During my time actively writing for dna, I often travelled all over the country, seeing new places and getting brief glimpses of new cultures and exciting experiences I wanted to follow up on. Since flying is the easiest and most time-efficient way to travel between cities in India, I found myself flying a lot. During one of these flights on Jet Airways, stuck in a middle seat in the economy section I saw an advertisement for their frequent flyer program Jet Privilege.

Once I went home and did my research, I found that there were benefits that I could have at no extra cost to myself. Right off the bat, I would be able to start collecting JP Miles or Jet Privilege Miles that I could gather and redeem for a reward flight along with discounts only available to members. At the time I was flying anywhere between two to four times a month, and from then on I tried my best to fly Jet Airways whenever I got the chance. Over a very short amount of time, I was able to rank up my Jet Privilege tier all the way from Blue to Gold.

Upon reaching Gold, I now was able to earn 50% more JPMiles on flights, use business class check-in desks, get additional baggage allowance, access seat selection before everyone else, avail lounge access, get three vouchers for upgrades to business class. By the time I got to Gold, I was looking to fly less, and so I moved my attention away from getting to Platinum, the highest tier available. My new objective was to look for other ways to maximise my membership, which I found in a credit card.

Jet Airways has tied up with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, American Express, Induslnd Bank and Eastern Bank in India. By using any of these credit cards, you get the ability to earn JP Miles on your everyday purchases. Depending on how much you spend per year, you can obtain the required miles to get reward flights that can cover anywhere from some to all of your air travel for that year. You can find specifics on the different credit cards online.

One thing to note is that even though you may earn the required miles to get a reward flight, that flight is still not entirely free. You still have to pay statutory taxes, charges, fees & levies and a carrier fee. This is usually a fraction of the cost and does not scale up during times when flights are expensive.

Disclaimer: I was an active investor in Jet Airways at the time of writing this article.