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.

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Park Hyatt Goa sold to ITC Hotels

by Ajay 2 Comments

a sign on a wall

One of my favourite resorts closer home is the Park Hyatt Goa. I go over at least once a year, and while I did not write about my last trip in 2014, here is a review from 2012 when I went there for the first time. The Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa recently changed hands, something that caught me unaware. While Hyatt manages the property, the hotel was owned by a company called Blue Coast Hotels, which is a hotel development company and has many hotels around India including the Park Hyatt Goa and the  Sheraton Chandigarh. The hoteliers apparently pledged the Park Hyatt Goa property, one of their oldest hotels, to raise loans to build more hotels. However,…

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Trident Privilege offering 1 night free to new referral accounts

by Ajay 3 Comments

Trident Privilege is the loyalty program for the Trident Hotels chain, the business hotels label of the Oberoi Group. You earn points for every stay at the hotel, starting from 10 Points per INR 100 spent at the Red tier, going up to the Platinum tier where you get 12 points per INR 100 spent. You can redeem points for stays, dining and spa. You can also redeem for stays at the Oberoi Resorts. The following Trident hotels participate at the moment: Trident, Agra Trident, Nariman Point, Mumbai Trident, Bhubaneswar Trident, Chennai Trident, Cochin Trident, Gurgaon (Delhi NCR) Trident, Hyderabad Trident, Jaipur Trident, Udaipur Trident, Bandra Kurla, Mumbai To increase its member base, Trident Privilege has been offering a referral…

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Jet Airways offering 2x-3x miles between Delhi and Goa/Hyderabad

by Ajay 2 Comments

One of the strategies Jet Airways used to protect its market on the Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Delhi-Ahmedabad sectors, which were launch sectors for Vistara, was to offer 2x base miles on these sectors in Economy, and 3x base miles in Business Class. This promotion comes to an end on March 31, 2015. A few days ago, Vistara announced their flights to Goa and Hyderabad. At that time, I wondered when would Jet Airways be reacting by announcing more miles on these segments, and they did do this yesterday, however, they made me wait for over a month! Anyhow, just last evening I got word that JetPrivilege will be offering bonus miles for travel from 18 March 2015 to 31 May…

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SPG Gold with a single stay for APAC members

by Ajay 57 Comments

One of the easiest way to get Starwood’s Gold status, is to have an address in the Asia Pacific, hold a MasterCard World or MasterCard World Elite, and make just one eligible stay. You of course, need to register here, before you get started with the process.   Starwood’s SPG Gold status confers on you the following benefits: 4pm late checkout Complimentary welcome gift 50% more Starpoints Room upgrades at check-in when available I don’t count on it much since Starwood’s benefit recognition for elites varies significantly, but the one consistent bit is the 50% extra starpoints you earn as a Gold member. This is an offer that has gone on for a few years now and I posted about…

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Etihad offering 3x miles in Biz/First and 2x miles in Economy

by Ajay 4 Comments

A few days ago I wrote about some must sign-up for offers with Etihad Airways, including one to just sign up for a new account. Time to add one more to the list, if you are able to book any tickets on Etihad by March 22, 2015. Etihad Airways is offering an opportunity to earn triple miles if you are flying a premium cabin, and double miles if you are flying economy with them by May 31, 2015. You need to register here, and then book here. The registration needs to be done prior to making a reservation, so don’t miss out on that step. I love the Etihad products, and their new planes are even more exciting. Join over…

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Bonus 5,000 JPMiles for first hotel reservation with RocketMiles

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RocketMiles is a hotel booking website, which provides customers the opportunity to earn airmiles for bookings made via their website, in place of straight out discounts. They have partnerships with many an airline partners, including JetPrivilege in India. Now, for the next 2.5 months (till May 31, 2015) , they are offering the holders of Jet Airways’ JetPrivilege co-branded credit cards an opportunity to earn at least 5,000 JPMiles for their first booking with RocketMiles. Basically, you need to book yourself a hotel stay using RocketMiles and it could be as short as 1 night. You need to use your JP co-branded cards from Amex, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank or ICICI Bank. You earn up to 5,000 JPMiles per night…

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An easy 1000 HHonors Points to change your password

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One of the easiest way to earn points is to do nothing, which is almost true in the current case. Hilton HHonors has been revamping their security procedures for the website. Earlier, they used to allow a 4 digit passcode, which could be used in combination with your username or membership number. However, with recent security breaches, they are moving to a system where you can choose a new password. To be able to earn these 1000 HHonors points, you need to have an existing HHonors account as of March 12, 2015 and you can earn these points if you change your password by March 25, 2015. To change the password, log into your HHNonors account and navigate into the…

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Etihad Guest redemptions at 25% off

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While we discuss Etihad Guest in the context of the ability to redeem Etihad Guest miles for Jet Airways tickets all the time, Etihad is running its own award fare sale between March 13 to March 20, 2015, for redemption on Etihad flights to and from Abu Dhabi to the following destinations: Brussels (BRU) Kolkata (CCU) Paris (CDG) Chengdu (CTU) Dallas (DFW) Moscow (DME) Dublin (DUB) Dusseldorf (DUS) Yerevan (EVN) Frankfurt (FRA) Geneva (GVA) Washington – Dulles (IAD) Jaipur (JAI) Karachi (KHI) Kuala Lumpur (KUL) Los Angeles (LAX) Cyprus (LCA) Lagos (LOS) Madrid (MAD) Manchester (MAN) Melbourne (MEL) Munich (MUC) Milan (MXP) Nairobi (NBO) Toyko (NRT) Perth (PER) Seychelles (SEZ) San Francisco (SFO) Zurich (ZRH) There are two Indian airports…

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The Novice Perspective: Airline loyalty pays off

by Ajay 3 Comments

Shipra is my fiancée and the first of contributors at the blog. She has worked with one of the largest airline conglomerates in the world, and is now based in Mumbai. Shipra has lived, worked and travelled across 4 continents. We travel often enough, together and separately. These are her perspectives, as she gets used to the world of business and leisure travel and our hobby! The Novice Perspective: Initiating my Fiancée to Points & Miles The Novice Perspective: Getting used to Airport Lounges The Novice Perspective: Benefiting from hotel loyalty programs The Novice Perspective: Maximising hotel promotions is a fun game! The Novice Perspective: Choosing credit cards to fuel the travel passion Like many, for a long time the…

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Starwood postpones India property opening, leaves me in the lurch

by Ajay 3 Comments

One of the anticipated hotel launches for the year for me is the Le Meridien Mahabaleshwar Resort & Spa. This is a resort that has been in the making forever, and I was very excited when they decided to open up March 1, 2015. Eager to check it out earlier than everyone else, I went ahead and made reservations for the coming weekend, except, the property has not opened doors yet. I got an email from the sales team of the hotel, a month ago informing me about the fact that the hotel is not opening. No remorse, nothing except an apology. As if, I am supposed to take it as fait accompli that the hotel decided not to open…

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The Novice Perspective: Choosing credit cards to fuel the travel passion

by Ajay 1 Comment

Shipra is my fiancée and the first of contributors at the blog. She has worked with one of the largest airline conglomerates in the world, and is now based in Mumbai. Shipra has lived, worked and travelled across 4 continents. We travel often enough, together and separately. These are her perspectives, as she gets used to the world of business and leisure travel and our hobby! The Novice Perspective: Initiating my Fiancée to Points & Miles The Novice Perspective: Getting used to Airport Lounges The Novice Perspective: Benefiting from hotel loyalty programs The Novice Perspective: Maximising hotel promotions is a fun game! If some asked me this question a year ago, “When choosing a credit card, how would you decide…

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