Introduction & Trip Index <EY 101 (AUH-JFK), Etihad, First AC Maples Club Lounge, LGA> After my long wait in the queues for passport control, I was kind of tired. So I asked the chauffer to drive me to the hotel and dozed off for 20-30 minutes in the car itself. On arrival, I found myself in a small little cute hotel, which was good enough to spend one full jet-lagged night before heading on for Colorado Springs. Surprisingly, while the redemption rates for this one were 25,000 IHG Club points per night, those for a Holiday Inn Express nearby were 30,000 IHG Club points per night. I did not…
About Ajay
Air India Awards to Australia now available
Air India is launching a new flight from Delhi to Melbourne & Sydney on their B787s later this month. Air India has just opened up the award availability on this segment, and like it is with Air India, there is ample award opportunities in Business as well as Economy. For dates closer to the launch, here is the availability on a random date. You see 2 seats in Economy & Business each. I went in a little further into October And then into next March I find this to be an extremely reasonable pricing for award tickets both on the economy as well as business class of the plane, considering that this would be about 12 hours of flying time.…
Spicejet introduces Flexifly: optional add-ons to your flight
Spicejet has worked up an interesting suite of optional services, labelled FlexiFly in a tie-up with Optiontown and launched them publicly a couple of days ago. For those of you who don’t know about Optiontown, it is a US-based company working in the field of travel options, i.e., helping travel providers maximise revenue, and travellers buy add-on services at a lower cost. Here are the options that have been brought in: Multiple Booking Option: Hold confirmed availability on more than one flight, and choose upto 24 hours before departure Empty Seat Option: Get a confirmed extra seat next to you, upto 24 hours before departure Preferred Flight Option: Book a different flight if your preferred flight is not available, and…
Winners of AwardWallet AAdvantage giveaway announced
Earlier this week I put out a giveaway, where new users could sign on for AwardWallet Plus for free for the first 6 months, and 8 existing users could win an upgrade. The contest is now closed, but you can still get yourself a new AwardWallet account with coupon code LiveFromALounge or using this link. I used Random.org to pick the winners out of the 52 entries submitted: And here are the winners: Here are the winners along with their entries: Congrats guys, I’ll be in touch to deliver your codes to you! Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
Airborne: 9W331 (BOM-DEL), Jet Airways, Economy Class
Jet Airways 331 Mumbai(BOM) – Delhi(DEL) Saturday, August 3, 2013Depart: 10:21 AMArrive: 12:33 PMDuration: 2hr12minDistance flown: 708 milesAircraft: Boeing 737-800Seat: 26C (Economy)Meal Service: Breakfast Last weekend, I was on a flight to Delhi, with Jet Airways, who else? For a flight scheduled to take off at 09:55 AM, I arrived at 08:00 hours to check in. My brother was booked in on the same flight but on the JetKonnect codeshare. Due to being listed for a upgrade, I was not going to be able to check into the flight online. So, in a nutshell, the both of us were at the mercy of the Jet Airways crew to get a good seat. As a Platinum, I had the option to…
AwardWallet giveaway: the AwardWallet-AAdvantage alliance
Like you must have read around the blogosphere, AwardWallet recently tied up with American Airlines’ loyalty program AAdvantage, this time in an official capacity, to be able to give their members access to AAdvantage balances. The upgraded relationship also allows you to track your SWUs with AAdvantage in Awardwallet. AwardWallet has a free version and a premium paid version. The AwardWallet Plus version costs you upwards of $5 for 6 months. Here is a summary of the differences: Now, if you haven’t had an AwardWallet account ever, you could sign up for a free 6-months usage of AwardWallet Plus with the following Coupon Code while signing up: LiveFromALounge (case-insensitive). If you have troubles signing up with the promocode, you could…
Hilton may lose 4 properties in Delhi soon, SPG one in Udaipur
As per the DNA, it seems Hilton Worldwide’s partnership with Eros Resorts & Hotels Limited in Delhi will be ending in the next couple of months. This may be a speculation at the moment, however, most of these speculations somehow have a way of coming true. It seems Hilton has not been able to deliver the promised projections in the sluggish economy of the day, and the following hotels which they operate for the Eros group may go away sometime in 2013: Eros Nehru Place (Managed by Hilton) DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel New Delhi Hilton Mayur Vihar Another Hilton, at Janakpuri in Delhi, a 5-star property, seems also to be on the way out from the Hilton portfolio, and if…
A sneak peek into the Diners Club space at the Mumbai Carnations Lounge
This past weekend, I happened to hop on to a flight from the A-gates of the Mumbai airport after a couple of months. And I was in the Carnations Lounge, which I have access to thanks to my Jet Airways status, as well as with the Priority Pass. I’ve seen this lounge shrinking over a period of time, first to accommodate the American Express Lounge which opened up for American Express Platinum members. And now, the Diners Club lounge which is open. Unlike the Amex Lounge, the Diners Club lounge is an open area and not a glass enclosure. It seems the food and drinks are going to be the same as for the regular access available to the lounge…
Participate in IHG’s Instagram sweepstakes for 1 million points
IHG has been running a sweepstakes promotion since July 15, 2013 and open till September 1, 2013 11.59 PM ET. IHG is giving away a million IHG Reward Club Points to one lucky winner of the sweepstakes, entry for which is a very simple task. All you got to do is to register on discover.ihg.com, then go on and put up pictures of IHG hotels on Instagram and tag them with #DiscoverIHG and your location. The more pictures, the more number of entries in the sweepstakes. The prizes, like I mentioned above are: 1 grand prize of 10,00,000 IHG Reward Club points 7 weekly prizes of 1,00,000 IHG Reward Club points Participation is open to members who are legal residents…
Marriott Fall’13 MegaBonus is back: Sep 15, 2013 to Jan 15, 2014
Marriott Rewards is back with their promotion again, which is the promotion they run all the time, called Marriott MegaBonus. This time, I’ve received a promotion that requires me to complete 2 revenue stays to get one free night stay certificate valid in a Cat 1-5 hotel, and I can get up to 2 free night certificates in this promotion. A stay is defined as any continuous stretch of occupancy in a hotel regardless of check-in/check-outs being processed. Above is the screenshot for my MegaBonus’13 offer. You need to register by November 15, 2013 and stay between September 15, 2013 and January 15,2014 to be able to receive the stay certificates. Others have reported to receive the following offers, and…
Why does Jet Airways staff not process upgrades?
I usually do not prefer using my upgrade certificates from Jet Airways on domestic flights, however, sometimes I do like to take it easy and get myself on the list for a two hour long flight as well. Last weekend, me and my brother were flying on them to Delhi to meet the family. And I’d called in a few days in advance to put the both of us on the upgrade list. Like is the usual, I was told, that there were no upgrade seats available at the moment, and we would be put on the upgrade waitlist for this flight. The upgrade waitlist on 9W is never to be seen by passengers, unlike the American legacy airlines who…
