Beginning of this week, the regulator of Indian aviation DGCA and the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) were slammed with a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of India, asking them to explain all the charges that are imposed on top of the base fare of the ticket, such as the transaction fee which pops up just when you are ready to enter the payment details on the credit card page, something like this: The industry and its regulator were asked to explain the extra charges, and whether these had the backing/approval of the government. For instance, even the Mumbai and Delhi airport were asked to explain the extra User Development Fee charged. Here is an excerpt from the full newsreport:…
About Ajay
British Airways and Indigo discuss interlining, and why this may be a dream!
Indigo has been one of India’s best run airline operation, with typical LCC discipline running in their blood. I’ve written a bit about them in the past and how they grew to be India’s biggest domestic airline by marketshare about 6 months back. Yesterday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported that Indigo and British Airways were in talks for an interlining agreement. Media quickly ramped up the discussion to an investment deal by BA’s parent IAG into Indigo, talking about how Indigo was the best deal for an investment into Indian aviation. Here is what is apparently happening as per the news report, already moving into speculation. The same reporter filed a report with Reuters, where he stated, an interlining…
Flying Blue offers another chance to status match Gold Status (SkyTeam ElitePlus)
FlyingBlue seems to be in the habit of offering a status match every few years to swell its ranks of elite members. They did a massive status match campaign in 2011, where you could get top-tier status with them (Platinum, equivalent to SkyTeam ElitePlus), for 2 years. Now, they are back with a new status match promotion, where your Gold status with any airline will offer you Gold Status on KLM/Air France Flying Blue. I would also assume upwards of Gold Status will also offer you Gold Status only, but this is still to be validated. So, with this promotion, all you have to do is to sign up for a KLM/Air France FlyingBlue account, which you can do here…
Jet Airways’ 25% off mileage rewards on international routes
Jet Airways is offering economy reward seats from upto March 31, 2013 on various routes flying into south-east Asia and the Middle-East for 25% less miles required if redeemed online on jetairways.com. Jet Airways has an on going promotion for travel within India on JPMiles, where you get a 20% off the standard redemption mileage requirements, both in Economy and Premiere, valid till March 31, 2013. The new offer entails redemptions in Economy class on the following routes, on Jet Airways and JetKonnect flights only: Mumbai to: Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Dubai, Hong Kong, Muscat and Singapore Delhi to: Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore Kolkata to: Bangkok Chennai to: Singapore Mangalore to: Dubai Thiruvananthapuram to: Muscat Kochi to:…
A few reasons to hop on board…
Over the months and the years, we’ve grown on from a single post a day to multiple posts a day blog, with some giveaways and time bound information coming your way. Some of them like the recent SpiceJet sale and the $600 fares to USA were specially of time sensitive nature. To help you get this information across in a timely fashion, here are a few ways of keeping in touch with me: Web: Hit up www.livefromalounge.com on your browser and save it in your favourites! RSS Feed: If you are an RSS reader kind of person, use Google Readers and others, you could subscribe to the RSS feed here. Email: If you like a copy of the day’s posts…
Giving away a Rs. 750 Jet Airways discount code
Time for a giveaway for the readers of the blog. I have a Jet Airways roundtrip discount code worth Rs. 750 which can be used for booking and completing your before February 28,2013. Since my personal travel before this date is pretty much lined up and booked, I’m giving you all a chance to take it off my hands and make good use of it on your travels if you are planning some. First, a note about how this works: The voucher entitles the guest (passenger) to receive a discount of Rs. 750 on return revenue tickets for travel only on Jet Airways’ domestic flights within India The discount is available only for return travel, in Economy cabin, and in…
Find your best Mileage Earning CC in India here
Last week, I wrote the Mileage Earning 101 – India Edition 2013, where I had provided you my views on all the credit cards you could use to earn miles in India. I got quite some feedback and requests, including one for a calculator. That prodded me to pull out an old worksheet from 2011 and add some columns to it, adding all the new information available to it. I hereby present to you Version 1.0 of the worksheet, which you can directly access from Google Drive here. Here is how to use it with just a few simple inputs: Step 1: Input if you are a JetPrivilege Platinum Member or not. Step 2: Input your monthly domestic spend and…
The economics of Spicejet’s fare sale and justifying the regulator’s action
I got quite some amount of pushback on the SpiceJet sale that happened last weekend and I thought I’d pen down my thoughts here. I think there were 2 sorts of concerns, firstly about people not being able to find the fare and secondly about the concept of the sale as a whole, with a bleeding market as a whole. I first heard about the sale on Friday morning 0800 IST approximately, and immediately got down to work on rearranging some of my existing travel which would have anyways happened for me or my family. For instance, I had a ticket booked for my brother, who was going to be on a DEL-JAI-BOM flight during the sale period and was…
American Airlines’s new look at 0900 Central Time today
I know AAdvantageGeek already gave us all an advance notice that the new look of American Airlines would be revealed today, but today I got a mail from American Airlines stating that they will do an online microsite as well, which goes live at 0900 hours Central time at www.aa.com/newamerican. That is where I will be headed to check out the inauguration today. Hop on if you’re a fan! Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
ICICI Bank Jet Airways welcome offer is back for Jan 2013
If you’ve been reading my recently updated Mileage Earning Credit Cards 101, you’ll notice I’ve given a thumbs up to the ICICI Bank credit cards’ top end versions for their mileage earning capabilities. However it is a pain to predict if and when you will get the card because ICICI Bank’s internal systems are not still up-to-speed in this department. I recently received my blue cloud ICICI Bank American Express Sapphiro followed by the Visa Signature version a few days later. I am happily swiping away the Amex version for 7 JP Miles/ Rs. 100 on domestic spends. ICICI Bank had offered a welcome bonus in October 2012 for those who applied for the card in the first month, and…
Air India grounds 787 fleet
Air India has followed the rest of the pack into grounding its 787 fleet of 6 planes as of 17 January, following the FAA advisory issued in the USA. The Indian regulator DGCA followed into the steps of the FAA, and directed Air India to ground all the 6 planes, till Boeing could prove sufficiently to the FAA that the planes are safe. The Boeing 787 serves largely domestic routes at this moment, and 3 international services to Dubai, Paris CDG and Frankfurt from Delhi. The DGCA has formed a committee to look into the safety and engineering aspect of the 787 as well. Air India’s 787 had a technical snag on the inaugural flight as well, and reportedly had…
