Air India Express Flights Now Earn Maharaja Club Points, Here's How It Works

Air India Express flights now earn points and Tier Points under the Air India Maharaja Club programme, a change that went live in May 2026 after being requested by flyers since early 2025. The push made sense: Air India has shifted a large chunk of its domestic network onto Air India Express, so excluding those flights from the loyalty programme was leaving a lot of flying unrewarded.

What you actually earn

Every eligible Air India Express passenger can now be enrolled in Maharaja Club. Points are calculated on the base fare only, fuel surcharge (YQ) and other charges don't count toward your points total. Eligible flights also contribute Tier Points toward your Maharaja Club status progression.

There's a direct-booking bonus too: book through the official Air India or Air India Express website or app, and you earn an additional 2 Maharaja Points per ₹100 spent, on top of the standard earning rate.

The catch: how you book changes what you earn

This is the part worth paying attention to. If you book through a third-party platform or travel agent rather than directly with Air India, two things change:

1. You won't get the direct-booking bonus (the extra 2 points per ₹100).
2. Depending on the booking channel, your loyalty number might not get linked automatically. You may need to manually add your Maharaja Club number through Manage My Booking, either before departure or at check-in.

Miss both windows, no retroactive credit is possible. If you've already flown and didn't link your number in time, that flight's points are gone for good. There's no after-the-fact claim process for this.

A few practical things to know before you fly

• Add your Maharaja Club number early. Don't wait until the airport. Manage My Booking after ticketing is the safer window than relying on check-in.
• Check digital boarding passes, not kiosk-printed ones. The Maharaja Club number reportedly shows up correctly on digital boarding passes, but not always on kiosk-printed ones. If you're tracking whether your number is correctly linked, the digital version is the more reliable check.
• Points crediting happens fast. Once the flight departs (doors closed), credit typically posts within the same day, you'll usually get an email confirmation.
• No status perks yet. If you hold elite tier status with Air India, those perks (priority boarding, extra baggage, lounge access, etc.) don't currently extend to Air India Express flights. Only points and Tier Points are covered for now, the airline hasn't extended status-based benefits to this network yet.

The bottom line

The integration works cleanly on the earning side, points post reliably and quickly once your Maharaja Club number is correctly linked. The friction is entirely on the booking-channel side: direct bookings get the full benefit (bonus points, automatic linking), while third-party or OTA bookings require you to manually add your number and forgo the direct-booking bonus. If you fly Air India Express regularly and care about Maharaja Club progression, booking direct is now worth the small extra effort.

If you're trying to figure out which of your cards earns the most when paired with Air India or Air India Express bookings, ValueNinja's Card Recommender can help you compare.