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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Air Asia to sell INR 5 tickets till June 01, 2014

Air Asia is going to be starting its ticket sales for its India operations which will start between Bangalore – Goa and Bangalore – Chennai in a few days. To come out with a splash, they are selling INR 5 base fare tickets, 15000 of them. Other tickets will go away at INR 990 later. Be aware that the Bangalore – Goa route will start on June 12, while Bangalore – Chennai route will operate from June 19 onwards. Here are the schedules: BLR-GOI I51320 1510-1625 GOI-BLR I51321 1655-1805 BLR-MAA I51211 0555-0655 MAA-BLR I51212 0730-0830 BLR-MAA I51217 1835-1935 MAA-BLR I51218 2050-2150 The tickets for this promotion are valid for booking till June 1, 2014 and flying till October 25, 2014.…

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Marriott offering 1 free night on 2 paid nights in India (via Expedia)

Marriott Hotels is working with Expedia in India to offer 1 free night on 2 paid nights promotion, valid for bookings made till August 31, 2014 and stays till September 30, 2014. Under this promotion, you can choose to stay for 2 or more paid nights at a participating Marriott property in India, and you can add on a complimentary night at the end of your stay. Alternately, you can collect a complimentary voucher on check-out, which can be used for a stay at a later date, however this stay will also be at the same hotel. The following is a list of Marriott properties in India: Courtyard by Marriott Ahmedabad Bengaluru Marriott Hotel Whitefield Fairfield by Marriott Bengaluru JW…

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Air Asia India to fly Bangalore-Goa for INR 990 a.i. from June 12

Yesterday, I put in some details about the expected start of Air Asia India from June 12, 2014. Further, my prediction was that Chennai (MAA) – Bangalore (BLR) was going to be the first route for them. Turns out I was not entirely correct with that. Air Asia will be operating Bangalore (BLR) – Goa (GOI) on June 12, 2014 as its first flight at 3 PM. They have priced the tickets at INR 990 all inclusive, and plan to turn around the plane in 30 minutes. And not all tickets would be at these prices. The next route to be operated will be Bangalore (BLR) – Chennai (MAA) which will operate 2x daily frequencies. So it will be a…

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Air Asia India set to launch on June 12, 2014

Air Asia India has been a long time in the coming, and it is going to be here now in two weeks. They have been assigned the tailsign I5 by IATA for Indian operations. As per Tony Fernandes on Twitter, tickets will go on sale tomorrow (May 30, 2014) and the first flight will take place on June 12, 2014. Very very proud to announce AirAsia India open for sale tomorrow. Wow. First flight June 12th. Ser you all In India on the 12th. — Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) May 29, 2014   I’ll fill you guys in the details when I can get some more. Related Posts: Air Asia India all set to launch Air Asia is coming to India,…

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Ginger Hotels offering a free night on booking today

Ginger Hotels is the budget hotel arm of the Tata Group, the same people who run the Taj Chain of Luxury Hotels, and offers hotels across India in prominent cities and tourist destinations at very reasonable prices. I’ve stayed at their New Delhi Railway Station Yatra Niwas property and it was very good value for the price paid. Ginger Hotels is running a flash sale, where they are offering 1 night free on every reservation made, and is valid for booking till end of 29th May 2014, and stays till July 31, 2014. Under this promotion, you could book any number of nights, and the chain will comp you one night of stay. I was able to pull up quite…

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DGCA oversteps its brief, issues passenger comfort circular

The Directorate General for Civil Aviation, which is India’s aviation regulator, does not have a clue of what it can and what it can’t do. As a result, people in their office think that they can regulate anything that has the word aviation in it, or air, or something like that. They’ve tried intervening in fare sales, airline pricing and so on. However, from the “About DGCA” page on their website, updated in September 2013, their key function is listed below as: Directorate General of Civil Aviation is the regulatory body governing the safety aspects of civil aviation in India. I consider that sorted then, about the real purpose of DGCA is to take care of aviation safety and that…

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Reminder: Register for Citibank PremierMiles 2x on Foreign Spend

Beginning of this month, Citibank announced its 2x miles promotion for International Spends, which came just in time for the summer season. To be able to get 2x miles on your international spends, you do need to go over here and register for the promotion, and then all your international spends between May 1, 2014 and June 30, 2014 will be counted for awarding upto 25000 bonus PM miles. Remember, the deadline to register is May 31, 2014 and you need to receive an acknowledgement from Citibank within 7 days confirming they received your registration and everything is okay. You can read further details about the promotion in this blogpost. Here are the detailed terms & conditions. Related Post: Citi…

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Airbnb offering upto INR 4000 off to Amex India cardholders

Airbnb is a website where you can rent out lodging offered by other hosts in their homes in the form of a room, a bed or a complete apartment by itself. They have recently entered into a tie-up with American Express in India, to offer Amex’s Indian card members a discount of 50% (upto 4000 INR) for one booking per registered member. Here is how it works. You select a property on AirBnb, get your price quote in INR, then plug the coupon code which is AMEX#### (the #### are your Amex Card’s first 4 digits). This brings up the discount on your reservation and then you can go ahead and pay the rest of the amount. You can book…

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Air India offering double miles on Italy flight

I recently wrote about the launch of Air India’s flight to Milan and Rome, and how they were offering a sweet deal from anywhere in India to be able to get you over to Italy. Air India is now offering a double miles promotion on their frequent flyer program Flying Returns for those who choose to fly between India and Italy or vice versa on AI by July 31, 2014. If you will be connecting from anywhere in India, you won’t get double miles for your intra-India flight, but on your India-Italy or vice versa route you should clock double miles. AI has not updated the mileage calculator on their website yet, but Delhi-Milan should earn 3834 miles one way…

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Credit Card Review: Citibank Prestige India (2014)

A couple of months back, I’d put out some of the feelers I was hearing about Citibank Prestige being launched in India. I’m glad to report the rumours are mostly true! You see, Citibank went downhill with the Ultima, then decided to reinvent the product as the Citibank Prestige in India. Ultima will now be an invite-only card again going head to head with the American Express Centurion in India. The Citibank Prestige has been on offer since about a month now, and is looked at as a lifestyle card, however, I look at it as a great travel credit card. Lets have a look at all the features of this product. Citibank Prestige is offered as a Visa Infinite…

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Why Uber may self-decimate in Mumbai?

It is no secret that I am an Uber fan. I’ve admitted as much in the past. I’ve used their services in various parts of the world, but most of my interaction with them has been based in Mumbai and Delhi. And lets say 70% of my rides with Uber have been in Mumbai, 20-25% in Delhi and the rest elsewhere. While I can compliment Uber for running a great show in Delhi, I think they will sooner than later be self-decimating in Mumbai. Uber likes to be known as a technology company. Hence, they claim they operate the backend of a network of cars across 100 cities, where I demand a car wherever I am, and the chauffeurs who…

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