Loyyal Expands Maharaja Club with Global Shopping Rewards
Air India has partnered with blockchain-based loyalty specialist Loyyal to allow Maharaja Club members to earn points on everyday purchases across key brands in the United States and the United Kingdom. The collaboration enables members to accrue Maharaja Points on shopping at major retailers such as Walmart, Victoria's Secret, New Balance, GAP, Victorinox and Alamo – marking a significant expansion of the airline's loyalty programme.
Members now earn up to 99 Maharaja Points per USD 100 spent at Walmart, 310 points per GBP 100 at Victoria's Secret, 300 points at Victorinox, 45 at New Balance, 180 at GAP and 64 points at Alamo. These offerings are accessible via the Maharaja Club Partner Offers page on Air India's website, where members can select a brand and follow on-screen prompts to initiate their purchases.
Shailesh Kumar Singh, Head of Loyalty at Air India, commented that the alliance with Loyyal 'makes it easier for our members to earn Maharaja Points on everyday essentials and shopping, without needing to fly frequently'. Meanwhile, Loyyal CEO Ashish Kumar Singh noted that the initiative 'significantly boosts the earning potential for Maharaja Club's members,' adding that it enriches daily experiences and complements travel benefits.
ADVERTISEMENT
The partnership follows a broader revamp of the Maharaja Club, which adopted a simplified tier structure, updated identity and enhanced customer features. Air India has added more than 50 non-airline partners over the last 18 months, supporting its transformation under the Vihaan.AI strategy and leveraging its Star Alliance membership.
The move aligns with global loyalty trends, where airlines increasingly engage shoppers via retail partnerships. By enabling points accrual through non-travel spend, loyalty programmes become more relevant to everyday consumer behaviour, fostering engagement beyond flight activity. Consumers, meanwhile, gain tangible value even during non-travel periods.
Maharaja Club's integration with Star Alliance further enhances its value proposition. As noted by Air India's own commentary, elite-tier members benefit from worldwide priority check-in, lounge access at over 1,100 locations, extra baggage allowance, and the ability to accrue and redeem points across the alliance's 25 carriers. These features remain central to the programme's repositioning.
Industry analysts highlight that Loyyal's blockchain-based platform offers secure, transparent point tracking and easier integration of diverse partners. Though Air India and Loyyal have not disclosed technical details publicly, Loyyal's existing reputation in travel loyalty schemes supports confidence in seamless implementation.
Under the agreement, Air India continues to broaden access to Maharaja Points across shopping categories. The move targets customers traveling abroad or residing outside India, reinforcing Air India's global outreach following its Tata Group-led transformation. In support, the programme emphasises that points can be redeemed for award flights and cabin upgrades through Air India or Star Alliance partners.
The timing of the launch coincides with Air India's widened network with new interline agreements and route expansions, such as recent pacts with airlines like airBaltic, Cyprus Airways and Uzbekistan Airways, aimed at increasing global connectivity. As passengers gain more travel options, the value of earning and using loyalty points is projected to grow.
As more household and lifestyle brands are added to the programme, members could diversify their point accrual even further. Air India has indicated that additional partners will be announced in due course, though specifics have not yet been released.
Maharaja Club members benefit from streamlined user experience with clearly stated earning rates for each participating brand. For example, spending at Victoria's Secret yields 310 points per GBP 100, while spending at Victorinox delivers 300 points per USD 100 – figures that are prominently showcased on the shopping portal.
Air India's alignment with Loyyal fits within its hospitality-driven repositioning under Vihaan.AI, along with fleet modernisation, training investments, new routes, and enhanced premium services. The airline aims to appeal to international leisure and business travellers – particularly those based abroad – by offering points that can accrue through both travel and lifestyle spending.
Industry commentators suggest that Loyyal's blockchain solution offers underlying benefits including transparent audit trails, fraud reduction and easy tracking of reward accrual from non-travel sources. This increases both partner and consumer confidence in the integrity of the loyalty ecosystem.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Explained: How Air India plane crash could impact Boeing
Boeing's stock price fell by more than 4 per cent on Thursday, after an Air India flight crashed in the Indian city of Ahmedabad. The plane, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner that had 242 people on board and was bound for London's Gatwick Airport, crashed shortly after take-off. According to air traffic control at the airport in Ahmedabad, the plane took off at 1.39pm (12.09pm UAE) from runway 23. It gave a 'mayday' call, signalling an emergency but there was no response after that. In a statement to The National on Thursday, Boeing said it was "working to gather more information".
