Award flight · one-way
Malé → Mumbai on points: 9 options, the board now symmetric with Mumbai → Malé. Award charts price the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so every program that prices the reverse heading is mirrored here — a mirror still flagged as an estimate never takes the crown. The cheapest verified business seat on the board is 30,000 via American Airlines AAdvantage, and economy starts at 17,500. 3 rows are first-hand 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines AAdvantage the play | oneworld partner metal, AAdvantage region award — or SriLankan Airlines via CMB | 17,500 | — | ₹17,500 | the play |
| IndiGo BluChip | IndiGo nonstop — BluChip, dynamic (revenue-priced) | ~14,000 est. | — | ₹7,000 | 0.4× |
| Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards | SriLankan Airlines via CMB (oneworld partner award), India ⇄ a South-Asia neighbour — Alaska Atmos | ~7,500 est. | — | ₹7,500 | 0.4× |
| Air India Maharaja Points | Air India's Malé flying is Delhi-only — no Mumbai–Malé at all, and Delhi–Malé is cancelled 1-Jun–31-Aug-2026, resuming 1-Sep-2026, so connect via DEL, region award | ~10,000 est. | — | ₹8,000 | 0.5× |
| Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) | SriLankan via CMB (one stop, oneworld) — Avios partner chart, per-segment | ~16,500 est. | — | ₹16,500 | 0.9× |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines AAdvantage the play | oneworld partner metal, AAdvantage region award — or SriLankan Airlines via CMB | 30,000 | — | ₹30,000 | the play |
| Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards | SriLankan Airlines via CMB (oneworld partner award), India ⇄ a South-Asia neighbour — Alaska Atmos | ~15,000 est. | — | ₹15,000 | 0.5× |
| Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) | SriLankan business via CMB (one stop, oneworld) — Avios partner chart, per-segment | ~32,500 est. | — | ₹32,500 | 1.1× |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines AAdvantage the play | AAdvantage region-chart first cell — no oneworld carrier flies a first cabin on this route (SriLankan's top cabin is business); the cell prices, the seat does not fly. Chart completeness only. | 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. Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) states that a carrier-imposed surcharge is charged on an award. American Airlines AAdvantage, Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards and Air India Maharaja Points make you liable for one if the operating airline levies it, without saying whether it does. 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.
Open this corridor in British Airways’ Flight Finder → It fills in your search — MLE to BOM on 29/12/2026, which you change there. It does not show award space, and no link on this page can. It is the only carrier handoff the desk ships: Qatar returns CASH fares under award-looking parameters, Aeroplan discards them behind a login, KrisFlyer’s search has no URL to link to, and the Flying Blue template in circulation has never been verified.
SriLankan Airlines 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)
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 bom-mle: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 14,000 is the bom-mle number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of bom-mle — IndiGo BluChip prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the bom-mle 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 ~1,029 mi - a rupee offset that moves 1:1 with the live fare. Own-metal only, no partners.
Feed it: 21,000 HSBC Reward Points (1.5:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) · 70,000 Axis EDGE Reward Points (5:1) · 42,000 HDFC Reward Points (3:1 via Accor Live Limitless (ALL))
SriLankan 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 bom-mle: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 7,500 is the bom-mle number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of bom-mle — Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the bom-mle economy cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction. Priced at the flown-routing distance, not the nonstop great circle: SriLankan Airlines via CMB = ~1,431 mi summed great-circle (1.39x the 1,030-mi nonstop), which reads the Atmos Asia-Pacific partner chart's sub-1,500-mile band (7,500 economy / 15,000 business one-way). Atmos prices partner awards on total distance flown; the exact routing Alaska sells on this pair is not calculator-verified (alaskaair.com blocks automated reads).
Feed it: 22,500 Amex Membership Rewards (3:1 via Marriott Bonvoy) · 45,000 RBL Reward Points (6:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) · 15,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
Air India Star Alliance
Air India own-metal Malé→Mumbai. Air India publishes no no-surcharge promise: the Maharaja Club terms say members “shall pay applicable taxes and surcharges” on Air India, Air India Express and Star Alliance flights alike, and the FAQ this desk once cited for the opposite does not contain the sentence it was credited with. What own-metal awards have cost in practice is statutory taxes plus airport/user development fees: small on India–Gulf/SE Asia, moderate on Europe/North America, and materially higher on anything touching London Heathrow because of UK APD. Star Alliance partner awards booked with Maharaja Points are a different animal and can carry partner surcharges. A valid Air India routing is assumed.
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: 10,000 IndusInd Reward Points (1:1) · 5,000 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 10,000 ICICI Reward Points (1:1)
SriLankan Airlines oneworld
Avios prices partner awards PER SEGMENT off the published distance-zone table shared by British Airways, Qatar, Iberia, Finnair and Aer Lingus, so a connecting build is a sum of bands rather than one cell, and the December-2025 reset moved those bands. One balance spends across all five programmes; BA and Iberia metal carry the heavy carrier-imposed surcharges. Mirrored from bom-mle: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 16,500 is the bom-mle number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of bom-mle — Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the bom-mle economy cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction.
Feed it: 16,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 33,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 16,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
SriLankan Airlines 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)
SriLankan 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 bom-mle: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 15,000 is the bom-mle number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of bom-mle — Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the bom-mle business cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction. Priced at the flown-routing distance, not the nonstop great circle: SriLankan Airlines via CMB = ~1,431 mi summed great-circle (1.39x the 1,030-mi nonstop), which reads the Atmos Asia-Pacific partner chart's sub-1,500-mile band (7,500 economy / 15,000 business one-way). Atmos prices partner awards on total distance flown; the exact routing Alaska sells on this pair is not calculator-verified (alaskaair.com blocks automated reads).
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 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) (2:1 via Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy)
SriLankan Airlines oneworld
Avios prices partner awards PER SEGMENT off the published distance-zone table shared by British Airways, Qatar, Iberia, Finnair and Aer Lingus, so a connecting build is a sum of bands rather than one cell, and the December-2025 reset moved those bands. One balance spends across all five programmes; BA and Iberia metal carry the heavy carrier-imposed surcharges. Mirrored from bom-mle: the chart cell is the same in either direction, so 32,500 is the bom-mle number read back the other way — an estimate until this direction is re-read, and never crowned THE PLAY.
Estimate Reverse of bom-mle — Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) prices the zone pair or the distance band, not the direction, so this mirrors the bom-mle business cell one-for-one; the desk has not separately re-read the chart for this direction.
Feed it: 32,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 65,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 32,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
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)
Flying back? Mumbai to Malé on points (BOM–MLE). Or take the whole region: every corridor we price into South Asia — 380 of them. Or pick any two hubs — 2,450 corridors priced.