It is purely my fault that I did not take this seriously before and notify you guys. Maybe we can also blame Air India for not going to town about this sale. But, we still have time to make up for it! Air India is selling tickets anywhere around India at low-fare carrier prices uptil January 15, 2014. I was looking to book some tickets for later in the year, considering I am just about starting to plan my travel for the year, and I came across this promotion. Here is a comparison for BOM-DEL for a long-dated ticket, which I booked for Rs. 8200 on Air India for later this year and tickets are supposed to be their cheapest,…
About Ajay
Olacabs cashback of Rs. 75 per booking for 2014
A few weeks back, I had written about the opportunity to receive Rs. 75 as cashback everytime you used the taxi aggregator OlaCabs around India. At that point of time, it was valid only till till the end of 2013. However, I recently checked and there is a renewed opportunity to earn Rs. 75 as cashback everytime you make a confirmed booking for OlaCabs (Local Taxi, Local Rental or Outstation Rental), for the foreseeable future (the next 4 years actually!) You could register yourself at CashKaro.com, and then search for Ola Cabs on their website. After you have selected Ola Cabs, click through their website and go to the OlaCabs website. From here, you can make a taxi reservation just…
Mileage Earning Credit Cards in India: 2014 comparison
Last year, I managed to put together a worksheet where I wanted to be able to help you all compare the various mileage earning credit cards in India, as per your spend patterns. Since then, a lot has changed in terms of products out there in the market. Some of these included the launch of the SBI/AI credit card, and the scaling down of mileage earning on ICICI Bank Jet Airways credit cards. I’m now happy to put out version 2 of the worksheet, which you should be able to access via Google Sheets. Like always, here is a quick primer on how this works with a few simple inputs: Step 1: You’d need to select if you are Jet…
OlaCabs launches Luxury service in Mumbai, Delhi is next!
OlaCabs, the Indian cab aggregator service which has been modelled on Uber, has been out there preparing to give Uber competition in the premium sedan segment for a while. Hence, Ola Luxury was launched in Bangalore in September, right after Uber picked it up as their launch city for India. Now, while Uber is preparing to come to Mumbai, Ola has taken the battle to Uber’s camp by launching Ola Luxury in Mumbai first. Their premium fleet includes car brands like Audi, Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes and Toyota Camry at the moment, and more coming soon. In terms of pricing, OlaCabs is offering the first two kilometres for a flag down cost of Rs. 250, and then Rs. 20 per kilometre.…
Mumbai’s new Terminal 2 to go live on January 15, 2014
Mumbai is the one of the busiest airports in Asia, and lived with a constraint all along for zero space availability around the airport to be able to expand it. However, come January 15, there will be a new terminal 2 up and running, which is going to expand the capacity of the airport, to about 40 million passengers per annum, from the existing 32 million passengers capacity. Air India’s Newark-Mumbai flight will be the first to arrive at the new terminal. The airport, which will initially serve international flights, will become an integrated terminal serving domestic flights as well by the end of this year. The new terminal will have 188 check-in counters and 60 immigration counters for departing…
Get double Uber Credits for your first ride
Uber is getting up and ready around India and has launched their services in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi in 2013. Mumbai will be their next destination. Uber, being an on-demand car service, does not require prior reservation. You just flip your smartphone out of the pocket, and order an Uber Black car. The app tells you the expected waiting time, which is usually 5-10 minutes, and then you have a high-end car, typically a Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Honda or Volvo sedan picking you up. You don’t really need to pay the driver in cash, because your credit card is automatically billed for your trip. If you want to add a tip, you can just log into your Uber Account to…
SpiceJet’s Corporate Frequent Flyer offer gets you free tickets
January to March is the traditional lean season for business travel in India, and everyone comes up with ways and means to pump up travel. SpiceJet has released the details for a new promotion they have launched for companies who are enrolled with their Corporate Benefits program. Their Corporate Benefits program is where SpiceJet ties up with corporate customers and offers them: Corporate fares Volume based Incentive. Complimentary Snack on board Flexibility in cancellations and rescheduling amongst other features. Sign-up is not online, but you have to connect with a SpiceJet RM to enrol. Coming to the Corporate Frequent Flyer offer, very simply stated, they offer you the following freebies: 1 Free One Way ticket for every 6 booked &…
My chat with DeltaPoints
Recently, DeltaPoints interviewed me for his Fireside Chat series. Here is an excerpt on Hotels in India: India has some great hotel chains of its own, such as the Taj and the Oberoi groups, which went on to build hotels across the world after building luxury properties around India. Also, Aman is owned by an Indian company at the moment. The chains have realized that they need to step up their presence in India, and are now starting to work on expanding presence here for the past few years. I see announcements of 30 or 50 new properties by next 3 years by Starwood, Hilton and others in India every now and then. So, over a period of time chains…
ICICI & Citibank PremierMiles mileage earning changes for 2014
I wanted to put out this post so that I could remind all of you of certain changes that are supposed to kick in as of January 1, 2014 for Citibank PremierMiles and ICICI Bank Jet Airways credit cards. Citibank PremierMiles had waived off the cap of INR 5,00,000 per annum on Airline tickets spend to earn Accelerated mileage (10 PremierMiles/INR 100 spend) last June as a special promotion. However, this promotion was valid only till December 31, 2013. From January 1, 2014, any airline spend as defined below, will earn 10 PM/INR 100 spend till you reach the limit of INR 5,00,000 for the year, and then you earn 4 PM/INR 100 for airline spends on an on-going basis as…
Peeping into 2014 for the Indian skies
I’m back at my desk early this morning thinking and all excited about how 2014 would shape up for work, personal life and my travel plans. As an aviation geek, of course, I am looking forward to trying out new products in the skies and trying to decide what goals should I work towards in 2014. This year might just be a very exciting year for Indian aviation. Here is why: Air India might get accepted into the Star Alliance this year. Air India has been trying to get into the Star Alliance for a long time. After much back and forth, last month, they got invited to join the Star Alliance the second time over. Whether they will join…
It might be a good time to sign up for the LifeMiles program
As the year draws to a close, I’m trying to wind down for the next few days. But I am also taking this time to reflect on my travels this year and plan out travels for the coming year. And my advice is, if you do not have an account with Avianca’s LifeMiles program, you should get one now. Avianca is a South American airlines recent entrant to the Star Alliance, namely in June 2012, and their award chart is a very reasonable one for those who would want to fly premium cabins. Star Alliance has multiple airlines flying out of India, namely Thai, Singapore Airlines, United, Swiss, Lufthansa, Austrian, South Africa Airways, amongst others. A lot of these airlines…
