Spicejet has been in the middle of a storm recently. The airline has been trying to restructure itself by trimming operations, but has a huge backlog of tickets it has sold over the year and multiple sales (called as Market Stimulation Efforts). Hence, there has been a spate of cancellations over the past month or so, and I wrote a post the other day summarising the list of cancellations being made by Spicejet till December 2014. However, Spicejet has now come out with an official list of its own, where it summarises all the cancellations for the current date and up to the month end of December 2014. As much as it is unfortunate, if your flight is on this…
About Ajay
#avgeeks, watch 5 Airbus 350s flying in formation
A friend sent me a couple of video links last night and I’ve been watching in awe on loop ever since. The first video is of the planning and execution of a formation flight of 5 Airbus 350 planes, which was done about two months back. The video is the back-end story of how they went about planning the flight and the various maneuvers that went about it. Have a look: The second one is the final product, which looks awesome, with Airbus 350s flying around in Arrow, Echelon and Diamond formations. Quite frankly, I always thought only military planes would have display formations, but this is awesome to see it with regular airplanes as well. Enjoy the view! Join over…
Jet Airways’ First & Business pax can now book meals on international flights
One of the recent enhancements that Jet Airways has rolled out, albeit quietly, is the ability to book your meals ahead of the flight. With effect from December 1, 2014, passengers who fly their First or Business class cabins on international flights will be able to pre-order a meal ahead of the flight, between 60 days to 48 hours prior to departure. You can choose to book a meal when you are booking your ticket online, or using the manage your booking section on the flight. The choices work surprisingly smoothly. To take the feature for a test drive, I pulled up a reservation for later months, and here is what I saw… I further poked the Select Meal…
Air Canada to launch non-stop flight to Delhi in 2015
Air Canada is throwing their ring in the hat for a pie of Indian aviation. With significant population of Indian origin, they are going to connect the Toronto – New Delhi route on a non-stop flight with a Boeing 787-9 as of November 2015. As per Air Canada’s announcement today, they are going to be the only airline to connect this long-haul market with a non-stop flight. The only other carriers on this route is India’s Jet Airways which operates via their Brussels hub. Unfortunately, there is no information about the timing of the flight at the moment, but this will be a three-class configuration flight, including Business, Premium Economy and Economy. The flight will be operated from November 1, 2015…
Jet Airways offering 500 bonus miles on select domestic sectors
Update: Jet Airways has updated the terms to indicate the 500 bonus JP Miles are those from booking online on Jet’s website or via their app. Jet Airways is offering some special fares on a few domestic short-haul segments for travel between December 10, 2014 to March 31, 2015. The beauty of these is that they also come with 500 bonus JP Miles, which are over and above the mileage for these segments, which makes it 1000 JP miles for short hauls (500 is the new minimum for flights on Jet’s network). You can also earn the online booking bonus miles if you book via the web. Here are the T&C: Valid for travel in Economy For travel between Ahmedabad…
Jet Airways’ Amex offering sign-on bonus of 15,000 JP Miles till Dec 20
That time of the year when American Express needs to meet its target. It has been two years since Amex has offered the co-branded card with Jet Airways, and they recently added some more lounges and some new features to this card. Earlier this year, to make the card more accessible to people, they made a special First Year fees offer of INR 5,000 (plus taxes), where they offer you 10,000 JP Miles + 1 way free ticket. However, if you now apply for the card by December 20, 2014, you should get 15,000 JP Miles as your first year bonus, apart from the 1-way ticket, which I feel is a great deal for INR 5000. I feel the cards…
Le Meridian Mahabaleshwar Resort & Spa to open on March 1, 2015
It is always interesting to see a chain open a vacation property around India, something which has started to happen recently. Apart from Goa, most international hotel chains haven’t worked on their expansion in the leisure market around India and they are catching up now. One of the properties I’ve been keenly tracking is the Le Meridian which is going to open in Mahabaleshwar, a 6-8 hour ride away from Mumbai, based in the hills. Mahabaleshwar is a sleepy town full of tourists when the strawberries are there, and a getaway from Mumbai. However, it did not have a chain property so far. Le Meridian is changing that from March 2015, when they open their gates on March 1. The…
Etihad offering 25% discount on redemption tickets
Etihad is quickly turning into one of my favourite airline and mileage program as well. Not just a great airline First Class product, they are also part owner of Jet Airways’ frequent flyer program in India, and have some great domestic redemptions on offer. Apart from that, they are partners with Citi PremierMiles and Prestige, which ensures you can get Gold Status as well as miles on tap. Of course, there are bonus offers as well off and on. And one more generous promotion just came our way. Etihad has announced that if you book your mileage tickets before December 10, 2014, for redemptions on Etihad metal, you get 25% of your mileage back into your account, after the completion…
Have you won yourself a Powerbank?
Last week, I opened a small giveaway for a PowerBank. My question was simple… what is your favourite hotel around India? There were 27 entries, and they ranged all over the place from Luxury to basic. But I did love them all. It was hard to be subjective on this one, so I went back to my crystal ball, a.k.a. Random.org for an answer… The winner is Amitjivan, who said… The Oberoi, Mumbai – Awesome location, spacious rooms with modern amenities, stunning and serene sea view, friendly & polite staff, exceedingly delicious food (be Italian or Indian) at its restaurants. Its suitable for business as well as leisure. Now, I’ve certainly never stayed at this property, but I go there…
Travel is not the cohort of the rich
While my government (of India!) continues to look at air travel as a cohort of the rich, due to which they are keeping aviation turbine fuel so highly taxed for years, I recently happened to notice a great inspiring story on the Internet about a Tea Vendor, who has been saving diligently to fulfil his travel ambitions… As per NewsMinute, which originally carried the story, a gentleman called Vijayan, based in Cochin, has been a Tea vendor for over 40 years, and he has been saving diligently an amount of INR 300 ($5) everyday for his travels. Not only has he been able to travel around India, which I believe is full of scenic places to go, he has been…
SpiceJet Cancellations Summary
Spicejet has recently been cancelling a lot of flights over the past couple of weeks, or merging flights. As per the airline, this is the result of a restructuring going on at the airline where they are returning planes or having them come back at lower leases. A lot of travel plans have gone awry as a result of these cancellations and there is no commentary on the SpiceJet website about cancellations and how to resurrect your travel plans from there. Initially, the airline promised to resurrect these flights over a week, which are over 50 in number. However, it does seem it will take longer to do so, perhaps even all of December. I happened to recently notice an…
