Yesterday, I wrote about how disappointed I was with the Air India frequent flyer program. It did not stop there. I went about doing some digging into the whole affair. Air India has outsourced the entire management of their frequent flyer program to a South African loyalty management company called LoyaltyPlus, to the extent that the program is hosted on external servers and not Air India’s own. Now, I assume here that a loyalty solutions company helps draw up a program and run the program and would be very involved with the on-going affairs at Flying Returns. So, I decided to have a look at their roster of clients, and it turned out that I could not find one top-notch…
About Ajay
A Grand Giveaway of free AwardWallet Accounts
Literally! A frequent question asked always is how to keep track of your multiple accounts which one has over multiple frequent flyer and loyalty programs. There are tonnes of options out there, but I usually go with AwardWallet, which is perhaps one of the best products out there. I first flirted with MileageManager for a year, paying the $15 fee, but updates were not as dynamic as I expected and not all the programs I worked with or was a part of, were included. I then discovered AwardWallet after this, which is quite the king of the miles & points tracking websites for me. Some of the top reasons for using it: It allows me to track the mileage balance…
Is Air India Flying Returns the most miser frequent flying program?
Last year, I spent some time investigating the Air India frequent flyer program “Flying Returns”. At that point of time, I kind of started to appreciate the program a bit, because they finally had some structure to it, and they have much better availability over other Indian airlines. Earlier, the tier hurdles were not clear and no one had a clue as to who got their top tier and who did not. Seemed like in the process of getting ready for Star Alliance membership, they came up with a process because they needed to. However, this post on FlyerTalk seems to have raised a few valid pointers about how the program still sucks, and in my own personal experience, that…
PremierMiles adds GoIbibo.com as earn/burn partner
Citibank PremierMiles has been working quietly behind the scenes on getting the product to be competitive. They frequently add earn & burn partners who offer 10 PremierMiles per Rs. 100, instead of the normal 4 PremierMiles per Rs. 100 that all non-airline transactions earn. As a part of this, the newest 10 PremierMiles / Rs. 100 to be added is GoIbibo.com, an online travel agent which has signed up to be giving away 10 PremierMiles for every Rs. 100 spent on their website towards airline bookings, hotel bookings, bus tickets & hotel packages. As a part of this tie-up, all reservations made via GoIbibo will automatically be credited with 10 Citi PremierMiles in the same billing cycle. However, the promotion…
Review: Jet Airways Lounge, Brussels
Introduction Check-in: Clipper Lounge, Terminal 2, Mumbai Airborne: Flight 9W228 (BOM-BRU), Jet Airways, Premiere (A332) Hotel Manhattan, Rotterdam Hotel Sheraton Brussels Airport, Brussels Check-in: Jet Airways Lounge, Brussels Airborne: Flight 9W227 (BRU-BOM), Jet Airways, Premiere (A333) Like I mentioned in the earlier post of this trip-report, I was intending to rush it in the morning to beat the long queues that tend to form up at the Brussels airport counters of Jet Airways. Even as an elite, you can be waiting for a while because all the counters would be full. Having made it early, I walked up to a bank of empty Jet Airways counters, which was the first time in years I’d seen it like this. I walked…
Bye Bye Air Mantra?
Air Mantra, a regional carrier in India, which was launched last July using Beechcraft airplanes, seems to have ‘suspended’ bookings and not operating their flights. I was, a few days back, thinking of taking a joyride on one of their planes, and hopped on to their website to check fares. The fare search did not turn up anything, so I thought it was an annoying website or just an annoying Internet connection and moved on. However, today the press reports, Religare group-promoted Air Mantra has suspended operations and stopped taking bookings, citing technical reasons. I tried again, and the website still did not show any tricks to help make a reservation. On checking the flight operation details for yesterday, it…
Air India advised to axe in-flight meals
Another zillionth committee was set up by the Government of India to see how costs could be controlled in its pet loss-making project Air India. And predictably, they have come back with the same recommendations which are the low-hanging fruits for any airline to save costs, Unbundle. Something that competitor Jet Airways has made noises for a long time about but hasn’t gone ahead with so far. According to the press, Air India will likely have to follow the Low Cost Carrier model, without having to shed its full-service tag to survive. Obviously, the first suggestion, right there on the top, is to axe in-flight meals. It has been recommended that only tea, coffee, cold drinks, peanuts and biscuits be…
Review: Hotel Sheraton Brussels Airport
Introduction Check-in: Clipper Lounge, Terminal 2, Mumbai Airborne: Flight 9W228 (BOM-BRU), Jet Airways, Premiere (A332) Hotel Manhattan, Rotterdam Hotel Sheraton Brussels Airport, Brussels Check-in: Jet Airways Lounge, Brussels Airborne: Flight 9W227 (BRU-BOM), Jet Airways, Premiere (A333) After my few days in Rotterdam, I headed back to Brussels on the train network. Luckily, I was only making one stop transfer this time around, and made it to Antwerp with 20 minutes to spare before I was going to get to my train to the Brussels National airport. This was good enough time to catch a helping of Fritters, which is something I make it a point to have when transiting via BRU and staying overnight. There are various hotel options…
Is this how flight dreams break on a middle seat?
Sigh, and sorry for the cheesy title if it looked like one. I’m resurfacing from about 40 hours of hibernation now that I am in Delhi and I landed here for being with family over the long weekend. I was flying in the afternoon, since I needed to be in Delhi by the evening, and I had run a quick day at work, because I needed to firm up some things at office rather than work from home. Missed lunch in the hullabaloo that ensued, and arrived at the airport early. Still, my time management sucked, since I wanted to try out two new lounges at the Mumbai Airport for you guys, and I only had time for one now.…
A visit inside the relics of Air India
The last I checked, I hadn’t visited an airline office in years, unless you’d count hangar visits and training facilities into the list. The internet and telephone pretty much does it for me. My last visit to an airline office was in 2008 if my memory serves me right, and this was to an Air India ticketing office in Mumbai, because they couldn’t issue my tickets to Singapore online for some reason. And then, it happened again, a visit to the same Air India office yesterday afternoon. It was not like I wanted to go or something, I’d rather have been punching away emails or making work phone calls or doing something productive. However, I was in the neighbourhood for…
ICICI Bank withdraws Kingfisher Airlines co-branded credit cards
This has been long coming actually. Back in January 2013, American Express withdrew their co-branded card partnership with Kingfisher Airlines. It seems ICICI Bank followed closely after but in a not so public manner, and has now announced the plan of action to discontinue their partnership with Kingfisher Airlines, due to discontinuation of the said airlines’ services. As per their announcement: We wish to inform you that the ICICI Bank and Kingfisher Airlines co-brand Credit Card program has been discontinued due to discontinuation of Kingfisher Airlines services. As a result, the ICICI Bank Kingfisher Airlines Credit Card will be valid till March 31, 2013. For your convenience, an ICICI Bank Platinum MasterCard Credit Card will be issued to you in…
