After launching a good product, it seems like SBI Cards is running their SBI Air India card just the same way like ICICI Bank did with the Jet ICICI Cards last year. I placed a request for an appointment for the card in the first couple of days it launched. I never heard back from the SBI Card team for an appointment till the first 10 days or so. And then, I started getting all sorts of calls, emails and messages on my own post, with SBI Cards asking me for information. I replied to them on email, on FlyerTalk as well. No one bothered to respond. And then, I messaged a friend who worked for their company. I was…
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Blogging really is a thankless job!
No, its not my job actually. I have a full time position like I’ve talked about before, and I write this blog for the love of miles & points, and to help readers in a relatively new market to the game, like India, realise the potential of travel with loyalty benefits, and tips and tricks of the game. Now, from time to time I have giveaways when an arrangement is made with various companies, and I really want all of you to have fun out there with these promos. I’ve had one reader in the past who did not receive something I promised, and I am trying to source the same thing again to be able to send it to…
An attempt with trying to book 0 JPmiles tickets
A couple of days back, I was in ticket booking mode, with a mix of work and play tickets being booked up. Now, while I usually book up tickets on revenue rates only, to make sure I am closer to requalification for the year, this one time I wanted to look up some reward tickets as well. And to my surprise, this is what turned up: Not bad at all, I thought. It said 0 JP Miles all over. I was already making a mental map of the places I could be visiting with this! So I tried a few random segments and it was all turning up like this, and I was convinced there was a system glitch somewhere.…
PointsHound giving away 1,000 Miles via referral through October 4
Earlier this week I wrote about PointsHound. They are a third party hotel booking website, which give you miles to book your hotel rooms with them. My earlier post talks about their tie-up with Jet Airways, and how you could earn more miles. Now, there is a new promotion valid till October 4 as well, where the referrer and referee both get 1000 miles for making a hotel reservation with PointsHound. Now, this is over and above the other miles you’d earn using the website for your reservation. My link is here. You could also post yours in the comments section. For me, PointsHound became really useful now because it has JetPrivilege on the list, which is my preferred mileage…
Earn JPMiles to book hotels with PointsHound + special promotion
PointsHound is a 11 month old website now, which offers mileage currency to book hotel rooms via their website. There is a tier system in place, where if you book 1-5 nights, you get a certain no. of miles, for being a Level 1 member. Once you move up to Level 2, you get the ability to earn a higher no. of miles per night, and if you go right up to level 3 (20+ nights booked), you get into the highest tier where you get the most number of miles per night. Most of the times, you’d have to give up the ability to earn status/elite benefits in your hotel program when booking via a 3rd Party. However, PointsHound…
Get your ITC Hotel stays at 10% discounts
ITC Hotels vouchers, which can be redeemed against stay/food at participating properties are available for 10% off on GiftCardsIndia.in. Using these vouchers is totally akin to using cash, and the opportunity here is to save 10% on your booked rate by acquiring these vouchers for the stays. Like you can see, the Rs. 5000 vouchers are available for Rs. 4,500 and so on, and the vouchers are valid for 6 months from the date of issue. The only extra is Rs. 50 for shipping the vouchers. Also, since this is usable as cash, the full benefits of SPG will apply as well at properties which participate in the Starwood program. Here is the list of participating properties: Agra : ITC…
Review: Pause Lounge, Bangalore Airport (Domestic)
One of my many gripes with Bangalore’s Airport in Devanahalli, apart from the distance, has been the lack of a lounge for the longest time for Jet Airways elites. Hey, they used to give you food coupons to eat in the Food Court, not appreciating that the lounge was not about the food but about the environment. This got fixed last year when Kingfisher evacuated from Bangalore Airport, and this place was made the Pause Lounge, accessible via select credit cards and for 9W elites & Business class travellers. I haven’t been able to sample this lounge for my few trips to Bangalore all this year, so this was my first time when I actually built in time into my…
Reminder: 1 week to get 20% bonus JPMiles on converting Credit Card points
Like I’ve written in the past, Jet Airways has been offering a promotion, where they top up your credit card points converted to JP Miles. There is a 20% bonus added by Jet Airways for converting your credit card points from the following banks: American Express Axis Bank Citibank HDFC Bank HSBC IndusInd Bank Kotak Credit Cards Payback Punjab National Bank SBI Card Standard Chartered Bank Tata Cards RBS The promotion is valid for conversions which credit to your JetPrivilege account by the 30th of September 2013. So, in case you want to convert some credit card points to JP Miles, here is your chance, and act now. All the details required are in these posts here and here. Related…
Credit Card Review: Air India SBI Visa Signature
With this post, I am reintroducing the Credit Card Reviews series in India, which I had to stop a while ago due to paucity of time. Air India & GE/SBI Credit Cards recently teamed up to launch co-branded credit cards which could earn you quite some miles, making me think of calling it perhaps the best credit card to earn miles in India at the moment. They’ve launched 2 credit cards, one at the Signature level and one at the Platinum level, and I will review both separately. Sign-Up Bonus: This credit card offers a tidy sign-up bonus of 20,000 Air India miles to start you up with the credit card product. You also get an upgrade voucher from Air…
Free Marriott Rewards Silver status for new signups
Last week, I posted about how you could get yourself a bump-up to Hilton HHonors Silver status, without any stay requirements & get Gold status with 4 stays. It seems, for the same corporate entity, there is also a link to get enrolled with Marriott for a new account, and you get Silver Status with Marriott Rewards without the 10 nights stay requirements. Here is the link: Unlike the previous cases, this works with only a new account signup and you get your confirmation for Silver status 24-48 hours later. You could always merge your accounts later! Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
Some more FlightTrack Pro codes going away
While not all of the FlightTrack Pro codes I put out yesterday are reported to be taken, there are a few more codes I have now, courtesy of Jagadish Gandhi, which some readers could use to download the $9.99 app free of cost. Here they are. Please drop us a note in the comments section so that people know of the codes that are already successfully used. 47P4P9MNYW3R HJE9WMNJTK3J MFTRATML3R6M 76R7W7LYH3ML HXTKM6WWNRFK 3T7KNF4A6796 Like I said yesterday, here is how to install the app using these codes: Thanks again, Jagadish. Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
