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Review: Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, Kochi Airport

by Ajay 3 Comments

a swimming pool with chairs and a deck

Mumbai Airport Terminal 2 Clipper Lounge, Mumbai Terminal 2 Clipper Lounge Cochin Air India 682, Cochin – Mumbai, Economy My flight from Mumbai to Cochin was uneventful, and on a very very old Air India plane, still painted in Indian Airlines livery. I did not want to write a separate review for both legs so I will cover it later on my return leg. Once I arrived at Cochin Airport, I spotted a shuttle car from the hotel to bring us over to the hotel. The hotel is less than a kilometre away from the airport, and complimentary shuttle service is provided. The decision to stay at the Courtyard by Marriott, closer to the airport and outside of town by…

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Lots of miles and status to come with Citi Prestige in India

by Ajay 4 Comments

A couple of weeks back I wrote about the Citibank Prestige Credit Card, which I expect to be offered by Citibank as a replacement to the Ultima as of April 2014. There are a lot more signup benefits which will be on their way, and some of them are enlisted below: Etihad Gold: The cardholder will be eligible for Etihad’s Gold Status, which allows for 50% bonus miles and business class lounge access. Miles on signup: You’ll get 5000 Etihad miles on sign-up for the card and 5000 Avios. BA Executive Club: Possibly, you’ll also get a one-tier upgrade on the BA Executive Club membership. So, if you’re base tier, you’d be upgraded to Bronze. Additionally, there will be discounts…

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Free AwardWallet upgrades going away

by Ajay 13 Comments

It has been a while since I’ve gave away some AwardWallet+ codes for my readers. Like some regular readers would know, AwardWallet is a service that allows me to access my own and my family’s mileage balances in one place. AwardWallet provides a free account, which tracks all your accounts for free, but only displays upto 3 expiration notices. There is also AwardWallet Plus, which costs you $5 upwards for 6 months (you choose the price), and allows for details on all your accounts to be tracked along with the expiry notices. Now, if you haven’t had an AwardWallet account ever, you could sign up for a free 6-months usage of AwardWallet Plus with the following Coupon Code while signing…

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Get hitched at a Starwood hotel in India/APAC, get upto 150K SPG points

by Ajay Leave A Comment

Starwood released a promotion earlier this month targeting couples who are getting married, offering them 3 points per US$ spent up to 150,000 SPG points for booking their wedding celebrations at a participating Starwood property by July 1, 2014 and getting hitched before March 31, 2015. Promotion is valid across the Asia Pacific, with few hotels as exceptions. In India, all Starwood properties apart from ITC Mughal, ITC Kakatiya, Le Meredien New Delhi, The Westin Gurgaon and The Westin Sohna Resort & Spa are excluded. There are two ways of getting SPG points in this promotion: Wedding banquet (food, beverage and function room rental) contract must be signed with the hotel between 1 March and 1 July 2014, and wedding…

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Jet Airways homogenises convenience fee on all tickets

by Ajay 2 Comments

One of the changes that I’ve witnessed in the past weeks in the way Jet Airways charges a convenience fee / Optional Payment Charges. If you go back to 2012, Jet Airways had started imposing a fee to book from it directly, to cover the costs of the transaction, I assume. This fees, when started in 2012, was not very uniform and was charged basis the cabin of travel and routes (domestic/international). I heard a while back that this fee was not being charged anymore, and it did not show up when I booked some tickets for my family late last month, so I assume this was gone for a few days. However, as per Jet Airways, this charge is…

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Air India status matches work

by Ajay Leave A Comment

Last week, I had written about the opportunity that existed to get Gold and Silver Status with Air India, depending on your Air India SBI Credit Card and your status with certain other competing airlines. While I had sent in my request for a status match a few days before I wrote about this post, I expected to do a follow-up or few with SBI Cards and/or Air India before getting this Gold Status, and I wasn’t even sure if I was going to get it or not. It did not matter much because at the moment I am a sporadic Air India flyer with most of my business with Jet Airways. Anyhow, there was radio silence from the other…

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Jet Airways to withdraw bonus miles for web/kiosk check-in

by Ajay 3 Comments

Long long time ago, in 2008 or earlier, some genius inside Jet Airways, and I don’t mean it in a sarcastic way, figured the best way to reduce the crowd at the airport check-in counters was to incentivise people to check in via computers. And the incentive, they figured, was a bunch of extra miles. They started to award 250 bonus miles per sector to everyone who ever checked-in on a domestic or international flight via their website or kiosks (and SMS back in the day) on Jet Airways, and 125 bonus miles per sector for those using JetKonnect/JetLite. I’m assuming it worked well to influence the behaviour of people who travel with Jet Airways and JetKonnect and encouraged them…

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1000 Free AAdvantage miles for playing a game + 9000 miles bonuses for flying

by Ajay 5 Comments

American Airlines just released a new Facebook based challenge game, where for playing a game of trivia, which would take about 15 minutes, you get 700 miles posted to your AAdvantage account. If you choose to share with your online social circle, you get another 350 miles. And if you choose to fly American Airlines, US Airways and other oneworld partners during the duration of the challenge (which lasts up to May 23, 2014), you get up to 9000 bonus AA miles. You can find the details and follow the Facebook link from the American Airlines website here. Like you will see below, you get 50 miles for a lot of small activities each, and then you get bigger challenges…

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American Express adds 7 lounges across India

by Ajay 7 Comments

American Express is trying to step up their product offering in India after a very very long time (say 5 years!). In 2012, they came up with the American Express Jet Airways co-branded credit card, which has been in my wallet since, and now they are adding some serious muscle to their existing offerings. American Express cards did not offer much of Lounge access in India, apart from access to the Mumbai and Delhi Platinum lounge, that too, not for everyone, only Platinum and Centurion Card holders, and Jet Platinum Credit Card holders without any guests. Of course, Platinum Card holders and Centurion Card holders get Priority Passes as well, but this did not have the convenience of having a…

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Virgin Atlantic goes big on Bollywood with an innovative discount

by Ajay 1 Comment

Clearly the movies and flying have been interconnected for a long time, but Virgin Atlantic is trying to make an interesting twist on the Indian movies business, by riding a discount promotion on the Bollywood plank. They’ve announced a new promotion called “Feel like a Star”, where they are offering discounts to people with the 12 first names listed below, since the airline says these are the 12 most often used names in Hindi movies: Karan Anthony Vijay Arjun Rahul Rohit Simran Tina Pooja Priya Kiran Sonia While the process of getting this list out is debatable because my first name is not on this list , the airline is offering a 5% discount on economy fares and 10% discount…

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Passport Control changes for travel to/fro India since March 2014

by Ajay 4 Comments

The Bureau of Immigration, Government of India made some changes to the requirements for travelling to and from India for Indian as well as Foreign passengers from India. Considering there was no widespread education campaign about this, earlier this month, I still filled up this form because British Airways gave me one, and at the Mumbai Airport Terminal 2 they still collected the customs counterfoil of this Disembarkation form from me. This is the statement from the Bureau of Immigration: It has been decided to do away with the filling of Departure (Embarkation) Card by Foreigners and Arrival (Disembarkation) Card by Indians w.e.f. March 1, 2014. Indian nationals are not required to fill in Disembarkation (Arrival) Card w.e.f. March 1,…

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