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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JetPrivilege clarifies on ‘Wheel of Fortune’

I’ve been wondering a while about how the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ was going to be honoured by Jet Airways, and some answers had begin to emerge when the complimentary credit card mailers were sent out last week to those who picked HDFC Bank. Now, I got an official response from Jet Airways a couple of days back and I am reproducing the relevant portions for you here below: Dear AJ,This is with reference to your feedback on Twitter and your telephonic conversation with my colleague ____ at the JetPrivilege Service Centre. Allow us to respond to your queries point wise:- 1.  All those JetPrivilege members who had participated in the Wheel Of Fortune Contest and had chosen any one of…

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Jet Airways to discontinue Chennai (MAA)–Brussels (BRU)

In other news, Jet Airways is now chopping off international routes like the airline is going out of fashion. First it was the South African route that went away, then they withdrew the Brussels – New York JFK flight a while back. A route realignment here or there is not such a big deal in the scheme of things but I gave 9W the benefit of doubt. However, it now looks like the trickle is turning into a storm. As per AirlineRoute.net, Jet Airways has decided to pull the plug on the MAA-BRU segment as well after it withdrew from BRU-JFK earlier in September 2012. The airline has stopped selling tickets for MAA-BRU flights from 15 November 2012 onwards, which…

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American Express Platinum Travel Card for a reduced fee

Amex India’s Platinum Travel Card is being offered for a reduced fee of Rs. 3,500 + taxes if you apply before 31 October 2012. I’ve received a few queries in the past about the card. My review is here, and my answer to the reader queries is here. If you’d like to apply for the card, this is a good time to go for it! Related Posts: Sunday Plastic: American Express Platinum Travel Card Reader Question: Amex Plat Travel v/s Citibank PremierMiles,what is better? Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.

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Citibank PremierMiles: New promotion and Indigo redemptions

Citibank is notching it up a few levels with the PremierMiles credit card. If you remember, they offered double miles for all hotel and international spends for the period June to September 2012. Now, there is a new one. For the period 1 October 2012 to 31 December 2012, Citibank is offering to double the miles of its top 2,000 spenders up to 25,000 PremierMiles. This being an opt-in promotion, one needs to pre-register by 30 November 2012 and only whose who register will have their spends considered for the promotion. Use this link to register, it takes you to the Citibank India website. All spends done by registered PremierMiles Cardholders during 01 October 2012 and 31 December 2012 will…

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Spoof on Air India’s 787 Dreamliner

I saw this interesting spoof on Air India’s new 787 planes, which I am sure would leave you in splits! Please scroll over to 16:00 Minutes, or use this link to watch it directly on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZetzkhvLUk&feature=youtu.be&t=16m Enjoy the dreams! (H.T. to BangaloreAviation.com) Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.

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Air India unleashes a fare war, Jet Airways, Indigo & SpiceJet follow!

This was bound to happen, I say. Air India has not been having its ‘fair’ share of the Indian domestic market for the past few months, where Indigo has taken the lead now (27.6% as of August 2012) and Jet Airways (along with JetLite) are the second largest players (with 25.2% marketshare of Indian domestic pax). Air India has been lagging behind for a long while and now at 18.2% marketshare. So, finally, the political masters of the airline, read the Indian civil aviation minister, one day told the airline it should quickly get marketshare. When there is no plan, the one plan that works beautifully in a price-sensitive market such as India is undercutting. This is what Air India…

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Air India’s 787 updates

Air India received its first Boeing 787-8 airplane a couple of weeks back, and started to put it on domestic service after some confusions. The Aeroblogger website carries an interesting guest post, which is a trip report on the Delhi-Bangalore segment served by the plane. In the meanwhile, Air India received its second Dreamliner VT-AND in mid-September as well. Word is that VT-ANI, the first Dreamliner built in Charleston will be also handed over to Air India shortly. Air India is picking up good loads at least on the Delhi-Bangalore flight of the 787. The trip report hints to that, and also a pilot who said recently AI to Bangalore was going with 244 pax on board. Keeping that in…

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Finally, Jet Airways makes good free co-branded credit cards for ‘Wheel of Fortune’

It seems every now and then, corporates require a little push and pull to be reminded about promises they have made to customers. While it took a while to remind Jet Airways that it had promised the members of its frequent flyer program Jet Privilege, free first year membership to their new co-branded credit cards, it now looks like the nudging is working. Some members who selected HDFC Bank as the co-branded credit card partner of Jet Airways, have reported to have received these emails over the past couple of days: While the 1,000 JP Miles were already credited to these member accounts in August 2012 (check your account), it seems 9W took a long while before working out the…

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Reminder: 1 Week to apply for ICICI Bank Jet Airways co-branded card with bonus JP Miles

If you guys have been tracking closely, Jet Airways recently partnered HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank to launch a new range of co-branded credit cards. ICICI Bank is giving out a joining bonus of upto 10,000 JP Miles depending on the tier of the credit card you go for. However, if you apply up to 30th September 2012, you also can have a 50 % bonus on your welcome miles. Sapphiro:10,000 JP Miles + 5,000 bonus JP Miles Rubyx: 5,000 JP Miles + 2,500 bonus JP Miles Coral: 2,500 JP Miles + 1,50 bonus JP Miles All the cards come in an American Express version and a Visa version, and you can have both versions for the same fees, which…

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SPG & Etihad are giving you a chance to win a VIP trip to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

I usually don’t put out many of the contests a lot of the hotel chains put out, but this one is special, because it is F1 related. SPG has teamed up with Etihad and Team Mercedes AMG Petronas to offer the chance to one lucky winner and a +1 to go to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, fly business class on Etihad and stay at the Westin Abu Dhabi. Check out the contest at www.spgpoleposition.com and you have uptil 1st October 2012 to participate. To have a chance of winning simply watch the video, then log in with Facebook and give the the name of the friend that you’d like to accompany you. SPG will reward you with an extra…

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Winners of the SpiceJet Rs. 1,000 Gift Coupons are…

This is giveaway season, and I put out a giveaway contest a couple of days back to give out two Rs. 1,000 Gift Vouchers, thanks to my brother and thanks to Whizkid  on Flyertalk. Here are the winners of the two contests we ran: – Mailing List Subscription: Manish Singh – Facebook Page:  Snehal Patil Congrats guys, your vouchers will be in your mailbox shortly! For those who did not win, more goodies on their way shortly! Happy flying! Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.

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