A couple of years back, India made a big change to its visa policies for tourists for additional security measures. There was some abuse found of the tourist visa, with unscrupulous visitors making multiple trips. Policy was changed to not allow tourist visa holders back into the country within 2 months of making their last visit. Unfortunately, the policy did lead to a drop in tourist traffic to India, and now there is a rollback. Last week, India changed the policy to allow visitors to the country to travel on the same multiple entry tourist visa multiple times without a 2-month gap between their visits. Which means, if you wanted to make a landing in India and go around the…
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Citibank PremierMiles revises lounge access benefits
I’ve been a big fan of the Citibank PremierMiles credit card, ever since it landed in my wallet almost a year back now. However, the product features have been changing and I’m not exactly impressed by all of them. Overnight, there is a reduction in the lounge access policy, which quietly underwent a change. A reader Gagan pointed this out to me in the comments, and got me to have a look. While the MasterCard version did not have too many lounges to start with, on the Visa network, there were a lot of lounges in India and outside India to go for. However, I cannot blame, but thank Citi for having keeping the lounge access alive. This is because,…
India–New York flights (Y) for 550$ on Skyteam
Skyteam airline Saudia has been offering, for the past few days, a Mumbai-New York JFK- Mumbai roundtrip fare on economy for ~550 – 600 Dollars. This fare is available for quite a few dates in 2013, all the way up to October 2013. This is clearly the cheapest flights to the USA could get. Saudia flies Mumbai – Jeddah on a Boeing 777-200 (in a 2-5-2 config) and onwards Jeddah – New York JFK on a Boeing 777-300ER (in a 3-4-3 config). As per Saudia’s website, Economy seats have a seat pitch of 34″, and everyone gets an amenity kit as well. There could be a 10-15 hour layover involved in Riyadh depending on the day you are flying. A…
10 bucks for a luxury weekend in Mumbai please!
Thanksgiving came and went, but not for everyone. This year, I am working with Passports with Purpose, the annual fund raiser of travel bloggers. Passports With Purpose was founded in 2008 as a way to build community among travel bloggers and to give back to the society. In 2009, Passports with Purpose blew past its initial goal (which was to raise $14,000 to build a school in Cambodia) raising nearly $30,000 to add improvements to the basic school. In 2010, with overwhelming support and assistance from the PwP raised $64,128, over 25% more than the original goal of $50,000 and built an entire village in India. Construction is now underway. In 2011, through partnerships with the participating bloggers, PwP raised…
Reminder 2: 3 days to Jet Airways ICICI Bank upto 5k bonus!
I know everyone is excited about the new Jet Airways American Express Credit Cards which were launched a couple of days back. I’ve got tons of mail and tweets and phone calls asking about the cards. I will get down to dissecting all the 3 cards for you folks soon. At this point of time, I wanted to remind you, that if you are looking at the ICICI Bank credit card in tie-up with Jet Airways, you should apply or call up for your card upgrade now, since the November 30, 2012 deadline is close for getting the extra bonus with the card. You could read all about the extra bonus offer here. Related Posts: Jet Airways ICICI Bank CC:…
Jet Airways on verge of strategic partnership with Etihad
In September, I had written about the possibility of Etihad investing in Jet Airways. Turns out I was not the only one who was thinking like that, even Jet & Etihad seem to be thinking on the same lines. As per Reuters, they have news from an insider Indian ministry of Civil Aviation that deal between Jet Airways and Etihad is almost a done deal, and will be at a substantial premium to the market price. Extracts from the news report filed: “The talks are on. This is more or less final. It may take around a month and half,” the government source told reporters, referring to the Jet-Etihad negotiations. “This deal is not just about investment but also technology…
Breaking: Jet Airways American Express Platinum card launched
The news I’ve been waiting for. Like you know, Jet Airways parted way with Citibank for their decade old co-branded credit card and tied up with three partners instead: HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and American Express. I’d talked about the imminent launch of this product last month. HDFC Bank went first with releasing their product, and ICICI Bank went next. These have been in the market for a while now. American Express seemed to take some time, since they had to first disengage with the Kingfisher co-branded credit card they already had in operation to launch the new product with Jet Airways co-branding. Anyways, all the hard work is behind us and the new credit card has now been launched.…
Reminder 1: Register for PremierMiles promotion before November 30
If you’ve been making your Citibank PremierMiles Credit Card work hard over the past couple of months in the festive season, I hope you are aware of the Double Your Miles promotion that has been in place since October 1. The top 2000 spenders this quarter get to double their miles earned on the credit card. Here are all the details you need from the earlier post I made on this. Here is a quick reminder, that the registration for the promotion closes on 30 November 2012, so, if you have not registered, you should do that now. If you have more than 1 Citibank PremierMiles credit cards, you will need to register each one individually for this promotion. Related…
Sometimes, I can goof up!
I’m sure this is not the first time in recent history I’ve done this, but I am just wowed at my capability to leave some miles on the table. I just happened to be checking into my HDFC World JetPrivilege account, and you can see for yourself what did not go right here… The lack of coffee is all that I can blame this on. If you haven’t found out what is wrong, your clue is hidden here. Related Posts: Sunday Plastic: Jet Privilege HDFC Bank World Credit Card Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
Just exactly how efficient is Etihad Guest as a loyalty program?
I have to say all the money to run two massive airlines in a small country has not brought the best of systems and processes to the airline which wants to be the next Emirates. My first brush with the Etihad Guest loyalty program was when they announced a status match, and I applied for it. It took Etihad 2 months or more to process my Status Match request, and they only informed me in June 2012 that my request was confirmed. Now, hypothetically, Etihad is putting you in an elite tier (Gold), and wants to be a classy airline. Which should mean you should get your membership kits in time, no? Guess what, after many emails, I received my…
8 days for Amex transfer bonuses to British Airways Avios / Etihad Guest miles
Beginning of the month I had alerted all of you regular readers about the promotions going on with American Express, where there is an offer to transfer Membership Rewards (their reward currency) for cards issued in India. There are two promotions: Transfer your Amex Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios, and you could earn a 30% bonus on these transfers. Amex MR transfer to Avios at the rate of 1.6 MR = 1 Avios, which translates, with this bonus, to 1.23 MR = 1 Avios. While British Airways is one of the more expensive airlines due to their fuel surcharges to use Avios on, you could use them with so many of the oneworld airlines. Transfer your Amex MR to…
