It all started with the IHG contest to give away free Intercontinental nights, which SPG quickly followed suite to give out nights on a Facebook contest. And now that those contests are over, Hilton is coming up with a promo all this week to give away free night certificates in a treasure hunt contest it will conduct in 5 cities across the globe this week, so one for each working day. 100 certificates to be given away each day to celebrate the quarterly promo of Hilton where you get a free award night certificate. However, unlike the other contests which were centered around social media, Hilton’s treasure hunt will involve more physical activity. To sign-up, you need to start following…
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Etihad 48-hour 25% off sale on India to USA fares!
Etihad Airways is offering a special 48 hours sale (valid till 14th October 2011) on economy class tickets from India to all its US destinations. Etihad, the national airlines of the UAE and cousin to Emirates, came up with a new deal as of today to bump up volumes on its Shorthaul product from India to Abu Dhabi and the long-haul product to the USA. In India, Etihad flies from 8 airports including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and all the 3 airports in Kerala. After a quick transit at Abu Dhabi, you are off to New York or Chicago on an A340-500. This is a sweet deal if you are intending to head up to the USA from India…
Why I think of Kingfisher Airlines customer service as dumb!
Kingfisher Airlines is owned by a liquor baron, but that is not an excuse for their customer service staff to act dumb all the time! Here are two of their acts that are forcing me to believe this ways: Dumb Act One: As a part of the welcome package for King Club Gold members, you get a Lounge Access Voucher. Since King Club elites already get lounge access, this voucher is transferable, and I could transfer this to someone travelling on a Kingfisher flight. I gave it to my dad, who is not a frequent traveller on Kingfisher Airlines, and was using them to fly DEL-BOM one fine day in May. He got over home to tell me that they…
Promo fares are back on Jet Airways till 31st October 2011
This is how it works. Close one promo, start the same one with a new name again a few days later. Last month, Jet Airways was offering 100K seats on sale where they offered 10% off on base fare + fuel surcharge if booking a roundtrip using their website. This promo just got over 3 days back (8th October 2011). As of today, it is back, under the name of Celebration Fares. If booking a Jet Airways round trip ticket for domestic travel (on Economy/Business fares on Jet, Jetlite or Jet Konnect), you get 10% off on base fare + fuel surcharge. Bookings open only on the jetairways.com website till 31st October 2011. If you want to travel one way,…
Reminder: Win free SPG resort nights all this week!
Like I mentioned last week, SPG brought out the ‘Award Nights Count’ benefit with effect from 1st October 2011, and came out with an interesting contest along with it to promote the offer. They are giving away 2 free resort nights to one winner everyday, who participates in a Facebook contest and identifies the picture of one of Starwood’s many resorts correctly. The contest started Monday 3rd October 2011, and is open till 14th October 2011. The picture changes between 11 – 11:59 Eastern Time every day. Here is the link to the Facebook page where you should be heading towards, fast! Look out for the ‘Award Nights Count’ tab towards the left center of the page. All the best!…
Review: Chennai Airport (MAA) and Airborne to Colombo(CMB) on 9W254 in Economy
Introduction & Trip Index Considering Jet Airways was out to prove a point, they had put out their Guest Relations manager at Chennai on the job to make sure my transit at Chennai was smooth. I arrived at the Domestic Terminal of the Chennai Airport, and I had a porter waiting for me right outside the plane waiting to bring our handbags to the International Terminal. He insisted to carry my bag but I had to really request him and plead with him that I was okay carrying my own bag! He brought us to the Arrival area of the Chennai Airport, where I was coming after quite a few years. There was construction going around all over, and I…
The A|Club Q4 promo – ‘Super Weekends’
Accor will soon refurbish it’s A|club loyalty program which covers high-end brands such as the Sofitel and the Novotel, and also the mid-tier brands such as the Ibis. The program will undergo a change to become the Le Club Accorhotels shortly. However, in it’s current avatar, the A|Club is running a promo to award you double A|Club reward points every time you stay at one of the Accor properties between 10th October and 18 December. Since there has to be a catch, this time around, like the name suggests you have to book up this stay in advance till 15 November through one of Accor’s websites or phone numbers, and make sure you are around for a Friday, Saturday or…
Do you still want to travel in the Indian festive season? Here is how…
Unless you are allergic like me to paying super-duper high business class prices for economy seating to travel around India in the next 2-3 months, your options are fast getting limited to travel around in the festive season in India. Like I mentioned in this post a few days back, airlines have predictably decided to add to their revenues by jacking up ticket prices over the next few months. I was not surprised but slightly disgusted at double fares in the same fare classes which got inflated over a week or so. October to December is peak travel time in India, what with all the festivals for everyone bunching up, along with a longish wedding season coming up too! Here…
Here is how to make that connection!
I started this blog on BoardingArea a while back to help share a perspective from Asia about business and leisure travel in the region, with Europe thrown in for good measure. To connect with you better, there is a Twitter stream and a Facebook page which has been around for a while. Please follow @LiveFromALounge on Twitter, or Like on Facebook. Look out for some goodies coming your way on these pages in the future. Additionally, to get you your regular fix Live from a Lounge, you could also now sign up for a newsletter format by email. Find the link at the right sidebar of this page. BoardingArea has recently made this facility available. And if you are a…
SPG free nights giveaway to celebrate the new ‘Award Nights Count’ benefit!
To celebrate the launch of the ‘Award nights count’ benefit on the SPG program, Starwood has created a contest around it which wants to give you two free resort nights from 3rd October to 14th October. Here is the breaking news post from a fellow blogger at View from a Wing, which started the whole discussion around here about the new benefit coming up, whereby, SPG properties will count award nights in the stay count and nights count towards your next year’s tier. This benefit is being offered from 1st October onwards. SPG wants you to turn up on it’s Facebook page, like them there and proceed to identify the property which is posted on their ‘Award nights count’ contest…
Vacation travel in India: Is this a case of demand-supply or simple profiteering?
I feel foolish, and a little bit annoyed, but mostly angry! I am the guy who books his Diwali tickets months out to be there with the family in Delhi during the festive season. It is like that one fixture which is completely fixed on my calender. This year, due to some work commitments, I was not being able to pick the final date to fly out to Delhi. By the time I could, look what had happened already…. The very expensive fares remain. A day or two before I checked, 31 Oct was going for only 17K INR! Jet Airways was gone for sure. The day I was booking my tickets, the 31 October fares were quoting only…
