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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Review: Doubletree by Hilton, Goa (Arpora)

by Ajay 6 Comments

a living room with couches and chairs

For the recently gone Independence Day long weekend, I decided that it would be a nice idea to go back to Goa during the rains. Usually, my preference is to go to South Goa and the Park Hyatt is one of my favourite resorts there. However, this time the brother and I decided to head to North Goa, since I found out that the Hilton now had a property there. This Hilton was actually an independent property, which was reflagged as the Doubletree only in 2012. Too bad, my brother could not make it at the last minute due to other commitments, however I decided to proceed with the trip regardless. After arriving on an uneventful flight from Mumbai, I…

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Review: American Express Lounge, Mumbai Airport, Terminal 1C

by Ajay 8 Comments

Just this past long weekend, I was headed out to Goa for a vacation. Usually, I am accompanied by people, so I do not end up using the American Express Lounge at Terminal 1C, but the Carnations Lounge instead. However, since I was alone, and I had access to the lounge via my Jet Airways Amex, I decided to give it a go this time around. The lounge is set inside the Carnations Lounge itself (as a separate enclosure), The same lounge also houses Jet Airways & Go Air passengers, Priority Pass, MasterCard & Visa Access, and the recent Diners Club bearing passengers. In short, it is a crowd out there and hence I’d anyday prefer to access the Amex…

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Comparing @Jetairways, @Indigo6e and @flyspicejet

by Ajay 3 Comments

I recently discussed the new presence of Indigo on Twitter, which makes it the fourth domestic airline from India to get on Twitter. The other ones, in the order of their Twitter account being established are/were: @JetAirways (2008), @FlyKingfisher (2008), @FlySpiceJet (2009) and now @Indigo6e (2013). Now, I am no social media expert, but I thought I’d share my thoughts and experiences with you on all the Indian airlines on Twitter. Twitter, in my view, is a broadcast-engagement channel for individuals and businesses now. It came a long way from being microblogging, where one put out one-liners about what they were feeling or doing. Maybe my views are colored by my great experiences with @AmericanAir and @DeltaAssist, with whom I…

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Going RTW: Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, Central Terminal, LaGuardia

by Ajay 2 Comments

Introduction & Trip Index <Holiday Inn, LGA                                        UA 343 (LGA-DEN), United, First> I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this on the blog before, but I’ve actively started to avoid early morning flights. I’ve done my fair share in the past, and maybe I’ll do more, but I try and plan around them as much as I can. However, this was one of those days when flying early morning was unavoidable, and hence I went over to LGA, groggy! After collecting my boarding pass, I walked over to the security check area. I needed a quick coffee and something to start my day,…

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Airport trips for INR 399 in Delhi/Gurgaon & Bangalore, and INR 50 credit for signup

by Ajay 4 Comments

I’ve previously written about my experiences with OlaCabs. From thereon, I’ve continued to use them because in spite of some hiccups, they are better off than the fleet cab services, who have become unreliable and do not turn up. In Delhi and Bangalore, OlaCabs has been running a promotion for a while, which allows for travel from any part of the city to the airport for a flat price of Rs. 399 only. For those of you who stay in these cities, you obviously know that airports are way out of the city, and cabs cost quite a bit. For instance, a regular non-airconditioned cab from my Delhi home to the airport costs me Rs. 550, a radiocab costs me…

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Indigo offers a 10% base fare discount to registered members

by Ajay 9 Comments

Indigo is promoting a new way to get users to register with them for effective targeting and marketing. I’ve usually been booking my Indigo tickets without logging into my Indigo account, however, I heard that they’re offering a new 10% off base fare coupon code to members who log-in and book tickets. This promo code popped up when I logged into my account yesterday, and it offers a 10% discount on the base fare of Indigo Airlines on any route. Take note, base fare means just the base fare, not the base fare & fuel surcharges, as it is demonstrated by this example below, random date search of fares, without the promocode. The fare is INR 6,882 + INR 100…

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Going RTW: Holiday Inn LaGuardia NYC

by Ajay Leave A Comment

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…

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Air India Awards to Australia now available

by Ajay Leave A Comment

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.…

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Spicejet introduces Flexifly: optional add-ons to your flight

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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…

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Winners of AwardWallet AAdvantage giveaway announced

by Ajay 1 Comment

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.

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Airborne: 9W331 (BOM-DEL), Jet Airways, Economy Class

by Ajay 3 Comments

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…

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