About 4-5 weeks ago, American Express implemented some changes on their Jet Airways American Express co-branded card. While they marginally reduced mileage-earning, like they do almost every now and then, they did add some new benefits for card holders. Firstly, they added lounge access in some cities where there was none. You can check the details in my earlier post here. Gold Tier Membership for Trident Privilege One of the other changes was going to be the addition of Gold Tier Membership for the Trident Privilege program, along with two upgrade certificates. Now, I don’t really stay at Trident hotels around India, but since they are offering a benefit, I’d love to pick it up for the rare day when…
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Buy LifeMiles with 125% bonus only on December 1, 2014
Update: As of December 2, 2014, it is still possible to buy these miles with a bonus of 125% Lifemiles is the frequent flyer program of Avianca, and one of the Star Alliance programs which allows you to make some reasonable award bookings. They are currently holding one of their sales where you can buy miles @ USD 33/1000 Miles, and they give you 2000 miles for the price, all the way up to 75000 miles purchase. While I don’t write about all the Avianca mileage sales so often, here is an old post which makes you aware of why it is an important program for people who love their mileage tickets. I’ve previously purchased miles with their buy1-get1-free promotions…
Only today: Club Carlson 20,000 points for $70
Club Carlson is offering a 24 hour promotion on the occassion of CyberMonday in the USA, where members can purchase Club Carlson points for 0.35 cents per point instead of the usual 0.70 cents per point. This promotion is only valid for the purchase up to 10,000 Club Carlson points, which usually cost $70, and you get a bonus of a matching number of Club Carlson points up to 10,000 points credited to your account. Why does it make sense for my Indian readers to buy these points? Because there are about 50-70 Club Carlson hotels in India, and these are located across the country. Sometimes, it can make sense to use points over cash to stay at one of…
oneworld enhances benefits for Sapphire & Emerald tier travellers
One of the benefits of travelling with an airline which is the member of an alliance is the fact that your benefits as an elite member span across airlines. Till so far, as a oneworld Sapphire member, you had access to the following benefits: Now, priority handling of baggage was not a guaranteed benefit for oneworld Emeralds, but most carriers would offer it anyways to Emeralds. With effect from December 1, 2014, this changes as a notified benefit to be offered to Emeralds as well as Sapphire members: Most oneworld member airlines already aim to deliver as a priority checked baggage for their own top-level frequent flyers, along with other passengers flying in First or Business Class. Now, this benefit…
Mumbai: INR 150 Amazon voucher for booking a cabride via Olacabs
One of the new things that Ola has taken from the Uber playbook is to help hail regular licensed cabs via their app. A few weeks ago, they started to offer the ability to hail black-yellow cabs which are licensed cabs in Mumbai, via the app. Ola has apparently seeded the market with a lot of devices with taxi drivers that help the taxi drivers get a ride via their app. Except, in this case, the ride is metered like a regular cab ride, and paid for in cash. Ola has gone about town popularising this service, and putting in a good amount of cash in the hands of drivers to make sure they accept rides via the Ola app.…
December 1: Jet Airways goes back to Full Service Carrier!
This is just a quick reminder call for all of you who travel (in)frequently around India with Jet Airways. A few months back, Jet Airways decided that the Jet Airways/Konnect/Lite branding was not really working for them, so they decided that they had to go back to being one airline, Jet Airways. The commitment from the airline’s top management was to get this done before the year 2014 ends, and they’ve beat themselves to it by implementing it a month in advance. As a customer, for you, this means the following things happen: No more 4 digit flight codes or troubles with flight codes on S2 or 9W. Everything would be a 9W xxx flight in the days ahead. Complimentary…
Air India’s system’s go down in Delhi, Y pax help themselves to Biz class seats
Earlier this week, I was in Delhi for a quick trip for a day, and I was on my way back to Mumbai yesterday. Circumstances changed and hence I wanted to be on an earlier flight than what I booked myself on (From 10 AM departure to 9 AM departure). Thank god for mileage redemptions, AI did not create a fuss and gave me a ticket on an earlier flight since they saw space there, once I arrived at the airport. However, that may have been one of the last things that their reservation system, installed by SITA, did for them. After a coffee and some breakfast, I headed to board the flight and it all looked okay. There were…
Friday Giveaway: A 2200 mAh Powerbank
I have way too much stuff to giveaway, but hardly any time to get it over to you. But lets give it another shot. Lets get you started on the lines of a hit giveaway. One of the necessities in today’s smartphone toting life is a continuous need to charge the phone. And being an iPhone user, I need it all the time. In fact, sometimes I need two to go through a day on the road. Today’s goodie going away is a brand new red-colored 2200 mAh powerbank, which i picked up during my trip to Las Vegas for the BoardingArea conference. All you need to do, is to put in a comment below before 2359 IST tonight (28…
Review: GVK Business Class Lounge Mumbai Terminal 2
Yesterday, I wrote about the inauguration of the new GVK Lounge at the Mumbai Airport Terminal 2, which came after months of anticipation. I had some work in Delhi today, so I was supposed to take an evening flight from Mumbai to Delhi to get here. The power of mileage tickets, I could just call Air India and swap the ticket from most of their A321 BOM-DEL flights (from Terminal 1) to get a seat on their B77W which flies BOM-DEL-JFK, and hence I could head to Terminal 2 to check out the new lounge. Air India provided me with an invite to the Business Class section of the lounge, located on Level 3, since I am a Flying Returns…
A Jet Airways’ crew tries to sell a business class meal to an economy passenger
Sometimes I hear travel stories that are about going above and beyond, and sometimes I also hear about the rotten apples that bring bad reputation to a brand. Here is one of the latter. Jet Airways’ is all set to go back to being a full-service carrier. For them, one important part of this as per their plan is the on-board meal experience, which is something they are not performing well on, according to me. Vishal Mehra, an aviation hobbyist, recently took a trip from Delhi to Jammu and return on JetKonnect, and he was hoping the free meals were back earlier than expected. However, the on board buy-on-board concept was still active at the date of his travel. No…
#FreeUberWeek across India: 5 Free Uber rides
Uber has been on the rise in India. Just last week, they activated a new city in their portfolio, making it 11 Indian cities in 13 months of operations here. Recently, they added the capability to pay with a digital wallet in India, and this week they are all out to promote it across the country. Here is what you need to do… Step 1: Add an UberWallet (via Paytm) to your payment account. Step 2: Add at least INR 100 in funds to your payment wallet. Step 3: Select your wallet as your payment method Between now and November 30, 6 pm IST, whenever you get a ride via the Uber app and choose to pay with Paytm, you…
