In what could spell more trouble for Kingfisher Airlines, American Express is providing its members holding the co-branded American Express-Kingfisher First card the option of not converting their member rewards into Kingfisher Airlines air miles.

Member reward points are earned against spending on the credit card and these points can be converted into Kingfisher miles which allowed a customer to get free airline tickets. The card was launched in 2007.

In a communication to its members, American Express has said that from April 27 this year, all spending on the card earns membership reward points. Customers can redeem their reward points from over 600 options including stays at luxurious hotels, travel aboard leading International airlines, shopping vouchers, electronics among others.

The decision to again bring back the option of not converting member rewards into Kingfisher Airlines miles comes as customers had complained that the ‘rewards' had become meaningless since Kingfisher was not operating a reliable schedule.

The airline has seen a drastic reduction in the number of daily flights that it operates to about 120 from 400 daily services earlier.

This is not the first agreement that Kingfisher Airlines had entered into which has been suspended this year. In February the cash-strapped airline announced that entry into the global airline alliance OneWorld had been put on hold. The following month, the code-share agreement between Kingfisher Airlines and British Airways was suspended.

The airline, which has debt of about Rs 7,000 crore, reported a 75 per cent increase in its net loss at Rs 444 crore for the quarter ended December 2011. In 2010-11, the airline incurred a loss of Rs 1,027 crore.

> ashphadnis@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics