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We estimate the value of frequent flyer points (or miles) of 6 major international airlines with significant market share for flights out of India. The value of their miles ranges from ₹0.50/mile for the Etihad Guest Loyalty Program to ₹0.80/mile for the KrisFlyer program by Singapore Airlines.
Table 1: Value of Reward Miles of International Airlines
| Airline | Frequent Flyer Program | ₹/Point |
|---|---|---|
| Emirates | Skywards | 0.70 |
| Etihad Airways | Guest | 0.50 |
| Qatar Airways | Privilege Club | 0.65 |
| Singapore Airlines | KrisFlyer | 0.80 |
| United Airlines | MileagePlus | 0.80 |
| British Airways | Avios | 0.80 |
Many global websites estimate the value of the reward miles for different airline reward programs. These values are typically based on the global flight network of each airline.
Unlike these websites, we have estimated the value of the airline miles specific to India. This means we only considered the flights (or multi-leg journeys) into and out of India by each airline when estimating the value of their miles.
Table 2: Value of Reward Miles of International Airlines – Global vs. India
| Airline | Global Value* (₹/mile) |
Value in India^ (₹/mile) |
Difference (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emirates | 0.90 | 0.70 | -23% |
| Etihad Airways | 1.10 | 0.50 | -54% |
| Qatar Airways | 1.00 | 0.60 | -42% |
| Singapore Airlines | 1.00 | 0.80 | -21% |
| United Airlines | 1.00 | 0.80 | -19% |
| British Airways | 1.00 | 0.80 | -16% |
| * Based on average of values calculated by UpgradedPoints.com, NerdWallet and ThePointsGuy.com in May 2023.
^Our estimates as of May 2023 are based only on flights into and out of India. |
|||
In all 6 cases this estimate was very different from the value estimated by the global sites and in each instance it was much lower, by as much as 19-54%.
We think our estimate is much more relevant and accurate for an Indian customer, rather than relying on global values.
If you are looking for the value of miles of top domestic airlines in India, read this post instead.
We spend 10s of hours researching the frequent flyer program of the international airlines with the highest international market share in India.
These were Emirates (including Fly Dubai), Etihad Airways (including Air Arabia), Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, British Airways and United Airlines .
We crawled through their websites, spoke and chatted with their customer service representatives, and opened frequent flyer accounts.
We compared the price of tickets for 10s of flights on each airlines on different dates – for cash and using frequent flyer miles.
Since we were looking for the value of frequent flyer points for customers based in India, we only considered international flights originating or ending in India, during peak and off peak seasons.
We tried booking flights far in advance and at short notice.
As far as possible we tried to compare prices for all airlines on the same day so that the results were comparable.
Frequent flyer points (often called airline miles or just miles) are a common currency for many credit cards. If you want to maximize the rewards you collect from your credit cards, knowing the value of various airline miles can help you make a better choice.
Often there are deals offered by banks or airlines where you are gifted miles or have the option of purchasing miles for a special rate. You need to know the value of a mile to understand whether the deal is worthwhile or not.
If you are trying to redeem an award flight (i.e. book a flight using miles), it is good to have the value of a mile in mind so you can figure out if you are getting a good deal or if you are better off buying that ticket for cash and saving your miles for another time.
Many people have raised optimizing the value of frequent flyer miles to an art form. This guide is for the rest of us – people who would like to get good value for money but do not want to jump through a thousand hoops to wring out every last paisa.
We looked at the valuation of frequent flyer points of domestic airlines in an earlier post. This post focuses on the value of miles given by the top international airlines flying into and out of India.
All major international airlines we looked at have a traditional frequent flyer program. They specify the price of each flight in cash and in miles, appear to have a fixed quota for the number of seats on each flight that can be booked with miles (redemption bookings) and don’t have a fixed value of a mile.
This means the value you can realize for a reward point often varies depending on the flight you are taking.
The fixed quota for redemption bookings on each flight also means you are also not guaranteed to get a seat on the flight you want unless you happen to book them well in advance of the flight date.
For all six airlines reward programs we looked at, we calculated the value of a mile by comparing the cash fare for 100s of flights with the miles needed to book the same flight.
We first fixed three sets of travel dates, one each for bookings made with short, medium and long time to go. The specific dates used for this post were:
For each set of travel dates, we selected 6 international flights and searched for round trip fares for each. We simultaneously tried to book the same round-trip flights using the miles redemption services provided by all 6 airlines.
The specific destinations varied by airline, since not all airlines fly to all destinations or at least it is not convenient to use them for all destinations.
For instance, because the hub for Singapore Airlines is in Singapore, it is often a great choice for flying to parts of East Asia, Australia and even the US West Coast.
However Singapore Airlines would be a terrible choice to fly to Europe from Delhi or Mumbai, since most likely the trip would be via Singapore, adding a lot of time to your journey.
So in our calculations for Singapore Airlines, we did not include flights to Europe. Similarly, in our calculations for Emirates we did not use flights to Australia, but we did use flights to Europe.
