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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AwardWallet giveaway: the AwardWallet-AAdvantage alliance

Like you must have read around the blogosphere, AwardWallet recently tied up with American Airlines’ loyalty program AAdvantage, this time in an official capacity, to be able to give their members access to AAdvantage balances. The upgraded relationship also allows you to track your SWUs with AAdvantage in Awardwallet. AwardWallet has a free version and a premium paid version. The AwardWallet Plus version costs you upwards of $5 for 6 months. Here is a summary of the differences: Now, if you haven’t had an AwardWallet account ever, you could sign up for a free 6-months usage of AwardWallet Plus with the following Coupon Code while signing up: LiveFromALounge (case-insensitive). If you have troubles signing up with the promocode, you could…

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Hilton may lose 4 properties in Delhi soon, SPG one in Udaipur

As per the DNA, it seems Hilton Worldwide’s partnership with Eros Resorts & Hotels Limited in Delhi will be ending in the next couple of months. This may be a speculation at the moment, however, most of these speculations somehow have a way of coming true. It seems Hilton has not been able to deliver the promised projections in the sluggish economy of the day, and the following hotels which they operate for the Eros group may go away sometime in 2013: Eros Nehru Place (Managed by Hilton) DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel New Delhi Hilton Mayur Vihar Another Hilton, at Janakpuri in Delhi, a 5-star property, seems also to be on the way out from the Hilton portfolio, and if…

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A sneak peek into the Diners Club space at the Mumbai Carnations Lounge

This past weekend, I happened to hop on to a flight from the A-gates of the Mumbai airport after a couple of months. And I was in the Carnations Lounge, which I have access to thanks to my Jet Airways status, as well as with the Priority Pass. I’ve seen this lounge shrinking over a period of time, first to accommodate the American Express Lounge which opened up for American Express Platinum members. And now, the Diners Club lounge which is open. Unlike the Amex Lounge, the Diners Club lounge is an open area and not a glass enclosure. It seems the food and drinks are going to be the same as for the regular access available to the lounge…

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Participate in IHG’s Instagram sweepstakes for 1 million points

IHG has been running a sweepstakes promotion since July 15, 2013 and open till September 1, 2013 11.59 PM ET. IHG is giving away a million IHG Reward Club Points to one lucky winner of the sweepstakes, entry for which is a very simple task. All you got to do is to register on discover.ihg.com, then go on and put up pictures of IHG hotels on Instagram and tag them with #DiscoverIHG and your location. The more pictures, the more number of entries in the sweepstakes. The prizes, like I mentioned above are: 1 grand prize of 10,00,000 IHG Reward Club points 7 weekly prizes of 1,00,000 IHG Reward Club points Participation is open to members who are legal residents…

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Marriott Fall’13 MegaBonus is back: Sep 15, 2013 to Jan 15, 2014

Marriott Rewards is back with their promotion again, which is the promotion they run all the time, called Marriott MegaBonus. This time, I’ve received a promotion that requires me to complete 2 revenue stays to get one free night stay certificate valid in a Cat 1-5 hotel, and I can get up to 2 free night certificates in this promotion. A stay is defined as any continuous stretch of occupancy in a hotel regardless of check-in/check-outs being processed. Above is the screenshot for my MegaBonus’13 offer. You need to register by November 15, 2013 and stay between September 15, 2013 and January 15,2014 to be able to receive the stay certificates. Others have reported to receive the following offers, and…

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Why does Jet Airways staff not process upgrades?

I usually do not prefer using my upgrade certificates from Jet Airways on domestic flights, however, sometimes I do like to take it easy and get myself on the list for a two hour long flight as well. Last weekend, me and my brother were flying on them to Delhi to meet the family. And I’d called in a few days in advance to put the both of us on the upgrade list. Like is the usual, I was told, that there were no upgrade seats available at the moment, and we would be put on the upgrade waitlist for this flight. The upgrade waitlist on 9W is never to be seen by passengers, unlike the American legacy airlines who…

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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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