2)
Air India Star Alliance
Promoted from mirror to first-hand read on 2026-08-08: "DEL,MAA, old 30,000, new 24,000–29,000" in the full domestic business table, a 20% cut, with 24,000 the Value cell and 29,000 the band ceiling. At ₹0.80 a point that is ₹19,200 — under Aeroplan's 22,500 miles (₹22,500) for the identical seat, which is the whole argument for holding Maharaja Points for domestic premium, and now a crownable one. Know what you are buying: Air India's domestic business is a recliner on an A320/A321, not the long-haul cabin.
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: 24,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 12,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 24,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
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)
Flying back? Delhi to Chennai on points (DEL–MAA). Or take the whole region: every corridor we price into South Asia — 380 of them. Or pick any two hubs — 2,450 corridors priced.