Not! BoardingArea, my blog network and host, is going t be down for scheduled maintenance today (10 PM Mountain Time on Thursday, 20 June 2013) and come back up within the next 36 hours or so. We’re doing some exciting changes at the back-end, and due to this, I won’t be able to post anything for you for this timeframe, or you to be able to comment on the blog. If there is something you want to know, you could tweet me at @livefromalounge, or mail me at aj@livefromalounge.com. In the meanwhile, I am very excited to meet some of you in July, so if you’re in Mumbai or will be in Mumbai, do sign-up for the meetup here. I’ll…
English
Category Archives for English.
Lets meet in Mumbai on July 13!
I’ve been wanting to meet my readers and fellow travel and miles & points junkies for a long while now. Except I’ve not been able to do much about it. I thought it would be a good idea to start with setting a date, which gives you all enough time to plan it into your agenda, and then we can take it from there. So here is the plan, if you are a regular or not, I’m inviting you to catch up on the second Saturday of July 2013, in Bandra, Mumbai. I’ve really not set an agenda for this meetup, but I hope to meet and talk to all of you about travel, miles and points, and learn from…
Oberoi Dubai opens, offers special inaugural rates
Oberoi Hotels, the owner and operator of some fantastic luxury properties such as the Oberoi Amarvilas, Oberoi the Rajvilas and the Oberoi Udayvilas, inaugurated their Dubai hotel on June 15. From the pictures, it looks like a very luxurious property, something which can perhaps hold its own amongst the various other luxury hotels in the city. Have a look: The Oberoi, Dubai The rooms View from the hotel All the pictures are courtesy the hotel image gallery, here. The reason to write this post, however, is to inform you all about the special inaugural rates being offered at the hotel. The Oberoi, Dubai is currently offering a special price of AED 1,000 valid for stays till 31st August 2013. Inclusions…
Your Jet Privilege conversion promo questions answered
Last week, I posted about Jet Airways offering a 20% bonus on converting your credit card points to Jet Privilege miles. I got a few queries about the transfer process and/or output, and I thought I’d answer them here in public interest: I got a question on Twitter, asking me if the 20% JP Miles bonus could be stacked with the 10% discount on web redemptions at Amex Membership Rewards. The answer to that, is No. The Amex Membership Rewards web redemption discount is not applicable on all categories, and Airline miles is one of them. So, you’d just transfer the applicable points currency from your credit card account and Jet Airways would credit the appropriate number of miles to…
SPG Gold for 1 night stay for MasterCard members in Asia Pacific
Starwood Preferred Guest, the loyalty program of Starwood hotels, has offered via a tie-up with MasterCard for Asia Pacific card members, SPG Gold status for one year just on completing one stay in the past. This promotion has just returned for the period till 12 July 2015. Here is how it works: For those of you who have an SPG account, or sign up with a new account, with an address on file in the Asia Pacific region (ex-Japan), you can benefit from this promotion if you have a World MasterCard or a WorldElite MasterCard issued in the Asia Pacific. You basically need to make one qualifying stay (revenue stay) at a participating SPG hotel, the list is here, and…
Jet Airways offering 3x miles to returning JP members
Jet Airways has sent out emails to select members offering them 3x miles on their flight between June 18, 2013 to September 17, 2013. It is a sort of a welcome back offer, and offered only to members who have been sent out the emailers. The Triple miles offer is on the base miles flown, and excludes any tier bonuses or class of service bonuses that you may be eligible for. What I don’t need to tell you is that this is valid for Jet Airways and JetKonnect flights only, and you need to have your JP number put on while check-in. However, what I do need to say is that interestingly, this is valid for the first flight ‘credited’…
Jet Airways offers 20% transfer bonus to transfer to JP Miles (India, UAE and Sri Lanka)
Jet Airways is back with a transfer bonus for you to transfer your credit card points to Jet Privilege miles. These offers were not usual from Jet Airways, but last year they offered a 25% bonus, which has gone down to 20% this year. Between June 15, 2013 to July 15,2013 (both dates inclusive) you can transfer your credit card points to your Jet Privilege account, to get a 20% bonus if the points hit your JP account between this duration. The bonus miles will credit into you account within 10 days of the transfer being completed. The following cards qualify: India American Express Axis Bank Citibank HDFC Bank HSBC ICICI Bank IndusInd Bank Kotak Credit Cards Punjab National Bank…
Jet Airways gets a new CEO: Gary Kenneth Toomey
Jet Airways, which is in the midst of setting up a strategic alliance with Etihad Airways at the moment, has gone ahead and appointed Gary Kenneth Toomey as their new CEO. Just last week, their CEO for five years, Nikos Kardassis had resigned and it was being reported for a while that Gary was the frontrunner for this position for a while. Gary, who has been a CEO at Air New Zealand, and before that the deputy CEO & CFO at Qantas, has a track record in domestic and international airline management, and I hope he’ll be able to work on the integration of Etihad and Jet Airways well, and lead its international expansion going forward. For me as a…
Review: Flight AI 657 (DEL-BOM), Air India, Business
Introduction Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Mumbai Terminal 1A Airborne: Flight AI 660 (BOM-DEL), Air India, Economy Class Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Delhi Terminal 3 Airborne: Flight AI 657 (DEL-BOM), Air India, Executive Class Since it was only me and the television in the Altitude Lounge at Delhi, I got bored pretty quick and decided to hang out at the gate after my breakfast in the lounge. It was going to be a full flight it seemed from the numbers that were lining up at the gate. While I’ve done tonnes of early morning flights and I’ve begun to not like them much, I like the fact that planes are back at their base and hence there is less…
Taj hotels in Mumbai offer dining discounts to Inner Circle members
The Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai is offering two special discounts to Inner Circle Members for drinks and dining: At the Starboard, the bar at the Taj Mahal Palace overlooking the Gateway of India, Inner Circle members are being offered happy hours at 50% off, on presentation of their Taj InnerCircle membership cards between 5 PM to 8 PM, till September 30, 2013. If you’re like Sunday brunches, the hotel is offering 20% off on a Sunday brunch (you can get family & friends along!) between 12:30 PM to 3 PM, till August 18, 2013. Offer available to Gold and Silver card members for a table of up to 12 people. You need to present your membership card at the time…
Etihad offering a status match to Gold till June 18
Etihad had introduced an opportunity to status match to their Gold tier last year, which I availed of. And they return this year with another opportunity to Status Match Gold tier for Gold tier this year, valid for applications received till June 18, 2013. Existing members of other airlines’ loyalty programmes at a Gold level or higher are invited to join the Etihad Guest programme and have their status matched. The national carrier of the UAE, which is working on getting Jet Airways in its fold, is offering another incentive to successful status matches. For all flights flown in Diamond First Class, you get triple Etihad Guest Miles while it will be double Miles on flights in Pearl Business Class…
