A few weeks ago I had posted about the imminent (re)launch of Terminal 2 at Mumbai Airport. Just as a heads up, the new terminal is all set to take international traffic coming into and leaving Mumbai airport with effect from Wednesday, the 12th of February 2014. Air India’s Singapore-Chennai-Mumbai (AI 343) will be the first flight to land at 1 p.m. at the new terminal, and Jet Airways’ Mumbai London flight (9W 118) will be the first flight to take off from the new terminal. There will be no shutdown for the transition. Here is a video of the new terminal, for those of you who are preparing to come to Mumbai’s International Airport in the coming days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bgXx3t0l0E…
About Ajay
My 2013 Indian Credit Card mileage wins
I know it is a little late in the day to put out a round up for 2013, but I thought I’d do it anyways. I did not get the time to put a post earlier than this, but all I can tell you is we are lucky to be living in times when the mileage earning game is just about getting started in this country. And I am happy to be on board earlier rather than later. For the rest of you, miles and points are not just a silly hobby, but they can finance a lifestyle if you did all the right things. For the longest time, for 10 years or so actually, India just had one major…
India to grant visa on arrivals to everyone
One of the biggest gripe I have heard about people wanting to visit India is the visa process, which has no end to it. Visa processes are usually agreed on a reciprocal basis, however, India just tossed that rule out of the window and is going to make sweeping changes to the way it processes visitor visas. In a decision taken by the Government of India, which will hopefully be implemented by October (the official timeline), India will eliminate the need for a visa altogether, and move to an electronic travel authorisation scheme, where people would log in and apply for a visa online and pay for it. On arrival in India, a biometric collection will be done (fingerprints), and…
Etihad’s 50.1% stake buy in JetPrivilege cleared
Back in 2012, I had written about JetPrivilege, the loyalty program of Jet Airways, being spun off into a separate company. Some of the biggest Mileage programs around the world are run as independent companies, and I saw this approach as no different. However, it came handy when the deal was to be made between Jet Airways and Etihad for a strategic alliance. Etihad typically uses the loyalty programs to fund a lot of money for the airline. They infused a huge amount into the TopGuest program of Air Berlin, and then they bought out a majority stake in JetPrivilege for about $150 million. When this deal was formalised, I’d hazard a guess that I must be worth $250 as…
Air India offers lounge access in Delhi for INR 500
Air India has been operating a new lounge at the Delhi Airport Terminal 3 since a few months now. While I haven’t been inside this lounge, I’ve walked by on my way to the other lounges at the Domestic wing of this terminal. It is an expansive lounge, with the looks of buffet meals, big couches and is generally empty, because most of the traffic is directed to the Plaza Premium Lounge by the credit card companies, Jet Airways and Priority Pass. However, Air India offers paid lounge access to this lounge for a small sum of INR 500 ($8) only per visit (valid for two hours), and you can also ask for a shower for another INR 200 to…
Air India to introduce Premium Economy aka European Business Class on some routes
Air India largely has deployed an Airbus 320 series fleet on domestic operations, but these come in two varieties: All Economy and Economy + Business seating. The decision to make all economy seating happened a couple of years back when Air India found itself not being able to sell premium cabins on non-metro routes to the extent it wished it could. Anyhow, they are now trying to monetise the limited opportunity that exists on some of these routes, such as Delhi – Guwahati – Imphal, with the introduction of a Premium Economy class of service on these A320 serviced routes. The strategy is similar to European carriers, who create a business class section on intra Europe routes by blocking off…
Citibank offering INR 2,500 referral for new PremierMiles Credit Cards
Citibank PremierMiles Credit Card is easily my go-to credit card, purely because of the flexibility it offers in terms of earning mileage for air travel (10 PremierMiles/ INR 100) and non-air travel related purchases (4 PremierMiles/INR 100). PremierMiles add up easily, and never expire. Not to forget, you have promotions like double miles every now and then. You can transfer them to 10 different airline or hotel loyalty programs, or use them to book tickets directly at www.premiermiles.co.in by redeeming them for INR 0.5 value per PremierMile spent. You can read my review here, from May 2012. You also get a limited number of trips to the lounge every quarter for domestic Indian Airports. Anyhow, Citibank has now taken the…
Yet another Air India 30 day sale till 6th Feb 2014
I might just decide to rename this blog to the deals site or something, with the number for fare sales that are out there these days, however, I’ll just try and keep up with the barrage flowing through. This morning, I noticed, Air India has brought out their recently running +30 days sale again, where the period of sale is between 4th February 2014 and 6th February 2014. Period of Travel is 3rd March 2014 onwards. Here are the details. While the details look sketchy here, when I pulled up some sample fares, it looked like it is a rehash of the recent 30% off sales. But the good news is, you do have some more days to book up…
100 Free Hyatt Gold Passport Points, till 15 February 2014
Hyatt Hotels is celebrating the Chinese Year of the Horse, and they are offering select participants a chance to add 100 Gold Passport points to their account on the occasion. While this is a targeted promotion, many have reported success without receiving the email about this, and the points credit pretty quickly into your account. All you got to do is to land up on the promo page, and punch in your Gold Passport number to get your 100 points credited to your account. While 100 points are not a lot, and you can’t do anything independently with them, they surely add to the pool and can be used for extending the validity of your Hyatt Gold Passport account. Related…
INR 40,000 Taj Vouchers for American Express Platinum Charge Card signup
American Express Platinum is one of the foremost cards from the privileges perspective around the globe, backed by the well-known American Express customer service. I remember when they launched the card in India about 6-7 years back, it was an invite-only product, with tonnes of privileges, but also some solid signup gifts such as Longines Watches & Membership Reward Points for signup, to justify the INR 50,000 + taxes membership fee per annum. Amex’s sole competitor in this lifestyle card space was the Citibank Ultima, which till last year, provided 50K JP Miles, 5 JP Upgrade vouchers and JetPrivilege Platinum status, however, the proposition got significantly diluted, and as a result, I personally cancelled my Citibank Ultima credit card recently…
$1450 business/first R.T. to the USA and back from Colombo
[Update: Deal now appears to be pulled] A new fare has emerged for travel from Colombo to Dallas/Fort Worth and back to Colombo, which includes Business Class on Sri Lankan/Etihad, First Class on Etihad and First Class on American Airlines, which is $1450 all inclusive. For positioning, Indians could always use a flight from Jet Airways or Sri Lankan, while other South East Asian nations should also not be hard to position. The fare is available for $1300 onwards, if you book Colombo – Abu Dhabi – Chicago – Dallas, but this would be an all business class fare. If you route yourself via Paris, you’d also get to experience the wonderful Etihad First class along the way, and get…
