I’ve been an ardent fan of the Citibank PremierMiles Credit Card. I believe its a secular mileage-earning credit card, and pays you a good amount of miles for your travel spends, specifically airline bookings, and I rate it high up there in my mileage earning CC 101. However, I’ve been disappointed a bit this past year, since they lost Jet Airways as a mileage transfer partner, and capped off the limit for mileage earning on tickets to Rs. 500,000 per annum, amongst other devaluations. However, seems like some of these changes are out of the window, and there are some real ‘enhancements’ in the true sense of the word and not how rhetorically airlines/credit cards/loyalty programs use the term these…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for May 2013.
I got a flat tire on a plane!
On my way back from the Boarding Area Conference (BACon) at Colorado Springs which ended today, I was booked on a very simple route to get to New York via Dallas/Fort Worth in the afternoon. If all would have been well, I’d have been on the East Coast by now, sleeping in a hotel room in Manhattan. However, it was not to be. Once we were seated on our slightly delayed flight, the captain informed us we had a flat tire on the plane, which could happen on landing at high altitude airports such as COS, and as such, they won’t be able to move before the tire was changed. The good news, he said was, they had a tire…
Jet Airways’ promotion: Get Rs.500-1000 off on your next flight booking
A week ago, I posted about a promotional sale that Jet Airways had launched around its global ops to celebrate its 20th anniversary. However, there was nothing for India announced then. However, that offer came soon after. Jet Airways is offering for its domestic flyers in India, a discount code on your next booking, if you book for travel commencing on or after June 16, 2013. For a one-way reservation in Economy or Premiere, you get a coupon code for Rs. 500 off on your next booking, and for a return trip booking, you get Rs. 1,000 off on your next reservation (valid only on domestic travel). The coupon codes need to be used up before September 30, 2013, however…
Unbundled airfares begin to take off: Indigo, Air India and Jet Airways go first
Unbundling airfares was expected to take off in a while, however the airlines are already set to go ahead and charge exotic varieties of add-on charges on top of your ticketed price right away. Indigo was one of the first to take off with the new charges, and will now charge an additional Rs. 200 if you want to pre-book a window or aisle seats on their planes. If you want a front row seat or an emergency exit, you should be ready to fork out another Rs. 500 for this privilege. They’ve fondly called this Seat Plus. If you intend to pre-assign a non-premium seat, just pay Rs. 100. This is working out exactly as I predicted on May…
Lounge Bites: May 05, 2013
I’m just trying to wriggle my way out of a bad bout of cold and flu which kept me out of action since 2-3 days. I figured a complete, medicinal recovery would be better than trying to drag my feet and keep up with work and other stuff, so I missed out some things. Here is a recap for you: Travel Agents across India seem to be off work on Tuesday 7th May 2013. So, if you depend on them, organise your business a day before or after. I am still refusing to believe this fully, but I am scared for flying Air India if this is true. Apparently on a Bangkok – Delhi flight, both the pilots went to…
Jet Airways’ North America, Europe & SE Asia anniversary discounts (book today)
On the occasion of Jet Airways’ 20th anniversary, Jet Airways is offering promotional discounts for their flights originating from Newark, ending into any destination operated by Jet Airways, if you book by the 5th of May 2013 using their US website. Be sure to use the following coupon codes while making the fare search, though I am not sure $20 for a business class ticket (Premiere) is worth it. For those who live in Europe, there is a different promotion, a flat out 20% off if you book today (May 5) using the Belgian Jet Airways website.
How will unbundling work out for India?
I’m pretty sure the low-fare airlines in India are already set with product propositions as to how they will charge for the various propositions such as checked bags and sale of food in-flight. Like I wrote on Monday, the Indian aviation regulator did permit unbundling of fares, which included preferential seating, checked bags and other services, a full list available here. On a closer inspection, it does look like this stuff is at least a couple of months away, even if airlines start implementing systematic changes now. I would imagine a whole lot of this strategy will want to leverage on the internet to build in the services into the ticket, i.e., you buy it online to ensure that you…
