One good part about earning miles neutrally is the choice of transfer partners offered, and the bonuses they run sometimes. For the past two years, we have seen transfer bonuses from Etihad & British Airways on Citibank products, and Jet Airways as well, for Citibank credit cards ex-PremierMiles. Just yesterday, Citibank and Singapore Airlines have begin to offer a 20% bonus on conversion of Citibank points/miles to your Singapore KrisFlyer frequent flyer account. Now while I won’t be able to post a full review of the KrisFlyer program at this moment, but like most programs in Asia, they charge fuel surcharges, and lots of them. However, the Singapore Airlines product is usually top notch, and you get access to a…
About Ajay
Winner for the ITC Culinary Plus voucher
Earlier this week, I had put out an ITC Culinary Plus discount voucher for a giveaway. All you had to do was to tell me where would you like to dine if you received the voucher to yourself. This morning, I used Random.org to select a winner. This was Saurabh, who said: ITC Maratha, MumbaiFingers crossed to be licked! Congrats Saurabh, and there are more such giveaways coming soon, so the rest of you should look out for them! Related Post: Giveaway: Upto 50% off for your meal at an ITC Hotel on us! Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
American Express offering 30,000 JPMiles signup bonus for Jet Airways co-branded credit card
Last year, when American Express and Jet Airways launched their co-branded Jet-Airways American Express Credit Card, they offered a special sign-up bonus of 10,000 JPMiles over and above the welcome gift of 20,000 JPMiles which is the standard on-going offer. However, the sign-up bonus was only available to those who paid the INR 10,000 + taxes as first year fees, hence, I chose to pay the fee in spite of being a JetPrivilege Platinum member and eligible for the credit card free of cost. I was getting miles at INR 0.33 per JPmile, and it was hard to beat that value. On my last Jet Airways flight earlier this week, I saw flyers around the cabin talking about the special…
Giveaway: Upto 50% off for your meal at an ITC Hotel on us!
Those of you who know me a little more than the blog, also know about my love for good food, reason good enough to have been member of the ITC Hotels’ Culinary Plus program for the past year. ITC Hotels have some of the best restaurants in India, such as Bukhara, Dum Pukht & Dakshin, and I’ve received some fantastic discounts at the ITC Hotels restaurants over the past year. I am offering for a giveaway one voucher that I receive as a part of my membership kit, which will enable one reader and his entourage to be able to receive upto 50% off on a meal at an ITC Hotels Restaurant as well. Here is the discount offer, however…
Starwood offers 50% off rates in India
Starwood Hotels are offering a 50% discount for stays between 20th December 2013 and 5th January 2014 for hotels in India and Bangladesh, which you can book with the code DALY50 by 11 December 2013. The following hotels are participating in this sale: Westin The Westin Dhaka The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace The Westin Gurgaon, New Delhi The Westin Sohna Resort & Spa The Westin Mumbai Garden City The Westin Pune Koregaon Park The Westin Chennai Velachery Sheraton Sheraton Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway Sheraton New Delhi Hotel Sheraton Udaipur Palace Resort & Spa Sheraton Park Hotel & Towers, Chennai Le Meridien Le Méridien Kochi Le Méridien Pune Le Méridien Jaipur Le Royal Méridien Chennai Le Méridien Coimbatore The Luxury Collection…
Get 2 Uber rides free in India
Like I’ve mentioned in the past, Uber launched in India in the city of Bangalore in September 2013 and has started testing services in Delhi/Gurgaon in October 2013. New cities they will be offering services in the coming months will be Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai, since these cities show up on their website in hiring mode as of now. I had a good experience with Uber a couple of weeks back when I tried out their services in Delhi, when I could get myself a Toyota Camry for the drive from the Delhi Airport to my home. And then, the next day, I had a great trip back to the airport when a BMW 5 series turned up to drive…
Citibank PremierMiles adds Taj InnerCircle, IHG, Hilton HHonors, EvaAir & Malaysia Airlines as conversion partners
My favourite travel credit card, Citibank PremierMiles, has recently worked on its conversion partner list, and added quite some new partners on the list over the past few weeks. The last major addition, to the best of my memory, was in June 2012, when Avios and Delta Skymiles were brought on board as conversion partners. Later than that, Etihad Guest was added to the list. Citibank has wanted to make this card the one-stop product for travel requirements in India. Hence, they have been wanting to add hotel partners for a long time, and finally, they have added three of them in this quarter itself. The new hotel partners include: Taj InnerCircle: 10 PremierMiles = 1 TIC Point IHG Rewards…
PointsHound launches mobile bookings & offers 1,000 miles bonus
PointsHound, the hotel booking website which awards you miles to book via their service, has just launched a mobile website, and they are offering 1,000 bonus miles for making your first booking via the mobile website on a cellphone/tablet by December 2, 2013. As per PointsHound, travellers will have access to all of the online-booking features traditionally found on PointsHound.com, including international currency choices and Big Earnings and Double Up rates, in addition to exclusive mobile-enabled services. They are also launching a premium Concierge Service to expedite the arrival experience on all reservations booked on the site at more than 150,000 properties around the globe. Users can check in, check out, request preferred rooms, receive last-minute upgrade offers and even receive status…
Hyatt Hotels offering 30% off on weekend stays & dining at all Indian properties
Hyatt is celebrating 30 years of presence in India, and on this occasion, they are offering 30% off on daily rates across their Indian properties for reservations made by 14th December 2013, and stays made by 15th December 2013. To avail of this offer, you need to be a member of the Hyatt Gold Passport program, and inserting coupon code GPWK30. The promotional code is valid for arrivals on Friday & Saturday and departure on Sunday, for standard room accommodation, except for Goa properties (Park Hyatt Goa & Grand Hyatt Goa) where the discount is only valid for suites. I looked up a few properties to compare this promotional rate with the regular rate, and the difference was apparent. So,…
Etihad acquires 24% in Jet Airways and majority stake in JetPrivilege
Jet Airways has completed the induction of Etihad Airways as a 24% shareholder in the airline, following the initial announcement of this deal in April 2013. Under the deal, Jet Airways issued new shares to Etihad Airways, and the stake of the founder/promoter of the airline, Naresh Goyal, is now down to 51%. James Hogan, who is the CEO of Etihad Airways, and James Rigney, who is the CFO, have also come on the Board of Directors of Jet Airways. In a related move, JetPrivilege, the loyalty program of Jet Airways, which was spun off into a separate company last year, also got sold with 50.1% stake of the JP program now with Etihad. Like I have stated earlier, there…
My Uber experience in Delhi, and get yourself a free ride!
Last week, I decided to pop into Delhi for a little surprise for my mom, to visit her on her birthday and hopefully take her out for dinner. However, life had other plans, and my flight got delayed getting into Delhi by over 45 minutes and my cab came and went away. I thought this wasn’t a good sign, but it really was a good sign to start trying out Uber, which has launched in Delhi in test mode about 3-4 weeks back. As soon as the plane touched the gate, and it was time to get out and get rolling. I brought up the Uber app on my iPhone, and while in my conversations with people I was being…
