Air India, India’s leading global airline, has announced an exclusive new partnership with The Bicester Collection, a family of immersive luxury destinations, for the airline’s recently redesigned Flying Returns loyalty programme. The partnership offers Flying Returns reward points on shopping and dining experiences at The Bicester Collection’s nine open-air luxury shopping Villages in Western Europe.

Flying Returns members can now collect 5 Points for every GBP 4 or EUR 4 spent at any of The Bicester Collection’s Villages in Europe conveniently located an hour or less from the major cities London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Munich, Brussels, Dublin, Madrid, and Barcelona. To earn Reward Points, members simply need to present their Air India Flying Returns digital membership card along with their receipts at Concierge Services in the Villages.

The Bicester Collection’s Villages are home to a unique curation of iconic global and European fashion and lifestyle brands offering exceptional savings all year round, alongside five-star hospitality and services, making them havens for discerning travellers and shoppers alike.

Sunil Suresh, Head of Marketing, Loyalty & E-commerce, Air India said, “This partnership aligns perfectly with our ongoing efforts to make the ‘reimagined’ Flying Returns a more robust and faster rewarding programme. Adding The Bicester Collection to our rapidly growing network of 'earn' partners, we're offering our loyal guests even more opportunities to accumulate points for the experiences they value.”

“The demand for luxury shopping among Indians continues to boom at record pace, with Indians now being counted amongst the highest spenders during their travels across the world. We’re also equally excited to offer the benefits of this collaboration to our growing base of loyal guests across Europe, to whom we now offer many new ways of collecting Flying Returns points beyond just taking flights to and within India”, Suresh added.

Laurent Vinay, Chief Brand and Communication Officer, The Bicester Collection said, “We are delighted to launch a partnership with Air India. We look forward to serving new guests from India with this collaboration. Indeed, this partnership will create new opportunities for customer acquisition for us both. Air India aims to provide unparalleled Indian hospitality and customised service and so shares The Bicester Collection’s values of providing its clientele with an elevated experience: this partnership is based on a shared brand ethos. Air India is by far the most wellconnected carrier in India with flights to every European country where The Bicester Collection has a Village. And so together we can create wonderful experiences for our customers, making lasting and meaningful memories for all our guests.”

This announcement marks the latest step in the airline’s continuing effort to transform Flying Returns and comes as the airline enters a new phase of its ongoing five-year transformation journey.

In April this year, Air India overhauled Flying Returns, introducing a simplified new structure, more customer-friendly features, renamed tiers, and an updated identity for the programme. The revamped Flying Returns moves away from the legacy model of miles-based collection of points to a more equitable spend-based approach while offering members instant global status and privileges around the world.

Over the last 18 months, Air India has added over 50 partners for Flying Returns to offer greater ease, more rewards, and recognition for its members.

Air India serves Europe with 94x weekly non-stop flights to India from 10 points, namely Amsterdam Schiphol, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Milan Malpensa, Paris CDG, Vienna, and Zurich. As it continues to grow its global footprint, Air India has been scaling up its European operations, having inaugurated flights to Zurich last week and with additional flights to Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Milan taking off from this month.