Jet Airways is upping the redemption game which they started a few years back, offering a 50% off on mileage redemption tickets across India for this quarter as of today. For the past two years, Jet Airways offered a 20% off on mileage redemptions, if booked online, something they discontinued in April 2014. Now, for travel between July 7, 2014 to September 30, 2014, they are offering a 50% off for redemptions across their domestic sectors in economy and Premiere class if you choose to make the redemption online. The promotion is valid for JP redemption bookings made between July 07, 2014 to July 21, 2014, only if you issue your tickets using the online redemption engine on www.jetairways.com. So,…
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India to provide electronic visa clearance to 40 countries by December 2014
Earlier this year, I wrote about the planning to offer electronic visa clearances to travel to India for passport holders of almost all the countries. Now, the initial plans talked about implementing it in October 2014. However, the government changed about 45 days ago, and it is a respite that this new plan is still on, and implementation details are beginning to roll out in a phase-wise manner. In the first half of this week, it was decided that by December 2014, at least 40 countries will receive their electronic visas/ travel clearance. While the list of countries has still not been decided, you could expect the regular suspects to be all there, such as USA, UK, Netherlands, Germany, France,…
Jet Airways offering Double Miles on Delhi–North America routes in Business Class
Jet Airways is offering double miles on the business class (Premiere) fares they are offering for flights from Delhi to their two stations in North America, which are Newark (EWR) and Toronto (YYZ) between July 1, 2014 and September 30, 2014. Now, this is clearly done for increasing business class traffic on North American routes, where I am guessing they are facing competition from Middle East and European carriers. For travelling in Premiere, you would get JP miles credited as per the direct routing for DEL-YYZ-DEL, which is 7244 flown miles as compared to DEL-BRU-YYZ and back which is 7750 flown miles. On top of this you get a bonus of 7244 miles as double miles bonus, and 3622 miles…
Air India confirms benefits for elite members on joining Star Alliance
Air India has been working to get ready for the Star Alliance, and one of the common question I have been asked over the past few days was about the benefits that members will be able to get as Star Alliance elites. I had made a post last week about my expectation on what will be the benefits for AI flyers on joining the Star Alliance. One of the remarks was on the expected outcome of status equalisation with Star Alliance tiers. Here was what I wrote: Air India elites will now be Star Alliance Elites: Air India has 4 membership levels: Base, Silver, Gold and Platinum called Member, Silver Edge, Golden Edge and Maharajah Club. You cannot earn elite…
Air India set to fly to Moscow from July 18, 2014
Air India is on a roll these days expanding its international network, on the back of the 787s that are coming into their fleet. And I like it, purely because they are an international airline and need to be connecting to various countries to be able to be called on. Yes, they are losing money, but if they have a fighting chance to try their way back into being the preferred airline for Indians, they had to go international. After moving many of their loss-making routes to the 787s, they are now focussing on starting new ones. They recently launched flights to Italy, and are now going to launch flights to Russia again. This route was served long time ago,…
How will the Indian flyer benefit with Air India joining Star Alliance
Earlier this week, I put out the news about the official joining date for Air India to come into Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance. July 11, 2014 would be the day when they become the 27th airline to join the alliance. Readers have asked me over email and comments about the details of how is this going to impact their travels, and I thought it would be a good idea to make a post on how things will be different with Air India here on. While details are sketchy, I’m sure we will have more details soon. More destinations and choices: When an alliance comes into the picture, all the airlines codeshare with each other to be able to…
New Mumbai Terminal 2 Lounge coming in August 2014?
Late last week I was on my way to London Heathrow from Mumbai, and I stepped into the Mumbai Airport’s temporary lounge for a brief moment. The current lounge, like you know, is made at a gate, while they do up the details on the separate First & Business Class lounges at BOM. I ran into someone who I have seen at the host position before, and I enquired when is the new First and Business class lounge due to open. For the first time, I have heard a timeline, of August 2014 when the new set of lounges would be operational. While given the track record of the airport operator, I can be sure August 2014 is not it,…
Air India to join Star Alliance on July 11, 2014
My question seems to have been answered. Via the Mint newspaper, it seems like the CEO board of Star Alliance finally voted to receive Air India in their network, and Air India will be joining the network formally about 20 days from now: State-owned Air India Ltd will join the Star Alliance grouping on 11 July … The person cited above said the airline will join the alliance on 11 July and one of Air India’s Airbus A320 will be painted in Star Alliance colours for the event. As per the Wandering Aramean, Air India has begin to show up on the Star Alliance internal websites as well, and you can check out this information at www.starallianceemployees.com. There is a…
Air India to be finally a part of Star Alliance soon?
I guess there is not much suspense left in this one, but I am still not saying it is done till it is done. If you remember, one of the earliest posts on this blog was about Air India being jilted from the Star Alliance. Now, their is much begging, pleasing and a lot of backroom action that has happened in line up to today’s meeting of the CEO board of Star Alliance, where Air India’s membership for the Star Alliance will be voted upon the second time in seven years. Word is expected later this evening about the outcome. Air India joining the Star Alliance not just gives Star Alliance members access to facilities and flights of Air India…
Planning the Perfect Proposal Trip to Paris!
If you haven’t heard, last week, I was over to Paris along with my girlfriend where I proposed. Don’t worry, unlike Tom Cruise, this was not covered by network news, it was only on my blog and Facebook page. Since I am pretty much kicked about this trip, I am taking the liberty to cover this trip report ahead of some of the others I would have done, and bring up some hopefully interesting reviews and experiences for you around Paris. To kick it off, let me admit, if you can keep your lips sealed, planning a surprise trip can be a lot of fun for both sides. For me, it was essential to map out all the little details,…
SpiceJet and Indigo 40% off sale fares till June 19
I’m trying to keep up with these fare sales but they don’t seem to stop! I think the Indian leisure flyer hasn’t had it as good in a few years now, with continuous sales on offer by various airlines, however, these sales are causing a lot of pain to airlines such as SpiceJet of course. SpiceJet started off by offering a sale fare yesterday morning, which will be available till June 19, 2014 and has some attractive offers. For instance, the Mumbai Delhi sector which usually sells at INR 5000+ is on offer at INR 2999 all inclusive. You can ticket these sale fares between 17 and 19 June 2014 and travel between 19 July and 30 September 2014. Of…
