Air India woos passengers with 'shagun vouchers' - tickets as wedding gifts

To lure more passengers, national carrier Air India on Wednesday launched a promotional scheme called "shagun vouchers" that can be used as a wedding gift from December 7 to March 31, 2012.

"These vouchers will be issued and redeemed against tickets or holiday packages on any domestic or international sector at Air India reservation offices," the airline said in a statement.

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According to the airline, the "Shagun Vouchers" will be issued in five different price denominations with an inbuilt discount.

"Each shagun vouchers will have a 'face value' and a discounted 'sale value'," the statement said.

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The vouchers starts from a sale value of Rs 901 to Rs 9,001, which can be used as exchange for tickets or holiday packages.

"The vouchers will be issued at Air India reservation offices after presenting a copy of the wedding invitation card and that the wedding date should be within a month from the date of purchase," the statement added.

The scheme comes after the carrier started an upgrade coupon scheme allowing economy class passengers to travel in business class. It had also extended its short-term promotion which provided unlimited journeys for 15 days on domestic routes till January.

"We started the coupon scheme on November 1. Any economy class passenger can now upgrade to business class seat by buying the coupons which are worth Rs 4,000-6,000," an Air India official told IANS.

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According to the official, the upgrades have been divided into two categories of travel starting from 750 km, for which the coupons are for Rs 4,000, and above 750 km for which the coupons are for Rs 6,000.

"The coupons are valid for travel from all major metro cities," the official said.

The airline said it initiated the scheme to cut revenue losses which occurred due to low business class bookings.

The other offer entails the passengers to buy either a silver pass priced at Rs35,000 for unlimited travel on economy class within 15 days or a platinum pass priced at Rs 70,000 for travel on executive class.