Ajay, Author at Live from a Lounge

About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Kolkata

October 10, 2014 by Ajay 2 Comments

A long weekend is an excuse to get out of town, and October 2-6 this year was one of those with a lot of holidays. With a lot of Bengali friends, I’ve heard great things about Kolkata during the Durga Puja season, and it was one of the things on my to do list. So, this year, it was a good time to make it happen. When I started to look for hotels, I eventually narrowed it down to the ITC Sonar or the Hyatt Regency, which are two hotels I’ve been wanting to go to for a while. Luckily for me, I spotted a very good deal at the Hyatt Regency Kolkata during the Monsoon Flash sale they held…

Vistara’s loyalty program to be called ‘Club Vistara’?

October 9, 2014 by Ajay 1 Comment

Vistara, the newest Indian airline, and a new full-service airline to come into India after a long while, is going full swing to get off the ground at the earliest moment possible. They recently got their first plane delivered, an A320 by the registration number VT-TTB, and VT-TTC is also going to be over shortly. One of the interesting parts of an airline for me and this blog is the loyalty program. I’m personally loyal to a few airlines, and I think loyalty programs to lead to repeat traffic for customers. For Vistara, it seems Club Vistara may be the name they choose for their loyalty program. They recently signed up with social media handles with this name on Twitter…

British Airways got it right with the Premium Economy

October 7, 2014 by Ajay 13 Comments

Earlier this year, I sent some of my Europe travel business to British Airways because of the convenient timings I had for travel to Europe (twice daily) rather than once daily. It involved backtracking as well, and the pains of getting a visa, but that added so much flexibility to my travel plans as well, because I could spend another night at home rather than having to necessarily take a midnight flight out of India all the time to go to continental Europe. One of my earlier trips this year, British Airways bumped me up from Economy to Premium Economy, due to the Economy cabin being overbooked. And that was the first time I really started to appreciate the Premium…

Hotel Review: Grand Hyatt, Mumbai

October 6, 2014 by Ajay Leave A Comment

I’ve been spending a lot of time away from home recently, and I just wanted to spend some downtime over the a weekend. However, that was not going to be possible if I decided to stay home because something or the other would have been tugging for my attention. Owing to this, I decided to spend a weekend in the hotels, and I spent one night at the Grand Hyatt Mumbai, and another at the Hyatt Regency Mumbai. While I’d been to the Grand Hyatt Mumbai a lot of times, I’d never stayed there. So, after a long day at work, I headed straight to the hotel and arrived there about 6 PM. I landed up at the check-in desk…

Reviewing the SpiceJet Hot Breakfast

October 3, 2014 by Ajay 1 Comment

SpiceJet is working on a reinvention all this year, and amongst the other things they are working on, is the food they serve on the flights. Being a no-frills airline, they only offer Buy-on-board meals, but the public verdict about the food was not great earlier. Taking that feedback on board, they reworked the menu, and tied up with the TajSats for catering on board. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to be on a SpiceJet flight for my travel from Mumbai to Kolkata, and while I can do without a meal on a shorter flight, since this is a 2.5 hour long flight, and they operate from the bus gates in Mumbai where there is no provision for lounges, I…

Jet Airways’ generous offer: Double miles for international flights on JetPrivilege & Etihad Guest

October 1, 2014 by Ajay 1 Comment

A few days ago, JetPrivilege and Etihad Guest announced that they were going to offer double miles for flights taken across the Etihad Airways network, for flights till December 15, 2014. Now, Jet Airways has initiated a new promotion, where you can get double JP Miles or double Etihad Guest miles for flying on the international network of Jet Airways as well. It does look like a very good promotion, because off the bat, Jet Airways is offering double JP Miles for anyone who books their tickets over the next fortnight, and travels till December 15, 2014 on the International network of Jet Airways. Just make sure you register here. On top of that, if you fly Business Class or…

Starwood to move HO to India in 2015

September 30, 2014 by Ajay 1 Comment

Starwood Hotels is planning to move their CEO Frits van Paasschen and other key executives to come and live and work out of Starwood’s India hotels in Mumbai and Delhi for a month, in the month of March 2015. For a company in the hospitality business, to be close to their customers is important, and Starwood is making that effort. In the past, Starwood’s top brass has been over to Shanghai for a month in 2011, and in 2013, about 200 Starwood executives were in Dubai for 30 days, appreciating local nuances to build them into their management philosophy for the regions. As per the Wall Street Journal, Starwood already has 40 hotels they operate in India, and another 36…

Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Mumbai

September 29, 2014 by Ajay 2 Comments

Like I mentioned in this post, I really needed to get out of my house and get some downtime over the last weekend. So, I decided to check out the Hyatt Regency and the Grand Hyatt Mumbai over the weekend. Hyatt Regency is an airport hotel, while the Grand Hyatt is the suburban hotel in Mumbai. While I have been to the Grand Hyatt a few times to attend events or grab a bite, it was the first time I was going to be over at the Hyatt Regency Mumbai. I arrived at the hotel and went to the lobby check-in desk, where the hotel had a room ready for me. I was informed that I was booked in the…

Etihad launches its new livery on the B787 & the A380

September 28, 2014 by Ajay Leave A Comment

Etihad has been undergoing a secret makeover for months, but they don’t make a secret of it when they are ready. As a 11-year young airline, I really love their luxury product in the First Class, however, they’ve been upping the game with their new cabin products, including the Residence which they will launch on their A380 later this year. Not just that. There has been a lot of discussion around the interwebs of a new livery that would come in on the new planes. I absolutely love the old one, but the new livery was just introduced a couple of days back on the A380 that Etihad has on order… And then just a short while back, on the…

Do Hyatt properties in India do a good job at delivering benefits?

September 27, 2014 by Ajay 4 Comments

File this under the section of rants. I’ve been in and out of work trips over the past couple of weeks, and I really needed a break from minding my own business, so I decided to check into the Hyatt hotels in Mumbai for some rest and recuperation. I’ve just checked out of the Grand Hyatt Mumbai, and checked into the Hyatt Regency Mumbai. Now, while I’ve had some superb experiences with Hyatt properties around India, I’ve begin to realise they are not all made equal. While the Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa, consistently makes me feel special and good about holding on to Hyatt’s Diamond Tier, the Hyatt Pune also did an above and beyond job by upgrading…

Reminder: 4 more days to get Citibank PremierMiles referrals

September 26, 2014 by Ajay 1 Comment

Earlier this month, I’d put out information about a great referral offer that was being run by Citibank for existing PremierMiles card holders, who can refer their friends and family for new Citibank PremierMiles credit cards. The referrer gets 5000 PremierMiles for each successful application they make, and this is capped at 5 PremierMiles cards referrals per card member. For taking up on this offer, the referrer has to generate and send out custom email links by September 30, 2014, while the receiver of the referral offer has up to October 31, 2014 to apply using that link and get approved for the credit card. In case you choose to apply for the card, you get 10000 PremierMiles in the…