Maharaja Club Award Flight Cancellation and Rescheduling Rules (Updated April 2026)

Air India overhauled their Maharaja Club award cancellation rules in April 2026. The old system had separate penalty charts for domestic and international, different INR amounts depending on your tier, and you basically needed a spreadsheet to figure out what you'd lose.

The new system fits in one table. Each tier gets a free cancellation window. Cancel within it, you get all your points back. Cancel outside it, you lose 25%. That's it.

Platinum members can cancel up to 2 hours before departure and still get a full refund. Gold gets 7 days. Silver gets 30 days.

Here's everything you need to know.

The New Tier-Based System

Instead of separate rules for domestic vs international, changes vs cancellations, Air India now uses one unified structure. Each tier gets a free window before departure. Cancel or reschedule within that window, and your Maharaja Points come back in full with no charges.

This applies to both domestic and international award flights.

A few things to note about how the fees work:

Cancellation penalties are deducted in Maharaja Points. If you redeemed 12,000 points for a Delhi to Singapore award and cancel outside your free window, you lose 3,000 points and get 9,000 back.

Rescheduling penalties are paid in cash at a 1:1 point value. So if you're rescheduling outside your free window, you'll pay the penalty amount in rupees, not points.

Platinum effectively has no penalty zone. The free window runs up to 2 hours before departure, and the no-show window also starts at 2 hours. So for Platinum members, it's either free cancellation or a no-show. There's no in-between where you'd pay 25%.

What This Means for Each Tier

Platinum is the clear winner. You can book speculatively, change your mind the morning of your flight, and still get every point back. As long as you cancel more than 2 hours out, you're covered.

Gold has a 7-day window. That's reasonable for most planned travel. If you know a week out that your trip isn't happening, you're fine. Outside that, you keep 75% of your points.

Silver needs to decide 30 days ahead. That's tighter, but still workable if you're booking far in advance and plans shift early.

Red (base tier) doesn't get a free window. Every cancellation costs 25% of your points.

If you're not sure which tier you're at or what it takes to qualify, we have a full Maharaja Club tier guide with all the thresholds and benefits.

24-Hour Free Cancellation (India & US Markets)

This one's easy to miss. For bookings originating in India or the US, you can cancel or change your award flight for free within 24 hours of booking, as long as the first leg of departure is at least 7 days away.

So if you book an award seat tonight and wake up tomorrow regretting it, you can undo it regardless of your tier. This 24-hour window applies on top of the tier-based windows above.

How Changes Work

You can change dates, destinations, or both on an award ticket. A few rules:

Destination changes have one constraint: domestic tickets can only change to another domestic destination, and international to international. You can't switch between the two.

If the new fare is higher, you pay the difference. If it's lower, you don't get a refund of the difference, but you will still pay any applicable rescheduling charges.

Your award ticket is valid for 1 year from the date of initial issue. If you rebook 6 months later, the original 1-year clock still applies.

No-Shows

If you don't cancel and just don't show up, you forfeit almost everything. Within the no-show window (2 hours for Platinum, 24 hours for everyone else) or after the flight departs, only airport taxes are refunded. Your points are gone.

This is the one scenario where you genuinely lose. Even Red tier members who cancel outside the free window keep 75% of their points. A no-show keeps nothing. Always cancel if you can't make it.

Upgrade Award Cancellations

This is new as of April 2026. Previously, if you used Maharaja Points for a cabin upgrade and then cancelled the ticket, those points were gone.

Now, points used for cabin upgrades are refunded upon ticket cancellation, subject to applicable fare rules. So if you upgraded from Economy to Business using points and your ticket gets cancelled, those upgrade points come back.

One Important Caveat

Fee waivers apply only to the tier member. If you're a Gold member and booked an award flight for yourself and a companion on the same PNR, your companion doesn't get your 7-day free window. Their cancellation follows whatever tier they hold individually.

Building Your Miles Balance

With the new award chart dropping prices significantly (Delhi to Singapore for just 12,000 points), knowing you can cancel without losing everything makes booking easier.

If you're earning Maharaja Club points through Mag Miles transfers on the Magnify app, these rules are worth knowing before you commit points to a booking. You can see all your transfer options at magnify.club/app.

For credit card holders, here's our guide on every card that transfers to Maharaja Club.

And if you've flown Air India recently but haven't seen miles in your account, you can file a retro claim for missing miles.