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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Indigo gets on Twitter

Indigo, India’s largest airline by marketshare, has been Social Media shy for a long time. In the past, they had no presence on Facebook or Twitter, however all that is changing. Indigo launched their Facebook page in 2011, and has grown to 222K fans/likes over the past two years. And just an hour back, they launched their Twitter account. In the past, their Twitter interactions were being unofficially handled by their PR agency, however, this is the official Twitter account. If you wish to follow them, they are on @indigo6E. (courtesy Indigo Airlines) Lets hope they keep their cool quotient up on Twitter too. Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.

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Jet Airways activation bonuses posting

A while back I had mentioned that Jet Airways had sent some members emails that they would be getting 3x miles if they flew Jet Airways or JetKonnect again in the near future. Members receiving the promotion were preregistered in the promotion, and the miles were going to credit automatically. This set of people who were sent the emails were those who hadn’t travelled with Jet Airways in a while. I wasn’t aware my brother on that list, they sure did put him on that list. And the activation miles posted along with the flight miles for the said flight. So, in case you flew a Jet Airways flight recently, after a long while, say 12 months or so, you…

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JetPrivilege offering 2,500 miles for new accounts

JetPrivilege conducts membership drives from time to time to enrol new members, and this is one more of those, where a new member would get 2,500 miles to enrol with the JetPrivilege program. While the duration of the promotion is unspecified, only new members should enrol using this link, because existing accounts won’t get any bonus miles to enrol again, and opening a new account is useless for you since you’re allowed only one JP account under the terms of the program. Mileage credits are usually instantaneous, or within a few hours. So, if you intend to be crediting miles to JetPrivilege for flights on Jet Airways or other partner carriers, this may be a good deal to get started.…

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Go Air joins in on the Jet Airways sale

Last Saturday, Jet Airways put out a large number of seats on sale, which can be booked for travel upto 331 days out. It turns out, GoAir has also joined in the sale. GoAir is selling tickets from Rs. 1,675 onwards till August 9, 2013, for the following travel period: August 9, 2013 to October 10, 2013 January 13,2014 to March 29, 2014 Although the stated dates are these, I also was able to spot some other dates which have the stated fares. So, if you have some travel in mind, this might just be a good time booking up. Related Posts: Jet Airways sale: 7,00,000 domestic seats on sale till August 9, 2013 Live From A Lounge is present…

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Using Air India Flying Returns to get 10 Kgs extra baggage allowance free

I truly think that Air India Flying Returns is not a great loyalty program and I’ve said it before. However, in the wake of Air India, Jet Airways, Go Air and Indigo dropping their free baggage allowance to 15 Kgs, it seems to have become an inconvenience to some travellers who still feel the need for more baggage allowance. Baggage allowance seems to be going at Rs. 250 (~$4) per Kg above the allowance, and it pinches pockets to pay. SpiceJet is the only Indian carrier offering 20 Kgs at the time of writing this. Anyhow, there is a simple trick for the heavy travellers who choose to book with Air India. Most airlines with a loyalty program offer their…

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Are travel magazines in the business of only giving a good judgement?

I have to admit, I’ve almost collected all the editions of the Lonely Planet Magazine and the Conde Nast Traveller since they launched their India editions. However, I don’t read them much. This past month was a reminder why. While I’m still to write a full review of my visit to the Hilton Shillim, if you read this post, you’d know I had a troubled stay there. I was one of the first guests to make a reservation there, back in February 2013, when they were only a month old after opening. I know new hotels have problems, and so I made a reservation for July, hoping all the issues would have gone away by then. That was a blind…

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Jet Airways sale: 7,00,000 domestic seats on sale till August 9, 2013

Yesterday, early morning, I heard that Jet Airways fares were at least 15% lower than the usual, and I wanted to kick myself in the backside for booking some tickets a few days earlier for the exact date on which the travel was to start. I couldn’t cancel those tickets and rebook without a penalty, and that wasn’t a pretty sight. Anyhow, rant over, turns out later in the day, Jet Airways was loading those fares for a sale they have been holding since yesterday (3 August, 2013) to 9 August, 2013. For this duration, Jet Airways is offering 7,00,000 seats on sale, with at least a 7 day advance purchase, as per the following slabs: Note that this is…

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SPG offering a chance to get VIP hospitality at Indian Grand Prix

I know a lot of readers share my love for Formula 1 as well. SPG has been associated with F1™ as a sponsor of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 team, and every year they try and bring a sweepstakes to a new race. Last year it was the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This year it is the Indian Grand Prix, being held near Delhi between October 25-27, 2013. The winning SPG member’s experience will include: VIP Hospitality for two Two business-class return tickets Two-night stay for two at a Starwood hotel in Delhi, with complimentary breakfast Transfers between the race circuit and your hotel A very sweet prize I say, with a lot of value ($10,000 as per SPG).…

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SPG offering Instant Gold [targeted]

For all my travels, I am not to be seen at SPG properties too often. I did stay with them enough in 2011 to be Gold all of last year (2012), but I was back to being base level this year. But Starwood thinks I am on-track to getting Gold Status this year, so they sent in a mailer this AM, with a targeted upgrade to Instant Gold, all the way to February 2015. Here is the link to the promotion, as embedded in that email. But since it was targeted, there may be different outputs for you, or none at all. Frequent Flyer Bonuses reports that he got a promotion for a 1 night free on 1 stay. There…

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Avianca LifeMiles offering a 100% bonus on buy miles promotion

Avianca, one of the latest airlines to join the Star Alliance, is offering a 100% bonus on buying miles for miles bought through August 30, 2013. They last offered a similar promotion in April. If you choose to buy miles through this promotion, you basically get to buy miles at 3 cents per mile, for up to 75,000 miles. What you get eventually is 2x of the miles @ 1.5 cents per mile. Why is this program turning out to be important, and mentioned on a India-focused frequent flyer blog? Hey, they have a reasonable award chart for flights in the premium cabins. An India to USA roundtrip in business class on Star Alliance costs 130,000 miles plus some taxes.…

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Citibank PremierMiles launches 50% more miles promotion

Citibank’s PremierMiles travel credit card just launched a new promotion offering 50% more miles on all spends between August 1 and September 30, 2013. This means, for airline ticket bookings, you could earn 15 PremierMiles/ Rs. 100, and 6 PremierMiles/Rs. 100 for all other spends. Your bonus PremierMiles, which will be credited after the close of the campaign, are capped at 25,000 PremierMiles per card registered, which technically means, up to Rs. 12,50,000 in regular spend or Rs. 5,00,000 in Airline spend. The promotion requires registration before August 31, 2013, and you can use this link to register for the promotion. You could register any day between today and 31 August 2013, and will receive bonus PremierMiles for your entire…

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