With rapid progress being made on the Jet Airways equity alliance with Etihad Airways (the deal is expected to go through by September 30), details have begin to emerge about the commercial cooperation between 9W and EY. The fear of this being just one-sided and everyone travelling on EY metal after changing planes at Abu Dhabi seem to be unfounded. Here are some pointers into the game plan which will emerge going forward: Jet Airways will develop Abu Dhabi as an exclusive hub for flights to North America, South America, Africa and the UAE. Jet Airways will have to route its services to Dubai & Sharjah via Abu Dhabi when it becomes economically viable. However, it seems exceptions can be…
About Ajay
American Express Gold Charge Card changing Membership Reward points earning
It seems there is quite some amount of rework happening with the American Express Gold Charge Card offered in India. The card was being offered for free for the first year, and a fee of Rs. 4,500 (plus taxes) from the second year onwards. One of the key benefits of the card was the ability to earn a 1000 Membership Rewards points bonus by just making 4 transactions for Rs. 250 each per month. However, quite some things seem to have changed now. First, the card does not come free for the first year, but for a fee of Rs. 2,500 (plus taxes). And secondly, the feature to get 1000 bonus points after 4 uses of the card in a…
How am I supposed to keep up with some lousy Hilton HHonors service?
I’m kind of beginning to wonder what exactly happens at the backend of HHonors which sometimes makes it so lousy. Regular readers would remember that I had a disappointing experience with the Hilton Shillim a couple of months back, and the hotel’s General Manager offered to refund the points & money for the stay. Now, while the credit card reversals did happen in due course of time, I’m quite surprised that the credit back of HHonors points has not, in spite of the fact that the reversal was supposed to take only 30 business days after the order was placed. I’ve written several reminders to the Hilton team at the hotel, and thereafter I also tweeted HHonors about 10 days…
Qatar Airways to be part of oneworld from October 30
The oneworld alliance has just put out an announcement on their website, which indicates that Qatar Airways will become a full member of the alliance with effect from October 30, 3013. The announcement reads: Qatar Airways will become a full member of oneworld® with effect from Wednesday 30 October 2013, adding one of the world’s fastest growing and most highly rated airlines to the world’s leading quality airline alliance. One of just seven carriers worldwide rated five-star by the Skytrax airline quality agency and the organisation’s Airline of the Year 2011 and 2012 and runner-up 2013, Qatar Airways is the only one of the “Gulf Big Three” carriers slated to join any of the global airline alliances. It received clearance…
Shangri La no more in Mumbai
I’d heard about this piece of news last month and then it even turned up in the press, but I am still surprised that Shangri La, who was operating a property on top of the luxurious Palladium mall in Mumbai, has moved out of the management contract only 9 months after getting the property up and running. The website of the Shangri La hotel had this notice a few days ago: As of September 2013, Shangri-La hotels and Resorts will no longer manage Shangri-La Hotel Mumbai And as of this morning, the hotel was gone from the Shangri-La website. And last night, while driving by, I did notice that the hotel had renamed itself to the Palladium hotel. The hotel…
250-10,000 JP Miles for a financial planning session
Between 1 September 2013 to 31 October 2013, JetPrivilege is offering 250 JP miles for a 15 minute financial planning session with Aegon Religare Life Insurance. Also, 1 lucky winner every month gets to win 10,000 JP miles as well. Now, there is no obligation to buy insurance, but I’m sure you’d be getting followed up for one sooner than later. If you think this is worth the chance to win 10,000 JP Miles, feel free to participate by leaving your details here. You can schedule multiple meetings,but you’re only getting the 250 JP Miles only once. This tie-up is valid for the following cities: Mumbai Delhi Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata Ahmedabad Lucknow Chandigarh Pune Related Posts: JP Miles to…
Air India launches a revamped website (?)
Air India has launched a good-looking website just yesterday, which seems to be a huge step-up from their previous effort which looked totally unprofessional to me. Like is the usual, their two emblems are right there: the swan logo and the Maharaja, who is their mascot. And while all this make over looked nice, when you go to make a reservation or try logging into the frequent flyer program, you’d notice that things are still the same, because that is powered by SITA and hosted externally. Let me know how do you feel about the new Air India website in the comments section. Related Posts: Show Air India some Facebook love A visit inside the relics of Air India Live…
Jet Airways launches an Android app, iOS coming soon!
At last year’s hangar visit with Jet Airways, there was discussion that Jet Airways would launch apps for the various smartphones out in the market. After all, a mobile phone strategy is not just a luxury anymore but a need for the frequent flyer who has to manage a life on the go. However, it turned out that 9W’s initial focus was on the lower spectrum of the smartphone market, maybe they were trying to iron out the kinks by first focussing on the Windows and the Blackberry platform. However, the good news is, that just last Friday, Jet Airways launched an Android app. Now I don’t have an Android phone to take this app for a test drive, but…
JP Miles to test drive & buy an SUV
JetPrivilege is offering miles to test drive and/or buy the Rexton, a Sports Utility Vehicle from Korean manufacturer SsangYong and marketed in India by Mahindra. The promotion states that everyone who test drives the car gets 350 JP Miles for the effort, and those who buy the car also get 7,500 JP Miles over & above. The promotion is valid till December 31, 2013. This is where partnerships start getting interesting in the Indian airline mileage space. If you’d want to register for this test drive, follow this link here. Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
IHG Last Minute list out for September 2013
IHG has just put out their list of the last minute redemptions for September 2013, which are valid for redemptions on 6,7,8 September 2013 at 50% off their usual redemption rates. Here is the list of hotels this time around, mostly in the USA, but also sporadic ones in China, Canada, UK, Mexico, Finland, India & Spain. If I were travelling to Delhi this week, I’d definitely try and redeem to check out the Crowne Plaza Gurgaon which is only 15,000 IHG Priority Club points for this weekend. Which one are you headed to? Related Post: Participate in IHG’s Instagram sweepstakes for 1 million points Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
Hyatt 50K Giveaway winners announced
Last week, I ran a 50K Hyatt Gold Passport points giveaway in association with Hyatt Hotels, where there were going to be 4 winners, winning a package of 5,000/10,000/15,000/20,000 Gold Passport points each. We took Random.org for a spin, and here are the 4 prize winners coming up below. 5,000 Gold Passport Points… 10,000 Gold Passport Points… 15,000 Gold Passport Points… 20,000 Gold Passport Points… Congratulations to all four of you, I am going to reach out to each one of the winners to get them in touch with Hyatt to receive their prizes. And yes, don’t forget to sign up for the Hyatt “New Possibilities” promotion which is kicking off end of this week. Look out for more interesting…
