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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Jet Airways ICICI Bank Credit Card is better than the Jet Airways HDFC Bank CC

I wrote a couple of hours back about the ICICI Bank Jet Airways credit card being available. I jumped the gun in calling it is a boring card. Have a look. Sapphiro version: Highest end card offered has a bonus of 10,000 JPMiles on your Jet Airways ICICI Bank Credit Card + 5,000 JP Miles if you apply before September 30, 2012. (Better than HDFC Bank) A Jet Airways Complimentary Domestic Air Ticket as a joining benefit. (same as HDFC Bank) Get 5,000 bonus JPMiles + Complimentary Domestic Air Ticket as a renewal benefit. (Better than HDFC Bank) Enjoy premier check-in for all domestic flights of JetAirways. (same as HDFC Bank) Enjoy a 10 kg additional baggage allowance on all…

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Details out about the new Jet Airways ICICI Bank card

The full details of the Jet Airways ICICI Bank credit cards are going to be a short while away, the formal launch of the credit card happened yesterday, and some details are out as per the reports in the press and on the website of ICICI Bank. Here is what I can gather from the press so far: The cards will be offered in three different variants – Sapphiro, Rubyx and Coral in partnership with American Express and Visa, with JetPrivilege card members allowed to convert daily purchases to flying miles. Customers will have the option to apply for a standalone American Express or Visa Credit Card or enjoy the benefits of applying for both cards with a single application.…

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Will Jet Airways not go on to Star Alliance? What??

I know this makes no sense and it is getting ridiculous by the day. This game of playing hard to get and keeping everyone guessing seems to be not exactly some sort of charm offensive anymore Jet Airways seems to want to show with its alliance suitors. I noted in a post on the 1st of August, that Star Alliance had finally extended a formal invitation to Jet Airways to hop on board. Then, a few weeks later, it did look like Jet Airways seemed to have nailed its spot because the Air India pressures of joining before Jet Airways were going away. Now, if all this is true, then I am not sure what to make of this report…

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The Jet Airways ICICI Bank co-branded cards, coming soon!

Jet Airways and ICICI Bank tied up for a co-branded credit card, along with their tie-up with HDFC Bank and American Express in July. The HDFC Bank version of the credit card, which came up in August, has not exactly been creating ripples in the market. At the time of announcing their tie-up with HDFC Bank, Jet Airways had also stated that they are working on a co-branded product with ICICI Bank. Now, it seems this is going to be coming up soon. Here is a sneak preview of things to come I caught on the ICICI Bank website, after reader sameer sounded me off via a comment in an earlier post. So, heightened expectations again. I am trying to…

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Citibank PremierMiles: Changes and promotions

My go-to credit card these days is the Citibank PremierMiles credit card, and I’ve noticed I must have missed some terms & conditions which now seem changed. I earlier told you in this post, that the Citibank PremierMiles card only earns 10 Miles per Rs. 100 for the first Rs. 500,000 of airline transactions. Earlier, the Terms & Conditions did not explicitly make the Premiermiles.co.in website spend a part of this limit. However, seems like the T&C were reworded recently, and now, the limit is clubbed within the same limit. Have a look: So, while I personally don’t like this new update, where I get only Rs. 500K worth of tickets with 10 PM/ Rs. 100, I’m going to live…

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My interview with Inside Flyer

A while ago, Inside Flyer, perhaps the only paper magazine I know of that concentrates on topics of interest to the frequent traveller, reached out to me for an interview in the magazine. The conversation made its way to the September issue of the InsideFlyer magazine, who are the same guys behind milepoint and BoardingArea. Here is a link to the online version of the interview. As always, please do send me your feedback here or via email to let me know what all would you want me to cover on this blog, and I’ll be only to happy to help. Thank you for your continued support over the past year for the blog. Live From A Lounge is also…

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And the next Lufthansa 747-8i destination is Bangalore!

Ok, no great news there. If you read my earlier posts then you already know about it. After bringing the 747-8i to Delhi on August 6 and launching the new lounge in Delhi Terminal 3 a week after, Lufthansa is putting the Bangalore-Frankfurt route up for operation over Los Angeles. As per an announcement on the website of Lufthansa, from 13 September 2012, FRA-BLR will be flown on the new plane, which means BLR-FRA will go to the 747-8i from 14th September 2012 onwards. Bookings for the new plane are now open. The launch of these two routes will complete Lufthansa’s plans to upgrade its Indian routes for the time being, along with the upgrade of the Business Class product…

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[Act Fast] $400 discount on Premium Eco/$75 discount on Eco. from USA to India on British Airways

I should have told you earlier, my bad! I did not look into my spam folder earlier. British Airways, is offering a discount on World Traveller (Economy) and World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy) fares to India from the USA. You need to book by August 21, 2012 (tonight!) using this link to be able to get the discount. Travel will be between any point in the USA to any point in India, and can start from September 1 – December 9, 2012 or between December 24, 2012 and May 13, 2013. Valid only on round-trip bookings. Take a look at this reservation I attempt to make in Mid-September from NYC to BOM in Premium Economy, which prices at a total…

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Flying Kingfisher Airlines one more time

I’ve come across more than my fair share of people who have patronised Kingfisher Airlines in the past, and still fly Kingfisher Airlines wherever they can. However, with Kingfisher Airlines no longer on the permitted list of carriers by my workplace, I’ve not been flying them for business over a period of time. When a Kingfisher patron Arun made a trip to Mumbai all the way to be on the last Kingfisher flight from Dubai, I warmed up to the airline again. However, they were not flying to places I wanted to go to and hence I had to wait a while to get them on a Mumbai – Delhi flight which is one of the trunk routes they are…

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Birdwatch: Photo # 7 (Fedex)

Time to revive the Birdwatch series. I know I’ve been erratic with this one but I’ll try my best to be putting out some more plane spotting pictures regularly now. I caught this Fedex MD-11F just as it got off the active runway on BOM last week, and you can see as I tried to get a shot, a crow competed to be in the same frame as well. Reminds me of ‘As the crow flies’ by Jeffrey Archer. Airline: FedEx Location: Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport (BOM) Airframe: McDonnell Douglas MD-11(F) If you want to share a picture of a plane, an airport, or anything aviation related, please send it across to aj@livefromalounge.comwith the details and I’ll put it up…

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Doing Mumbai–Dubai anytime soon? 20% off on Air India

A couple of days back I posted about a 20% discount that Air India was offering on flights from India to Hong Kong. Now, they are also offering a discount on Mumbai – Dubai, valid for sale and travel from 16th August to 30th September 2012, for one way and return journeys, in all classes. This 20% discount will not be applicable if you change your booking. Like the previous promo, this one is valid on the application of a promo code and only booking on the website www.airindia.in. The promotion code for this reservation to be valid is BODX02. Air India offers an Airbus 320/321 service on this route, and while the route is something not spectacular, this promotion…

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