Air India and IHG Hotels and Resorts have linked their loyalty schemes in a new Air India IHG loyalty partnership that lets Maharaja Club members collect airline points on hotel stays, and gives IHG One Rewards members a fresh route for turning hotel points into flights.
For UK business travellers, the timing is useful. Trade between Britain and India is growing, and anyone flying Air India between London and Delhi, Mumbai or Bengaluru can now build airline points on every night in a Holiday Inn, voco or InterContinental, at home or abroad, without holding any elite status with either company.
The tie-up joins IHG’s estate of more than 7,100 hotels in over 100 countries with Air India’s route network, which covers India and five continents.
How the Air India IHG loyalty partnership earns points
Maharaja Club members earn two Maharaja Points for every US$1 spent at most IHG brands, including Six Senses, InterContinental, voco and Holiday Inn. Extended-stay and specialist brands, namely Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites, IHG Residences and IHG Army Hotels, earn at a lower rate of one Maharaja Point per US$1.
Crucially, these airline points are earned on top of whatever IHG One Rewards points a guest collects on the same stay. One hotel bill therefore feeds two loyalty balances at once, which for a frequent traveller on company business is a meaningful improvement on choosing one scheme or the other.
Conversions also run the other way. IHG One Rewards members can swap 1,000 IHG points for 200 Maharaja Points, a five-to-one ratio that matches most of IHG’s existing airline arrangements. What stands out is the minimum transfer of just 1,000 IHG points, well below the 10,000-point floor IHG usually applies to airline partners such as United and Etihad. That makes it practical to clear out a small IHG balance rather than leaving it idle.
Triple points until the end of the year
To launch the scheme, Maharaja Club members can earn triple Maharaja Points on qualifying IHG stays booked between 15 September and 31 December 2026, with no blackout dates. Registration is required before travelling, so anyone with autumn trips to India or elsewhere on the IHG map should sign up ahead of booking, as the bonus cannot be claimed retrospectively.
Maharaja Club itself is a young programme. It was launched in November 2024 when Air India merged its former Flying Returns scheme with Vistara’s Club Vistara after the two carriers combined, bringing separate points balances and status tiers into a single system. Since then the airline has been rebuilding its premium product, with new Dreamliner deliveries and a redesigned lounge network, alongside the cabin refit of its legacy A320neo fleet.
“Maharaja Club is evolving alongside Air India’s transformation, with a strong emphasis on creating richer experiences for our members beyond the flight itself,” said Sunil Suresh, Air India’s Head of Marketing, Loyalty and E-commerce.
IHG, for its part, has been steadily widening the reach of IHG One Rewards, which the company says now has more than 160 million members worldwide. It already holds transfer agreements with dozens of airlines and has recently added corporate-focused tie-ups, including its integrated loyalty programme with Qatar Airways and co-branded Revolut debit cards in the UK.
How it compares with rival schemes
Airline and hotel alliances come in several forms. The oneworld partnership with Taj hotels, launched in June, gives members of 15 airlines tiered discounts and on-property perks across more than 630 Taj properties, but only for those holding oneworld Emerald, Sapphire or Ruby status.
Emirates Skywards and Marriott Bonvoy go further, allowing elite members to earn both currencies simultaneously, though the “double-dip” requires Marriott Gold Elite or above, or Emirates Silver and up, and converts at roughly three Skywards Miles for every two Bonvoy points.
The Air India and IHG arrangement is more limited in scope than either. Its advantage is accessibility: no status is required, the transfer minimum is low, and the earning stacks with IHG’s own points. For SME travellers who cannot rack up enough nights or flights to reach elite tiers, that is the part that matters most.
