I almost thought I was nuts to have imagined that HDFC Bank and Jet Airways announced last year that they would introduce co-branded Debit Cards as a part of their alliance. There was no word from either party for a whole year after launching a credit card, and now it comes. On the 1st of July, HDFC Bank and Jet Airways finally launched a JetPrivilege HDFC Bank World Debit Card. Like I mentioned earlier, debit cards are a bigger market in India than credit cards, and a lot of people do not like to borrow to spend. And HDFC Bank would be the first debit card in the Indian market to offer a debit card which earns miles on swiping…
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Ever been locked out right after your spa treatment?
Like I mentioned yesterday, I had a rigorous ten days of work travel and I just got back into Mumbai on Saturday. On Sunday, I was booked to drive away a few hours from Mumbai and stay at a property which is a 6 month old addition to a leading brand of hotels across the world. This one is a Retreat and a Spa, and one of their largest properties I’d like to believe. Except, as a leisure property, it has amazed and disappointed me so far. I’m not going to name this one just yet, but a little bit of Google skills should help you find out if you’d be very curious. Google for “320 acres retreat spa” and…
And we’re back!
I know I’ve conveniently been on mute mode for the past one week or so. Like I’d last posted, the BoardingArea servers were undergoing upgrade for a couple of days. However, this was also the time when I had to quickly pack my bags and be away on a work schedule in Dubai and Hong Kong. And you know what, the whole airfare pricing paradigm, which charges you way more for one-way tickets internationally made sure I had to fly back to Mumbai via Dubai as well. I was not flexible in my timings in Dubai, otherwise I’d have loved to have transited at Mumbai/Delhi and would have done BOM-DXB-BOM/DEL-HKG-BOM. Anyhow, after slogging in the back of the bus mostly,…
Gone fishing!
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…
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…
