Malaysia Airlines is celebrating 40 years in India, and they have put out some great deals for travels originating from India to celebrate this. These deals are available for booking till July 18, 2014 and travel till November 30, 2014. Some routes are available for travel till October 10, 2014 only, however. You get to fly from Malaysia Airlines’ 6 stations in India which include Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Kochi to various Malaysia Airlines destinations such as Bangkok, Kuala Lampur, Beijing, Osaka, Manila, Penang and so on. You can look up the deals on the Malaysia Airlines website under Deals for the Day. Here is a glimpse of some fares I found. Bangkok flights are traditionally supposed to…
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Do you need to be an Air India Elite to get access to Star Alliance rewards?
Last week, I put out my first thoughts on the Air India Flying Returns’ program, after they joined in the Star Alliance. One of my first observations was that it is more expensive to burn on Star Alliance partners than to burn on Air India’s own metal for international travel. In the comments section, reader Krishnakumar makes a note: Just spoke to Flying Returns agent over the phone. He says that since I am Base Member of flying returns, I cannot redeem AI miles on Star alliance. You need to be Silver , gold or Maharaja member ! To which I was very surprised. However, today he came back reconfirming this statement: Dear AJ, I reconfirmed. FR told me that…
Go Air & Yatra now earn Extra Membership Rewards on Amex
Membership Rewards is the currency you earn for spending on your American Express Credit and Charge cards across the world. The value of the Membership Rewards points is different around the world, so lets focus on India here, because we are discussing the Indian Membership Rewards points right now. In terms of airline miles conversion, 2 Membership Reward points convert to 1 JPMile, Avios, Flying Returns miles and so on. American Express awards you 2 MR points per INR 100 spent on most cards, and 2.5 MR points per INR 100 spent on your Platinum tier American Express cards such as the Platinum Charge Card and the Platinum Reserve Credit Card. American Express also runs a program called Extra Membership…
Giveaway: A complimentary Myles self-drive vehicle anywhere in India for 2 days
It has been a rainy week out here in Mumbai, and I hear its been raining a lot of other places as well. Makes me want to go out on a drive, but work has been keeping me busy. I thought I’d give one of you a chance to go out on a drive however. You could drive inside your town or take a vacation, as long as you want to be on the wheel, we are cool! Earlier this week, I wrote about Myles, which is a self car-drive rental service offered by Carzonrent. They are the first ones offering such a service in India, across various points in the country. They are based much on the same model…
Jet Airways announces Delhi – Ho Chi Minh City via Bangkok from November 2014
I like the Indian skies these days. In fact, I love them. After years of shutting down international routes due to the problems of the recession and slowing traffic that came with it, airlines of India are daring to dream again. Jet Airways kicked off the year with announcing a flight between Mumbai & Paris, which they started operating since June 2014. Air India followed up with flights to Italy, and Russia. Now, Jet Airways is stepping up the plate to fly to Ho Chi Minh city, via Bangkok. Jet Airways currently operates once daily flights between Delhi and Bangkok, and will extend the same service further to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) from there, from November 5, 2014. Hence,…
First look at Air India Star Alliance award chart
Air India has joined the Star Alliance today, culminating a seven-year long effort to get inside the world’s largest club of airlines. One of the things that also changes then, is the Flying Returns program, which will now offer earn and burn opportunities across the Star Alliance network of airlines. I had indicated earlier in this post about how will Air India elite members be mapped to Star Alliance tiers, and how will they be able to receive benefits today onwards. However, the new earning chart for Star Alliance carriers has just been released a while ago. Earning on Air India for Star Alliance member flights: While you can have a detailed look at the PDF, here are the broad…
Finally, an organised self drive car option around India: Myles
One of the disadvantages I’ve found India to deal with is the lack of self-drive car hires such as the Avis and Hertz offerings globally. The traditional preference in India used to be of a chauffeur-driven car, and most fleet owners/operators still offer those options only to their clients. However, last year, Carzonrent, which is one of India’s oldest car fleet operator, decided to shake things up a bit, and launched a new self-drive offering called Myles which started up from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, and now is offered across 16 cities in India for the moment. I’d been keeping an eye on them for a while, and I thought now is a good time to talk about them. …
Air India gets set for Star Alliance
The big day is still about 12-15 hours away, but Air India seems to be ready this time to join the Star Alliance. In 2011, they were jilted at the altar, and now Star Alliance and Air India have kissed and made up. Here are a couple of pictures of the Air India A320 VT-ESF, which is painted in the Star Alliance livery for tomorrow’s induction ceremony. At a later date, there will also be a Boeing 787 painted in the Star Alliance livery as well. Pictures courtesy OmniFlyers’ Facebook page. It seems at least two other airlines will fly their Star Alliance livery planes to India tomorrow, and there will be a star formation at Delhi Airport for the…
SpiceJet INR 999 sale for 2015 dates
We are just half way into 2014, but it is time to bring to you the first edition of the July fare sales. SpiceJet is at it again, having launched a sale for travel between January 6, 2015 to October 24, 2015 offering fares from INR 999 plus taxes and onwards. I was able to find INR 999 fares in the case of Mumbai – Goa for instance, however total ticket costs were way ahead at INR 1669 because of the various fees and taxes which SG needs to pay over and above their own costs. Sale fares are tagged, and makes it easier for you to find them. If you think there is a travel plan you have for…
Indigo launches automated early check-in
Indigo has launched a new feature yesterday, called Advance Pass. A complimentary facility, which you can select while booking your ticket, will make sure you are automatically checked-in and your boarding pass is sent to you on email when check-in opens (48 hours prior to the flight departure time). Indigo allows you to pre-select your seats at the time of booking or after booking your flights, and charges a premium to book the first 3 rows or the emergency exit rows. Also, the first 7 row window and first 11 row aisle seats are charged for booking. However, you can get all these seats, if not bought out by anyone else, free of cost when check-in opens 48 hours prior.…
Air India Star Alliance ties begin to emerge
While I have not been on an Air India plane in about 40 days or more now, Air India is now about 4 days away from getting inducted into the Star Alliance, and first pictures have begin to emerge of how they are sporting the logo on their livery and around the airline. This looks real now, and official in 4 days I presume: This is a picture taken by OnePassenger and posted on FlyerTalk. Of course, I am looking forward to sighting the A320 and the B787 which will be painted and unveiled in the Star Alliance livery on July 11, 2014. Related Posts: How will the Indian flyer benefit with Air India joining Star Alliance Air India to…
