I hope you guys have been enjoying the first discount party of 2013, which has been brought to you by Jet Airways, Indigo and Spicejet. I know GoAir joined the party too, but has been patchy, so I haven’t given it a big look. If you want to check out how to make good use of the sale, which exists till February 24, 2013, you should look at this post I wrote a short while back. Now, with all of them out there, Air India could have not been far behind, right? So, they have announced a fare sale too, and for those of you who cannot find Jet Airways tickets due to whatever reason, you should head to www.airindia.in…
About Ajay
Air Asia is coming to India, with the Tatas
Air Asia’s Tony Fernandes has just announced his plans to enter India’s aviation scenario. Air Asia is planning to start a new low-fare carrier in the Indian market, which will be a joint venture with the Tata group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, and a third investor. The JV will also mark the return of the Tatas to aviation, something they had to get out of long back when Air India, India’s original poster boy of aviation was taken away from them and nationalised. As per this quote from Tony published by Reuters: We have carefully evaluated developments in India over the last few years and we strongly believe that the current environment is perfect to introduce our low fares…
How to work the current fare sales in India: a primer
I thought I bored you guys enough with the barrage of fare sales that hit yesterday. There were one too many: Jet Airways, Indigo and then Spicejet. I know all of you are not being able to get through, so I will try and do the best I can to help you. First, lets go with Jet Airways. In the post I wrote yesterday, I told you the basics of their offer. There was a small footnote there, which I was not sure of at that moment, and hence not in the main text. Small tip: look for one-way tickets. Round-trip will not show the correct fares! It turns out that Jet Airways has now included this in their terms…
Spicejet enters the fare war with Jet Airways
I’ve had a long day full of meetings, and I’ve been not exactly in front of the computer all day long. So to recap, Jet Airways made the biggest fare sale in recent times this morning, and if you haven’t got in, there is time ahead. Next, Indigo matched it and undercut by a small amount. Now, Spicejet took it upon themselves to be in the game as well. So, as if the 2013 INR fare sale they made in January was not enough, they announced the new sale a short while back on Facebook. While I am not clear at this moment if this covers all their sectors, I checked randomly and I found some good deals on a…
Indigo undercuts Jet Airways Fare Sale!
Indigo had to do this, after all, how could they let Jet Airways walk away with all the marketshare. Jet Airways announced this morning the biggest airfare sale of the year, with fares at a low of Rs. 2250 all inclusive onwards. In my post on the sale, I presented an example on Mumbai – Delhi fares being down to Rs. 3300 from their usual Rs. 5,100 one way. Now, it turns out, Indigo is matching the sale, however, offering a smaller range of flights. Have a look for BOM-DEL for a different date than what I mentioned in the Jet Airways sale: These are a full Rs. 10 lower than Jet Airways. So, if Indigo is your airline of…
India’s biggest fare sale:book Jet Airways till Feb 24, travel till Dec 31
I thought 2013 is going to be an interesting year in terms of Indian aviation. There has been a back breaking impact of low fares on Kingfisher Airlines which wounded up last year, which allowed other airlines to bump up ticket prices. However, prices going up meant passengers numbers went down. To beat the heat of falling loads, SpiceJet went in first with a faresale of Rs. 2013 on any route in India, offering a million tickets, out of which 7 million got sold over the weekend. Now, there is a BIGGER sale. Jet Airways announced this morning a fare sale which allowed anyone to book one of the 2 million economy seats on sale from now till February 24,…
[Video]: Air India pilot raps about the bad situation at the airline
Most of the videos I post here are humorous, but this one is trying to get across a message. An Air India pilot, trained to fly the 787 but mostly on the ground, made this rap video and posted it on YouTube about the situation at the airline and what he has to go through. Worth a watch! Your views, guys? My heart goes out for this guy! Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
When the travel agent steals and Indian Government notices
I happened to read this in yesterday’s newspaper but was way too shocked about the scam to react. Here is what was happening while no one was looking, as per the news report: The Rajya Sabha secretariat paid long haul international fares for domestic air tickets for one of its members. The scam was detected only when the MP realized the incredulous prices paid for the tickets and then complained to the government. The secretariat paid Rs 99,292 for a one-way Delhi-Chennai flight on Jet Airways for Ashk Ali Tak, a Congress RS member from Rajasthan. A Chennai-Hyderabad ticket on Air India was bought for Rs 35,184. A Hyderabad-Bangalore journey on Jet and a Bangalore-Jaipur ticket on low cost IndiGo…
Cleartrip launches Pricewatch for international tickets out of India
International ticket pricing is a myth for most. Fares are constantly filed, refiled and have no one direction. That is why, it is never a good idea to ask your neighbour on the plane about the price he/she paid for his ticket. While I don’t want to be sounding like a PR pro telling you this, but I’m just glad that someone did do the honest thing to do and come out with a feature like this. Cue to Pricewatch, the proposition that Cleartrip is making is very simple. Since international tickets are repricing all the time, it is possible that a ticket may cost lower than what you booked it for. Cleartrip will keep the itinerary price on a…
Citibank Ultima, now just another credit card!
Citibank Ultima is was one of the best lifestyle credit cards in the market, and now it seems that it will be losing the edge soon. The invite-only Ultima card has premium proposition that includes an unlimited Priority Pass, a membership to the ITC Culinary Plus program, Golf privileges, an international medical cover for $50K and other stuff. The reason a business traveller would get interested? Till last December, they used to have a product variant, which used to let you get access to the Jet Airways’ Jet Privilege program Platinum Tier, along with the upgrade vouchers and complimentary 50K JPMiles (used to cost INR 50K per annum in fees!!) Like I reported a couple of months back, this partnership…
14% discounts by Indigo for bookings till Feb 17
Indigo has sent out targeted mailers to select customers today, offering them a base fare waiver on one-way or roundtrip reservations on their domestic as well as international network, for up to two people. One needs to have a promotional email in their mailbox itself, and the discount is on base fare, so it does not show up as a separate amount when you are trying to make a reservation. However, I did confirm that it exists. If you’ve flown Indigo or signed up for their mailing lists, now is the time to check the spam folder for this email in case you are intending to book some tickets in the days ahead. Related Posts: Indigo takes top spot from…
