Air India business class seats up for grabs

To increase its revenues and cater to the holiday and peak travel season demand, Air India has started an upgrade coupon scheme allowing economy class passengers to travel in business class. "We started the coupon scheme on November 1. Any economy class passenger can now upgrade to business class seat by buying the coupons which are worth Rs4,000 (Dh294) to Rs6,000," an Air India official said. The upgrades have been divided into two categories of travel starting from 750km, for which the coupons are for Rs4,000, and above 750km for which the coupons are for Rs6,000. Good response "The coupons are valid for travel from all major metro cities," he said. Reacting on the response to the scheme, the official said: "It's been only a few days, but the response is good. Passenger load factors have increased and there has been some positive impact on the revenues too." The airline said that it initiated the scheme to curb revenue losses which occur due to low-business class bookings. "Fares are a major thing for passengers, especially in the domestic sector where economy seats are booked to 100 per cent but some business class seats go empty. So it is better to operate the seat at less revenue than nothing at all," the official said. Unlimited travel The scheme comes after the flag carrier recently extended its short-term promotion which provided unlimited journeys for 15 days on domestic routes till January. The offer entails the passengers to buy either a silver pass priced at Rs35,000 for unlimited travel on economy class within 15 days or a platinum pass priced at Rs70,000 for travel on executive class. In August, Air India had a 17.4 per cent share in the domestic market and operated flights to 66 destinations.