Vistara launched a new product in the Indian domestic aviation market, which is the Premium Economy cabin, and was never seen in Indian aviation before. However, initial feedback has not seen enough great reviews and the travellers have found it to be a glorified Economy Plus rather than Premium Economy. You can read my review of the inaugural flight here. To encourage more people to try out the Premium Economy offering, Vistara is now offering 2x points on Club Vistara to passengers who fly on Premium Economy between February 5, 2015 to March 5, 2015. Here is how Club Vistara earning and burning works. All Premium Economy flights across the network are eligible for the offer, and the promotional bonus…
About Ajay
Is Jet Airways doing the ‘Return of the Tamarind Candy’ all wrong?
Long long time ago, a staple fixture on all the Jet Airways’ flights was a little basket full of tamarind candies, along with cotton for ear plugs. I never could have enough of them, and that was one of the things that went away when the economy went rough, and Jet Airways had to pick things to cut off from their in-flight experience. Now, as a part of the revamp of the airline, Jet Airways brought back meal service on all flights. Some short flights you get a cold sandwich, on long flights you get a hot meal. But the candy is back, and it has been staring me in my face on almost every flight since December 2014 I’ve…
Le Meridian Mahabaleshwar puts off opening by another month
There are two resort properties I have been very interested in recently. One is the JW Marriott Mussoorie Walnut Grove Resort & Spa, which I visited the last weekend, and the other is the Le Meridien Mahabaleshwar Resort, which was due to open March 1, 2015. The reasoning is the same, these resorts are the first entries of these marquee brands in the luxury hill station resort segment in India, and I’d love to figure out how they bring a difference to the earlier experience. Anyhow, I was very excited to go to over to the new upcoming resort in the coming month, however I then received the dreaded email yesterday: You see, I had reservations there, and there is…
Back at the Lounge: February 15, 2015
Hello from Mumbai, I am just back from a lovely 2 days in Mussoorie. I hope all of you enjoyed the big cricket match at the Cricket World Cup today. Here is a recap of the posts from last week, just in case you missed something: The Novice Perspective Shipra, the first contributor to the blog, wrote this morning about how she was learning the ropes of maximising hotel loyalty programs. Jet Privilege JetPrivilege is on a roll! They just made it easier to get you elite status, without taking away anything! I wonder when is JetPrivilege announcing a counter offer to Vistara’s new flights. Air India Flying Returns Air India Flying Returns is giving away a free ticket on…
The Novice Perspective: Benefiting from hotel loyalty programs
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 Brace yourself, for this is going to be a long one. My first holiday with Ajay in Goa almost led to a break up. Ajay asked me to choose a property to book and I opted…
JW Marriott Mussoorie Walnut Grove: I am floored!
Hello folks, and happy Hallmark day to all of you. I have to admit, I am a sucker for high end resorts, but ever since Hilton left me high and dry in Shillim a year and a half ago, I was not giving them much leeway to disappoint me again. A few months ago, JW Marriott opened a resort in Mussoorie, a hill station I am sure everyone who is in India and loves to travel has been to at some time or the other in their lives. Except, this one is the first 5 Star property in this part of the world. I arrived here yesterday for a short stay. After all, I have places to go and not…
Jet Airways’ JetPrivilege program is making it easier for you to become an elite!
It is Friday evening, and that time of the day when loyalty programs roll out enhancements. But this time they are real enhancements! One of the programs under restructuring, and in final laps of restructuring perhaps is the Jet Airways loyalty program JetPrivilege. Over the past 6-8 months they have launched a lot of changes, including the ability to earn higher JP Miles for flights. Coming to today’s changes, JetPrivilege is making some solid enhancements in my view. Until now, to qualify for a tier upgrade, you either could earn it by doing segments (earn tier points) or by miles. In terms of tier points, you had a very flat structure in terms of earning, you got 1 tier point…
SpiceJet ‘Cheaper than train fares’ flight tickets INR 599 onwards
File this under the steal deal section or make good use of it. SpiceJet, the airline which started the concept of aggressive sales in India last year, is back with another sale which looks great. This is their third sale this year (2015), and is valid for flights between July 2015 to October 2015. Named the ‘Cheaper than train fares’ sale, the sale is on till 13 February 2015, for flights between July 1, 2015 to October 24, 2015 across SpiceJet’s domestic and international network. The flights are non-changeable, non-refundable so you can either take them or don’t bother cancelling them, except if huge taxes are involved. Domestic fares start at INR 599 while international fares to SpiceJet’s limited international…
Air India passenger opens the door of the flight!
Err, ehm! I’ve kept quiet on all this business of passengers opening doors of flights. However, this time, it was one of our own, at Air India which had to face the consequences. As per the news, Air India’s Moscow flight was ready to take off to New Delhi, when they had a passenger seated in 14A open the door of the plane. Here is why: The incident took place minutes before the scheduled 8.30am (Moscow time) departure of AI’s Moscow-Delhi flight. A passenger, seated on 14A, had returned from one of the washrooms and was on his way to his seat. “I was about to take my seat when I heard a staffer knocking on the window asking to…
Air India giving away free tickets on various spends
Air India has launched a new promotion yesterday, called My Dream Destination. Under this promotion, when you make cumulative domestic spends on Air India for various amounts over a period of 3 months (February 9, 2015 to May 9, 2015), you will be eligible for free Economy Class tickets on the Air India domestic and international network. Here is how the free ticket offer works: Bill tickets worth INR 75,000 – INR 100,000: INR 75,000 spend earns you a free economy ticket one way on Air India’s domestic network/regional network including Singapore, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dubai & Muscat. For INR 100,000 spend you get a free return economy ticket. Bill tickets worth INR 200,000: You get a free economy return ticket…
When is JetPrivilege announcing bonus miles on Delhi-Hyderabad and Delhi-Goa then?
One of the tools in Jet Airways’ armour against upstart airline Vistara is a well-established loyalty program JetPrivilege. Jet Airways is offering 2x base miles for economy cabin and 3x base miles for business cabin flights on BOM-DEL-BOM, BOM-AMD-BOM and DEL-AMD-DEL segments, the 3 routes that Vistara is flying at the moment. Now, Vistara has started to accept reservations between Delhi-Goa-Delhi and Delhi-Hyderabad-Delhi for flights starting later this month. The question then is, will Jet Airways counter these routes with a promotion as well, or not? Interesting to me because Jet does not operate direct flights between Delhi and Goa anyways. Join over 4000 people who check-in daily to find out about the best in travel.Free emails (once-a-day) | RSS…