In each case we tried to ideally look for the most convenient flight, one that we would usually want to take ourselves e.g. non-stop, after office hours on weekdays or most convenient arrival time at destination.
For award redemptions, we also noted down whether a seat for the desired flight was available or not. We discounted the value of the mile if award redemptions were rarely available.
In cases where our preferred flight was not available, we still collected data on the cash booking for that flight although this was not used in our base case valuation of the miles.
The taxes due on each flight ticket must be paid with cash, even if you make an award redemption. We accounted for this in our calculations by ignoring taxes on both types of bookings.
In estimating the value of a mile we limited our analysis to economy class flights.
Many mile junkies recommend booking business class tickets to maximize the value of your frequent flyer points. While this may indeed result in higher estimated value of a mile, we think this is not appropriate for most people.
This is for a couple of reasons. First, most people do not buy business class tickets for their personal trips. So it doesn’t make sense for them to buy business class tickets just to get a better notional value for their miles.
Optimizing the value of miles isn’t a goal in and of itself for them. They want to get to their destination in the most efficient way possible.
Second, if the miles in your hand were converted to cash (lets say even at the higher conversion rate you get for business class tickets), would you then use them to buy a business class ticket instead of economy class?
We think the answer would be no for most people.
Put another way, if you are not willing to spend cash on a business class ticket but are willing to spend miles on it, then implicitly you are yourself valuing the miles less.
Funnily this leads to a higher calculated value of a mile but that is not very useful for most people.
Of course, if you are the type of person who travels business class for personal trips then our calculation provides a very conservative value of miles for you and you may end up doing a lot better.
We valued an Emirates Skywards Mile for redemption bookings out of India at ₹0.70 each (i.e. 70 paise per mile). This was based on data from 36 flights (18 return journeys).
This included return flights to 6 international destinations, each on 3 different dates.
Table 3: Value of Emirates Skywards Miles
| Emirates Skywards Miles | Value (in ₹) |
|---|---|
| Average | 0.70 |
| Median | 0.70 |
| Maximum | 0.85 |
| Minimum | 0.50 |
We found the Emirates has moderate availability of redemption bookings – in all 63% of the flights we tried to book were available as redemption bookings.
9 out of 18 journeys were fully available i.e. both legs were available for the dates we picked. 4 journeys had neither flight available as a redemption booking while 5 journeys had only 1 leg available for booking with miles.
Using our raw dataset (all flights, both legs, alternate date where needed), we estimate a value of ₹0.70 per Skywards mile. This did not change much when we restricted our analysis only to flights that were available for redemption bookings on our originally chosen dates.
Unlike some airlines, Emirates seems to change the miles needed to book a journey if the demand on those dates is high.
Since the cash fare for these journeys also increases on these dates, the value of a mile seems to remain relatively constant, even for flights that are in high demand.
Unlike our calculations for the domestic airlines, we did not reduce the value of the mile to reflect the availability rate for international airlines.
This was a subjective decision and if we use the same method for International airlines that we used for the domestic ones, the value of a Skywards Mile would be only ₹0.50.
There is a strong argument to do that because lower availability means on average you need to wait longer to redeem an award flight that you really need. There is a higher chance that the miles expire unused or you end up using them on a flight you would not have otherwise taken.
We valued an Etihad Guest Mile at ₹0.50/mile for redemption bookings out of India. This was based on data from 36 flights (18 return journeys).
This included return flights to 6 international destinations, each on 3 different dates.
Table 4: Value of Etihad Guest Miles
| Etihad Guest Miles | Value (in ₹) |
|---|---|
| Average | 0.50 |
| Median | 0.50 |
| Maximum | 0.70 |
| Minimum | 0.30 |
The great thing about Etihad was that redemption bookings were available for every single flight we tested. This means you are nearly guaranteed to be able to book a flight with your Guest Miles on any date.
Similar to Emirates and unlike some airlines, Etihad changes the miles needed to book a journey if the demand on those dates is high. In some cases the change can be large.
For example, when we tried to book a Delhi – London redemption fare, the miles needed on the 3 dates were very different for the same journey and ranged from 39,225 in June ’23 to 164,522 in December.
The value of a Guest Mile also varied dramatically between these three dates – ₹1.00 in June to ₹0.26 in December. It appears that the value of a Guest Mile falls for in-demand flights and Etihad prioritizes cash bookings.
For most other destinations, the miles required or the value of a Guest Mile was fairly constant across dates.
Since Etihad had 100% availability of redemption bookings, no further adjustment was necessary to our valuation.
We valued the Qatar Avios Miles at ₹0.65 each for redemption bookings out of India on Qatar Airways. This was based on data from 36 flights (18 return journeys).
This included return flights to 6 international destinations, each on 3 different dates.
Table 5: Value of Qatar Avios Miles
| Qatar Airways Avios Miles | Value (in ₹) |
|---|---|
| Average | 0.65 |
| Median | 0.60 |
| Maximum | 1.10 |
| Minimum | 0.30 |
It is worth noting that Avios Miles used by Qatar Airway are the same as the Avios Miles used by British Airways and a few more airlines.
