The Air Asia impact is showing, and all the airlines are reacting in their own possible manner. After Air Asia put out INR 500 tickets to Chennai and Goa from Bangalore, SpiceJet and Indigo lowered prices on the same routes, and Jet Airways is now offering double base miles on these routes if you fly between June 16 and July 15, 2014. Here are the salient Terms & Conditions you should know about: This offer is valid for travel taken on direct Jet Airways / JetKonnect flights on the above mentioned routes. Applicable for travel in Economy. Offer is valid for travel taken between June 16, 2014 and July 15, 2014 (both days inclusive). Double of the Base JPMiles will…
English
Category Archives for English.
Flying around India? Watch this “Honest Indian Flight” video
I am not one for posting videos on my blog often, but this one kind of hit the nail on its head. This video released yesterday by an Indian bunch of comedians, showcases their take on the Indian air traveller, and hence has its rightful place on this blog. Just be aware, there is a lot of slang and unparliamentary language used here, so do not play this when the kids are around! What do you think? Join over 3400 people who check-in daily to find out about the best in travel. Free emails (once-a-day) | RSS Feeds | Facebook Updates | Twitter | Instagram
She said Yes!
We are interrupting scheduled programing for this breaking news update which is now a couple of days old. Like some of you, who connect with me on Social Media platforms such as Twitter already know, I am right now in Paris since last weekend. But I am not alone this time around. While I have been lying through my teeth over the past so many weeks about this trip, I’ve been planning a surprise getaway to Paris for my girlfriend, who has been referred to as my partner on this blog before. So, till the time we were on the Jet Airways check-in aisle at Mumbai Airport, the lady did not know we were going to Paris. We flew on…
British Airways offering double miles for India–London travel till July 31, 2014
British Airways is offering double Avios for travel between India to London and return, on all trips originating from India between June 5, 2014 to July 31, 2014. You can be booked on a longer trip to another destination in the UK, or onwards to North America or Europe, and you will get Double Avios credited on your India to London sector. You need an Indian address in your Executive Club account to be able to benefit from this promotion. Now, a regular BOM-LHR-BOM flight in economy would net you 8,938 Avios excluding any tier and cabin bonuses. Using this promotion, you get a double bonus Avios, which nets you 17,876 Avios. If you are a BA Gold, you get…
Daily Getaways might be a good time to purchase some IHG points
The US Travel Association works out promotions for the travellers every year, and offers 5 weeks of the Daily Getaways promotions. Now, a few chain hotels such as Hyatt and InterContinental Hotel Group, work with the USTA to offer packages of points for a good price. Hyatt offered a total of about 100 packages or so, which went out pretty quick (a few seconds). However, InterContinental Hotels Group offers a huge variety and 1000s of packages, some of which are still available. Here are the various packages available in limited quantities: 15,000 IHG Rewards Club points for $100 25,000 IHG Rewards Club points for $167 50,000 IHG Rewards Club points for $325 100,000 IHG Rewards Club points for $630 Most…
My discussions with Uber Mumbai
A couple of weeks back I posted about the Uber Mumbai debacles that have been happening all over the place. It did not look like I was the lone fellow who was affected by the downward spiral of one of my favourite technology companies. There were others too. Anyhow, the GM of Uber Mumbai called me up one fine day to discuss the issues I faced. My first question was how did they get my phone number, and why did they extract it from the database without my permission. No answers there. We decided that we should catch up sometime face to face to be able to take this discussion forward. Since Uber had stood me up one time before,…
AirAsia India plans slew of fees, gets thundered by DGCA
AirAsia India is all set to launch next week, and while they are keeping all their cards very close to their chest, it seems the regulator DGCA does not like some of their plans, because they were not informed in advance. Like I wrote last week, Air Asia went down the path followed by SpiceJet in their INR 5 tickets during the launch sale last Friday. How did they turn out different than the other low-fare carriers in India? They plan to charge for everything which is their model across the rest of Asia where they operate. Here is a screen grab of their charges which they want to put out. How is it different? For one, Indigo, SpiceJet and…
Emirates to operate the A380 on Dubai–Mumbai route from July 21, 2014
A few days back I wrote about the announcement of Emirates to fly their A380s into Mumbai, close on the heels of Singapore Airlines launching their A380 services in India this past weekend. We now have a firm date for this move. Emirates will switch flights EK500 and EK501, which used to operate on the B777ER, to a three-class A380 from July 21, 2014. Here is how the new schedule of Mumbai operations looks like for Emirates: EK504 DXB0330 – 0810BOM EQV DEK506 DXB0935 – 1400BOM 773 DEK502 DXB1300 – 1730BOM EQV DEK508 DXB1610 – 2035BOM 772 DEK500 DXB2155 – 0230+1BOM 388 D EK501 BOM0430 – 0600DXB 388 DEK505 BOM0945 – 1115DXB EQV DEK507 BOM1515 – 1645DXB 773 DEK503 BOM1900…
What is the fuss with Jet Airways not clearing upgrades?
Some things are like the Unicorn, and getting a Jet Airways voucher upgrade is like one of them. Jet Airways gives out a certain number of paper upgrade vouchers to elite members of the Jet Privilege program: 1 to Silver, 3 to Gold and 5 to Platinum members. I had explained the use of these vouchers in this post a couple of years back, and the same rules exist still. Upgrades are not so hard to use in any other program that I am a member of, such as American Airlines. Many a times, you can get instant confirmations, and at other times they will place you on an upgrade waitlist, which is known to everyone, is rule based, and…
You guys make it worth it!
I’ve been writing this blog roughly for about 3 years, and when I started writing this blog, it was because of my own concern that there was no one place to get access to miles & points resources from an Indian perspective. Yes, there is Flyertalk but you need your geek quotient to be high to be around there and get a hang of everything happening there. Its been a long journey, and at the right time I guess, because over the past 3 years I’ve seen points and miles taking mainstay in India with various airlines rejigging their travel programs to make it more accepted with the common folk, and the flurry of the Jet Airways, Air India and…
Air India extends 25% award redemption discount till 30 June 2014
In late April, I had written about Air India’s Flying Returns program offering a 25% discount for redemption tickets on Air India flights, for flights which will be taken before May 31, 2014. This is a very generous discount promotion, because of two reasons: The promotion is valid for domestic and international flights both, only on Air India metal, unlike Jet Airways 20% discount past 2 years which was only valid for Domestic flights. The promotion is valid across classes of travel, all the way up to first class. Now, they have extended this promotion for travel in June 2014 as well, and as a result if you will book yourself a ticket on Air India via miles, you should…
