FlyingBlue has been out in the public eye, for first offering a liberal status match to their Gold status, and then geographically limiting it to Scandinavia (the original plan), and then pulling out the offer altogether. Miles and Points-holics have been worried if they will get their committed status match or not. I discovered on this FlyerTalk thread that someone has received a reply from KLM on Facebook, discussing the problem and committing to effecting the status match: Thank you so much for your patience, <redacted>. We investigated the situation and acknowledge that due to a mistake from our side the campaign allowed members from outside Scandinavia to apply for a Flying Blue Gold status indeed. Therefore we decided to…
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My first flights of 2013, on Jet Airways
Like I mentioned a few days back, I happened to make an impulsive trip to Delhi to meet my family over the first weekend of the month. For this, I used 16,800 JPMiles (+ Rs. 2500) per head for a roundtrip redemption in Economy on BOM-DEL-BOM, including the 20% discount that is available for online redemptions domestically till March 31, 2013. By the time I booked the ticket, the JP Service Centre was closed for the night, and I could not check for the upgrade against cash that would have costed me another Rs. 2,000 per pax on this segment. However, it being a short flight, I was okay with the travel in the back. First and foremost, the amendment…
And the KLM/AF Gold Status is now pulled!
This has been an interesting one to track right from the start. A week or so ago, SkyTeam member airlines Air France / KLM offered to match to Gold status in their FlyingBlue program anyone who was Gold status on another airline. The terms were generous and one had until May 30 to apply. Then they realised, they forgot including the relevant geographies in the application. So, the offer was amended to include the Scandinavian countries, and the timeline was reduced to February 28 as the last date of the offer. And now, it is gone, a month in advance. Talk about bad copy botching up a campaign. Possibility does exist that FlyingBlue hit their numbers expected real quick, and…
Tough luck getting Delhi ADF refunds: Air India, Jet Airways & Indigo are a no go
Like I mentioned about two weeks back, flyers from Delhi are supposed to get a refund for their domestic or international flights, booked before January 1, 2013 and flying after. I did not get quite the enthusiastic response which I was not expecting anyways. Here is how various airlines and travel agents responded: Indigo, booked via GoIbibo.com (enquiry for 3 PNRs) Air India, booked via PremierMiles.co.in (3rd Attempt) Jet Airways, booked directly Like you can see, the airlines and the Online Travel Agents are passing the buck to each other and no one is either clear on this, or does not want to take on the responsibility. The total impact of all these tickets I am chasing up is Rs.…
FlyingBlue/SkyTeam Gold status match now limited to Scandinavia
A couple of days back I wrote about the status match promotion that KLM/Air France were offering to FlyingBlue members, where they could match their status on any airline to FB Gold (equivalent to SkyTeam Elite+). However, now it turns up that this promotion has been reworded and limited to the regions it was supposed to be originally intended for, somewhere in the last 24 hours. Also the period of match has been limited to 28th February 2013, instead of May 30, 2013 as reported earlier. Here is the new updated snapshot: I haven’t heard from anyone about a confirmed status match for an application made before this date, but I think it takes a lot less money to hire…
Airlines cannot charge transaction fee anymore
Beginning of this week, the regulator of Indian aviation DGCA and the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) were slammed with a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of India, asking them to explain all the charges that are imposed on top of the base fare of the ticket, such as the transaction fee which pops up just when you are ready to enter the payment details on the credit card page, something like this: The industry and its regulator were asked to explain the extra charges, and whether these had the backing/approval of the government. For instance, even the Mumbai and Delhi airport were asked to explain the extra User Development Fee charged. Here is an excerpt from the full newsreport:…
British Airways and Indigo discuss interlining, and why this may be a dream!
Indigo has been one of India’s best run airline operation, with typical LCC discipline running in their blood. I’ve written a bit about them in the past and how they grew to be India’s biggest domestic airline by marketshare about 6 months back. Yesterday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported that Indigo and British Airways were in talks for an interlining agreement. Media quickly ramped up the discussion to an investment deal by BA’s parent IAG into Indigo, talking about how Indigo was the best deal for an investment into Indian aviation. Here is what is apparently happening as per the news report, already moving into speculation. The same reporter filed a report with Reuters, where he stated, an interlining…
Flying Blue offers another chance to status match Gold Status (SkyTeam ElitePlus)
FlyingBlue seems to be in the habit of offering a status match every few years to swell its ranks of elite members. They did a massive status match campaign in 2011, where you could get top-tier status with them (Platinum, equivalent to SkyTeam ElitePlus), for 2 years. Now, they are back with a new status match promotion, where your Gold status with any airline will offer you Gold Status on KLM/Air France Flying Blue. I would also assume upwards of Gold Status will also offer you Gold Status only, but this is still to be validated. So, with this promotion, all you have to do is to sign up for a KLM/Air France FlyingBlue account, which you can do here…
Jet Airways’ 25% off mileage rewards on international routes
Jet Airways is offering economy reward seats from upto March 31, 2013 on various routes flying into south-east Asia and the Middle-East for 25% less miles required if redeemed online on jetairways.com. Jet Airways has an on going promotion for travel within India on JPMiles, where you get a 20% off the standard redemption mileage requirements, both in Economy and Premiere, valid till March 31, 2013. The new offer entails redemptions in Economy class on the following routes, on Jet Airways and JetKonnect flights only: Mumbai to: Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Dubai, Hong Kong, Muscat and Singapore Delhi to: Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore Kolkata to: Bangkok Chennai to: Singapore Mangalore to: Dubai Thiruvananthapuram to: Muscat Kochi to:…
A few reasons to hop on board…
Over the months and the years, we’ve grown on from a single post a day to multiple posts a day blog, with some giveaways and time bound information coming your way. Some of them like the recent SpiceJet sale and the $600 fares to USA were specially of time sensitive nature. To help you get this information across in a timely fashion, here are a few ways of keeping in touch with me: Web: Hit up www.livefromalounge.com on your browser and save it in your favourites! RSS Feed: If you are an RSS reader kind of person, use Google Readers and others, you could subscribe to the RSS feed here. Email: If you like a copy of the day’s posts…
Giving away a Rs. 750 Jet Airways discount code
Time for a giveaway for the readers of the blog. I have a Jet Airways roundtrip discount code worth Rs. 750 which can be used for booking and completing your before February 28,2013. Since my personal travel before this date is pretty much lined up and booked, I’m giving you all a chance to take it off my hands and make good use of it on your travels if you are planning some. First, a note about how this works: The voucher entitles the guest (passenger) to receive a discount of Rs. 750 on return revenue tickets for travel only on Jet Airways’ domestic flights within India The discount is available only for return travel, in Economy cabin, and in…