For our valuation here, we have only compared the option to redeem these points on Qatar Airways flights out of India. You could use these miles on the other airlines to achieve better value but that is not what we compare here.
Unlike other airlines, we were also unable to test the availability of redemption bookings on Qatar since their website does disclose this information unless you have adequate miles in your frequent flyer account, and we did not.
Qatar Airways has a fixed price for redemption bookings for a journey, while the cash price for the same journey can change a fair bit. This means that the value of Avios can also vary hugely from flight to flight.
In our testing across domestic and international airlines we have found that availability of redemption bookings on such airlines tends to be low, especially on dates where the calculated value of a mile is very high.
Another notable point with Qatar Airways is that the value of Avios is very high if you are redeeming a flight to Doha. If however, you redeem a flight to another destination e.g. New York or London, the value is a lot lower.
Table 6: Value of Qatar Avios Miles – To Doha vs. Rest of the World
| Redemption Destination | Value (in ₹) |
|---|---|
| Doha | 1.60 |
| Rest of the World | 0.65 |
In our valuation above, we have relied only on journeys to destinations other than Doha. This is because Doha is not a major tourist or even business destination (other than briefly for the Football World Cup). So we expect most people would be utilizing their Avios on Qatar Airways for flights to other destinations.
Clearly if you need to fly to Doha, you can realize a much better value for your Avios with redemption bookings – much higher than what you would get even on British Airways.
We valued a KrisFlyer Mile at ₹0.80 each for journeys out of India. This was based on data from 36 flights (18 return journeys).
This included return flights to 6 international destinations, each on 3 different dates.
Unlike other airlines, especially those with hubs in Middle East, Singapore Airlines is not a great option to fly from India to Europe or the east coast of US. Instead we used flights to Australia and the west coast of US to calculate the value of a KrisFlyer mile out of India.
Table 7: Value of Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles
| KrisFlyer Miles | Value (in ₹) |
|---|---|
| Average | 0.80 |
| Median | 0.80 |
| Maximum | 1.60 |
| Minimum | 0.50 |
Singapore Airlines had relatively low availability of flights for redemption bookings. We were able to find confirmed availability for only about 47% of the flights we tried to book, with the remaining having no availability or being wait listed.
Using our raw dataset (all flights, both legs, alternate date where needed), we estimated a value of ₹1.00 for a KrisFlyer Mile. However restricting the calculation to only flights where redemption bookings were available, reduced our valuation to ₹0.80.
This was also in line with our valuation of the KrisFlyer Mile globally, which was 1.4 Singapore cents or about ₹0.80.
Unlike our calculations for the domestic airlines, and as with Emirates, we did not reduce the value of the mile to reflect the availability rate for Singapore Airlines.
This was a subjective decision and if we use the same method for International airlines that we used for the domestic ones, the value of a KrisFlyer Mile would be only ₹0.40.
There is a strong argument to do that because lower availability means on average you need to wait longer to redeem an award flight that you really need. There is a higher chance that the miles expire unused or you end up using them on a flight you would not have otherwise taken.
We valued a British Airways Avios Mile at ₹0.80 each for journeys out of India. This was based on data from 24 flights (12 return journeys).
This included 4 sets of return flights to international destinations, each on 3 different dates.
Table 8: Value of British Airways Avios Miles
| BA Avios Miles | Value (in ₹) |
|---|---|
| Average | 0.80 |
| Median | 0.80 |
| Maximum | 1.00 |
| Minimum | 0.50 |
We found British Airways has moderate availability of redemption bookings – in all 63% of the flights we tried to book were available as redemption bookings.
5 out of 12 journeys were fully available i.e. both legs were available for the dates we picked. 2 journeys had neither flight available as a redemption booking while 5 journeys had only 1 leg available for booking with miles.
Using our raw dataset (all flights, both legs, alternate date where needed), we estimate a value of ₹0.80 per Avios mile. This was unchanged we restricted our analysis only to flights that were available for redemption bookings on our originally chosen dates.
Unlike our calculations for the domestic airlines, we did not reduce the value of the mile to reflect the availability rate for international airlines.
This was a subjective decision and if we use the same method for International airlines that we used for the domestic ones, the value of a Avios Mile would be only ₹0.50.
There is a strong argument to do that because lower availability means on average you need to wait longer to redeem an award flight that you really need. There is a higher chance that the miles expire unused or you end up using them on a flight you would not have otherwise taken.
We valued a United MileagePlus Mile at ₹0.80 each for journeys out of India. This was based on a relatively small dataset from 6 flights (3 return journeys).
This included only return flights from Delhi to Newark Airport on 3 different dates.
Table 9: Value of United Airlines MileagePlus Miles
| UA MileagePlus Miles | Value (in ₹) |
|---|---|
| Average | 0.80 |
| Median | 0.80 |
| Maximum | 0.90 |
| Minimum | 0.70 |
We were able to find confirmed redemption bookings on United for all 3 dates we tested. Therefore no adjustement were necessary. We relied on a simple average in this case as the value of the miles varied quite a bit on the 3 dates.
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