Khaleej Times
3 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Ahmedabad plane crash first ever for Boeing 787 Dreamliner: Sources
The crash of an Air India plane with 242 people on board on Thursday was the first ever for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to AFP. The London-bound passenger plane that went down in India's western city of Ahmedabad is a long-haul aircraft that has been in operation since 2011 and can carry between 248 and 330 people. US planemaker Boeing said Thursday they were in touch with Air India about the crash of the London-bound flight. We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected. — Boeing Airplanes (@BoeingAirplanes) June 12, 2025 Pride of the company The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is the pride of the US company's catalogue for long-distance planes: a fuel-efficient, wide-body aircraft able to transport up to 330 people. After first entering service in October 2011, with Japan's All Nippon Airways, 2,598 of the planes have been ordered by more than 80 airlines around the world, with 889 still awaiting delivery. Stay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp Channels. Three versions There are currently three versions of the 787: the 787-8, which can carry up to 248 passengers over distances up to 13,530 kilometres (8,400 miles); the 787-9, carrying up to 296 passengers up to 14,010 kilometres; and the 787-10, with up to 330 passengers, up to 11,910 kilometres. The one that went down in Ahmedabad, India on Thursday was the 787-8 version, carrying 242 passengers and crew. It was scheduled to fly to London, but crashed shortly after taking off from the western Indian city. Boeing setbacks Boeing's programme for the plane had suffered several setbacks, including repeated and costly delivery suspensions between 2021 and 2023, mainly due to assembly faults and manufacturing quality issues. The US Federal Aviation Administration ended up reinforcing quality assurance checks and inspections on the production lines.
Zawya
3 hours ago
- Zawya
Dollar hits 2025 low, Middle East tensions fuel risk-off mood
LONDON - The dollar hit a new 2025 low on Thursday, while stocks eased from record highs, as a cocktail of rising Middle East tensions and concern over the fragility of a trade truce between Washington and Beijing drew investors into safe-haven assets. Separately, a report on U.S. consumer inflation on Wednesday showed overall price pressures remained contained in May, largely due to declines in the cost of gasoline, cars and housing. But most economists expect inflation to pick up as the impact of U.S. tariffs begins to bite. The dollar, which has lost around 10% in value against a basket of currencies this year, fell to its lowest since April 2022 in European trading. Global stocks took a breather from the almost-unbroken rally that has run since early April, leaving the MSCI All-Country World index flat, just below Wednesday's all-time high. In Europe, the STOXX 600 fell 0.8%, led mostly by airlines, given brewing tensions in the Middle East and a deadly crash of an Air India flight bound for London that killed at least 30 people near the Indian city of Ahmedabad. Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell 0.5-0.6%. The U.S. administration on Wednesday said U.S. personnel were being moved out of the Middle East due to heightened security risks in the region, which briefly drove oil prices up by 4% before they receded. "(A flare-up in tensions) is a significant tail risk, but I don't think it is anybody's baseline forecasts. So it's something to watch if there is a real escalation there, then markets will take fright and that would have ramifications for the oil price," Daiwa Capital economist Chris Scicluna said. Iran, for its part, said it will not abandon its right to uranium enrichment, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday, adding that a "friendly" regional country had alerted Tehran over a potential military strike by Israel. Classic safe-haven assets got a lift. The Swiss franc and the Japanese yen strengthened, pushing the dollar down by 1% against the franc and down 0.7% against the yen, while gold rose nearly 1% to $3,385 an ounce. The sense of relief stemming from a positive conclusion to U.S.-China trade talks earlier this week, which President Donald Trump said was a "great deal with China", evaporated by Thursday. RED, WHITE AND BLUE LETTERS Adding yet another dose of uncertainty in the markets, Trump said the U.S. would send out letters in one to two weeks outlining the terms of trade deals to dozens of other countries, which they could embrace or reject. "Markets may have no choice but to respond to Trump's tariff threat — even if it's just posturing to bring others to the table. The gap between 'risk-on' positioning and real-world risks has stretched too far," said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxobank. Trump's erratic tariff policies have roiled global markets this year, prompting hordes of investors to exit U.S. assets, especially the dollar, as they worried about rising prices and slowing economic growth. The euro rose by as much as 1.07% to $1.16, its highest since October 2021. U.S. Treasuries also rallied in price, pushing yields down 3.5 basis points to below 4.38%, while two-year yields, which are more sensitive to inflation and interest-rate expectations, eased 2.7 bps to 3.92%. Later in the day, the focus will be on a producer inflation report as some of the components feed into the Fed's preferred inflation gauge - the Personal Consumption Expenditure Index. Wednesday's consumer inflation index kept alive the prospect of the Federal Reserve cutting rates by a quarter point, but only in September, as policymakers assess how tariffs work their way through the real economy. "I suspect it's probably going to be a combination of the two. Therefore it makes sense for the Fed to wait and see what happens rather than rushing into a rate cut," AMP Capital's head of investment strategy and chief economist Shane Oliver said. Oil, which has fallen by 20% in the last year, eased by 1.6% to $68.63 a barrel, but was still pinned near two-month highs, adding another moving part to the outlook for interest rates.
