Vistara codeshare pact with US-based United Airlines comes into effect

Tata-SIA joint venture airline Vistara on Monday said its codeshare pact with the US carrier United Airlines has come into effect from last Friday.

The two airlines had signed the codeshare pact that allows United Airlines to book seats for its passengers on Vistara's flights in India last June.

Codesharing allows an airline to book its passengers on its partner carriers and provide seamless travel to destinations where it has no presence.

The agreement enables United Airlines to codeshare on Vistara-operated Indian domestic flights starting February 28, Vistara said adding that passengers on both airlines have been enjoying the ability to earn and redeem frequent flyer points/miles on either of the frequent flyer programmes since the beginning of February.

"The US continues to be one of the biggest source markets for foreign travellers into India and the region, and this partnership allows us to provide a seamless travel offering for customers to and from the United States," Vistara Chief Commercial Officer Vinod Kannan said in a release.

The codeshare agreement enables United Airlines to put its 'UA' designator code on 68 Vistara-operated flights to 26 destinations every day, including but not limited to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Udaipur and Varanasi.

"We are excited to offer our shared customers the option of building a seamless itinerary when planning travel to cities beyond New Delhi and Mumbai," said John Gebo, senior vice-president (alliances), United Airlines.

United Airlines operates daily flights between New York/Newark and Delhi and Mumbai and also San Francisco-New Delhi.

"Our relationship with Vistara opens up even more options for customers to travel between our East and West Coast hubs and multiple destinations throughout India," he added.

Since February 1, members of Vistara's and United Airlines' frequent flyer programmes, Club Vistara and United MileagePlus, have been able to earn and redeem their CV Points/United MileagePlus miles when flying on either of the airlines' network, which means Club Vistara members can now earn and redeem CV Points on flights operated by United Airlines, and vice versa.